washsaint

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.

delldays/brett/batman........if you are a WUM, you are a truly poor WUM. If you are not a WUM you do come over as a drama queen. So we'll lose the first 4 games cos you say so. Why don't you just wait and see what happens prior to making your usual (every day, several times a day) predictions of the sky falling in. Reckon we will finish top 10.

Very good article. I agree with Wes - but we have to start signing quality players and start signing them quickly. Can't help but feel that losing so many players will make it harder to attract decent players. Even losing Schneiderlin I would fancy us to stay well clear of relegation this season but we do need new blood quickly. Feeling pretty low that we had a strong team with so many youngsters (and primarily English) that have all jumped ship at the earliest opportunity. As it stands, it would be really helpful to have the club issue some kind of statement of intent: either through a marquee signing or clearly stating what the new 'project' is. Right now, rightly or wrongly, it comes across as they have not got a clue what they are doing.

What a load of utter sh**e. Asset stripping my arse: clubs are paying top dollar for the players that want to leave. And we have spent 18 million to date with more to come. How is that asset stripping?

Why? Why sell him and for only 12 million? What on earth is going on? The others, fair enough. But this kid is something special and why on earth are we letting him go when he is on a long contract at Saints? This is making no sense whatsoever and with the wholesale decimation of the team the club really does need to start providing some answers. So we are likely to have lost Shaw, Lambert, Lallana, Lovren, Chambers and Schneiderlin. That, to put it mildly, is catastrophic.

encouraging (only a friendly though) in that another clean sheet. And we still have Morgan and Victor to come in, plus hopefully 2 new CBs and another Lb and striker and GK. Not as easy on the eye as last year though....but hopefully we will create more chances than last year - and put them away

Perhaps Koeman does not rate Cork and Fonte highly?

Warned of what? Crab Lungs never said anything of any substance whatsoever.

What a bunch of hand wringing pussies we have for 'fans'. Old Nick - your, frankly, stupid comments about Kruger opening the door to sales is getting as tiresome as 'they got way with it' bleats......ffs: what on earth do you want them to say: no-one is for sale and noone will be leaving? And then look stupid when the players force a move (e.g. lallana and Lovren). I'd hate to be in the trenches with some of you lot. Defeatist, feeling of entitlement and just pure whinging seems to be the order of the day! Any player will go for a bigger enough offer: from any club. including Man U, Liverpool or others. This is not unique to Saints, but more we had a crop of very good players that other teams now covet. I have faith that koeman will do well and we will offer more than a Plan A. certainly the plaers who have been with him for the last 3 weeks seem very impressed.

Good news that he has just signed a new 4 year contract - Koeman obviously rates him highly and Reed is impressed by koeman.

What, you mean like Chelsea did?