SaintRobbie

Wishful thinking.

For me (& assuming spineless Reed lets Lovren, Sneiderlain and others go...) We need the following replacements, well drilled and ready to compete in the Premier League before the humiliation starts at Liverpool next month.... Goalkeeper. Boruc needs to move into back up keeper for me. Need a top keeper as we are losing our back four. £8-10m. Left Back. High quality to replace Shaw. £15m.Plus a back up to replace a Fox as cover. £2-4m. Centre Back. To replace Lovren. £15-18m. Midfield: playmaker, leader and dynamic leader to replace Lallana. £20m. Plus a passer and engine room with Schneider Man's energy levels. £15-20m. A creative midfield replacement and free kick taker to replace Ramirez. £15m. Wings. We still need attacking options akin to Puncheon who we have yet to replace. X2 creative attackers, £12m 2x£6m) Forwards. We need x3 10-14 goals a season strikers to replace Lambert, Gallagher (not up to it), Osvaldo and Jay Rod. Assuming Jay Rod stays and recovers fully (unlikely) Gallagher could switch to cover as 4th choice striker until he returns. X3 guaranteed 10-14 GPS scoreres: 3x £12-14m = £36m Plus then we have to guarantee that they will gel, settle in the Premier League and none will do an Osvaldo. Unlikely. So in total the Southampton squad needs the following to stay where we are next season and hope to progress: 1xGK 3xDefenders 5xMidfielders 3xStrikers Total cost to match last season - £148m, call it £150m. Total from player sales = £80m max. Oh dear, Koeman has been brought in to steady the ship and to keep us in the league at best.

Good point on Osvaldo. No guarantees Koemans signings will replace our losses either.

There is one - possible positive - Koeman. There are no other positives as we cannot guarantee replacing our best players despite the high fees we are demanding. Players have all the power - well their agents and families do - the point is that Cortese was firmly in the driving seat before he left. NOT the players. Has Koeman even met Shaw or Lallana? Has he met Lovren? Has he met Sneidelan? Pretty illinformed decision making from Koeman? Or always part of the Clubs plan? Krueger is contributing nothing. Les Reeds jury's out. The most important appointment we could make now is leadership and steel.

The way Liverpool have played him and our spineless Boardroom irks me. Lallanas move was orchestrated, he's not clever enough to have engineered anything.

Good money, both players not worth the fees. Very bad for the club. Irreplaceable and leading to more (arguably more important) players leaving due to clear lack of ambition. Overall? Bad result.

Yet every piece of lazy journalism to date seems to have turned out to be true this summer.

At the start of the summer debacle, when Krueger screwed up his interview and Lambert left for a humiliating song from Liverpool, we looked to Les to steady the ship. To judge his ability in my eyes he had to: 1. Get in a manager and pledge no more player sales unless the manager said so - after a spell of assessment. 2. Hold on to a Lallana as our captain and irreplaceable core. 3. Hold on to Lovren. (Too many of us on here remember how the loss of one centre back - killer - arguably saw us relegate from a position of strength. The last time we finished 8th we failed to reinforce then lost a key play then we fell rapidly. 4. Send a strong message of no further player sales. 5. Buy at least 3 strikers to replace Osvaldo, Lambert and Gallagher. 6. Find a new goalkeeper. Record to date? Appointed the best manager available. Everywhere else appears to be failing. But, we won't know until we relegate how he's done. The real failure for me is what a lack of steel the man appears to be demonstrating. Seduced by over the odds fees and a record of bringing in players that are not good enough for the Premier League as much as bringing in successes. Les - AGENTS AND PLAYERS WILL KEEP PRODDING YOU WITH DEMANDS AND TRANFER REQUESTS FOR BIG SIGN ON FEES WHILST THEY PROD SOFT FLESH. ONCE THEY PROD STEEL THEN THEY WILL STOP. CORTESE PROVIDED THE STEEL. Our first signing to steady the ship should be to go grovelling back to Cortese and bring him back and sack Krueger. With tens of millions to replace our guaranteed performers we can only hope with Les Reed that we will replace half of them at best. Overall? I put my faith in him to deliver. So far he's failing, massively. I don't even think he's given the manager chance to fully assess the players before selling them either. We are weak. A very weak club and the agents and players and clubs like Liverpool know it and are taking the ****. It's humiliating for us and for our players.... No wonder they want away. There is a fire sale going on at St Mary's and what's left is not good enough to keep us in the league. Our signings are unpredictable at best. Les needs to show some steel. .... but I can only see weakness. We need Cortese. For £1m a year he'd now save us from further humiliation. We need tough leadership and ambition. Our players know there isn't any. It's time to swallow our pride and bring him back.

We can all agree that right now our club is the subject of a fire sale of damaged goods. There is clearly a mixture of selfishness and lack of respect for the leadership and ambition of the club from the players. We potentially have a great manager, who is likely to have to rebuild a whole team without the time he needs to integrate x3 strikers, two defenders and two key midfielders who haven't been bought yet. And that's just to replace the top players who are leaving, not even buy the extra depth we need to kick on. It's not looking good from the head side, but my heart hopes we stay in the Premier League this season. This is the end of an era, I hope we don't fall, but one of only two scenarios if Les Reed and Koeman fail to keep Lovren and Sneiderlain IMO, relegation or we just survive. Koeman will have worked a miracle if we end up in the top half.

I'm inclined to agree. Survival is what we will now need to aim at IMO.

We have started to struggle, our best players are all leaving.

I don't know whether to be underwhelmed or not. The only thing that worries me is how Koeman knows him enough to make this appointment?

Problem with losing Lovren is I think we will lose Fonte too. Not in the fire sale, but on the pitch. Fonte is a different player alongside Lovren.

Seems to pay for itself though. If the intent was that we would build our team from the youth setup and get there (Lowes vision) is has proven to be flawed due to one significant underestimation of our modern society and the stupid money in the game. That underestimation is the impact of selfishness. Selfishness of the players, selfishness of the players parents and family, selfishness of the agents, selfishness of the media, selfishness of the fans who follow turn out to see success. There are a handful of of members of our ownership and board who are fighting for successs, and willing to make sacrifices particularly over spending and then there are some selfish journey to whom the club is just another job. Then there are 14000(+?) fans who give their lives - hard earned money and free time to selflessly support their team. They are the last bastion of decency in modern football..... we are the last bastion of passion, loyalty and decency. Every member of this message board who argue and comment, punch drunk by lack of perceived success or desperate for more, it matters not. Whilst selflessness drives individuals the family of the fan base will always be puzzled by the likes of Lallana and Lovren, who seem to be intent to be selfish. I would like our youth set up be given lessons in loyalty. I'm sure the selfless MLT would have a role to play here. If not, we probably have to accept that the youth set up is always for sale, but demand we invest every penny in buying the stars out there to replace them.

Mmmmmm... This bit worries me though Fitz, "but things have changed significantly since he agreed to the move and where he originally thought it might take a couple of years to progress and start to chalenge the top sides he now believes they never will while the current regime is in place."

That is the best analogy I have read on here. Absolutely spot on Ohio, spot on! (& slightly funny too!) A NOMINATION FOR A GOLDEN POST AWARD... For us retro message boarders! I just hope Les Reed and RoKo know host to paddle!

Yellows. Not black please not black.... Or light blue. Saints away strip should be yellow, 1st strip STRIPES in red and white...

I couldn't get through this sorry too many TLAs (Three letter abbreviations!)

To give the Board some credit, I expect them to give more money than Rupert Lowe would have... Thank goodness we are no longer a plc, they'd be £20m for players and £80m for shareholders.

We have £100m - let's buy Gareth Bale!

Still say he deserves a statue with LOYALTY written on the front of the plinth it sits on.

Personal terms! Lol !! the arrogance of the amish bearded deserter has no bounds. Perhaps a Liverpool have got what they deserved.

The money available should be close to £100m by now?

Cortese left.

Agree, but the point is when does the Club say 'no more sales?' We don't need more money.