Sheaf Saint

My problem is that huge numbers of those people had not the slightest idea exactly what they were voting for, what the actual benefits of membership are and what the consequences of leaving will be. Ignorant, politically illiterate f*cktards, who swallowed all the propaganda about stopping immigration and spending the £350m a week on the NHS, have steered us into economic disaster and we all lose. But hey, as long as 'we got our country back' and we can start buying bent bananas again, everything is rosy eh?

Clearly not. The BBC news team were interviewing people at the Moor market here in Sheffield earlier today. One woman talked about losing the steel industry in the 80s and needing to get something back so she voted out. FFS - the north will be well and truly shafted when we lose out on all the EU subsidies we used to get and have to rely on a Tory government (who were responsible for decimating the industries the north used to have in the first place) to bail us out. I'm trying to remain gracious about this and accept the will of the democratic process and all that, but seriously, the level of ignorance and outright stupidity I have seen come from the mouths of working class leave voters over the last 24 hours is sickening. They have all cut off their noses to spite their faces, and everybody loses as a result.

Wales 3-0 now. Bale, again.

Don't start. You'll give Dalek heart palpitations.

http://readsouthampton.com/2016/06/20/shane-long-set-to-sign-new-contract/ Just came across this on FB. No idea as to its validity mind, as I have never seen this website before.

Ha!

Can we put this myth to bed please? I don't know of a single Saints fan who 'underrates' him. The recognition of his value to the team is pretty much unanimous.

You seem to be forgetting a certain Welsh chap

That's not the Saintsweb way though, is it. Meltdown first; critical analysis second is the order of business around here.

You've unstuck the thread, but now you need to change your avatar

Poch was perfectly capable of speaking English when he joined us. He just chose not to in TV interviews.

I get your point. And with the quoted amount that Moshiri plans to splash out on new signings, I very much doubt any of their up-and-coming stars are going to break through to the first team anytime soon with Koeman in charge. Unless of course they have true star quality like Rooney did when he made the grade for them.

In fairness, Everton have a very good academy as well. I know because my 13-year-old nephew is in it.

Personally I think you will struggle to attract the calibre of players that your new owner thinks his money will buy, because you will be competing directly against other mega-money clubs who can offer them European football next season on top of the same kind of wages you will be offering.

2 posts and only registered in the last 4 days.

You simply don't know that. None of us do. It could be the other way round for all we know. He might have preferred to stay all along and just used the Everton interest as leverage to get a better deal on his contract extension, but overplayed his hand and the club called his bluff. You should make sure you are in possession of more facts before labelling people VVankers.

So he might have a budget of >£150m, but who exactly is he going to buy with that money? The DM article linked to above claims that he will be 'competing for a higher class of player than at Southampton'. Competing alright, but not necessarily signing, that's the key point. They might well have the same funds to throw around as an established CL team, but they sure as sh*t ain't going to be beating them to the signatures of top class players who want to play in the CL. They might well find themselves spending the entire summer trying to make some marquee signings but failing to get a single one, meaning they will have to set their targets a bit lower - in other words, competing for the same type/class of player as us.

Talks are underway..... Everton: "Can we speak to Ronald please?" Saints: "No" Discussion over.

So some bloke called Dazza reckons it's already a done deal. Who is he exactly?

It's really nothing like that situation in reality though is it.

So, to save me from trawling through the 20 pages of undoubted drivel, bed-wetting and abuse that have appeared on this thread since yesterday morning, can anybody offer any further evidence other than yesterday's tweet from the Dutch journo that this is happening? FWIW, I think the club are in a win-win situation here. They obviously would like him to extend his contract, otherwise they would not have offered it. But if, as seems likely, they don't want him to enter the last year of his contract without committing to the future, then they will already have begun the process of identifying his successor. Then if he decides to accept Everton's offer, they can make it look like they didn't want to let him go and claim a nice windfall in compo from Everton, rather than sack him and replace him, which many people were expecting this summer anyway if he doesn't sign the extension. We use the compo from Everton as a dangling carrot, alongside the promise of EL football next season, to entice one of our targets to join us; Koeman gets a massive pay rise to go to Everton... Everybody's happy. I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep if he does decide to jump ship.

Well it's good to know they are not all like this muppet. I have a good friend who is an Everton fan and he fully recognises that the only possible thing Everton can offer Koeman over us at the present is more money. Their bigger history and larger trophy cabinet means jack sh*t in the here and now. Of course, the talk is that he would be offered a huge transfer fund if he went there. But why on Earth would he opt to bail out from a club where he has spent the last two seasons building his own team to join one that is not playing in Europe next season, will probably lose its best players this summer, and will still struggle to attract the really top players no matter how much money they offer? I really can't see it myself.

I wouldn't be so sure. I bought a set of Veho headphones a few years ago, and the sound quality on them was terrible. Wish I hadn't wasted my money.

Excellent interview. Les made the point I was trying to make on another tread recently much better than I could, in that for the last couple of seasons we have been the ones knocking on the door of the top 6, and Leicester came along and smashed that door down to prove that a club of our size can do that with the right attitude and momentum. I'm feeling very positive about the future and next season after watching that. The club clearly have an ongoing vision and they want Ron to commit to it, which I hope and I think he will. The recent tying down to new contracts of players like VVD, Forster and JWP show that the players are buying into the vision as well, so apart from the obvious want-aways like Wanyama, I don't think we will have as much difficulty holding on to our best players as we have done for the last two summers.

Saganowski. He was superb when he was on loan and I was delighted when we signed him, but as soon as he signed up permanently, his motivation went through the floor and I was glad to see the back of him by the end. Delgado, obviously. Looked like an amazing prospect in that one game against Arsenal. The whole episode was an unmitigated disaster.