MarkSFC

I've listened to all three interviews. Very clearly they have strategy and plan. Why do people like you just make things up?!! As for 'possible contradictions'...they either are or aren't. There were none. I suspect you are merely trying hard to discount this positive approach to help your negativity and personal attitude. I feel sad for people like you. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's certainly 10 steps backwards....I just hope we can take 11-12 forward!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm not convinced that Chambers is going to turn into a 25m player but happy to be proved wrong. Him going is a surprise and I wonder whether McCarthy has shown huge promise in pre-season and so when Arsenal enquirer it was a difficult decision but one that could be made in the knowledge that at RB we are strong - Clyne first choice, plus Maya can cover as could cork if desperate, plus McCarthy. With such a good academy system there will be times or positions that end up with a bit of a blockage. I think this maybe what has happened here.

http://twitter.com/Koeman1963/status/493689458458644480/photo/1 I think he has a sense of humour!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As you work in the corporate world it's safe to assume that you have objectives, targets, and possibly financial budgets to work to, be accountable for and as such will have timeframes and therefore deadlines to work in and against. If your boss or shareholders (depending on your actual level, judged you against these measurement 5 weeks before the deadline you were working to and planned against would you think that is fair? That is what you are doing to the club and the board. Be fair in your judgement. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Absolutely. See my other recent posts.

So far......it's not shut yet. As much as I can understand all the pessimism and doom and gloom I just have a sneaky feeling that this painful process is a revolution of the squad. We can debate the why's and the wherefore's of each sale and the overall effect but it's a waste of time now. The club has a strategy and whatever that looks like now we have to give them time to work it through. In a months time (if not a lot sooner) it will be clear what the strategy and ambition is. Ronald Koeman is not a cheap option ( I suspect, we won't actually know) and he is certainly high profile. A club (business) intent on scaling down does not hire high calibre ambitious people. If the ambition of the club is to just survive then we all know that's a dangerous game to play. And if this is the case then RK will be off. When you watch his interviews he looks genuinely happy to be here and very calm about player matters. Whatever the reason(s) Cortese has gone. Some loved him, others mistrusted him, others merely tolerated his leadership because of the success. What we are not aware if is exactly how much impact influence and input Les Reed actually had on Football policy as opposed to business policy. The fact remains he has been here throughout, remains here and from my standpoint strikes me as a man who knows exactly what needs to happen how to do it and then does it. He deserves a bit of trust. Time will determine the reality. Transforming a squad by selling popular and some of the best seems folly. Sometimes a business needs to sell at the peak of the market and then re-invest in order to expand. Football of course is not a simple business for fans because of the emotion involved. As long as the club and business is stronger or at least as strong this season does it REALLY matter who plays on the park??!! If as many think in here the club is in fire sale mode or more accurately asset stripping mode then people like Reed would be risking professional reputation by staying. Our club has evolved over 5 years and it happened quicker than the plan and this has created the situation we have found ourselves in ( and by quirk of fate has coincided with a World Cup year). If we had been slower by a year as expected things might be different, but they are not. This club certainly has ambition but I am sure that reality and pragmatism runs deep. The balance of creating players(product), getting results (market share) and generating revenue ( income ) is tough in any industry. Chuck in emotional fans (customers), in an age of instant communication and where rumour is easily spread (and equally believed) and leadership is a tricky skill. When this window does shut it could be the best ever. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You don't play them all. Fool. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Or maybe Cork. Morgan, Clasie, JWP, Victor, Reed, Davis. Pretty awesome. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I 'hope' and think that he has a number one CB target. If/when Lovren goes we look at another and Vlaar high in that list. We will see!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I doubt this is true. I saw his interview on SSN and either the way the question was asked or just how he answered it sounded like that but I think RK was merely focussing on Lovren. You'd like to think that given his playing position he would realise that Hooiveld is certainly not good enough now and that Fonte and Maya are just good 3rd/4th choices. Mind you, Pochettino played the same position!!! A first choice Dutch CB pairing seems likely. Any two of DeVrij, Vlaar, Van Dirk, Kongolo?? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The purpose of a sport and a structures competition SHOULD be about performance levels, improvement and determining a pecking order based on who won more. Science, training, coaching, psychology, nutrition etc etc are the factors that should be most important. This list of determining factors in many sports but specifically football and at the top, The Premier League and the Champions League is money. This determines everything, and the irony is that the control of this money in terms of quantity and distribution comes from an industry which is not even a sporting one; they merely use sport ( as so many organisations do) to make their own money and to promote their own brand. What makes the PL so strong is not the sport, the competitiveness, it's the sycophantic gullibility of the masses, that without the huge tv deals and coverage, the sport isn't as good. I don't have the research available but I don't that the correlation between skill level and salary places football very high across all sports ( although this maybe hard to accurately determine, due to the widely high income) but the point is that are footballers paid too little, about right, or too much for the amount of work rate they put in and the skill level they achieve in comparison to other sports. And this is where it's all gone wrong for football and sport. Yes footballers work hard, for a couple of hours a day, but how many at the top are still passionate about the sport, about improving, about winning something. Seeing a Southampton or a Swansea or a Newcastle or even a Portsmouth win the PL would be far far more pleasing than any of obvious group. Whilst finance dictates this outcome exponentially then football is a dying sport and a growth tv show. Saints, and Saints fans, to answer more directly the OPs question, and as others have stated, need to accept that we are a club that is currently at least, on the right side of the line and the true essence of sport is string in our club. This means that within the money-ridden tv show that they play their sport they will almost certainly always struggle to get top four let alone win the PL. I'm old enough to remember the late seventies and early eighties when the playing field was more even and when the dream was possible. Look at us, albeit no silverware, we were a top team for a few years, Derby, Forest, Villa, Norwich, and finally Blackburn. Clubs of a very similar size who with good management and decent coaches realised the dream. Ok Blackburn had a financial advantage more so than any other but even if they had an owner (or us) who had billions, would we get the players. Sadly not, as the PR of the PL has convinced the masses that if a player is any good he must go to a certain group of clubs. Not because they will get better coaching, better facilities. No, if the best players all migrate to a small select group that happen to be in the largest conurbations of the country (and Europe) then the TV show will get more viewers more often and get more website hits and therefore sell more advertising and subscriptions which will then determine the size of the next tv deal and the perpetual cycle continues.as a breed, our thirst for information, technological contact with the world has exploded beyond belief and out of control. This forum of course is one tiny example. But this need for info, to know every little detail of everything going on with those who we care most about is fuelling this money-driven tv product called football. Yes it's worth being mildly successful for Saints because the reality is the business needs money to function. How it functions and what it's philosophy regarding sport in its truest sense is what will ultimately determine my level of involvement on a practical level , although obviously the emotional attachment is their for life, and currently we should be proud of our club and pray it does carry on doing what it is, even if the environment forces and dupes individuals to move elsewhere. Currently we are very successful at what sport for me is about - making people better. When the money disappears, who will win out? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's brilliant how people say we've sold half the team or 6-7, when we have only sold three and state that we have only bought 2 when we have. FFS give the club time they need, this is not their doing. Maybe they could of handled the PR a little better but what matters is the end result. For those of us who remember pre internet times, the lack of rumour and counter rumour was far more relaxing. Mind you the window was longer of course! Believe what actually happens not what people who have no allegiance to SFC whatsoever and only have their income as their motive.

Maybe Kongolo and/or DeVrij is what Guan meant by sensitive transfers? Either would be great, both would be very exciting...

I do not have my head in the sand, nor is it in the clouds. I can see clearly. The reality is that we have sold three players - one who is a club legend in his time here to his boyhood team. If it was the other way round would we care. No. One is arguably the most highly rated teenager in Europe and has been sold to the biggest club for a huge fee and record fee. Some players will inevitably get too big for us. Saurez got too good for Liverpool. The other one is the one that leaves a small foul taste in the mouth. Some will argue that he too became too good for us. I think not but his intent to leave albeit understandable from a career perspective, the way he acted was wrong. We as the club maximised the value of his sale. For what it's worth I suspect he will be in and out of the Liverpool team and looking back in a few years it will be clear that he had reached his peak, and by not playing regularly I doubt he will maintain his level for long. The club has stated they don't want to sell anymore. As much as I believe they believe that the reality is that one or two offers may be too good to turn down. That does not make us a selling club it makes us far more of a sound business making good decisions when needed. We hold the power position regarding our players. If as some suspect we sell more and fail to replace then I will join the camp of moaners. I am though prepared not to panic and share my insecurity publically and wait until firstly the 3rd August (as a date to judge suggested by Guan), then at the first game and finally full judgement at the end of the transfer window. Les Reed comes across as someone who has a plan and knows what he is doing but publically he and the club could be more vocal sometimes. It is however funny how some posters on here are happy to take the word of anonymous faceless journalists/twitter feeds over the word of an employee of the club they support. Illogical, but sums up the level of intelligence of some. Like others I hope to hear good news soon, but am prepared to be patient as these things are clearly not always simple when going for better and better players. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

well its the only football club he is following...other than Saints......suspicious!!

I think Ings would be good but we could do better. I would expect us to but another striker who is in his early 20s and probably knocking on the door of a top 20 ish National team/squad. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I know this may be hard to understand for some but there is a difference between selling some players and being a selling club. Arguably and arbitrary difference but having a business model that relies on selling is the definition of a 'selling club' whereas selling players at opportune moments for the betterment of all concerned but obviously mainly the club which without do not impact on budgets or operations negatively is the action of a healthy 'non-selling' club. We are far nearer if not wholly in the latter camp. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe, and I'm going out on a limb here...maybe it suits Boruc to stay here even if he isn't automatic first choice. He's just got married, he'll soon be 35, and let's face it this is a good place to live compared to many areas. He might even want the challenge of another arguably better keeper. And by leaving given his age he's unlikely to get first team guarantees in most premier league teams by moving. But hey, let's just look at it one dimensionally. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Excellent news on both counts. Cheers! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cheers. Anyone else to be signed/announced this weekend?? A LB for example?!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

re: Morgan..."he is a Southampton player..he will be a Southampton player". Great.

Assuming we play with a 'front four' I can see the need for two more strikers and a wide ish right sided player. Then we have this set; Tadic JRod Gallagher Ramirez New Striker - Ings? New Striker - Pelle? Right side - Redmond? That's a good group. Osvaldo to go of course. Mayuka may be better now and can add some pace but we will see. Two is the min requirement though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Potentially Ramirez is our best player and I really hope he stays and RK can get him going, this is his talent apparently. Ramirez is still young so can still make big improvement. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Swap Morgan for Lamela! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk