jayrivers

And his backroom staff as well, they all have 12 months left on their contracts

I think we could do better, but it's very difficult. I think Everton stature is a good aim. Always in top 8, sometimes might get Europe, sometimes might be challenging champions league. But being in and around there each season would be my aim.

This is the view that I am coming around to now... I think the club is set up in such a way that it can withstand something like this happening. It might set us back in the short term, but I think long term we'll be alright.

I think this gives you a good idea of the level of knowledge some of the people pedalling these rumours have!

Well it's between De Boer and Poch for Spurs job it would seem, and we'll be left with whoever doesn't take Spurs possibly? Not the worse situation in the world. Also appointing someone like that would show realy intent to the players and might help them stick around

This! it would be devastating, but if we came out the other side and had a season as strong it would show how good our infrastructure is at the club and how well set up we are. If we didn't fall apart after loosing those two players and recruited wisely, and (if poch leaves) appointed someone like De Boer, it would be a strong showing from the club.

Regardless of whether this is true or not, it is a pretty terrible article. Nothing to back anything up here. Could be driven by anyone, agents, other clubs, etc... But then I don't think it makes much difference what is said in the media, it's what's going on behind the scenes at Southampton that counts. And so far everything I've seen and heard has been pretty good.

Depends if Juve want him still

He wants to manage in the premier league. However I think he'd be more likely to end up at Spurs

Throwing it out there.... Would people take Sherwood? My worry is there isn't that many replacement managers out there - meaning that might happen is Poch left?!

Agree with that - We've spent something in the region of £60m and have a lot of academy players that are probably worth that again. But even then we'd be looking at another £60m to hit the top 5. Although arguably if all our signings had the same effect as the more positive ones maybe we would be doing a lot better?

We did with Bale - but was just that we had to cash it in during the dark days!

This! It sucks, but if the money is re-invested along with all the TV money etc... Then we could be in a position to strengthen the team quite a lot. And then we also have the next round of players coming through as well. The more we progress the more chance in the future we have of keeping players.

Well it's not is it! Hopefully there is a key difference now, if we sell, the money will be put back into transfers, where as back in the day the money was wasted, or hoovered up. There is nothing you can do to keep hold of players. No matter what you do there will always be players who want to go. The further up the leagues you move the easier it becomes, but it's still not always possible! Even clubs in the top 4 can't hold onto their best players if someone else comes calling. It's what you do with the money that makes the differnce. i don't want players to leave, but it will happen sometimes.

£8-£12m is now a standard transfer fee is seems. It's probably about the same as us spending £4m on Rory Delap all those years ago. Money in football has gone through the roof in recent years, so the transfer fees have as well. £12m now isn't a huge fee and people probably need to get used to that and stop judging players on it as it's totally irrelevant. We signed him for an average fee!

I'm assuming it has something to do with the camera? Am I right in thinking this didn't happen at Christmas as per usual? If so it's a nice touch and good to see it being done again!

I agree with this, however, by adding those three players, you then get more depth as the current first teamers would hopefully still be there fighting for places along with any new academy products. So I would hope that over the next 2/3 seasons our squad would continue to improve with maybe 2 additional players each year of first team quality.

I'd be pretty happy with AVB EDIT - But then I'm not so certain MP will be off

Yeh but you're not playing by his rules, how many clubs won it in the previous 100 years. I mean surely that's more than since sky came along

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11700/9160428/southampton-boss-mauricio-pochettino-says-football-philosophy-is-paying-dividends "As I've said in the past, I don't really listen to these rumours," he added. "It flatters the philosophy of this club. On a personal matter, I'm very calm about my future and am already thinking ahead and planning for next season."

I don't buy the - why not wait until the summar argument. They are on a terrible run at the moment, and if Laudrup had decided he was going to go, is he really going to care about turning it around...? I think if they kept him and the above is assumed they were probably heading towards relegation anyway

Jenkins added: "It is the first time in nearly 10 years that the club has parted with a manager in this way, but we had to remove the constant uncertainty surrounding the club and Michael's long-term future with us. "I had a meeting with Michael today in a final attempt to support him and establish a way to improve the work of the backroom team to secure the results we need over the final 14 Premier League games. "However, after thinking long and hard about the best way forward, I felt it was unlikely we would achieve a stable environment at the club to allow us to get back to basics and produce the performance levels that have served Swansea City so well over the last few years. "Now we need to put that uncertainty behind us and move forward as a united football club on all fronts, while placing on record our gratitude to Michael for the work he has done over the last 18 months and wish him well for the future.'' Sounds like there was something more going on then?

This! we want to be able to take advantage of anyone who drops off

I always took this as he wnt play two people who do the same role in the same team, rather than as two people they cannot play together.

1 ro 2 injuries....? For the Spurs game we had 5 first teamers not starting. I think we've been very unlucky in the fact we got our injuries during possibly our hardest fixtures for the season. And even then we are still 9th!