tajjuk

Trouble is Romeu offers a lot more defensively and JWP offers more offensively and he's very similar in stature/style of play to JWP and Davis. He's that sort of all round, works hard, technical sound midfielder but not one that is going to bully people defensively, score a lot of goals or dribble past players. he's a good player and kind of a jack of all trades centre-mid but offers nothing different to what we don't have.

To be fair I think Smalling is fairly decent and we've done alright taking players who haven't quite shined at big clubs before i.e. Bertrand and Romeu. Would depend on the fee and wages but Smalling would improve our defence at the moment IMO, Delph I'm not really sure we need, is he any better than what we have? I'd rather keep going with Hojberg as the guy is only 20 and will hopefully improve, whereas Delph is unlikely to get any better and you are hoping he recaptures his form for Villa. Gibson would be a solid signing though.

Should be fine, let's hope the new manager is able to get the best out of him and he has a good pre-season. Number 10 role does look like his potential best area, he's shown glimpses of quality of there and offers something we don't really have in anyone else which is genuine ability to run with the ball through the middle.

Yes, there is no rule saying we can't have two contracted managers and it seems most of the people we are talking to are free agents anyway so aren't under contract.

Fair point but I doubt we would have pushed the complaint if we were potentially dodgy.

Yeh I thought that bit was funny, swift must mean a different thing to Les. Tuchel would still be my preference and I think it looks reasonably realistic.

Only feel apprehension about this to be honest, I don't like that it particularly highlights the bit about not selling players this summer, as if after that it will be a free for all of selling to make them money.

Shouldn't let them get away with it IMO.

I think they would pay the compensation to him is what they are getting at, not us. He doesn't want to sign for St Etienne cos he'll miss out on the compensation of two years contract that Saints would owe if they sack him, you can't get compensation if he just agrees to another club. Saints don't really want to pay him all that money if they can avoid it, hence negotiations. If St Etienne pay it then everyone is happy - St Etienne get a new manager they clearly want. Saints get rid of a manager that they don't want and don't have to pay up the rest of his contract. Puel gets a new job and two years of salary as a lump sum. Win win. So let's hope that goes through and we can quickly get Tuchel, Schmidt or whoever in, new manager contacts the players, convinces VVD and Bertrand to at least stay another year, and we can then move on to actually improving the squad.

You'd think Nike would be able to find him some gear that actually fitted, did he nick those trousers from some Ladies yoga class or something.

Mane has improved for them definitely, so much so that they pretty much depend on him to break down teams, especially if Coutinho can't bang one in from 30 yards. Lovren is worse than he was for us, considerably at times and has only recently steadied his form. Lallana as stated has been no better or worse than his last season for us, he's a good player, not a world beater with good technique. He also seems to get knackered by about 70 minutes like he did with us. Clyne from what I've seen seemed to dip in form for them last year, he was making as many overlapping runs, his first season for them he was very good but again nothing above what he did for us. To be honest very few of our big money sales have massively improved the teams they have joined and in many cases their careers and/or play seemed to go a bit backwards, certainly that is the case with Morgan, Lovren, Shaw and Chambers. Lambert was just a natural decline to age and no one really begrudged that move. Lallana, Clyne, Wanyama are performing similarly to how they did with us. Mane is probably the one that has hit new heights and it annoys me that his fee was that low to be honest when you look at some of the figures going around. Of course all these players bank balances massively swelled which is ultimately what they want I think but I do think it shows the grass is not always greener, there have easily been as many misses as hits in sales from the club.

Every club is a selling club, but we don't sign players to only sell them on, we sign players to improve the team, do our homework on them and hope they will improve to a level greater than what we paid for them. Because that is all we can for a club our size, hope we find cheaper gems and that allow us to punch above our weight. But I am 100% sure that if we could have kept Lallana, Lovren, Clyne, Morgan, Wanyama etc. we would have done. But they wouldn't sign new contracts and clubs like Liverpool tapped them up and threw money at them. What Liverpool did with the releasing the details about Klopp swaying him and saying he only wanted to join Liverpool was to try and stop a bidding war so that they could get him cheaper.

Sign an actual goal scoring midfielder? Seems unlikely, cos we've been crying out for one for years.

Man seriously looks at these Liverpool fans. Owner being investigated is a complete nothing story and the sacking of the manager is hardly a problem because it's our choice to try and improve the performance of the team. Why would we need to 'divert attention' from it? That makes zero sense. WTF is this guy talking about, how do these muppets think they are experts on a football club they clearly know nothing about. Our entire business model is not built on being a selling club, our entire business model is built on trying to be the best football club we can within our means. We sell players because clubs like Liverpool tap up our players all the time and we end up with no choice because the players throw their toys out of the pram and are nearing the last year of our contract so don;t want to let them go for nothing or reduced prices.

I thought part of the reason he wanted out was Puel though, so Puel out, new manager in he might not be so desperate to get out the door. I'm sure I've seen interviews from him before where he basically said after his experience at Chelsea he'd prefer playing regularly and was wary of going to a big club again.

Glad to see we are standing up for once, clearly careful planning with the contracts has allowed us to be in a position where we won't be bullied. I do hope the club pursue with the complaint, I'm 100% sure Liverpool used the same tactics with Clyne, Lallana and Lovren but our hands were tied because of the contract situation. With their previous misdemeanors Liverpool should be due a harsh penalty, like a two year transfer ban.

Based on those comments on style it looks like Schmidt might be the first choice, though I get the impression we didn't get our first choice last year. We seem to be looking for Poch v.2 and by what I've read about Schmidt, particularly at Leverkusen he does that high press, probably a fun ride with him in charge as he pretty much plays 2-4-4 when they are pressing and his teams rarely sit in and consolidate possession. He's been criticised for not adapting his style so it'll be interesting to see if he's learned from that. Either would be quite exciting I reckon, certainly more well known to Puel and potentially play more extensive football, Touchel seems more adaptable formation wise but there are questions marks over his relationship with players/boards, so negatives with both of them.

Which would suggest the other pics there have been doctored cos they have the saints kit and specifically refer to it being removed at the same time. People sh*t stirring IMO. There are still no direct quotes from VVD anywhere. A lot been said about what he's said, where he wants to go etc. but all seems to rumour and conjecture.

It's unlikely to be Liverpool now, I'd also be surprised if was Spurs cos we don't like Levy as he's a c*nt, not sure they have any cash anyway looking at their stadium costs, and I'd find it odd if he wanted to go back to Chelsea plus Alonso looked pretty damn good for them last year. Which leaves City really , who seemingly are going for other targets.

Still think they should be investigated, an apology shouldn't excuse you from breaking the rules, 'sorry officer I sped' 'on you go son, no fine for you today'. Giving them a freaking transfer ban, it's hardly like this is the first time, they did this with Dempsey and they were found out tapping up youth kids from other clubs as well. Ban them, give the rest of a premier league a laugh and a stark warning this crap has to end. I hope at the very least it means they have a transfer ban from us.

LOL, that is hilarious.

Apparently Liverpool are buying Bertrand as well, and James Rodriguez for over £50 million and were spending over £30 million on Salah but this got rejected. So they seemingly are spending like £150 million plus according the papers.

Er what? People should be remember that Howe got Bournemouth promoted 3 times out of 3 different leagues, though he did seem to struggle a little bit at Burnley. Nope it isn't. http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/776353/Premier-League-wage-bill-2016-17-sportgalleries Wages bill for 16-17 for Burnley is £33 million, Bournemouth £34 million. Bournemouth spent £34 million last year, but recouped £22 million in sales so their net spend was £12 million. Burnley spent £38 million last year, recouped just £1 million, so their net spend £37 million. Though Bournemouth did spend more the year before, but then Burnley were in the championship so you can't compare. Over their two years in the prem, both clubs have a similar net spend and similar wage bill. Howe also kept Bournemouth in the league at their first attempt, Dyche got Burnley relegated. Howe did all this playing good attacking football, whereas Burnley are pretty negative and don't play that good football IMO. Not that Dyche hasn't done an excellent job, but Howe has done equally as good a job, if not better IMO. The biggest question marks over Dyche would be what he is like with a team that is expected to win games and what sort of football he'd play as most of the time his team is the underdog and plays a gritty stopping the opposition style, but what we actually need is a manager who knows how to win games when opponents do that to us. Style of play wise I'd be far comfortable with Howe who has done nothing but an excellent job IMO at Bournemouth, biggest question mark on him though is that he hasn't had success anywhere else outside Bournemouth, both as player and manager.

There was quite a lot of poor recruitment last year, Hojberg and Boufal were very mixed (they are young and first prem season so still plenty of hope for them), Redmond was good but no Mane and it seems we very clearly got the managerial recruitment wrong. We also lost several key players, Wanyama, Mane, Pelle and Fonte. But we still finished 8th even if the points total was pretty low, we were very far from trouble.

The article in the other thread made a good point, the likes of Lovren, Lallana, Clyne etc. were running down contracts, wanted to leave, wouldn't sign new ones and Liverpool stirred that up but ultimately put in good offers on those players, letting them run down their contracts with unhappy players was just throwing money away. Calling out Liverpool then for their stirring bullying tactics wouldn't have done much for the club. VVD is different, he has 5 years on his contract, his peak value will be no worse next year than it is now, could be even higher, same with the year after, it only really becomes a worry when there is 2 going into 1 year left and we minimum 3 years away from that. So zero need to sell or allow him to go now. Keeping him a year will cost us nothing but his wages, and I reckon he is more than professional enough that he'll just get on and play if we say no. Not one single attributable quote in the press has come from him. Liverpools bullying and tapping up has no leverage this time, the running down contract and potential loss of millions is not there, so they can go f*ck themselves frankly and it's probably why we've reported them. The club can deal with an unhappy player, I think out of all our recent sales VVD is probably the least likely to sulk or strike, his value will not diminish and we hold all the cards. Hence the report about pool this time not before, they bullied and tapped up because they knew a club like ours could not afford to have these players go for free. Well VVD aint going to go anywhere for free, he'll be 30 by the time his contract here ends so the only way he's getting out Southampton any time soon is with the club's blessing.