david in sweden

I wonder just how those stats. were calculated?....and precisely what they took into account?. To say " it evens out " isn't the ideal response, and who's to say what was / wasn't a goal?.... not just any old former-pro who happens to be a TV "expert " to be sure. Exactly how an incident affects the final result is surely the key. Being denied a penalty if you're losing 0-1, might certainly change a game (as Wenger always claims) but ...having " a good goal " disallowed, might not affect the final result - as with our 4-0 win over Arsenal at SMS - when Shane Long scored twice, hit a post and had a goal disallowed for a previous foul, when some TV pundits I watched said it was a 50/50 tussle and no foul, and ref. (who was too far away to judge) - gave Long a yellow card instead. Vivid shots of a Chelsea defender tugging wildly at Virgil's shirt (at Stamford Bridge) whilst waiting for a corner....would surely have resulted in a penalty IF the ref. had seen it .... AND had the courage to award a penalty in the first place. However, it wouldn't have affected the final outcome as we finally won 3-1 . Until we get good camera coverage to assist officials with decisions (as many millions of TV viewers see)....the final result will remain at the whim of ...an unsighted referee.

Taking players "on loan" isn't a disgrace. It's a good way to strengthen your options and see if the player would be worth signing. There's some, I'm glad we didn't sign. Saints have "loaned" players like Jack Cork and Ryan Bertrand in the past....who later signed and DAJFU. Maarten Stekelenburg may even sign permanently (rumoured) Toby Alderweireld's loan season was beneficial for Saints - even though he didn't stay in the end, we got a good season out of him. Promising Dutch players may get the chance to try their luck in England, and it's not as if they'd feel lonely - with almost half the Saints team already speaking Dutch. There are some good youngsters on the books with Saints, and those who fancy some adventure in their lives might get valuable experience playing in another country. The whole idea (if indeed they choose Groningen), sounds great to me, but first ....I'd like to see Ronald Koeman signing a long term extension to his contract.

Can we be a top club? ...that's the sort of question that people asked when we were in the drop zone of L1 with -10 points. Better still ......please define " top"? Chelsea, Liverpool and Everton have more trophies / titles in their club history...but I had to look down the League table to find them. On the other hand ......Leicester were first in the Premier League.... Leicester?... .who are they? (everyone asked) Every season we look to expect " the big six " to dominate, but we beat all of them at one time or another, and Man Utd spent a fortune on players last season alone, yet had to go to the last League game to be able to finish above us ..... If Saints could hold the form they'd had since January ....they'd be up there fighting with Leicester for the title. Leicester, spent less than we did in transfers, play in a stadium (more or less ) a similar capacity to SMS..and had a lower wage bill than Saints.

OK then......but do you need more oxygen ?

Agree with all of that Vectis. My wording was a response to one or two others (on here) who (apparantly) seem to think we should have another CB from the Academy beating down the door and challenging for a first team spot.....nothing could be further from reality. The stats. I researched / published on #103 ..show that first team CB's who come through the Academy - are one of the rarest commodities you can expect to find.

Several years ago I saw a video clip ..interview with KK about his own career. After getting past the " buy the lamp in Germany " story.....and coming to Saints, he said that he (Keegan) travelled with the team to Ireland (pre-season) and they played a couple of nondescript games against low level Irish League opposition. He was concerned about the poor quality of our play and when he got back took Lawrie Mac aside (as he returned from his Florida holiday) and said ...... KK - those games were terrible ..you've got a real problem here .... LM...(replied spontaneously)........you're getting to be a problem...... KK ....that's alright ....I'll be gone by Thursday (and he was). Apparantly he had a clause in his contract that said he could walk away when he wanted to. He went onto Newcastle and made a name for himself there. KK said ..it was just a heated conversation on the spur of the moment.....it was all water under the bridge now and he and Lawrie were still on good speaking terms.

Have to admit .....all this discussion about CB's set me to thinking back and thumbing my copies of All the Saints / In that Number with some interesting memories. At the time Lawrie McMenemy took charge, local boy Paul Bennett was still in the pecking order and eventually finished his career in 1976 after 137 starts. By that time Jim Steele (200) and Mel Blyth (135) had been bought into the club and were the backbone of the defence in / after the 1976 Cup Final side. An outstanding CB of this era was Mark Wright who came (via Oxford Utd) made his debut aged 19 and then onto play for England whilst clocking up 222 Saints games. By the time Steele and Blyth had departed Lawrie had debuted a whole series of Youth products that included; Malcolm Waldron (217 games), Rueben Agboola (111) Manny Andruszewski (98), and less-remembered names such as; Mark Whitlock(65) John Gittens (44) and Mark Blake (24) and the almost unforgettable memory of ; Forbes Phillipson-Masters ....who made just 10 starts....but they all had chances and DAJFU. Even Jason Dodd and Francis Benali played in the middle on the odd occasions. Chris Nicholl (a former CB) never used local talent but instead brought in the likes of toughie Neil Ruddock (who brought back memories of 70's legend John McGrath) Those early Premiership days saw Ken Monkou (224 games) as main man, and the later signings of Dean Richards (78), Michael Svensson (86) and El Khalej (51) were eclipsed by the 400 + games of Claus Lundekvam, who partnered them all at one time or another in a Saints' career stretching over 10 seasons. Whilst the Academy began producing the likes of ;Wayne Bridge, Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale and Alex O-C ..it was still painfully devoid of good CB graduates. Those who were ...came and went. Martin Crainie made just 17 starts, and his Academy CB partner Matt Mills - even less (5) ....before he departed. Chris Baird (as mentioned before) had to wait for the mother-of-all injury crises ..before he got a regular start after 5 years with Saints, and his following performances were good enough to persuade Fulham to spend £3 million on him, at a time when we were really stretched for cash. The other lads around at the time had little or no chance of getting a look-in and moved onto pastures new. Garry Monk played just 10 games before ending up as a legend (and eventual manager) at Swansea, whilst teenage prospect Mike Williamson never got even one start with Saints, but ended up in Newcastle Prem. side in better days. Our present crop of potential ex-Academy CB's reads; Jack Stephens, Jordan Turnbull, and even Jason McCarthy (lately loan RB with Wycombe) started as a good CB. The have had game time elsewhere but it's difficult to see where they fit in to a back line of Fonte and Van Dijk, especially with Yoshida and Gardos also on the books. One way or another they will need to make a good impression with Ronald Koeman, as the injury-struck U21 side saw two excellent prospects in Ollie Cook and Alfie Jones step up from the U18's this (last) season and DAJFU that surprised everyone. Whilst we can expect other Academy lads to step up.... if the call comes, the CB's I fear .... will need to wait ....quite a bit longer.

Agree totally, but in hindsight... Cranie never quite made the grade, although things might have been different had he stayed a bit longer. An impatient 22/23 year old still needs time, but if he ends up playing Championship / L1 level.... we'd never know. It took 5-6 seasons for Chris Baird to get his chance, and in the end we sold him when desperate for cash. Yet he was still in the line-up for N.I. along with Davis (last night). Matt Mills moved on but never quite established himself in the top tier....although one or two others have made a career at lower levels.

In Scotland (yes).......but why is it that Liverpool seem to think Saints are their feeder club?

oh yes thats pretty obvious, but it's down to their managers who had buy expensive foreign assets and ignored their own talent. Having said that ..if they had kept the likes of Sturridge, Lukaku ....and even Bertrand, they might have finished a lot higher than they did. pretty sure that neither Romeu or Cork would have made their squads, but they both D / DAJFU...in the same League. Still I think it's a shame that youngsters go through the Chelsea youth system without realising they have very little chance of making the first team squad. there are several other Prem. clubs (apart from Saints) who give their youngsters a chance - even if they don't all " gell " into the first team squad.

you maybe correct, (?)....I'll not argue the point but if weren't for the idea of loans, a great many young players would disappear fromm the system after they were 21.

I watched his interview on Swedish TV. ....His response was a no-brainer.. .I just hope he enjoys the rain in Manchester.....

......with "The Special One " taking over at MU....Zlatan only has one target. Their egos will get along very well together.

there are quite a few " football phrases " that I don't like ...." journeyman" is one. Some people might have put Rickie Lambert, or even Shane Long in that one. But the idea of also having somewhere for our U21 players to get game time is surely a good one. Peterborough had a host of Man Utd. youth players on loan there whilst Darren Ferguson's Dad was in charge at Old Trafford. Mittjylland had a number of Chelsea players in their set-up last season, and also had more than 30 others out on loan to various other clubs. They'll probably have first refusal on any up-and-coming local talent from those clubs, so the basic principle is a good one. So if it's all down to semantics....look for something more p.c. ....like " partners, or associates " .......a rose any any other name .......

Ah! now be careful.....they'll all come back and criticise you ....if he only scores 19 ....

all of the Swedish players of that era were v.g / outstanding in the Swedish national team when they had a good side. Suddenly coming to a team struggling at the wrong end of the Prem. and a series of fast-moving managers playing musical chairs at SMS didn't help at all. Michael Svensson was truly excellent at CB and put his body on the line many times (a latter day Jim Steele), but almost all of the others were strangers to the set-up and nearly all were played out of their best positions. RB Alexander Östlund won a few fans at SMS, but he was a real force to be reckoned with in his best days in Sweden. Drafting in half the Swedish national side wasn't the right answer, when you consider the other half were already struggling to keep their heads above water.....

...there are people on here who will loudly decry the OP, and highlight Les' past misfortunes, but after 7 years with Saints, he has surely proven his worth to us by now ? It's easy to open up old wounds, but aside from the obvious ...is there a disgrace in failing to motivate players ...at Charlton?....it's not as if they were Chelsea or Man U. Looking back, I think that Les was a relatively unseen, behind-the-scenes character who walked a minefield during Cortese's rule yet came out relatively unscathed. In general, most of the recent deals he has managed/negotiated worked out well when you consider that the worst of them (Ramirez, Osvaldo) came on Cortese's watch and the subsequent financial damage for those can hardly be laid at the door of the current Board. His management of transfer deals seem to have come good, but his next signing (an extended contract for Ronald Koeman) will surely prove if he's worth his salt. The idea of a knighthood (realistic or not) is beyond our powers of decision-making, but the man is certainly worth the honour of the Freedom of the City. Well done Les.

Although I wouldn't disagree with that totally...but a lot more came to light after his return to Sweden. Saw a number of interviews on SVT with him and he knew how to talk football. Always asked about his time at Saints, he came up with a number of interesting stories. Signed by Stuart Gray, but then he didn't get so much playing time after Strachan came. Strachan told him (and Fabrice Fernandes ) that they were " too much alike " as players and that he (Strachan) would only select one of then at a time. Anders' "best role " was playing as an attacking MF behind the front two, but in his time he was used wide on the wings, and later Strachan tried him as a defensive MF, and then criticised him for " not getting in the game ". How could I , he commented ..when they played lots of long balls upfield and way over our heads ! His critical comments about Harry Redknapp were outstanding. He (Redknapp) knew nothing about football, he said ..and his dressing room talks were only ....go out there and play then..... Returning to Sweden, Anders went back to Elfsborg and played on for another 10 years (retired last summer aged 39) and clocked up around 150 games for Sweden. Never saw the best of his potential, but a good look at him in with You Tube clip when Saints beat Spurs twice in a week and see Anders' solo run / goal in a 4-0 Cup win. NOTE: also take a look at what we missed of Anders' performances with You Tube clip......Anders Svensson no taco no party

I might even go back 35 years ago ...and say ..Kevin Keegan. YES alright ....I know he did great things whilst he was with Saints, but the manner of his departure was very disappointing.

you don't mean Winchester City ?....Eastleigh?....or Waterlooville?...or was it Farnborough?

...think that question was covered in the Les Reed interview, it was statement made some years ago , but now he said that in our present position ( 6th.) meant that nearly everyone in the side is an international, and competition for places is much harder. Good to recall that when Walcott, Bale and Oxlade Chamberlain were to names in the headlines, we were still a Championship side, and Luke Shaw was with us one season (we finished 14th)....before moving on to MU, but tbf.....Adkins choosing him ahead of Fox was a no-brainer for every fan at the time. JWP and Targett has shown that they can come in and DAJFU, but neither of them is better than the regular first choice. It'll be even harder to break into a future squads. The idea of getting good " loan-outs " for the up-and-coming talents is now more important and we learned a lesson last season from a poor choice of loan clubs .

if you mean "just Saints" then maybe that's correct, but if you mean the Prem. (in general)....surely Vincent Kompany also has a few more than that?

Les spoke about our ongoing improvement every year..but it's interesting to compare other clubs during the last 4 years since we came back up...... 2012/13 ................2015/16 Man.Utd 1....................... 5 Man.City 2........................4 Chelsea 3.......................10 Arsenal 4........................2 Totten'm 5........................3 Everton 6.......................11 Liverpool 7........................8 W. Brom. 8......................14 no-one can deny that some of those clubs have spent a fortune and a half in the last 4 years, but few of them seem to have benefited as much as Saints. Yes ..and almost all of them (except Arsenal) have had several managerial changes in that time, and more than a few players in and out. Didn't we do well...

they used to be a club with money....once. I read somewhere? that they broke even last year...by exactly the amount of Van Dijk's fee......

I know what you mean, but I don't think either Dixon or Speedie came anywhere near replacing Al....... they both left in short order with barely a dozen games each played.... If Osvaldo was a waste of money?...then they certainly were on 1992 prices......