washsaint

Batman/Delldays/Jamie has become a parody. First of all he says 14th through 8th is much of a muchness then says the 8th through 4th are of a different class. Thereby grouping 8th in both brackets! Then says Villa are a bigger club than us because they've won the League, finished runners up, etc. So by his deformed logic that means Portsouth, preston and others are bigger clubs than us. How anyone could argue that we are not a bigger club right now than Villa is beyond me. We finished 8th last season, our Academy continues to churn out new talent, we have had the truly big clubs taking all of our talent (how many bids did Villa get Batman?) and we have had a far better pre-season than Villa and have made the Tadic and Pelle signings whereas Villa have signed the likes of Joe Cole. Add to that we have Koeman ( a true legend in the game) as manager and they have Paul Lambert. You couldn't make it up...............

make your mind up delldays........so are you double counting eighth? Otherwise your statement makes no sense whatsoever. You really believe that Villa are a bigger club than us right now? Can't really believe you would think that.

Saint Robbie - you really are a tiresome numpty. Moan, whinge, whine is all you ever do. So we haven't signed any players this summer? Really - what were Tadic, Pelle and Bertrand with at least another 3 to come? Did you not see View From The Top's post where Chambers and Shaw had 'big club' clauses written in so we were powerless? And who gave those contracts? None other than your messiah Cortese.

Disagree re. Schneiderlin. Understandable reaction to be fair - I'd probably have reacted in the same way at his age. Unlike 'big head' Lallana and co, there have been no articles in the press where he is causing mischief.

What a great article.......superb. Really interesting angle re. the Academy too. Makes it more the shameful that Cortese completely ignored the marketing side of the club as, ironically, this could allow us to e marginally more competitive. Hope RK is doing something about this.....

He is a class act - that is obvious from the way he speaks. Intelligent, articulate and thoughtful. Whether he stays here for years or not, he comes across as a decent, level headed lad. Lallana did not, nor did Shaw (both came across as quite dim).

What a truly impressive young man JWP comes across as in a number of articles in Saturday's press. He seems very level headed and he is very bullish about our prospects this season and the fact he wants to stay with Saints. Future captain material for sure - hopefully he will get a new long term deal that he deserves. Class act - more so than some of our recently departed mercenaries. Really looking forward to seeing him play a big, big role this season.

What contract clauses did Shaw and Chambers have VFTP?

So pre - season results mean nothing....yet the same people saying this would be whinging and whining all day on here saying it was proof we were doomed if we had a bad preseason.

We're doomed I tell you, terrible pre-season and Koeman does not have a clue. We'll struggle to finish above bottom place........oh, hang on a minute...........

ouch.....7 million euros is around 5 million quid: so a 7 million loss on that. Thanks Pochettino!

Some Italian news outlets now claiming some guy called Ezequiel Schelotto will be coming as part of the Osvaldo deal. never heard of him but is a 25 year old midfielder. Seems a very strange one

couple of sources saying we are close to signing him. not holding my breath

yeah, we know you are dig dig....should add serial moaner to that list to0. But what do you think of Bertrand?

wow, just wow at some of the reactions on here. Talk about ridiculous! This is not a signing to make you jump for joy (e.g. marquee signing) but seems solid enough. Like some of the rational posters have said, the club obviously rate Targett VERY highly but recognize he is not quite ready yet. So we have a solid LB (not many of those around) and Targett can continue to progress. If Bertrand is successful means we have had a good season and we have the option of signing him. So plenty of incentive for him to do well and for us to benefit. Lets face it, foreign signings can be very hit and miss - Osvaldo anyone? And a name doe not guarantee success.

That is very encouraging.......seems like Reed was brutally honest with him and that is a good starting point for a relationship based on trust. I truly believe we may have found ourselves a great manager who is not going to be stirring the s**t (like Pochettino) and won't jump ship at the earliest opportunity. At least Koeman gets to build his own team.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jul/29/southampton-playing-with-fire-sales-assets-manager-ronald-koeman Very fair article but good to hear there is no panic at St Marys - even if us fans are! If Morgan stays, he will be gone January/next summer but at least we get some more time from him. As the article says....how on earth can we offer 100K per week wages? Answer is, we can't! And that is why we will always be a selling club and nothing we can do about it. Afraid too many of our supporters have forgotten their glee and abuse to Pompey when they overreached themselves and want us to overstretch what we can't possibly pay.

IQ of 0 - disgusting excuse for a 'human being' is what you are saintscottofthenortham. And your disgusting post makes no sense anyway

Unfortunately, right now, I don't think anyone could say the Board is doing a good job or even an adequate job. When we needed strong leadership they have exhibited none......players leaving (even en masse) I can deal with but not getting replacements in place first is criminal. The current situation will have made making new signings that much harder as moving to Saints will be seen as a big risk. Although we have some youngsters that might be able to fill some of the gaps (e.g. Reed, McQueen) we desperately need some quality signings and quickly. Clubs will be looking to charge us a premium and this is our fault: we should close deals and get ready for the new season or it will quickly become too late.

Steve Grant - thank you. Your statements feel very accurate and fair. Crab Lungs, on the other hand, could have been written by anyone on here with hindsight. It certainly has felt like Pochettino caused chaos. So long as Koeman stays and we get in good quality players then I will feel marginally less than panicked! Not a great time but hopefully things will improve shortly.

You're assuming lungs is itk. Nothing to suggest that is the case at all

what a c**T....but then we already knew that. How is Brenda going to keep all these players he is amassing happy? Crab Lungs - quit while you're losing. Avoidable my arse......so we should have offered Shaw, Lallana and Lovren 80-100K to stay (that we can't afford). The mass hysteria on here is beyond ridiculous.

And you know this how Crab Lungs? How do you know they have no ambition - I can tell you now that Koeman would NOT sign for a club that had no ambitions. The guy is a legend and he would not come to a club that is looking to sell everything off.

Agreed that the Board is not giving an impression of being in control of the situation. I don;t think anyone could realistically deny that - how much of that is fair I don't know and I will judge them in 3-4 weeks time after we (hopefully) have reinforcements. And quality ones at that. I do wonder whether some of our players got too big for their boots after last season - and the behavior of Lovren and Lallana would seem to indicate this might be the case. While I would love Saints to be a top 4 club, realistically it would take a miracle to achieve that. Last season we were excellent yet still ended up 20+ points away from the top 4. I just don't think it is realistic for us (with our crowds and lack of commercial revenue) to expect top 4. And if NC sold this "vision' to players it was not with NC's money. I think that Tadic and Pelle looked excellent against Bournemouth and that the 1st half team was not too weak. With another 3-4 players and VW to come back (assuming Morgan has gone) I think we can still be top 8. Maybe it is living in the US the last 4 years that gives me a glass half full outlook!

yes...try this one. We are having to live within our means (good thing) and the squad last season became billy big ******** after their "success". Quite frankly it is an insult that an 18 year old is "demanding" 100K+ per week. And no way could Saints come even close to that. It will certainly be interesting to see how RK builds his own team - and will be a journey. There is so much anger and OTT reaction on here that I sincerely hope is not representative of the fan base as a whole otherwise we should hang our heads in shame.