Saint Benali

So you would be happy to be a really poor team for a longtime if it meant we won a cup? Personally I'd rather be a good team in the PL than win a cup. Winning a cup would be nice don't get me wrong but if you said to me would I be happy with swapping with any of those teams you mention for a cup day I would say no. Using Sheff Weds as an example I am pretty sure most of them would give up their 1991 win to be playing top flight football which they haven't done for almost 20 years now.

Seeing as no club from outside the top flight has won the fa cup since 79/80 Think it's pretty obvious we stand a better chance of winning something by actually being in the top league no? As Lighthouse is basically saying going down doesn't mean we will somehow win things. Even games in the championship. Of the 184 championship games we played last time we went down we won a grand total of 57 games. Oh the fun we had.

Stephens ****ing goal machine

jwp and boufal are getting done too easily, they need either lemina or romeu to help them

I 100% agree with you. Being mean for the sake of being mean isn't right. However Tom has been shown to be a WUM time and time again. Even by those who genuinely do give us information. If you ask him to give you something concrete or PM someone ie a mod about info prior to anything actually being in the media he won't do it. His 'info' is so vague and is said in a way that if it doesn't happen he can escape without needing to explain why. For example the vvd thing. He first said he was staying. We all knew he was staying. He said the atmosphere was toxic. Isn't that likely to be the case when someone hands in a transfer request? And my fav one of all " I have info about vvd but I will only release it if he moves today". Knowing full well that both the club and Liverpool had no intention of doing a deal on deadline day because both sides said they wouldn't weeks before. There are genuine itk people and when they give information they do so in a way where they are not caring about if you believe them or not. They give off something Tom doesn't, actual details. His info is designed purely to be able to say he was right no matter which side of the coin lands.

So are you saying what everyone says on the internet should be taken to be true? I suggest you go back and read his posts and then my response will make more sense to you.

I was in there too. But I was told I am not allowed to give any updates. But I was there. We were interested in some players this window, I cant give any updates as I was told to keep quiet. We were looking at some PL level players but we couldn't get them over the line. I am not allowed to give any updates but we are looking at signing a few players in the summer. I can't give you any names as I have been told to not share that information. But you can assure we will be bringing some players in. We have been told about possible new managers to take over at the club. But I am not allowed to say when that could be. But be assured we will have a new manager one day. Someone who has managed a club before. But I can't give you the names sadly. I can say however they are likely to be male. We were not looking to sell a defender in the summer and we stuck to our guns even though no bids came in. It was tough to reject no bids but we can be proud we stood up to those clubs who put in no bids and showed them we won't be pushed around. There was a bid that came in for a defender before this window opened and its been accepted. I can't give any details but I think they have already played for their new club, they cost quite a bit of money but I cant give any details I'm afraid. Going forwards I have heard that we might be playing a game of football soon, rumour has it this game will be 90 mins but I'm not allowed to give any details. The players will be wearing a shirt, possibly red and white but I'm not allowed to confirm that.

For sure but the point is we sold without having anybody lined up. When there is a release clause and it is met clubs have to pay that in full correct? Isn't that what happened with the Neymar transfer where PSG said they would pay yearly and Uefa said the rules are it has to be paid in full?

The real **** up here (if what Adam says is true) is that we let Liverpool pay us in installments for VVD. Les should have asked for the cash up front and asked for time to find a replacement as everyone else seems to do. But no, we don't even wait for the window to open before selling. Les can't wait to get his greedy hands on his commission. The fact we went in and met the release clause and asked to structure payments is pathetic.

This doesn't make sense to me. You are assuming we actually have any plans at all? We are only 6hrs or so until the window shuts. Old Les loves to talk about how we think ahead of the game and have the next people ie managers/players already to go. The issue for me is that we have not won in 15+ games. We have not won in the league since November. We have played awful football all season and have the exact same problems we have had for the two previous windows. Why the **** are we leaving it until the last few hours to get sorted? Just admit it Les and co have ****ed up for the 3rd window in a row. Les supposedly gets commission on player sales so no wonder those deals get done quickly.

Mass defending at home to Watford....How times have changed hey.

Welcome to the club! Hope you do well! But we could have Neymar up front and he still wouldn't score when you have 10 other people in your own half. We need attacking midfielders and have for a long long time now.

That makes no sense. Last season they played each other once when Hull drew at ours (0-0) This season they played twice Leicester 2-0 and Watford 2-1 How is that being taught a lesson exactly? Or does 1 goal difference make you either a genius or a fool?

Who has said we have been in constant decline? You guys are adding things that nobody has mentioned.... We had some great seasons recently and they helped us to become a stable mid table club. But as so many have mentioned now and you guys just don't seem to grasp it after koeman was basically forced to go results on previous seasons have fallen. Puel did light years better than MP is doing. But he did worse than Koeman. As they point out on sky we have got around 40 points from our last 44 games. That isn't a blip, not some little bad run. It's results over 2 seasons. There was no constant decline. But the past 2 seasons have been a decline and continue to be so. What worries me is people think if/after we go down it will somehow stop. A downward curve is extremely difficult to stop. Especially when you still have in charge the people who created it.

Cheers for the reply. Not sure why you went off on an anti-cortese rant as don't think I mentioned him at all? As you mention he has not been here for ages and we got those high finishes without him. So not sure what that point was. BUT By that logic that you are bashing him with isn't that quite hypocritical? Under his leadership we progressed every season. And went from league one to the pl in a few years. Isn't that part of the rise? Football wise he didn't get much wrong did he? Can only imagine what you and the other Reedelites would be saying if Cortese was here now and responsible for the mass player sales and DECLINE of the club in almost all areas. Which again you fail to understand what the word 'decline' actually means. Right now we are in the relegation zone, we have very poor players, we have an under-performing academy, a really poor manager, some of the most boring football ever seen here, the highest ticket prices we have had, an ice hockey coach as chairman, some of the worst coaching staff we have had (thankfully one of the worst has gone because of a bad back......) and a complete negative atmosphere surrounding the club. None of that has anything to do with Cortese but you keep bashing him mate whilst defending the one person who is responsible who has a tight iron grip on the club. His demanding of eating with the players is really working out! Add to that his questionable behaviour in regards to his family and agents, add to that the rumours of him profiting from player sales and new contracts. If Reed fails to take action soon and we go down everything that you give him credit for will be for nothing. The man will forever be known as the guy who took a top 6 team from the PL into the Championship in just a couple of seasons. Let's home he pulls his finger out and does something about it before that happens.

Sadly its a load of ******** though (and I actually tend to agree with CB Fry on a lot of things). A decline isn't something that happens in a short period of time. 2015 when we finished 6th was our peak season where we had 63 points. 2016 we finished 8th which isn't too bad. But it doesn't show some serious issues. We were 17 points down on the previous season. Had 6 less wins and 5 more defeats. Scored 18 fewer goals and let in 7 more goals. That is down in every area on the previous season. 2017-18 we again will be down in every area on the previous season bar some miracle. 24 months of falling performance is a decline regardless of what happened previously to the peak. To act as if it isn't is quite frankly stupid.

I really hope someone asks Les Greed that. And the one asking if it is true that he receives a % of transfer fees and new contracts.

If we go down they better all have relegation pay cut clauses or we could be in big trouble. What idiot would give that amount of money to fringe players....

Looks like they are messing up the 3rd transfer window in a row. As they said on sky selling vvd whilst having nobody lined up to come in is very poor decision making. What worries me is if we get stuffed by Spurs (likely) we will become desperate and throw stupid money at some mercenaries just to get bodies in. This is without a doubt our most important transfer window since being back in the PL and again Reed is ****ing about.

Have to ask him that. Didn't he say he had offers in his interview but wanted to stay in the banking business? I think a few of the Anti Cortese people seem to forget he only got into football because of his friend. With his record to think nobody would want him is laughable.

Oh really? So it fizzled out after the cup game? (26th of feb) 14th dec - stoke 0- saints 0 18th dec - Bompey 1- saints 3 28th dec - Saints 1 - spurs 4 31st dec - saints 1 - west brom 2 2nd jan - Everton 3 - saints 0 7th jan - Norwich 0 - saints 0 14th jan - Burnley 1 - saints 0 18th jan - Saints 1 - Norwich 0 22nd jan - Saints 3 - Leicester 0 28th jan - Saints 0 - Arsenal 5 31st jan - Swansea 2 - Saints 1 4th feb - Saints 1 - West ham 3 11th feb - Sunderland 0 - Saints 4 So that's 13 games - 4 wins, 2 draws and 7 defeats. If we take out cup games and just have PL matches that's 10 games, 3 wins, 1 draw and 6 defeats. Or 10 points from 30. You are saying that we basically stopped playing from the end of November which was 4 months into the season because we knew we were safe? Guess you don't have a clue pal.

But his results from 1st of jan 2017 to the end of the season were pretty bad too. 2 home wins, 7 home goals. 8 defeats, 23 points. In the same period (19 games) , MP has 3 home wins 13 home goals, 9 defeats and 19 points. The last half season of Puels reign was just as bad as the first half from MP. They were both awful. If Puel started this season with the same results as the end to the last I am pretty sure people wouldn't be as happy as they try and make out.

I watched it too and thought it was very good. Reed talked pretty good. But I don't agree with what he was saying about other clubs waste money and we would rather give kids a chance. We have wasted a lot of money on players just as every club has. We are not doing anything different then what other clubs are doing. His point about we bring a player through rather then spending a ton of money on an outside player is wrong too. Take young Sam out on loan at Birmingham for example. Rather than give him the chance Reed alludes to we brought in someone else. The same goes for Harrison Reed and others. Every club wants to bring through their own players but if the team isn't doing well every club will spend money and bring someone else in hoping to improve the squad. So for me regardless of who he is or where we as a club are at the moment what he was trying to say in theory sounds very great but it isn't true. And no doubt by the end of January we will have other players brought in who will push the kids who play in those positions even further away from the first team.

Exactly. Annoys me like hell when people say they don't care about the PL and that going down would somehow be fun. We know from past experience when you are on the slide it is very difficult to stop it. I am sure Forest, Ipswich, Wigan, Bradford etc fans will tell you how awesome it is. As a Saints fan I want the club to be doing well against the best teams in the country. Getting beat by Doncaster, Bristol City, Plymouth, Gillingham, Tranmere etc was so much fun. I hope we get more days like that....muppets.

If we are having to sell players for big money every season that isn't very sustainable. As they mentioned on Sky the other day doing that requires a near perfect recruitment every season. Once you stop finding the future vvds or manes that will have an impact on your finances long term. I don't think we have anyone who is worth £30m+ now.