Lallana's Left Peg

Lots of people keen to apportion 100% of the majority of the blame on any one party. But I think the truth is that the transfers, management of the team, and players themselves have all been sub-par this season and that is why we are suffering. We'll probably finish where we are right now, which would be quite bad considering where we were last summer - but I suppose that depends on your expectations. One thing is for sure, a 12th place finish doesn't convince anyone half decent to stay and that is a rubbish feeling.

I understand where you are coming from but I think that is a little harsh - two games in such a short period is dangerous from a fitness and injury perspective. The chances for injury go up a massive amount - I saw a graph a while back on how the potential for injury in footballers goes up a massive amount if they play twice a week let alone twice in two days. That said, it's the same for West Ham as well. As for the players losing focus, it's been like that for well over a month now so I doubt this comment will do much harm. I think the first thing we can do is ensure we pick 11 men who are focussed and committed and the rest will sort itself out. Last season Koeman's relaxed approach reaped great rewards in the first half of the season and then he only got angry when we had those 5 losses in a row. There was an upturn in form and the rest of the season somewhat tailed off. I read he's got a bit angry again so lets hope for a reaction though with nothing to play for this season and at least two of our squad having eyes on their summer moves then there will need to be some good man management to keep the squad motivated for the rest of the season. If you consider that many transfer targets are eliminated not on the grounds of talent but on the grounds of their character then this slump and the rumours of discontent in the squad are concerning because in theory cliques and individuals putting themselves ahead of the team shouldn't happen in this 'black box' era. However, Koeman and the board have my full support but I expect a much better performance off the field this summer to allow us to head into next season with some optimism.

Things will get better because they can't get much worse, but whether or not that means we get points from games is another matter.

Lots of clubs are struggling with players in the #10 role. What seems to work for many is a second striker. We have Mane who can play behind Pelle and I think that works well for us. I don't mind Mane behind Pelle and Davis on the right.

With you most of the way here other than 11th - 14th being considered anything like good for a club who have spent the money we have and one who finished 8th and 7th in previous seasons.

The players at that club have too much power, that is the problem as I see it.

The mistakes he makes at right back are nothing to do with being played out of position. Underhitting back passes? Trying to 'take on' Sterling and getting his feet mixed up? It's just absolute brainfarts on his part that always seem to cost us. He is a half decent backup option for a club of our size. But he isn't a good player.

Maybe, I don't know what other qualities Saints would deem are important which would impact the price. But I think that is what the team really needs at the moment and it would make a big difference. There aren't many other teams in the league who have so little pace or power as us.

Don't know any names but we need someone who can play in midfield (in any position) who can carry the ball past someone and open things up for other players. Someone with pace or someone who is powerful. Don't care who. Doesn't need to be good at much else either.

Infuriating at times but I can see how his strengths would be of great benefit to us.

To be fair we'd have one of the best homegrown teams in Premier League history if the big clubs hadn't wanted all the players. When we received big money for them it probably didn't make sense to then pay big money for other homegrown players if the club thought that more value existed outside the UK. It's hard to then just replace with youth products and it will be a dry few years compared to what we are used to because a) we're at a higher level than ever before, and b) the intakes that are coming through now are either players released from other Academies or players who joined us at 8/9/10 when we were on our decline and not recruiting as well.

Man City have invested a ridiculous amount of money into their Academy. Their youth teams are very good. None will be given a chance at the club which is a shame but it's no issue getting a thumping from a team that has players purchased for it.

I think release clauses in Spain have to be paid up front and I think we paid Juanmi's release clause (just over £5m) but someone more informed could confirm. I am not worried about Saints' cashflow at all here, but if we had £5m and £30k in the kitty for a player then there are other parts of the team that needed that investment - either another player or a better player than the one we signed.

I wouldn't sell Long but if someone could give us our money back for Juanmi I'd be delighted. Pelle and Rodriguez injured, Ramirez frozen out and Juanmi still can't get minutes. What purpose he was signed for is beyond me. £5m that could have sorely been used elsewhere.

In terms of the overall health of the club we're in the best spot we have been in my lifetime I agree. And I think next summer we can really make some signings of intent to push on (though some of that will be tempered by the fact many other clubs can too). This season hasn't been great though - in fact I think it has been poor - and I don't see why pointing that out is a bad thing. Bad decisions have been made in transfers and in important games and it has really cost us.

Better than this time last season?

Ah right - yep, I mentioned in another thread how we should have lots of scope this summer to increase our wage bill. There is the 80k a week that FFP allows us to anyway, plus no wages for Caulker, Stek and Ramirez as you mention. I think we should have a good 200k a week or so to play with if we want.

It won't be anything like that. We'll only have three players anyone will be interested in: Mane, Wanyama, and maybe VvD. VvD's contract means his value is protected and he will stay. Mane will leave (2 years left this summer) and I suspect Wanyama will as well. Can't see any interest in the rest of our players whatsoever. But we should invest in better players this summer if we can still attract them. There will be plenty of scope to do so. Who knows - maybe a net spend for the first time in two summers!

What sort of perspective are you looking for? The club was at an apex this summer having qualified for Europe off the back of a fantastic season. I don't think anyone was expecting us to get better but a fair few of us believed some standards were set and yet since then: 1. Lost two players we publicly said we wanted to keep at the club and another who 24hrs before he signed for Spurs we said we were confident of signing. 2. Invested in the squad in players of which we can only say one is right now up to the level / standard we set last season (VvD). 3. Bottled Europe which would have been a more than adequate sweetener for a so-so season in the league. 4. Bottled a cup quarter final It's been a poor season thus far, I don't know what perspective you are looking for. We've come a long way in a short time and it has been fantastic. It's been a great journey and whilst I didn't expect us to push on from that (I would say it would be impossible) I also didn't expect us to so quickly fall back to mid table obscurity and become irrelevant again. Big summer coming up.

With a team that cost half ours as well. Not sure why our £60m team needed to be 'on it' to contain a £30m Palace team. I'm not being arrogant, I'm just wondering how standards are so easily slipping. We should expect more.

Koeman made two big mistakes in our two biggest games this season (in Europe and in the Capital One Cup) but overall I think he is doing a decent job with the players he has at his disposal.

I don't think you read what I posted. I said a draw at Palace wouldn't have been anything to be proud about, not a win. Any point(s) away from home in the Premier League are valuable, I just don't like the idea that Southampton need all 11 players on par to achieve an away point at Crystal Palace. How the mighty have fallen in that case...

A draw at Palace would have hardly been anything to be proud about and it's numbing to think we'd need 11 players on par to achieve that.

Positive thinking does not make the team play better. The best clubs win because they have the best players. We sell our best players and replace them with players who may or may not turn out to be good. That is our very publicly stated business model. But guess what...when you buy a player in the market we operate in it is 50/50 whether they turn out to be any good or not because every transfer we make has a risk. Right now, thus far, the summer transfer business has been POOR. And our team has suffered as a result. That is all there is to it.

I don't believe so, unless transfer revenue is counted as commercial revenue, and I don't think it does. So basically if we sold a player earning £20k a week for £20m and his replacement cost £10m and has wages of £40k a week then that is 20k a week extra out of our wage budget we need to account for even though we have £10m in surplus cash spare.