SaintRobbie

I think it will be lots about how Saints are struggling having lost their quality players over the Summer sadly. So I'm going for, 'You can't win anything with kids'.

I'd be interested to know what Krueger has contributed. So why don't the trolls above allow the debate to flow instead of ridiculing 9-3, who is making exactly the sort of point for debate message boards are supposed to be for. Can someone tell me something positive Krueger has brought to the club since arriving? (Which was coincidentally exactly the moment when Saints bubble seemed to burst for MoPo, Lallana, Lambert (?), Schneiderlin, Lovren and now possibly Jay Rod). I'd love to hear a positive opinion to counter 9-3's comment.... but I can't think of one.

Interesting.

Jay Rod has failed to accept his 5 year contract offer according to rumours. Why would he do that unless it makes him more expensive? Brendan Rodgers has managed the banana and Lambert moves to his benefit. Has placed sweetly mice in Lovrens head, so yes... He is tapping up Jay Rod.

Same reason you do.

Disrespectful. There must have been bad blood when he left or he's being frustrated in attempts to sign our better players.

Totally agree with this. He'd certainly be good enough with Fonte to keep us up, possibly even mid table, but not challenging for an improvement to 8th. But then I fail to see how we can currently attract anyone better, unless it is through Koemans personal reputation. FWIW, I can't see Vlaar wanting to come to Saints unless it was for Koeman, one mid - bottom half team for another given the squad as it stands today. But then there's tomorrow.... and a big pot of cash of course to reinvest!

I hope so. A good post Art. All I am doing is warning where we currently stand if the board continue to show lack of ambition. I stick by my predictions - as at today we are in a potential relegation fight. Which means we as fans need to do some expectation management and be prepared to be 12th man next season, they are going to need us. But, we have Koeman and fingers crossed you're right that the Board have already learned from their potentially catastrophic mistakes. We must admit, we are in a fire sale. Our best players are damaged goods, damaged by agents and opportunity, but damaged nonetheless. I am quite satisfied that Schneiderlin and Lovren are off and that all Koeman is doing now is playing for more money. It's heart wrenching to see how a team that was so close to breaking into the top tier, blew it. MoPo, stated today that he is at a bigger club (a little disrespectful), but he is a top end professional driven by the need for competitive excellence. Arguably so are our finest players who are leaving in droves. Very poor management happened. It happened. Regardless of who was to blame (Cortese for over ambition? At this level I sense no such thing.), MoPo for throwing a teddy and running to the first reasonable offer he got, maybe, Krueger failing to replace Cortese, Les Reed allowing sales BEFORE the manager could influence and assess? Dunno. But some thing happened about 9 months ago that sealed our fate this summer. I think it was wasn't lack of ambition, I think it was just poorly communicating our plan to continue to rise. Those fans on here that say those of us with ambition should do a reality check on what Southampton FC is are those that would have us languishing in the Championship for years. I am a fan, I care passionately about our club, so I demand more. We should all demand more. The point of my post was to highlight that our Boardroom leadership failed and if we don't continue to reinvest and support the one thing they may have done right -KOEMAN- then we will fail. As at today we have failed to bring in enough players, in 4 weeks time, I am banking on our Boardroom having learned it's lesson and have been true to their word to invest EVERYTHING into supporting Koeman. Success = success! failures often lead to more failure. I've had a taste of my football club being close to Europe, that's what I demand they achieve or sell up to someone who share the ambition of the passionate fans, best players and the manager. We were so close... So close to breaking in to the top 6. This season we are not....... YET.

My prediction. 2 more signings max, largely unimpressive. Lovren 100% off to Liverpool. He will go for well under £20m at the last minute. Schneiderlin will sign for Arsenal in the next 10 days. Koemans latest rhetoric is about securing best price... We are not planning to keep them,we are holding out for the best price. We are in a fire sale. You sell damaged goods in a fire sale. The Board have failed thus far - spectacularly. Koemans appointment is our only hope. We will not sign any 'better' players than Lovren or Schneiderlin. All of our targets are pretty mediocre, which indicates that players are unsure over Koeman, but more so about Southamptons perceived lack of ambition. Saints are damaged goods. So who's to blame? Krueger and Les Reed. And frankly our owner. That's how I feel at the moment. We are entering a relegation battle season. Hope I'm wrong but without reinforcement and with the negativity of the club still festering over our players who want out I can see only one positive... Koeman. We need 6 quality players and we need to off load those who don't want to be here faster than we are. Let's admit we are in a fire sale and rebuild faster. We are running out of time. We can't even get Osvaldo to report for his pay packet FFS. There is no respect for our club from our better players. The Board are to blame and so is our owner. BUT IT CAN STILL BE TURNED AROUND IF KOEMAN CAN ATTRACT SOME QUALITY. WE NEED TO BUY.

That could be fair comment... but a tweet of frustration would expend less that one calorie on thumb action. Losing Morgan is really bad news. Losing Lovren is really bad news. Losing Lambert may not be. Losing Mr I am Banana may not actually be a loss, Shaws loss for me is just a shame. I think he's off. I hope not. I really hope not.

I think Spider-Man if off. If so, it is another piece of evidence of the Boardrooms incompetence in articulating ambition and excellence. Whether it's true or not. Since Cortese left we lost the rhetoric for success. A reason Kruger appears to add nothing in my opinion. It's going to be a long season.... Just hope Koeman keeps us up frankly. I still think we have not brought in enough quality, and if another irreplaceable leaves we are not in a strong position.

It's increasingly looking this way. After all the potential new captain is hardly racing back to get in amongst his teammates on preseason. Rest or not, I'd have expected a dedicated leader to be at best tweeting his frustration at not being in preseason with his pals, better still rushing to be with them. He didn't play much in the WC. Can't be that tired.

I think it's an important point. There is no fan representation or ability to express concern apart from quality forums (of which this is the best of the pile by a country mile). Trouble is that SISA were often viewed as a bunch of individuals rather than representing collective viewpoints. They lost credibility. Not sure what the solution is, but those who run this professional forum might want to suggest SaintsWeb could somehow provide a way of taking a cross section of fan viewpoints forward to the club. Maybe it happens anyway, there are respected posters and moderators on here and the ability to vote for a Saints Web rep by the fans from this forum who could go forth with concerns and balanced viewpoints on out behalf. Something to think about? I could see whoever was our rep having this forum as a tool to canvas opinion and views before engaging with the club.

Season Tickets arrived this morning. Lots of cardboard went in the recycling bin. Shame there's no lapel badge like last year, thought that was a nice touch. Would rather have had that than a book on stories of loyal Saints fans I don't need (although it was interesting). Have to say the whole graphics being used this year - stripes are back etc - is a step down in quality from last years gold style. Whoever came up with it needs sacking. It's a bit mid table from top of the table graphics from last year. Reflection of ambition? Probably not, but our merchandising and presentational stuff is a bit Krap this year frankly.

Relegation fight, eventually finishing around 15th. We haven't bought enough quality to see a whole season through and appear to be relying on kids given the preseason squad. Obviously if we buy 6 more players I'll put us up to mid table - but my head tells me we haven't - yet - invested enough to finish above 15th.

Absolute rubbish

In all seriousness, I hope the club ban Samuel and make a public statement to that effect.

It's in the Mail FFS... Lovren is also Princess Diana's love child and his family were all Nazi communist fascist revolutionaries. I'm surprised they're not running a campaign to have them all removed as immigrants anyway.

On paper, yes. In reality, to be continued...

Not sure Ozil has done much this WC

A lot of kids on that squad. A lot of kids.

La la la la la la lala lala lala... Graziano Pelle, Sowtamton's goal machine! Use to sing it for another chap, name eludes me.

As I said, we just need a song now....

Praise indeed, praise indeed.

This could be his season. I agree. Worth keeping for now alright.