MarkSFC

It's because the thick amongst us are obsessed with having people with former connections to the club. Monk is not good enough. Never was good enough as a player for us and will not be a good enough manager to warrant appointment at a club that says it is aiming for Champions Champions. Says....but not really acting in that way at the moment.....but that a different argument!! Someone with passion, status and tactical nouse please....

This is true but in most business the best people will still change roles even if they stay in the company. Footballers cant get "promoted" or "take on a new challenge/role/project" without moving clubs.

Well that's the main reason you sell your best players, when they are coming off a very decent season and so you sell at maximum, or at least should do. When Kruger stated a few weeks ago that we have never been in a stronger position in terms of contract lengths he was telling the football world that if you want our players then you need to pay top dollar. We will always sell but over the next 3-5 years if we do not see that slow down to no more than one (top player) each season then the business model is not placing football results at the top of the objectives. The model we have had since Leibherr bought the club has allowed us to get to this point. On the pitch we have had a small set-back (but that was inevitable at some point) so this summer is going to be the most pivotal in recent times. I'd be disappointed if VVD goes this summer (especially if less than £70m, and to Liverpool at any cost really, as hes too good for them; which means he is better than us but we have him!) but I expect 4-5 departures as the squad needs some freshening up, particularly if we replace Puel too. In a club of our size and ambition we need our best players to be the spine of the team, GK, CBs, CMs, Striker(s), this is where we need our best players. If our best players are our full-backs and our wingers then we will not be a top 6 side. For this reason I would not be too concerned if Bertrand, Soares, Tadic, JRod and Long were all to leave. I should think we could get between £70-80m for that lot meaning we could sign a decent CB - Samedo seems the chosen one for c.£15m. - a DM for £15-20m, an AM for £15-20m, and a ST for c.£20m. That would be roughly an even net spend, plus wage differences, easily manageable. This is the art of football management, buying and selling to make the overall whole better. It is also hypocritical to criticise the club for selling, because if clubs did not sell then we could not buy - it is the world we live in. The generation that is currently in their 20s (our predominant age group) is an age group where moving jobs every 2-3 years is normal in every day life and why should footballers be much different? Of course, as emotional fans we want longer commitment but it works the other way, as we would never get some in the first place. Many will not like it but we all need to accept this way forward as it is the business model and will likely continue to be so even if we are bought by new owners - we might just see players of a slightly higher calibre but I'm not convinced by that, I think the investment from any potential new owner will be for ground infrastructure as much as the squad. Buy, sell, buy, sell, this is what football is all about, this is part of the excitement. If we don't sell we don't buy. Unfortunately we have to hope that those in charge can create a culture within the club where players stay for 3-4-5 years more often than just 2-3. Longer contracts should help with that so we will see this summer the reality.

If we get 50m cash plus Salvo and also sign Samedo I would suggest we would be stronger overall in defence than right now with about 35m profit. If however we spend 15m on Samedo and keep VVD for one more season we will be stronger still in CB area but effectively 50m worse on the balance sheet. Personally I would like the 2nd option with the expectation of 60m next summer for VVD. These are the decisions Reed is paid the big money for.....

Exactly this. We do ourßelves a disservice very often on here because of our emotional attachment. From a purely sporting logical point of view we are indeed a very attractive proposition for an ambitious coach. For a coach who manages rather than an older school type manager who coaches (Redknapp type for example) we have the ideal philosophy and set up. Develop, develop, develop. What I've read about Tuchel seems to suggest a great match. Here's hopìng!!

Good post. For SKD to say VVD has been a "great servant" is hilarious. He's been here 2 seasons and missed half of one!! I can accept players going when they enter the last 2 years of their contract, I think that's the point of fair compromise. If a player has longer left and wants to go then they are disrespecting the club. There is only one exception for me with VVD and that is IF Real Madrid or Barcelona cone calling. I think they are the only two clubs I could accept him going to this summer - for top top money though; 60+!! - because he is that good. Like Kruger or not but what he says regarding the strength we are in with contracts is true. The club now need to see it through!!!!

The fact that there is such a feeling of discontent with Puel, says it all; he needs to go. Football fans in the main are a fickle group and many of us will change opinion fairly quickly and many are totally reactive to the latest result. I like to think that as much as I get very passionate and emotional about this club I am capable of taking a logical viewpoint on most situations (my work necessitates it). For me there are five main aspects to the quality of a manager on which he should be judged: 1. Results. Did he achieve enough points in the league / finish high enough to maintain his job and satisfy the fans in the main and his employers. YES on this occasion. 2. Style of Play . Did he produce a team that excites the paying public primarily, the players enjoy it secondly, it fits with the club policy/vision thirdly, and lastly the wider footballing world recognise the team as one that plays a decent brand of football.NO on this occasion. 3. Player Recruitment. Did he sell and buy well. Avery subjective category but key to points 1 & 2. NO on this occasion. 4. Player Development / Progression.Has he developed first team players? Has he blooded younger players from the Academy. This is the aspect which separates a coach from a manager. YES on this occasion. 5. Game Strategy and Tactics. Did the team set up to attack when it needed to / should do. Were his substitutions effective / timely? Subjective but effects point 1 significantly. NO on this occasion. So based on my subjective list of measurables I have to conclude that he needs to go. It is not clear cut as he has made some difference to the club but those differences are both positive and negative. With my emotional instinctive head on, he lost me early in the season but I was willing to see how we did after exiting Europa. Sadly it just got worse except for 3 games in the EFL Cup. My concern is that should he stay that we will plunder further into negative "safety first" type of football and although I'm not worried about relegation we would certainly flirt with it, and then next summer be in an even worse place and less likely still to keep hold of many more players who will be a further 12 months nearer the end of their current contract.

We have a wonderfully skilful player on our books with Boufal. Supporters need to give this young player some time. We can never know the impact for someone of his age moving abroad - money does not make any difference sometimes - and the general consensus from pundits and ex players is about 6 months to settle but some will take longer and given his injury he deserves a full pre season and to be judged through next season. Like Redmond we have 2 very talented attacking players.If we could add Sigurdsen to those two behind Gabbiadini/Austin/New striker it could be very exciting!!!

clueless. He will become a very decent player over the next two seasons.

A hint?!! From what you know do you think a takeover is more or less than likely? And if so, good for the club??

Long needs to go, probably get around £10m in todays market. JRod should go for his own career I think which is a shame as I thought he was going to be excellent, but the injuries have meant we have moved on. Again £10m + is very likely given his age so £20m+ we will hopefully put towards one top striker, Ineachio (or however you spell it!!) would be great. Him, Gabbi, Austin, and Gallagher would be a decent group of strikers. Back them up with Redmond, Boufal, Sims and hopefully a replacement for Tadic (more speedy and powerful than skillful) and we would be equipped to score plenty more next season. As long as Puel goes or at least changes the style of play.

Good post. Plenty of other options either for short term gain or longer term planning. We need a tactician but one who is motivational and can engage with the fans as well as the players. When you're a club of our size you need a manager who can both squeeze every last drop of talent out of the squad but also attract players who perhaps could go to slightly better teams. This means that they must have an established reputation in the game either as a manager or as a player, but in all likelihood for us it will be the latter that we can get as if you have a big rep as a manager you will get bigger jobs. I think the decision that Les Reed must make in the next couple of weeks is THE biggest test of his credentials here since his appointment. The installation of Puel divided opinion right from the start but 9/10 months later the vast majority seem to be against him. After 6 years of total excitement climbing back up the league positions we were bound to have a set-back at some point. The higher you go the harder it becomes. At the start of the season I was hopeful and sort of expectant of a bit of transition season given Puels supposed skills in player development but although I think from this point of view he has done an ok job (JWP, Redmond, Stephens, Sims, McQueen have all benefited and improved) the way in which he has achieved this is the problem for me. We are not a club who is going to challenge the top 6 every single year although we should be challenging on a game by game basis, and so the important bit for fans is enjoying the football we play. There have been the odd moments of exquisite football but tonnes of drab side to side, back to the GK, possession without penetration football and this is not what Southampton fans need. Whoever the manager is who comes in to replace Puel needs to play a good style that will excite the fans....the majority would rather lose 4-3 than 1-0 of course but at no time this season have we looked like scoring more than 1 let alone 2!! FWIW my shortlist would be; David Wagner Jokankovic Howe Stamm G Neville We will see......

David Wagner?

How confident are you on both counts? I'm very confident Virgil will stay one more season from what I've heard. I just hope Puel is given a one way flight back to France this month!

By days, weeks or years??!!!!

Last summer we were in a very strong position to really kick on, and much like after the FA Cup in 2003 (albeit with different people) I think we have bottled it. We should of got a higher profile manager last summer, one that would help to attract the sort of players we needed then to possibly challenge for a top 6/7 place. Now we need to invest significantly more and with this manager I fear we have little chance of attracting as good a player we would have with Koeman. Overall I'm actually ok that Koeman has gone but no doubt his reputation in the game was a major plus for the club. No doubt there was a clash of egos last summer between RK and LR, and hence what happened. Puel appears to have little ego, and is more the yes man LR probably prefers. If Puel is relived of his duties I suspect we will go down a similar route with someone whose profile is sufficiently low enough that LR doesn't clash with him and can control him more. So the suggestion some have made with Monk and Beattie is not too far fetched but I find myself preferring we keep Puel over that scenario which says a lot. I would like us to go for a young manager who was a top player, who has a good reputation and can attract certain players as much as the club can. As a club we are not on our own a strong enough pull like the big clubs are and so the people in our club have to add to that.

Maybe the deal with Chelsea is to loan him back to us for one year......ie they get him signed now, but we keep him for one year, everyone happy.....and maybe we get Ake or Christenssen next summer?!!!

I am hopeful he will stay for one more year but when a bidding war starts it's very difficult for someone to ignore. Even if he had every intention to stay for one more year - and even if his GF wants to stay - it will be difficult. Winchester to Cobham is only 30 minutes more than Staplewood! IF he does go we need to make sure it is 60-70m for 3 main reasons. 1) he has 5 years on his contract. It needs to provide value for the club. 2) he is that good. Not the greatest ever but even though it's a WR for a defender it's not relevant because priced just go up and up. 3) because priced go up we need to get at least 2 decent players (wages included) for the fee. Hopefully we can secure Ruben Samedo before he goes if he does. As ever it's going to be another exciting summer!!!

Brendan Rodgers will never come to Saints, his massively over inflated ego would never let him. Thankfully.

Les Reed has structured the club based on succession planning (or so he leads us to believe) but now it is the time to get his successor in. Keeping a team/squad/club/department/office/business fresh and on top of their game requires regular but well managed human resource development, progression, leavers and recruitment. The only significant role in the first team set up at Saints that is potentially getting stagnant is Les Reeds. As the director he has created the vision, implemented, worked through a 5+ years cycle and now he needs to get his successor in to re-fresh the vision; new eyes, different mind, but evolution not revolution. Maybe when the seemingly imminent takeover will see that happen.

A good question. For the most part of the season he definitely did not but when he reverted to the 4-3-3 set up versus his diamond with only one sitting CM it "seems" to be a bit better but certainly not very good. I think generally his instinct is shape first, possession second, defend third, and attack fourth. But it is clear he has an eye for the skilful player (look at his background) and I think he deserves a bit more time. I get the impression he want more speed up front to play more counter attack football and Tadic probably does not really fit into that, but he is a decent player. I expect him to go and to be replaced by someone of Antonios ilk (best example I could think of , off the top of my head!), and also I expect Ausin, and JRod to leave and at least one decent forward incoming to play with and or push Gabbiadini. Can't think of an example! Without Europe he will have more "coaching time" so I expect a decent season, that being 7th-8th, and no less than 10th and hopefully a decent cup run again! The CBs he buys to replace VVD are as critical as the 2-3 forwards he buys!! Fun times as ever!!

Sadly I think you might be correct. Like you I expect(ed) one more season, he would still have 4 years left on the contract next summer, but it does seem like the vultures are circling. I accept that players have ambition and as a supporter of a medium sized club the players who come to us will always potentially have bigger clubs to look up at but it's a double edged sword for us fans. When VVD does move I just hope we get upwards of 60m for him and he goes to either Real Madrid or Barcelona as I think he is that good. I could stomach him going to Manure, City or Chelsea, but anyone else (except possibly Arsenal -despite their real lack of ambition for a big club) and it would amuck of a money move over career and he does not need to worry about that. We have to accept that when we find the rough diamonds and polish them up that we have to sell to survive. It what we must ensure is that our baseline standards remain intact, i.e. that we are an established top 10 side. Any lower is a poor season, top 6 is a good one. To be a 7-10 ranked side you do not need to have a world class CB like VVD, but we do need better than Maya and Stephens so we need to buy two really good CB to replace him!! There is the real concern, but then again we have spotted a few good ones over the years! It's going to be another annoying summer I feel.....

What the majority seen to miss is the amount of development of players that has occurred during this season. Stephens, McQueen, and Sims have become regular squad players with the first two getting quite a bit of game time albeit due to injury. Any team of our size that loses "the best "CB" in the league for half a season is going to be weakened. Add to that the top scorer out for a longer time and we have done ok. Others have improved over the season, JWP, Redmond, and exceptionally Romeu. I have not enjoyed some of the football played mostly around the end of last year but at times it be been very good. I think that the summer window will be a very good indicator of exactly what type of manager Puel is coupled with where the ambition lies with the new owners. I hope they back him significantly.

I would think that Caceres is better suited to handling Costa out of the three of the CBs but obviously its a tough first game! Maybe we match up and go 3-5-2? Would like to see Boufal and Gabbiadini up there together with JWP in the hole ----------------FF---------------- -------Yosh--Caceres--Jack----- Cedric---------------------Bertrand ----------Davis---Romeu-------- ---------------JWP--------------- ----------Boufal----Gabbi different but would be interesting!!

all quite interesting but what you really need to produce is one chart comparing to every other club for the following stats; 1.number of players who made debut for academy club 2.number of academy players who made a career in football (maybe minimum 100 career appearances) - this would be the really interesting one, especially if you went back to at least the start of the Premier league. 3.the total number of sales (from academy club) and the average per sale I looked at the other 3 you linked and it looks very favourable, but the trouble with comparing to generally bigger clubs is that it is harder for academy players to breakthrough hence why point 2 above would be the great stat to see compared against all other clubs!