Saint86

Fixed it for you

Saying stuff like this and it makes you seem a total imbecile.... No doubt you were one of the ones moaning that he was a total waste of space on a certain thread on here. That guy was lethal and he isn't liverpool's record signing for no reason... Do you not remember some of his goals? Let alone the curling chip from the byline vs arsenal.

Thats a really poor outlook to be honest Vectis. We are moving into the generation of players that came through when cuts were being made to the youth team. Cortese's management of the club signed players like Stephens and Gallagher and identified the weakness. He also drove the clubs policy and ethos and set it up so that we have quality coming through behind that black hole in quality.... Look at players like Sims, Statterly etc. If they singed 7,8,9 years ago they will have benefited massively from the coaching and set up of the youth teams since we have been in League 1. The block of kids before that were having their formative training when we were in dire straights lets not kid ourselves. Our under 23's/21's are on fire this season, they won the u21 cup previously and a lot of that generation are technically u18's. Its no mean feet considering we compete with Manchester City style campuses. And you obviously haven't read the article if you assume it only refers to the academy - although if it is deceased we should knock down the ML Pavilion?!?! No need for it anymore I assume? But not only that, the whole set up of doing due diligence and having a plan stems from cortese's influence on the club and the foundations he laid. It is madness to ignore the influence he had on the club and dangerous to believe the PR crap that it all comes from Les Reed alone. It all went hand in hand.

In fairness we had Clyne on the books for 10k a week - that is basically criminal and a long way below the minimum wage of most england internationals....

Yay! Played well second half, stepped it up a notch. And good to see the manager making meaningful substitutions to change the game. I think Puel has the tactical ability to do well and hopefully that will become clearer and clearer over the next couple of weeks.

same. I've got the bundle and will be traveling down from Bris for all of them if I can. Its a marked difference from JPT on a tuesday night and what was the point of all the nights since that one if our fanbase can't even turn out to enjoy one of the rewarding high points. Would be very disappointing for it not to be a sell out. It would also justify everyone who writes saints off as a provincial minnow; for any club worth its salt the european nights are what it is all about.

Popular successful manager falls out with chairman and leaves club for better things. England Rugby team manager consulted. poor investment in playing staff in favour of "relying on the kids" - Saints relegated and some of the darkest days in our history followed.

If we don't sell out it will be a very poor effort and a lot of saints fans should look long and hard at themselves. This is the biggest stage saints have played on in many a long year. Group stages of a european competition. When was the last time that happened

I think you mean we have sold better players than we've got in Roger. Lallana, Mane, Wanyama, Toby, Lovren, Shaw, Clyne, Pelle, Morgan etc would all improve our team. Tottenham came 3rd last year, almost one the league and tried to end the summer with Toby, Morgan and Wanyama as their spine. We did well, but we sold our souls for money and got lucky with Koeman. The End. Reed has been found out this year and deserves wholesomely all the flack he gets.

Blame Les Reed and the international break.

Stability went out the door with Cortese. I think its a sign of the prior decades that people are blinkered enough to call whats happened since Cortese left "stability" And entire first team sold, removal of two managers and their entire coaching staff as well as a complete change of club formation, tactics and style between the last 3 managers. It has been a mess. We were lucky we got Koeman in as he performed far above expectations. Sadly he also crossed Les Reed and was ambitious for the club.

Puel will come good if the fans give him and the players time. Led Reed on the other hand has a lot to answer for this summer. He's been very quick to take all the credit for our rise and past successes where frankly he deserves little pre koeman. But now he is in the firing line. The team is weaker, we aren't playing kids, and he has hired a manager who goes against his "4-3-3" throughout all age groups. The club looks disjointed atm, departments aren't performing and it stems from Reed's need to be the centres of attention, in charge of everything and taking all the credit. Koeman was too strong willed and let jumped at the chance to get paid to lose him.... Now he must live with the consequences because this summers frankly appalling window is all on led reed.

A day job does tend to put you at a disadvantage

I reckon we'll continue to have the highest average number of shots in the league, higher possession that Arsenal.... and get smashed. But don't worry, people on here will remind us that passing the ball back and forth between the centerbacks and shooting from 30yards (rather than from inside the box) is the way to beat people.

5 of the top 10 are either playing for or have played for saints.

We offered him 25k to stay.... care to guess what Liverpool did?

Almost every player/manager that has left in recent years has had a/several negative PR pieces slipped out just before the move. Yet every time it is the players' fault/attitude/greed etc. No smoke without fire etc. You don't need to analyse ITK leaks on this forum to figure that out. We pay them feck all and they want to leave - i.e. 10k Nat Clyne.... Such is life... and fortunately/meanwhile saints march onwards.

I assume anything that gets leaked by the club is a PR plant

Yeah, but he fell out with Les and then gave him the perfect chance to get rid.... Fatal.

I think you rest my case for me then

Where do we sit on shots inside the box, shot percentage on target and crosses completed, or average number of players in the 18yard box when we attack / cross? You can quote stats all you want but you have been very selective, the right stats show how poor and ineffective we are.

Everton have a better manager.

Stunned that anyone would put our summer in the "good" bracket - or give it 4/5. At best we get an OK rating. What we've really done is shread the cohesion of the management and playing staff and sold 3 good players (1 utter world class) whilst making a bit of profit; tearing up the club ethos of 4-3-3 and youth development still further at the same time. We've signed bright young players, hopefully it comes good in the end. But its real waste to have done this to ourselves again (all for a bit of dosh) when we were the 2nd best team of 2016 and just missed champions league last season. Some fans have blinkers on.

I've been an optimist for years, predicted promotion from league 1, predicted promotion from championship.... expected us to be a recognised top 8 team within a few years of being promoted, and I told anyone who would listen that lambert and lallana would play for england before we even got to the prem.... so yes, whilst I was probably a very cocky and annoying person at that time, I'm also a "realist" as you have termed us. The simple fact is that on the back of our best season since LM, where we also got CL, were the second best form team in 2016, have banked years of record revenues and profits.... we have once again torn the whole team and management up and started again. Not only that, but the players we've sold and purchased make us immediately weaker. No other team does this, and there was no basis or excuse for it this summer. So its been a poor transfer window. Don't get me wrong, I think Redmond, Boufal and PEH are class players. But Fonte is older and isn't happy (his performances have been appalling by his standards), Mane was able to beat teams single handedly and did frequently (redmond and boufal cant), no one in the team comes close to the CDM stopping machine that wanyama was. PEH and Romeu may be technically better.... but so much worse defensively. And our strikeforce is simply worse. We have 1 goal Austin as our Pelle replacement. Its not what we've sold, its the fact that we've made another profit but weakened the team, weakened the quality of football and the results we'll get and shown once again to the paying fans that the boards No.1 objective is a bank balance as far in the black as they can get away with. Its a shame that teams like Leicester, West Ham etc can keep their stars and improve their teams... That bournemouth can pay a loanee 80k... and yet last summer we offered one of our key right backs (clyne) 25k. It is all very disappointing for those amongst us who believe the club can push onwards. Its also perfect for those on here that delight in ramming home the glass ceiling negativity and revelling in it. Something that surely is the biggest source of angst amongst many on here. Its been a poor window and makes a mockery of the club saying we always have a plan. Tottenham almost ended the window with Morgan, wanyama, Toby.

Team is weaker. No excuse!