VectisSaint

I'm sure you have, you seem to have one continouos one from what I can tell.

No longer an u21. Jack Stephens at least should also be with the first team.

Sure that the Black box had nothing to do with it. Chosen by Puel, Black is well liked in France where he played for several seasons after he left Aberdeen. Probably a decent #2

Poch brought his son. Ronald brought his brother. Gregoire plays for Le Havre at right back 24 years old. Paulin plays for Nice 19 year old striker. Daughter Charlene as well.

Facebook, Twitter, OS. Shame really, always showed enrhusiasm and provided a link to the players and the club history. Good luck Sammy.

It means he is getting a tat, probably says "Saints forever, or until.I get a better offer"

Far from it. The article is pretty accurate and does ask some of the pertinent questions. Unfortunately it does not have any answers although there are some hints. It is not normal for so many players and staff to want out. There is something not right with the club, bot sure I can put my finger on it, but it revolves around the Owner not having the vision and only really being interested in the club not costing her any money, and a Director of Football who is difficult to work with.

Thetr is something wrong eith the club. Unable to hold on to valuable assets. Not too fussef about Vic going, but losing our only rral creative, exciting player (apologies to tadic) is getting ridiculous. We didn't have to sell him, but the Board really just see things in terms of pounds earned. In the end we suffer because kids lose their heroes and lose interst and our future fan base disappears. But its OK our Board will come up with a cheap replacement and some supporters will continue to believe that because it has worked in the past it will work in the future. In the end it will go tits up. Thats 9 staff and players out now, and one in.

Michael O'Neill?

McGovern is as good as Stek. He was on loan anyway so would assume he has already gone

The current regime have only signed one, and clearly did not get that one right either in terms of him signing up to the Southampton Way. Sadly our current board are being shown up now as a bit of a shambles, no evidence of the legendary succession planning when reality bites.

Was it? Don't recall any such explicit statement at the time and there was no evidence of this being the case either during his all too brief stay with us or the following 3 years or so until the current owner finally took the reigns. The real problem at the moment is not that wentrybto sell though, rather that our current board seem to have a knack of ****ing some.people.off so that they don't feel inclined to stay. Working with Uncle Les is clearly not the most pleasant experience for some.

Win the PL?

Really? Just on here check with Derry and Verlaine.

Its becoming clearer than it was before that as a club we are not able to keep players or managers, we are not attractive enough long term and Les Reed (and others) are not persuasive enough of the club's ambitions (probably because our ambitions are not as great as the Board would like us to believe). Of course, we will no doubt replace Victor with some one else and maybe it will work out, and maybe it won't. Really bad in my opinion not to at least wait until we have a new manager in place, and even worse to agree to sell him to Spurs. But making a profit is the goal nowadays.

Jan has tweeted:Dear fans of @SouthamptonFC thank you all for the excellent cooperation and the great games we experienced together and your kind wordsPity that the Club cannot be magnanimous enough to at least thank Jan and Erwin. Jan especially is a decent bloke. Erwin may have been as much to blame as Ronald with his falling out with Les which has prompted the departure.

Maybe it is Joachim Low, although his contract runs to 2018, contracts mean nothing these days. Has a good ball playing philosophy.

Ted Bates. Don't recall who I wanted at the time, I was only 2 months old but happy that my cousin's old man was in charge. I was 18 by the time Lawrie Mac took over.

In 2014. I expect the car was there to pick up Ivan Golac before he is announced as the new manager. Wishful thinking. Happy Birthday Ivan, a true Saints legend. One of the best goals ever, and certainly one of the best I ever saw live (from behind the goal):

No surprise there, was likely to be Ron's choice as No 2 (or even No 1) at Saints.

Will that be this holiday or the next one?

Early doors? This has been going on for about 2 weeks or so. Our succession planning is always much lauded, if so we should have had a list of candidates before this all kicked off, and hopefully the top 2 or 3 sounded out and now down to our top target, who should be in place in the next day or so. Then again,not everyone is sucked in by the bull****. I guess we'll see. Sky report just now sounds like we are in no hurry which makes me think it could be a week or so at least before we know anything. Still think de Boer is the right fit, unless Ivan Golac's arrival in the City tomorrow is to finalise his deal

The way he played tonight agreed. The problem is that he doesn't (always) play like that for us. Thought he was excellent tonight.

Ivan Golac has tweeted that he will be coming to Southampton on Wednesday to celebrate his birthday. Maybe that's just a ruse and he is actually coming to be presented as our new manager.

I have been speculating for a while that Erwin and/or Jan have more to do with this saga than credited so far. Ronald was clearly under pressure around New Year and it seems Club were seriously considering getting rid. His results before Christmas had been OK, but performances poor (Man U, Bournemouth & Leicester at home) and then the awful run of results (not forgetting the Arsenal win of course). Young players were not getting a look in. Ronald looked like a manager who really did not have an answer. Eventually after those 10 games things changed dramatically, and we then went on a brilliant run until the end of the season. Something happened (and it wasn't just Forster coming back). Did Erwin and Jan (who would have been impacted as well if Ron had gone) persuade Ronald to try something different and change his approach? In the end Ronald takes the credit and the changed approach (not just tactics, but also the way we played and the small increase in the use of young players, at least on the bench (witness Olufela Olumola suddenly making an appearance in the matchday squad, albeit unused). This is pure speculation, but it explains why the Club may have wanted to extend Ronald's contract, things changed markedly after the awful period pre/post Christmas and with the new working arrangements with Erwin/Jan possibly more to the fore, and Ronald's stubbornness overcome the extension made a lot of sense. Erwin and Jan, together with Sammy Lee may well have helped smooth over the issues with certain players and youngsters. We "know" Erwin and Jan are not keen to go to Everton, indeed there are suggestions Jan might stay, and all this means that Ronald's departure is not as clear cut as it seemed and maybe why things have not yet been finalised. I know this is only a theory based on some of the stuff we have heard, but something happened in the background to change Saints' view of Ronald. Personally I hope the end result is that Ronald stays, I like him, but saw that he was struggling around mid season and like the Board apparently thought one option for him was to go. At the time I thought he had eventually seen the way forward himself but in retrospect it is possibly more likely that the turnaround was due to a management team effort rather than a eureka moment for RK himself.