alpine_saint

Good post. How fast our fans forget. He wanted to continue with MLs roadmap, KL didnt. Simples.

If you were Mr. Gao and daughter, who would you entrust more to turn this around (but perhaps with some cost) ? Krueger and Reed, or Cortese ? I know which I'd go for.

Spot on. Once KL got the tick-in-the-box of a PL return, she was focused on her exit strategy and protecting her asset, which NCs strategy was not compatible with. Fair enough, but lets not demonise NC.

I guess we wont be seeing him or the Southampton Renaissance any time soon then.........

Hillarious. Fans put up with behaviour like this from their player idols every day of the week. I bet you dont hear many Everton fans slagging Rooney off at the moment. Drink-driving prosecutions of our players on here are met with nudge-nudge, wink-wink, "whos a naughty boy" type comments. I doubt you would be laughing if they mowed down your wife and toddler crossing a zebra while DUI. He delivered an on-pitch performance. Period. Make your mind up whats important, that or the morality.

So, lets get things straight here... Markus Liebherr bought SFC. Not Katharina. He put Cortese in place, and they had a shared vision to bring greatness to this club. We all know what tragically happened to Markus. His daughter took over, and in tribute to her Dad, and because Germans tend to be more committed and willing to stick at things, she stuck to the plan, after a fashion. The goal to return to the PL was delivered. But that was a tick-in-the-box for her, in my opinion; at that point I think she felt that she had followed her Dad's dream enough, and not having a particular affintiy with football or Southampton, she planned her exit and decided that she wasnt going to support the longer-term vision, which NC was pursuing still. That's fine, but I am sick of reading NC being portrayed as a monster. He was brilliant for this club, only now its lost all the momentum he provided. I read once he put a faxed bid for a player from LIVERPOOL in the bin without reading it, considering it a disgrace they hadnt approached the club properly. Do you lot really think we would be stuck clueless with Carlos Kickaballs as manager and would have sold off all our decent players following assorted degrees of tapping-up if he were still here ?? Reed and Krueger have read their own damned press and hype far too much over the "Southampton Way", "black box" and "academy" b*ll*cks; the club is, as shown last night, starting to fail at EVERY level.

We are a club in freefall. There is no other way to dress it up. For whatever reason, the board have taken their eyes off the ball. I stll think pimping our best players out 3 summers in a row combined with giving very long contracts that do little to motivate high performance, has killed us. I also do not think we have the right personalities and experience in the right positions any more.

Wonder where we would be if he hadnt left. I find the comment about "spending other peoples money" f**king ridiculous. What are Reed and Krueger doing ??? They've wasted more money on Boufal than NC did on The Gash.

The real "sowing" was selling Mane and Pelle and not replacing adequately.

Very good question. Time for Les to go.

I have a bad feeling about this one. It reminds me of when we lost to Norwich early in the PL season, despite the fact they had lost every game up until then. I remember that **** Wrigleys banal comments about letting them back in with a shout. I hope the result doesnt end up the same. If Mope loses to De Boer, I think him and Reed should go.

Come on, lets be honest and not mess with words - the whole midfield except Romeu needs replacing.

A good point made here. Maybe the long contract strategy has shot us in the foot.

Two of those goals were penalties. Did you really think so ?

Cheap, available and willing to do Reeds bidding. Thats all you need.

How has this team been allowed to develop so many faults ? We need a new GK and almost an entire new midfield. And a manager who knows what to do with them

And as said earlier, Tadic is a flat-track bully.

As long as we keep getting in available (cheap) managers who havent got a fecking clue about the English game, this will keep happening. We also dont have the right balance in the squad. No teeth whatsoever. Badly missing someone in AM / holding role to make things happen. It aint rocket science. I really dont know what the hell Reed is on. I can only guess complacency has got the better of him or hes got too long in the tooth. Time for him to move on.

Totally insipid as usual

He still has to win his place back by showing his drive and fitness. What message does it send to Stephens otherwise ? He hasnt done much wrong.

Too soon

This is not going to go away though. The LFC fan sites are now busy predicting they will sell him in January. Their entire argument appears to be that illegally turning players heads has a shelf-life.

Really pleased for him and his family that they are getting their lives back to together. I understand the sentiment behind the OP, but this was a feak accident. If a player is playing sh*te for us in this day-and-age its much more likely he's in a paddy over his contract, pay, or not being allowed to move on, than because something like this has happened...

Got to love Matty giving the deluded bin-dippers what-for on Twitter

I said in the mid-term, FFS. Those contracts are already signed. Agents will soon clue-up.