Saint86

I don't think she'd need to in that scenario, if they no its going to be broken up, they'd want to get out asap. Likewise, she can just make it clear that no further investment is to be forthcoming, and a few players will be sold to balance the books and you'd get players speaking out, one by one, as we have had happen... I'm just saying.... One way or another, nearly all our players have started to voice discontent or have been linked away, with no rebuttal.

Beginning to wonder if the the scenario reads something like this: Cortese wanted to push us onwards. KL wants her money back, and decided the way to do this is in effect to asset strip the club by selling all the players, then flogging the carcass? All she's had to do was come a long to a few games, look interested (or text a lot), hire ralphy with his positive "leadership" spiel, take the season ticket money, then flog flog flog... Would explain why Cortese couldn't work with her. *************** Probably a bunch of BS, but I am starting to get massively concerned. I can stomach losing lambert, anywhere near £8m for a 32 year old is good business, let alone letting him go to his dream club. What I can't stomach is all the players talking about leaving, the manager going, the clubs talisman going, and nothing to the contrary regarding lallana and shaw. Derby, sunderland etc are all able to forcefully come out and say "hands off" - Words we have failed to issue even once. ****************** I've been all for giving this board time, looking on the bright side of things etc etc.... but so much is happening, so many rumours, and none of them being disputed, that I really am worrying that we are going to be stripped bare and sold on. Not happy this evening

You are so negative it is unreal. Lovren especially has said publicly that he is happy at the club and moved to rubbish a move away. It literally amazes me that you doom mongers think we are going to destroy our team when we have the option to just say no. Healthy finances and long contracts afford us so much protection it is unreal. The only reason MoPo has gone is because a manager's buy out clause is so slow. I'm sure all our players would leave when they wanted if they could have £2m buyout clauses.... But fortunately they don't, they aren't going to escape for £2m and we can just sit here and say no if we want to. So if we do sell them, it will be for a lot of money - cortese's final gift to the club

Why sack a man you are about to get paid £2m to let leave. Maybe they were expecting this and have already put feelers out. We can attract managers who are of a better ilk and record than MoPo, amazes me the amount of people who think him leaving is a disaster.... It has the potential to be bad, it also has the potential to be great. Lots of people who have opinions bashing the board, bashing KL who have no clue what actually went on, we've even had people accusing her or wrecking her fathers dream which is utterly distasteful. As I have said many times, I don't think MoPo was quite all that, we didn't win a single game coming from behind, had a horrendous conversion rate, and finished an awfully long way off of the top 4 considering our entire squad bar boruc is wanted by champions league teams. He has and almost identical record for 2012/13 as Adkins had once the team had adjusted. Any why are people so upset about MoPo? Did we have a bunch of delusional fans who thought he was staying here forever, we were only ever going to be stepping stone, as tottenham will be (if he does well there). The board offered him a good deal, and tried to keep him, you can't fault them for that. And likewise, MoPo WAS ALWAYS GOING TO GO and stringed us along. Its what the board do now that they should be judged on, so can we stop the hysterical bed wetting that is going on at the moment. All these fans bemoaning lack of ambition and funding, and the dream is over. If all you want is to be a bunch of plastics chasing success built on money, then please leave our club alone, there are plenty of other teams in the premier league that tick those boxes.

The fact that you disagree so strongly gives me even more hope. You've been repeatedly doom and gloom and wrong for the last 5 years, despite 1 wembley final, 2 back to back promotions and our best ever finish in the premier league era.... Not to mention 3 saints players in the england team? Do you honestly think that MoPo is the best manager out there? He has won nothing... Will not comit to the club or the fans, and got sacked from his last job... If he goes, then Southampton will still be here in the morning mate... you do realise that?

Still not convinced he is gone... I'm still waiting for Lallana and Shaw to leave (as reported by BBC and all others)... and I'm still yet to see any evidence of an official approach or the club giving spurs permission to speak to him or his agents... And even if he were to leave, I don't think Les Reed will have been sat around with his feet up on that front. There are plenty of good replacements we can have. Either way, I do not have the same case of MoPo love that many of our fans have.. With the same squad of Adkins, his games last season had an almost identical points tally to Adkins last equivalent number of matches, I would always have been curious to see how Adkins would have done with this team. And if our players are so great now, how on earth did MoPo get such a reputation for only finishing 8th I like the man, I like the style of football.... But the sky was falling when Adkins left, it was falling when Cortese left, and it will be "falling again"... We are not going to lose the entire first team..... and Jayrod, Davis, lovren, clyne, chambers, fonte, lambert, wanyama, boruc, morgan etc is still the core of a very capable team... So not worried, saints are bigger than any individual.... and as stated, there is absolutley no proof that any of them are leaving. In the case of Lallana, and Shaw, the only evidence is Reed saying that any bids will likely be rejected. Keep smiling and stop bed wetting, we have a billionaire owner who enjoys the club and the best youth academy in the world... how wrong do you think this can actually go??

None of which is due to the new board I might point out.

With all the negative press stories and hysteria...Are there people holding off renewing their season tickets in the hope of some good news? I can imagine that inaction from the club must be damaging sales? Or perhaps, inaction until after the renewals is in the clubs interest in light of what may come... Anyway, thought it might prove an interesting discussion. I currently hold one in Bristol for the record.

Woah son, put a filter on the BS right now! The anti cortese bashers love to pluck figures out of thin air. Adkins net spend from league 1 to premier league was circa £3m.... before that, we brought a handfull of players, for a couple of million... Lambert (£1.2m), Fonte (£1.2m) etc The vast majority of money our owners have invested was to buy the club and clear debt. The clubs outstanding liabilty is in the region of £65m, which is last seasons £7.5m loss, the £27m of outstanding transfers, and the original investment... The transfer fees and loss are covered by the increased TV and prize money this season. So all in all, Cortese achieved his 5 year plan with a negligble net spend bar purchase cost, and Katrina can sell up, and the original investment is worth a huge amount more anyway. I sincerely doubt he quit over funding, they had a disagreement over the running of the organisation, and agreed that he was to step down. His inability to share pride and his ego would seem to be the root cause, plus the rumoured fact that KL said she will "never sell to him".... Pretty much an unworkable situation for the man. All his power is taken away after the 5 year plan, he has no way back in, so he quits. I'm damn sure it has f'all to do with finance as the bloke was always planning a sustainable club anyway.

I like the Irony in this post Adrian, keep it coming!

And yet, the difference between us and Arsenal is 19 goals (less than that if you consider games where they've won by more than 1 goal)... That equates approximately to less than half a goal more per match. Also, Lovren, lallana, shaw, chambers, Morgan, Wanyama, osvaldo, ramirez, clyne are all wanted by champions league level teams... Reading that BBC article and comparing cortese to the new board, it is abundantly clear how every new board member is inferior to him in every way shape and form. The irony is that the new board is probably on at least as much as him as well. They are on the verge of destroying our golden chance to break into something else. Where are the deals and contracts etc etc that were said to be taking place immediately after the season ended? All we've seen is a blind organisation with ambition far below what we had previously and lacking in the nuance to implement even that without jeopardising the clubs potential. They are slowly undoing everything Cortese created, and Kruger's major concern from chatting to the fanbase is that, "we want stripes"... I frankly would be far happier if the team played in pink and yellow stripes next season if we kept hold of the manager and players for another season and made a few more additions. Instead we have this ridiculous and weak worded PR war where they have been more intent on appeasing the fans with empty words, signing a new sponsor who can't afford to pay more than the last (calling it a perfect match for our ambition ), failing utterly on the kit front, and declaring the club have financial troubles despite the complete absence of truth in that statement, just to get one over on Cortese.

Um, don't want to burst your bubble, but Cortese increased their initial investment into something worth around £150m, a fivefold increase in five years. He also posted only a loss of 7.5m last season, and a massive increase in profits this year. So really, he wasn't relying on Katrina's Money and people need to stop beating him with that stick, you look like idiots.

This is exactly right guys, not matter what you said. He was our hard bastard and none of our youngsters would have gone unless it benefited the club and cortese's ambition. He may have been going to sell Lambert we don't know for sure, but if he was, then £6m-8m for him was great business. The new board have so far been pathetic since he's left, and are systematically undoing everything he set in place - worse comercial deals, no kit, undoing the youth set up, actively trying to break the team cohesion (they are being that retarded ), no evident ambition or plan... I hope they pull their fingers out, but so far I would much rather Cortese was still here than this lot.

Bring back Nigel

Is MoPo really that good a manager? If he is, then we only finished 8th? so on the basis that he's a quality manager (destined for the Tottenham or another top quality european club one day) that means he has overachieved with the players he has available... And if that is the case, then our players aren't "all that" and don't deserve the hype they are getting. but as a saints fan, I think that lallana this season is the best player we've had for a very long time and should walk into the England starting 11, and indeed all but maybe city or chelsea's midfields... Our first team as a whole is also very talented and exciting. Indeed, as we all know, the press have linked almost our entire team since january:- Shaw, Clyne, Chambers, Fonte, Lovren, cork, Morgan, Jayrod, adam, ramirez and Lambert... So which is it? Either we have a great first team with a bunch of players who should all be in the champions league, or MoPo isn't all that. I personally think we are being over hyped in both the manager and squad departments to a degree, we are 8th over the season, and that is about right tbh. ******** And as an aside, I know that people will shout "squad depth" from the rooftops, and it is obvious that all we need is a couple more players (GK, CB and ST) to really push for top 6. However, we do have an owner who clearly enjoys the club, healthy finances, and key players tied down for 4 years. The club can either chuck all that away (which I doubt is going to happen) or we'll be looking pretty next season (and the comments on match of the day will be about the rumoured fire sale which didn't happen!)

This!!!!!!!

So basically, do we take the gamble.... Refuse to sell any players, it gives us what 3 seasons to make it with this bunch, if we fail then in 3-4 seasons they all leave for next to nothing.... If we make it, many will resign? If we are seriously in danger of being gutted this summer, then I think that is the gamble the board should make.

This has been around for 2 weeks at least lol

If it wasn't Rickie, £6m-£8m for a 32 year old striker with 1.5 seasons of top flight footy under his belt and maybe 1 season left in him is fantastic business, you are aware of that right?

It has been repeatedly said that offers came in for other players, not least Lallana who has even said he had chances to leave for the premier league on at least 2 occasions on the way up, as well as "2" chances to join Liverpool since being in the premier league.

What Hans said was all PR guff as I said at the time. We are clearly not in financial trouble. What I can't figure out is the motive. Was it to discredit Cortese in favour of the new board? Or are the owners trying to pull the wool over our eyes whilst they offload a few assets and pocket the cash? Because clearly, Cortese knew exactly what he was doing with the owners cash... despite us all being told differently. He was given a budget, and turned a small intitial investment into what, a business worth in the region of £150m? The only other reason I can come up with, is that we are planning on spending this summer, and we are deliberately trying to seem poor... but then surely other clubs can see the figures for themselves...?? Another key point people seem to gloss over recently, they all respond to RK's comments and pointing to it meaning weakness, indecision and our likelihood of selling assets. But he is in charge of the commercial side, and Les Reed is in charge of the playing side, transfers, contracts etc etc... The only thing Les Reed has said is that he is very happy with the MoPo situation, and that enquiries for players will most likely be met with a firm "No"... I am secretly harbouring a small flicker of hope that this summer may prove to be a good one after all. But then that is the trouble with hope

Yup, family loan of £30m, transfer debt of £27m, loss last season of £7m... took me 10 seconds to come up with those numbers..... £64m

I'm sold on him because of how good a side Chile are, the fact that he has domestic club success and then brought that to the national squad, plus plays the same style football as Bielsa/mopo is enough for me. I don't think saints fans would welcome a change of style. And Chile are a very good footballing side without too many star players.

First actually post that interests me in this thread. A better choice than all the others for sure.

Um, Jones, Smalling, wellbeck and Rooney ....