Saint Charlie

Even if thats what happening, its not what you should publically say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27368029 First couple of paragraphs here are so tinpot. If we saw the Chairman of Hull or Stoke saying this we would think it was funny. What good does comments like these do? Its a plea for clubs to make offers which is very different from the "no player the Manager wants to keep will be sold" line.

Not about spending money. Its a bit gutting when the Chairman seems buzzing about the phone calls he is having to sell players who seemingly aren't even that fussed about leaving. If he thinks fans should start being excited for the new season as of tomorrow then not sure what his grasp of reality is.

Is that your opinion, or did your nipper hear it from his Stokie oppo? Also did you actually listen to the interview? Thoughts?

He said at the Awards Dinner he would like to stay in England. Maybe a Championship team might take him.

Listening back Im amazed how open he was re talking to clubs about outgoing players. If I were Arsenal I would get my £4.5m bid in for Schneiderlin tomorrow. Not overly confident in the leadership on the football side. Ralph speaks well but is a bit patronising. End of the day, fans will show when they are not happy and if we pull in £50m from sales plus £80m in TV money and then see poor levels of investment in the team then it won't go down well. FAO Ralph: The very reason we finished 8th is because we have an excellent Manager, signed good players, some of whom cost a bit i.e Jay, Lovren, Wanyama and have a couple of exceptional Academy talents in Lallana and Shaw. Worth remembering. Having four players in the Eng U19s is nice but doesn't win PL points.

Surely that was said in the context of brining players in rather than concerning outgoings? I do feel from his comments though thay we won't fight overly hard to keep the best talents, which is a shame.

Academy romance and marketability sure diminishes when soon we will have more Academy graduates playing against us in the PL than actually play in our team. As we have seen today, Gallagher isn't ready to make the impact needed at this level, and I hope Krueger realises that Lallana and Shaw are special cases. If their replacements come from the Academy then it could lead to a Poortvliet situation.

Will be interesting how its handled when the inevitable official approach comes in from Spurs. Suspect we will just allow him to speak to them.

He loves a bit of chat does Ralph. Didn't hear the interview so thanks for posting. How did it come across live? Still no indication that Pochettino will stay.

Shaw is a phenomenal player, showed it again today.

Decent summary here: http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/sport/11205254._/

£20 is not a good deal for us at all. It would mean getting £15m for a player voted by his fellow pros as one of the best in his position over the season. Someone who aged 26 is approaching his peak, has a superb attitude and is English. £25m is a fair price. So for us to get near that we need to be asking for £30m. If we got £50m for Shaw and Lallana we wouldnt spend it all, so would end up a far weaker team even after spending 20m on replacements of lower quality. Add to this our best striker being injured until Christmas and its hard to be overly optimistic if we sell those two. Certainly would be nigh on impossible to even replicate this season. Plus next year the likes of Newcastle and Villa will surely have sorted themselves out a bit. Top 10 would be a huge achievement if we managed that without Poch and a few of this years squad.

He keeps emphasising the fact he has a year left on his contract so quite possible he will just stay until a better offer comes his way. From Saints' point of view, if he is not signing a new deal and they know it then its a tough situation...

No agenda. Loads of people thought we were going to be sold. You don't like the fact that MP most likely will leave. Neither do I. But wake up and look at what is happening!

And he did again on Friday saying that Solent should ask them why contract talks for Boruc and Cork hadnt been started. He is a clever guy and is playing the Board completely.

Exactly. He and the Club have allowed it to happen because neither are telling the truth. No way thay behind the scenes the club are happy with the situation. Biggest summer in ages in terms of persuading players to stay and its made miles harder because the Manager the players all love playing for is not committing his own future. Bit of a cock up.

Thanks. If anyone thinks MP is about to sign a long term contract they have obviously not been viewing recent events with anything but delusion.

Adam Blackmore on Solent said we have offered MP a contract and he has not signed it. MP when asked gets very bolshy about it and refers to the club as if they need to do something to keep him here. Club say MP asked to wait til end of season. Krueger when I spoke to him at the Awards was very evasive on any timeframe for news on MP and keen to emphasise the role of players. Various squad members coming out in press saying they hope the Manager says and implying he has a decision to make. National press saying he is Spurs no1 target. You make your mind up!

Thanks.

They do of course. I guess this summer will just be the first admission since our rise that actually the club will settle for middle of the road.

No point settling for second best though? When a very good Manager and probably three very good players leave over one summer (plus a 4th not available til Christmas) its going to be hard to recover. I doubt many fans will be relishing next season the way we were this.

Just because its not what you want to hear?

He will go there. Tomorrow will be his last game in charge of us IMO.

Redmond is mostly a sub, Ruddy is crap, Bertrand average, Caulker overrated and Hernandez out of our league wages wise. Other than that, superb signings to replace all our best players.