Convict Colony

Thought I'd chuck this in here since there are a billion threads ranting or raving in some guise or other. Nice article in the Times this morning. Everything must go for a reason Southampton may have lost some of their key players, but the exodus could yet turn out to be good business YOU can take a thick black pen to the list of Southampton league appearances last season and cross off the names. First, Adam Lallana, 37 starts; gone to Liverpool for £25m. Second, Luke Shaw, 35 starts; gone to Manchester United for £30m. Fourth, Rickie Lambert, 31 starts; gone to Liverpool for an initial £4m. Fifth, Morgan Schneiderlin, 31 starts; offers under consideration. Sixth, Dejan Lovren, 31 starts; going to Liverpool for £20m. The deletions don’t end with those stalwarts of a team praised for passing and playing their way to an eighth-placed finish last season. Another teenage English full-back, Calum Chambers, is close to joining Arsenal for £16m. Jay Rodriguez is fancied by Tottenham despite the England forward having weeks of cruciate ligament rehabilitation ahead of him. And the man who selected and led them last season? Mauricio Pochettino moved to White Hart Lane within a fortnight of its conclusion. The scale of Southampton’s big sale is unprecedented for a solvent club that has just finished in the upper half of the Premier League. In Pochettino’s case it eased the decision to jump two rungs — and a considerable rise in pay and status — up the top-tier ladder. In the coach’s calculation, cashing in on the best of St Mary’s young Englishmen like this would require a difficult overseas shop as the club’s youth ranks did not offer immediate replacements. Pochettino had already lost the executive chairman in a mid-winter dispute over future strategy. To describe Nicola Cortese’s approach to directing a football club as aggressive would be an understatement. Cortese drove Swiss industrialist Markus Liebherr’s 2009 takeover of the club, devised the strategy that took it from League One to the top tier inside three seasons, and then implemented a new five-year plan he describes thus: “The question for us was not if we could win the Premier League but how. If you don’t think of winning the league, you will never even get close to getting into the Champions League.” On the way there, Cortese seemed to steadily generate enemies with his abrasive methods. In January, he resigned his position amid reports that he had saddled the club with the best part of £30m of unpaid transfer fees in the three and half years since Liebherr passed away. Under daughter Katharina’s control, a switch of financial strategy is evident in this summer’s sales. Fraulein Liebherr’s way, though, should not be seen as a simple decision to sell the team’s silver and count up the returns. The transfer-market balance sheet cannot be fully assessed until after the window closes, and Southampton are said to be “working on five or six deals” to replace the departing players. The best part of £20m has already been committed to successors for Lambert and Lallana — Graziano Pelle, an Italian striker who has scored 50 goals in 57 games for Feyenoord, and Serbia midfielder Dusan Tadic. New coach Ronald Koeman has impressed survivors from last season’s squad in pre-season with one first-team regular describing the Dutchman as “a very good trainer, very focused with good methods”. Koeman appears to know exactly what he bought into at Southampton, backing his own ability to use half of a likely £100m-plus transfer take and convert it into at least as capable a squad as last season’s. “That’s the story in football, players come and go,” Koeman says. “The most important message I gave them was that we have to keep the philosophy and the ambition of the club. There is money to spend and to continue the quality.” While the scale of the personnel turnover is a genuine issue, what makes the idea viable are the grossly inflated fees Southampton have been able to charge for their England internationals. No one outside the Premier League would even consider paying £25m for Lallana, fine passer of the ball though he is. Ten of Lambert’s two-season haul of 28 Premier League goals have come from taking penalties or free kicks, and, at 32, his preference for operating as a chance creator rather than a finisher may not be missed. The laws of football economics dictated that both be sold regardless as Southampton simply couldn’t match the opportunity and wages on offer at Anfield. Same principle for Shaw, whom Cortese kept at the club last summer by arranging a switch of agent, a new contract and a promise of a transfer a year hence. While Manchester United did not appreciate Jose Mourinho’s contention that paying the salary Shaw is now receiving at Old Trafford would have “killed the stability in our dressing room”, when Chelsea cry foul at a teenager’s wage demands it’s obvious those were beyond Southampton. That a 19-year-old with one competitive international appearance is now burdened with the highest transfer fee paid for a full-back, underlines the wisdom of his sale. Southampton are exploring the possibility of replacing Shaw with Marcos Rojo, a 24-year-old Argentina international who started the World Cup final. Asking price from Sporting? €15m (£11.8m), or slightly over a third of the income from Shaw. Consider that they own a fruitful academy, and Southampton’s grand summer sale makes more sense yet. If Koeman, Liebherr et al rebuild astutely perhaps it will be the buyers who end up on the wrong end of these bargains.

Did he make it to the stadium as part of the bike ride or is he still lost somewhere in wilstshire

Dalek its your time to shine, all the cards are falling nicely for a "we will be lucky to finish 17th" comment.

hahahahaha true dat

If this is true how the **** can everyone buy our players so quickly and we take ages to replace them. My only hope is all our new players are still on their world cup holidays

Squawka did a good article yesterday http://www.squawka.com/news/can-marcos-rojo-replace-luke-shaw-for-southampton/146678

Based on his world cup rating of 7.52 on whoscored (Lovren was 7.32 our highest last season) he seem's like a boss and being Argentinian will not be a lightweight defender. http://www.whoscored.com/Players/70050/Show/Marcos-Rojo Oh and he is bigger and heavier than Luke was.

There really is no point to this thread now, give it a couple more weeks.

I'm impressed usually its just Alps banging on about our demise during the transfer window but it seem's to be growing based purely on some sales of players. Sad old sentiment I know but I will see what the final state of play is on 1st Sept given the huge pile of money we have to spend and if Ron thinks he has a team that can implement his style and is happy with the team then good news. This is going to be a massive learning season for both management and new players so I don't think we can strive to reach last seasons results and will have a slow start but next season can't come quick enough in terms of progression.

looks like a quality signing when would he be back if he is confirmed ? in 2 weeks ?

Lots of moaning in the forum this morning, must of been a good night out on the ****. Didn't watch the game but just watched his interview afterwards and I have to say I like Koeman, he seems to say it how it is, unlike most managers who blatantly lie through their teeth. He also said we were close to landing a couple of players and whilst close is relative it brings me hope that in the next 3-4 days we have some new additions. I suppose the problem is we are trying to land players using our normal methods of negotiation whilst other clubs know we have the cash and our urgency will get more and more pronounced as more people leave and the season gets closer so they can play hard ball. The Lovren transfer has taken an age and thats with him being a tool and trying to force through a move, so players with a bit more loyalty to their club it may always take longer unless they are desperate for cash.

Sky sports news is reporting that Arsenal are close to landing him for 16mil and are confident of getting the deal done. Jesus ****ing christ can we buy some players.

hahahahahahahahahaha he is the club record holder for selfies

I hate footballers and liverpool

Surprised one of you sicko's (Bearsy) didn't crank one off to Floella Benjamin or should I call her by her new name Baroness Benjamin (WTF).

sorry if double posted - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2701124/Newcastle-target-Serge-Gnabry-loan-Southampton-keen-Arsenal-kid.html

Redmond: 23 apps. 1 goal 3 assists Whoscored rating 6:83 and played on the left. http://www.whoscored.com/Players/86425/

Am open on the CB role but I would really fancy Guidetti over Ings purely based on Koeman has worked with him before and he scored a tonne in the system we are going to play. Would be under whelmed if Redmond was our RM buy, we have a tonne of cash and should be looking for decisive quality in the final third not someone who plays well once every 10 games.

from other thread - I rate Jack Cork and he was brilliant for us last season when Big Vic got injured and I think he is a quality holding midfielder. However I would not offer Jack an extension as he is not a starter for the team when all are fit (Big Vic/Morgan) and I feel both Harry Reed and JWP can fill his role in the squad and more importantly could score goals, something that Jack is never going to do. If we weren't massive proponents of youth and giving them opportunity I would say sign him up but I feel that having Jack as a squad player if just depriving a younger player of that chance, a younger player who is also more inclined to bide his time on the bench, something Jack himself stated was frustrating in the first few months of the season. Jack deserves to play every week and would be an excellent player for someone like Palace/Villa/WBA etc etc but I can imagine him becoming more and more frustrated as the season progresses.

I rate Jack Cork and he was brilliant for us last season when Big Vic got injured and I think he is a quality holding midfielder. However I would not offer Jack an extension as he is not a starter for the team when all are fit (Big Vic/Morgan) and I feel both Harry Reed and JWP can fill his role in the squad and more importantly could score goals, something that Jack is never going to do. If we weren't massive proponents of youth and giving them opportunity I would say sign him up but I feel that having Jack as a squad player if just depriving a younger player of that chance, a younger player who is also more inclined to bide his time on the bench, something Jack himself stated was frustrating in the first few months of the season. Jack deserves to play every week and would be an excellent player for someone like Palace/Villa/WBA etc etc but I can imagine him becoming more and more frustrated as the season progresses.

Could see it of they feel chambers could be no.1 and is it McCarthy no.2 ?

In non related way was just watching an interview (pre-world cup) on South Africa tv that Benni McCarthey did with Vic in his house (which they basically gave his exact address but wont repeat), I can conclude the following. Benni 86 header keep ups v Vic's 46 Benni 52 foot keep ups v Vic's 22 Fortunately for us Benni told the audience him an Vic share the same agents so would be showing him some tricks (hopefully not how to gain weight). On a more serious note basically reiterated that Vic was a level headed person and didn't go in for trendy footballer, had a range rover as his only big purchase (his parents are very modest) and his house was normal looking place which is fair considering he lives by himself. He is awesome on Fifa (Benni wasn't), he was playing as Southampton as Vic and was also the penalty taker for us. Said he loved it here and wanted to continue to improve.

Pot meet kettle, posting Pelle in a Tadic thread, school boy error

I think they were all surprised but happy to have the balls out on day 1 based on some of the earlier video's

Herefordian gangsta G