croydonsaint

I know where you are coming from as on the face of it Lallana has stuck with us through bad times. I am certainly never one to follow the crowd with my opinions but I have to say there is something about this exit that leaves a bad taste. Lambert, although very disappointing to lose such a great player I can only feel grateful for the service he has given us and only wish him the best and Shaw, although he could have stayed another season perhaps, I do not feel bad about him. Something with Lallana has hit a similar chord with certainly the majority of fans on this site. Unfortunate for him , I do not see him getting a good response from us when he plays at St. Marys. Will be embarrassing because Lambert will get a standing ovation [i reckon] and Lallana will be booed big time. [if they both play] As for the clubs minimal statement. This can only be down to the way he has conducted himself as I do not see the management team as being petty at all.

I stand by my comment that he is a decent coach, but he was lucky with the timing of when he came to us. I do not think it was as much what he coached into the players as others outside the club realising what we had. They were all the same players before he came. I actually think our players did more for him than he did for us and he will regret leaving when he did. I am certain of this. Luckily not our problem and am looking forward to next season with an even better coach in place.....

I do think MP is a decent coach. The team was certainly ready for what he brought to us, but he was lucky with the spirit and the team that he inherited from Nigel's very good work. I think the hard work had been done for him. Personally I am not unhappy he has left and sadly for him he will I think struggle next season to have the impact he had with us. He is quite young still and he has made a mistake in leaving and in years to come he will look back at his time with us and realise how stupid he was to leave. As long as we take on a better replacement and I think we will, we will continue to move forward. MP has made his bed and because of the disloyalty he showed in leaving a year early I do find it hard to feel sorry for him.

Accepting the timing of this could hardly be worse but he is one player I would not begrudge his dream move to. I do not think for one minute that he can be properly replaced as he has been truly special for us, but if ever a player deserved his move its him.......................

Ralfie................... why is it that if we are so attractive and so in control does it feel like we are not? I had this mental vision of when you were saying we had received contact from many top managers and coaches wanting to join us [or words like that] Les Reed was in a corner somewhere wondering what the f are you were talking about. Sincerely hope I am wrong, I hope my sinking lack of confidence is based on reading too much into the back ground music of the press speculation about players leaving in mass but Ralfie, this action that you keep talking about, well lets just say if ever we needed to see it, just a hint pal, but now would be a good time. [please] I hope we are not sleep walking to relegation.

Can only go with my heart. Adkins, would stand up and applaud with respect, he was pure class...... Pottecino, do not clap other team managers so would not acknowledge him. Wouldn't boo him but feel nothing for him. Hes looked after himself...... good luck to him but feel no warmth towards him.

Why do you find it utterly hilarious MoPo is getting stick. It really sees like that his assertions of wanting to wait until end of season as wants to concentrate on end of season may be disingenuous as it seems it may have been more about keeping his options open. Of course the whole picture needs to come out before we can judge but I for one am left with a slightly bad taste in my mouth................. I think bringing up Loyalty to Dodd and Williams is mixing up 2 different situations, plus do you know why they left, I am assuming that you know they are blameless....? Having said that I also would have preferred he stays [stayed] he has done a good job but it is galling the way it is unfolding and to Spurs. I would love it if we finished above them next season [and MoPo got sacked] .... love it!!

Cortese.. good riddance. Pochettino.......... F..ck off............. Ralph and Katharina, your time has come. Please do not let us down.

If Pochettino goes as seems likely at this moment, I will be left with the feeling that we have been played by him. In hindsight should we have allowed the stalling, has the board been naive, obviously we do not know the story but this is how I am left feeling. I would prefer us keep him to the last year of his contract, also all our players under contract, refuse to sell now and then plan for there replacements, manager included over the next year. At least we would be letting them go on our terms................... but this will not happen. I don't think taking Adkins back would be a bad shout. At least he cared about the club and blimey, wouldn't he be motivated for many reasons. Lets hope we can make Pochettinos defection into a positive.

Ok, I am in the minority but I will measure him against for instance how he treated Nigel Adkins. Also the way he disrespected our history. I know others will measure him against the successes of the last 5 years and I do accept that I may be wrong, but I do not accept that we should turn a blind eye to such matters because of other things going well. I would not want a person like that connected with my club and would feel disappointed if he was ever connected with us in any way again. He has done very well out of his connection with us so lets not shed a tear for him.

It is undeniable that he presided over very successful period and he should get credit for that. I am simply stating though that he did not complete the job. He raised expectations and walked away. It is easy to raise expectations but much harder to fulfil them. I do not think he had our best interests at heart as surely if he did he would have stayed around? Also why come out now, at clearly a tricky time to feed headlines such as are in the Echo today. I think to say "he wasn't relying on Katrina's Money and people need to stop beating him with that stick, you look like idiots" is a bit harsh, and I think lacking in understanding of the whole picture. Any way we are all entitled to an opinion, I think mine is clear, with out the need of insults. Interesting link here http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/35104/? So clearly I am not the only one with the thoughts I have expressed.

Well I am not so sure that his oddly timed outing to the press is that helpful to Southampton fc. Latest headline in the Echo is "Nicola Cortese: I would have kept this Saints side together had I stayed at St Mary's" Well done Nicola, that's what we need now. Must give you a warm glow but what about every one else? [Or is it as I have always thought,that its not about any one else]? Also I cant help thinking that it is quite easy to sell an expansive vision, but should he have been peddling that if he wasn't certain he could have the means to fulfill it. After all he was selling the dream based on some one elses money. There seems something rather poor to me that a person should build up players hopes with a vision that they obviously would buy into to then slide away when he felt it couldn't happen and then to subtly blame the very person that was funding " his dream" I would have respected him if he had stayed around to fight his corner but of course that would not have been the easy option. Finally let me say to give some balance, I do feel Cortese did a good job while he was in place, certainly in Manager recruitment and I a sure other areas but his latest foray into the press does nothing to allay my thoughts about him as not having our clubs over all best interests ahead of his own.

I can not imagine that Southampton would not have followed disciplinary procedures diligently, so I would imagine if there was a perceived issue it would have been discussed with verbal and then written warnings issued. I would not imagine they would be dismissed "out of the blue". If that is the case the pair should have nothing to complain about. A shame to see any one dismissed but if procedures were followed it would have been in their hands to stop this outcome by falling into line.

Hey Beckenham..........Your spoiling the thread..................... its supposed to be doom and gloom and its all over ................you are not supposed to be spoil the mood!! Poor Alpine, see hes leading the charge over the cliff..... again.

Well done on spotting my deliberate spelling mistake.

Noticed my answer to question 1. should have been no.

So with all the speculation here is a chance to test who is the most inciteful poster on this site. Here goes. 1. Will Pochettino remain as manager? Yes or No 2. If no will we replace with a Great British Manager or a foreign manager? 3. How many of our current first tea will we lose during this window? 4. How many 8 million pound plus players will we sign during this window. Heres my stab. 1. Yes 2. British 3. 3 4. 2 Be interesting at the start of the new season to see how accurate we were!

I think we all share your frustration but I do not agree that we are owed a statement. There is clearly a lot going on and until these things are resolved they should not be made public. Definitely frustrating but unfortunately we are all going to have to be patient. If Pocchetino is undecided at this moment or awaiting out come of player sales or what ever, not sure in the point of announcing that. I can see the head lines. "Saints manager may stay but if something else comes along he may not". "We will sell our best players but only at the right price", " We have offered a great new contract to manager but hes not quite sure if he wants to commit to us".............................etc. etc.

I think the board are on to a bit of a hiding to nothing at the moment. Poccettino was fond of saying that he couldn't understand what all the fuss is about as he has one year left on his contract. Surely if he does not want to sign a new contract we should simply make it clear that we expect him to honour that contract, and then lets all just get on with it. Same as Lallana and Shaw. Certainly we should not let any of them go until we have replaced them.

So here we have a thread that should be exactly what this site is about. Some useful insight and information from inside the club. Essentially the kind of thread that as a fan I look out for. Seeing it starting to break down to the usual insulting replies and personal digs is slightly irritating. I can well imagine that to moderate on this forum must be difficult, no doubt at all but it seems so obvious that some of the posters are clearly just being insulting and personal in their comments. Can these posters be dealt with please. It would just raise the forum from the school play ground.

Thanks for posting, very encouraging. It really does feel like for the first time in years that we have very good leadership. For all the improvements Cortese presided over, we were being governed by some one that had no understanding of what the soul of a football club is about. From what I am hearing thank goodness finally we are back on track...............

I always had reservations about him. Dont get me wrong, I do think he did a good job, certainly his recruitment of Managers was very successful. However I always had an uneasy feeling about him as indeed I always did about Lowe from his early day with us. I do not have that feeling with the current regime. Accepting that Pochettino has been an inspired choice of manager I will never forgive the way he treated Adkins, a totally shameful way to treat such a decent human being. I just do not believe in success at any cost as invariably that success will be short term. He I think will always come out on top and will look after himself ultimately more than his team. That wage he secured for himself could well be an example of this. He left when he stopped getting his way with no loyalty to "his team" I will genuinely thank him for the progress he presided over but am pleased we have rid of him and with, if anything an improved outlook.

Although I totally agree and although I have answered on this thread so am contradicting myself, the best way would be for all of us to not reply to the 2 or 3 saddos that polute this site. Surely if we could do this they just may go away. We are as guilty as they are by giving them the attention that they so clearly seek.

We are probably in the healthiest position we have been in for perhaps 20 years in my opinion. I think we may find it hard to better this season but even so would be surprised if any normal saints fan could be worried about next season. We are in good hands at last, lets enjoy it its been a long time coming.................

We have a good young side. A lot of positives in the way we play but a way to go to be breaking into the top 6. Liverpool are a way ahead at the moment and totally deserved there win today. Good luck to them but exciting times ahead for us I have no doubt.............