S-Clarke

Down negative man, down.

That's, ummm, interestingly ****.

I reckon he will go. So, yep, retire it.

Don't get me wrong, we'll still buy players - but the club don't share the same level of panic as us. Expect to see Reed, Gallagher, JWP, Targett, Mcqueen all have roles next season - some more than others, but they will add to the squad. We're not going to spend £80m on new players, that won't happen. I can see £30-40m spent max, on good players such as Tadic, Pele, Forster.....and that's not a bad blend, and let's not forget - In Koeman we have a coach who is renown for bringing the best out of young players, this is one of the reasons he was so sought after by us.

It was always a pipe dream, it was as far away when we were 8th as it was when we were 20th in L1. We may have been 4th last season, but we were always going to fall away. We didn't need just 1 or 2 players here and there to sustain it either, we needed to probably spend around £50-100m in that window in order to secure it. Something she was unable to do, and I don't see that as a criticism. If the money isn't there, then you don't spend it. Financially we were still light years apart. NC wanted to flash around money that wasn't his.

Typical 'Wheeler-dealer'' deal. Rio was a top player, but as we saw at Man Utd his time at the top level is and was coming to an end. The Cardiff CB is a good signing though, especially at £8m. Bit of a bargain.

Cortese has achieved exactly what he wanted to achieve here - god like status amongst the fan base, and it looks as if it was him who held everything together. But the pure, 100% actuate truth is that this is the first time we've had the elite clubs chase our players, strongly. I'm not on about little enquires here, or bids from Newcastle and the like - I'm on about Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Barca, Zenit - massive European clubs, all part of that ''upper'' elite area of football making substantial and well structured deals for player and club. Cortese isn't stupid and he saw what was coming. He got out whilst his reputation remained in tact, and in the end it looks as if it's all fallen on KL's watch - but if he was here, it would have happened under him too. Just another quick additional point - the last time an elite club strongly wanted one of our players, what happend? NC sold him to Arsenal.

In the last 18 month's he has beaten up Eric Lamella, been forced out by Roma and their fans. Signed by us (for a stupid fee, it has to be said) and achieved diddly squat, before head butting Jose Fonte. Was shipped him out pretty sharpish to Juventus, where he continued to achieve diddly squat and had another reported falling out with their staff. On the back of that, he lost his place in the national side when they're not really full of top class strikers at this moment in time. In terms of a career path, it's down hill. No one will really want to sign him, we will have to cut our losses in a big way and as said above - I'd even consider a free just to get rid of him. Anyone who takes him on now will be incredibly brave.

But a loss we need to take, he's got to go at whatever cost. Would even consider a free with him. He will go down as our worst ever signing, even beating Ali Dia IMO (taking the utter expense into account).

The clubs intentions have been to utilise the academy in way to offset the amount of sales. Matt has been earmarked for the first team slot for a while - it will be him. There is no urgency at the club to sign a new LB fwiw. Matt is that highly thought of.

This was a year or so ago, when NC first threatened to leave - this kind of gives a general idea of the players thoughts, and why we're seeing what we're seeing - maybe. These are quotes direct from Morgan back in May last year. "It would put everything in question again for every single player. "The chairman and Mauricio Pochettino are a big part of this club. They are selling the project to us and that's why I signed a new contract, as well as other players doing the same. "He is very supportive of the chairman so I am not surprised (by his comments). "All the players are here because we trust Southampton is going to move forward so it would be a very disappointing if that (their departure) was to happen." Kind of makes me want to say.....you sign your contract for the club, not for a flaming chairman and a project....you're signed up to represent the club no matter what........now get off your high horses, respect the club, take home your £60k or whatever per week and STFU........

What exactly is a 'fit and proper' person? As the test doesn't exactly seem to have an end result of 'fit and proper' person running the club.

Would kind of feel the club need to sort out the announcements for Cork and Fonte...

For his goal record, a bit of a snip. Given that Bony was 12-14m, Alves was £12-13m from the same league.

Nice to hear from Corky!

Love his passion.

Pretty dim time to have one of those q&a's tbh, what with the speculation and the fact the transfer window is open. It's obvious what 99% of the questions will be, and it's obvious he's not going to be able to answer any of them.

I can see both sides of the fence tbh. We've had years of the club peddling European/CL ambitions, we can win the league one day etc etc. We've finally established ourselves, have an excellent squad...and hey presto, it all gets sold off. It's very frustrating and I can understand the frustrations. But in my opinion, what people have failed to grasp is that the ambitions were always hollow and it would have been very naive to believe it all. NC may have had those dreams, but without the investment behind him they weren't going to happen. And once Shaw, Lallana, Lambert get linked with the top 4 - they will go, even if NC was here. It's probably the first summer we've had substitutional interest in our players from elite clubs, and it falls on KL's tenure - but it would have fallen on NC's door if he was here, and I'm pretty sure he bailed as he saw what was coming and didn't want to be seen as part of it. ML and now KL have provided us with a sound, stable and well structured football club. We're not going to be Man City, but we're going to be a solid, self sustaining model of a top half club for years to come. It will be bumpy from time to time, but the structure in place is pretty strong and will absorb most blows.

fair enough. but in general terms, that has been our model tbh. Rodriguez's, Corks, Mayukas, Wanyamas etc. I think there'll always been the odd 1 or 2 out of that zone, i.e Osvaldo and possibly Pele, but I think the clubs general remit is to secure young players, with the view of probably making a profit in a few years, it pains me to say.

Would be thrown straight back at them... A player at a club who are obviously above us, but a club who want the player transferred - so makes it a hell of a lot easier.

Gaston isn't a good example really. He was a player in a club at the same level, or slightly below us in stature and size. He wasn't on a big contract, and didn't demand a huge transfer fee. Our model is to buy young, up and coming talents.

Apparently Kroos is available for £25m, we should bid for him. He'll come for sure. etc.

But we're not going to do that as we have debts to service. Thinking that we're about to spend 60-80m on new signings is ill-advised as you're just setting yourself up for disappointment. I can see a max of £50m being spent, and that's an absolute max - probably not even that much to be honest. The rest will pay off the training facilities and previous transfer funds, and will probably go back into a pot to enable squad strengthening in additional windows down the line.

JWP has struggled as the seasons have gone on, I've noticed. Always starts pre-season well and the first few months is pretty much undroppable - he then tails off, loses confidence and becomes a bit part player for the rest of the season. A flaw in his make-up that's for sure, whether it's down to fitness....or confidence, who knows - but what I'm sure about is that there is a damn fine player there, easily a future England international if he nails an entire season.