Saint86

Good to see this guy has signed. Although I've never seen this place so excited after a signing and its for a CB. Amazing ^_- 5 year deal is good business sense. Good! Now prepare yourselves for the grumbling if he doesn't settle down by Christmas

With regards to Sky Sports using football manager to rate our signings. I would appreciate a comparison of the players Anticipation, jumping, concentration, pace and acceleration as these are also key statistics for any CB I may deem to sign. Height would also be a useful comparison. Honestly, even when they are doing no work these novices still get it wrong. I also think they should give the potential ability rating of VVD so that I can more accurately gauge if he will develop into a better player than Jose is now. Honestly, just completely useless reporting.

So he is worse than Fonte and is costing us between 10-12 times as much

No.... stop being a tedious and insulting bell end. Can't sign a longer contract because of his age. **** me but you are a ***** at times.

I should think reed has had his wings clipped following the Toby fiasco tbh, and not to soon either, that said, we should clearly sell victor and would be very disappointed if we don't! He was never that committed tonsaints and is not a key player when compared to our other sales. Selling him for 18m with a loan deal for lamela or Townsend would be good business. However we don't seem to have another option lined up and clearly don't see reed as ready so I guess wanyama is staying. Good news on vvd signing, hopefully he settles quick as we have already dropped a lot of points we didn't or wouldn't have last year. Glad mane is happy and staying. Think he is true quality and hope the fanbase come up with some epic chants for him.

Pelle for me frankly.

At the moment the club are joke for their policies. But a bit of success again this season and that would change. Just like last year we were getting praise. For me, these views are 2 simplistic. I am not happy with / can't stand Les Reed, his policy is to sell the team every summer and destroy the bond between the fans and players. Not sustainable and he frankly needs to change his views or go. If clubs like Everton can manage their sales and be successful then so can saints. I said this last summer and I said this during the season. As fans, we pay to support the team and develop bonds with the players etc.... if its basically a new team every season then we may as well support any team at random because their is no/limited history or soul to the team. Simplistic view maybe, but this had better be the last summer where we lose a bunch of key players and replace them with none of the same quality. Otherwise what is their to support? Les Reed's "we do not loan players out" and "50% of first team from the academey" comments carry less and less weight every season. Any player we can get decent money for we flog, and we have no club icons or legends at all any more in the first 11, bar Fonte. Extremely ****ed at what that man has done in 14months once he got free control from Cortese.

Get a grip Rodger, one minute you say something sensible, the next its conspiracies and tin foil hat time.

Highly unlikely if you think that Bertrand and Clasie will be back playing for any real length of time in less than 2 weeks. Its not like they've had a pre-season or anything is it.

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/southampton/english-football-teams/southampton-transfers So to be clear, we had a net spend of -£11m between reaching league 1 and getting back to the prem? Noice

I have almost zero time for him. The only credit I will give him is that he appointed Koeman. I would go so far as to say I hate everything else he has done at the club.

If you believe a single word Les Reed says then you are being taken for a ride. His word is worth less than the ground he stands on or the air he farts. The man needs to get the hell out of our club asap. Have hated him since last summer, was happy to enjoy the ride that Koeman gave us and accept that Les Reed got very lucky with how that appointment panned out. But how the hell can you cock up signing Toby when the only reason he joined saints in the first place was for Koeman, and Koeman was in regular text and phone communication with him, even came out and said we would sign him... Then les Reed comes out with more PR BS to cover his backside, the simple truth is, Les Reed once again cocked it up. The man has systematically shredded and removed every ounce of Cortese's team, with the club even leaking that Fonte could be for sale this summer. He got very very lucky with Koeman in that he bought in players like Tadic, Pelle, Mane and Toby. The black box did feck all in those signings, although long has turned out okay/average. And what has been going on with the backroom staff under Les' watch>? Physio's, coaches, scouts... wtf is he doing? All the players said ambition had gone last summer, all would have stayed under cortese. The staff have been leaving, the first team squad has been replaced with less and less quality and a bunch of strangers.... and all I have been saying since january has where has the money gone? Net transfer profits for the last 2 seasons, massive tv monies from sky, and one of the lowest wage structures in the division throughout our time here. All you have had since he got the power is a one sided barrage of PR.... against this you have your eyes... "No Players will be sold" - season ticket deadline passes, then that afternoon lambert gone... followed by half the first team... and repeated promises that none would be sold. Cork's contract, Clynes contract, letting Wanyama's run out, not renewing Koeman at the start of this summer, completely fecking up Toby and I'm sorry, but we did completley feck up toby and the only argument against that is Les' word, which as discussed is worth very little. What about are kiddos? Uncles Les believes in them and wants to bring them through and have 50% of the first team consisting of academy players.... Doesn't believe in loans he says... And yet, where are they Les? On loan, sold, or having their first team opportunities blocked. People act like we are too higher level to use them now. Feck off, we did almost as well under poch, with a smaller squad, and with the kids at a younger age. That man sells the team every summer and puts the money where? And he got away with it last year, trading on the back of cortese's momentum and still having a smattering of the first team with Koeman making some astute buys. But he has completed his hatchet job this summer. I don't care how we finish, I will never support an ownership model that involves selling the fan's favourite players and the clubs soul every single summer, whilst the board happily spout any PR BS they want.

Les Reed has some serious questions to answer frankly.

You've done it now Charlie, never ever raise your voice to the saints' iron legion, the club are marvelous, never lie, never make mistakes and every single ounce of media attention we've been getting is correct and perfectly deserved (unless we don't like it)!!!!

Alpine is an extremely unrealistic optimist unfortunately for him. And he seems to have an issue with not getting what he wants. When the two are combined it gets, hmm, shall we just say messy? Doesn't make him any less of a saints fan. And I find him far more bearable than the people on here who just insult other members for having a different view.

:o

Have to say he was partially to blame for 2 very poor goals tonight. Would prefer Caulker over him based on that performance.

That is a cracking team. I think I would stick Le Tissier in however Lambert in his first 2 prem seasons is better than Pelle for me. Would be deadly with Mane/Long running off him. I think Killer would get the nod at the back over Toby as well. Toby is a great player. But played what, 20odd games for us in the league. Not on the same level as Killer for me.

BFS is right. In 1 year we have recycled the entire first team bar Jayrod and Fonte. The result is Ronald has a team that he just can't get to gel at the moment. The fans need to have patience with him and the team, which most of us do. That said, a message needs to be sent to the board that can not carry on destroying the soul of the club on a yearly basis. We've scrapped long standing members of the team in the past year, and signed replacements which block the development pathway of the youngsters. Not only that, but we have not fully reinvested the funds from transfer sales or tv monies and we have a weaker first 11 at this moment in time. I am dissatisfied with the board frankly. They ****ed up proper the last 2 summers and the only thing they got right is Koeman. The talent drain has been unprecedented, both playing squad and backroom staff. And it is starting to show this year imho. I don't think the damage is completely done, Koeman has made some good knowledge buys in tadic, pelle, claise and stek and soon VVD and we are very fortunate to have him. But the club will go backwards if the board do it again next summer and they have once again dropped clangers with the contract situations on both Wanyama and Koeman himself. At least with Shaw, Lallana etc, Cortese got them tied down to long term deals at least ffs....

Well... tou could slag everyone off.... or you can support the damn team. People need to accept that under this board, we will need to do rebuilding jobs (god help us post Koeman). The current team hasn't quite clicked yet, but signs of progress today with a much more solid team. We need to start at the back and then work forward. Newcastle away we should have won. Everton we were poor against, but regardless they are a top 8 finish team this year and having a bad day against any top 8 team leads to a defeat. Watford, new team flying high after promotion, away from home and after an awful performance... I'd take a draw frankly. Tactics, and team composition need work. But we will get there. As it is, the balance is off, and hopefully the europa league will help us get that balance quicker. Though Romeu was lucky not to get sent off. Target is getting better and better recently, finding his feet and confidence. Jose was a beast today. And Caulker looked better - wins a lot in the air and made some great saving tackles, but also still a tad sloppy at time and still ball watches too much. Cedric looking good, a little fighter and very fit it seems, never stopped running. All in all, a clean sheet and a point away from home... On to the next one! For those that want to grumble about the team, composition and teamwork... This is Les' master plan, flog our souls and put the money somewhere (anyone know where it is btw?)... We have reaped a load of praise for it over the seasons but at the same time, it can't always be good! So suck up, quit *****ing, and get ready to see how the new boys do when we settle.... Just look at the Mane thread last season for a view of how ****e it can be at the start - he is now viewed as one of our best players.

That or Les and co do very nicely

What jenkinson did, has to be just about the worst defending I have ever seen. Just awful!

I don't understand what you mean. Reed's pathway to the first team is clear as far as I can see. Wanyama's contract hasn't and won't be renewed as the board have already got sweaty palms over next summers sales.

This is already covered in the wanyama thread, two are not needed.

Don't really understand why we went long so much. We had more than enough quality on that pitch to do better. Still signs of improvement. Losing Toby and Morgan has shredded the core of the team at the moment and it shows. So vunerable at the back. Not at all helped by the settled players being injured and selling clyne. Thought Target had a really good game tonight, did that one run in the first half that gave him so much confidence. Hard for Yoshi at right back. Can caulker do anything but head the ball? Romeu looks very card prone. JWP set peices were our most threatening moments, but didn't offer much else. Onwards and upwards I suppose!