S-Clarke

I think he's referring to Pelle and Tadic tbh.

But what vision? It was a vision in his head, but using someone else's money. It was never going to happen. He now looks like the god of Southampton, but the reality is that he's created what we're seeing now.

I don't think you can blame the squad depth for the cups tbh. He put out weak teams in the cups, for some reason. Then put the 1st team back out in the following league game. The league - totally, the depth wasn't there to go any further or sustain our start, but in the 2nd half of the season the priority should have been in the cups as it was obvious we were safe in the league and not really in danger of dropping out of the top 10. Not sure a club such as ours will ever have such a ''free run'' at a cup!

I think he was a bit of a failure, we should have won something with the group we had. Great players. 8th means diddly squat, we might as well have finished 15th based on what's happening now.

Oh my word.

There have been a few dim comments in the media fro Ralf, opening up the door per say - but this would have happened anyway. The players clearly want out, Lallana saying he doesn't want to play for us any more, ditto Lovren - so what can the club do? Keep a player after the transfer window, on 40k p/w, who doesn't actually play? It would be a dim move. If the player is, at is seems, that desperate to leave then it's up to the club to get the best possible deal they can. They can reject it if they want, but the players have set their stool out and IMO have come across as complete and utter pillocks.

I don't know what people expect though. We've got a world record deal for a left back, an incredible fee all being told, and a pretty shiny £25m for a 26 year old. The club doesn't want to sell, it doesn't need to sell - but the players want to go. I posted a quote on here from Morgan from last year, which was along the lines of ''If NC and MP go, then it will bring all players positions into question' - so that's what's happened. They bought the waffle NC fed them, and it was waffle because it wasn't his money he was trying to achieve it with. He should be bloody crtisisied for building up this mutiny as much as anyone else. He created an unhealthy environment full of promises and ambitions that weren't going to happen. He didn't have the finance and KL didn't have the finance, so why was he banging on about winning the league? At the end of the day, as I've said, elite club wants player - they go. Barca want Suarez - he goes. Chelsea want Torres - he goes. PSG want Luiz - he goes. We got ourselves into quite a unique position by having so many players that elite clubs are after, and as we're not an elite club ourselves, it's almost impossible to bat the interest away. What is happening now would have happened whoever was here. We hit a glass ceiling, we cannot break that glass ceiling, so the best players will leave and go their separate ways. NC knew what was going to happen. Trust me.

If an elite club want one of our players to the point whereby they put substantial money on the table, for both player and club, then they will leave. It's not hard to understand....we're only Southampton. The only thing that seriously ****es me off about all of this is why we didn't do any better. 5 players could go for £100m and didn't do anything in the cups. A total waste of a season looking back now.

lol wtf.

TBF, most of their fans are correcting him. But it's nice to see the same happening to them - their best player being snared by an elite club, proof to all concerned that if an elite club comes in for any of your players then they will go. Liverpool are up themselves though, for a club that haven't won the league for a million years, they seem to rate themselves very highly. The interview questions to Lallana for e.g Tell us what the thought process is when you find out that a club such as Liverpool Football Club are interested in you...

For a home made effort, that's a pretty good result to be honest. At the end of the day, the stripes are always a safe bet given what we've had in the last few years - but it does look pretty classy, one of the best ''stripped'' efforts we've had in recent years I think. £50 for a shirt though.

Maybe this is why Addidas are ''All Out''? They didn't want their brand on something that looks like it's sold on a Spanish sea-side market.

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.