Wes Tender

I stand by what I say. In came Pochettino with a similar amount of games to the end of the season as Adkins had from the beginning of our return to the Premiership and moved us upwards massively by one whole place. Granted that he then moved us up a further 6 places, but then who is to say that Adkins couldn't have done that too, given the resources that were given to Pochettino. Perhaps the money wasted on Pochettino's old oppo Osvaldo might have been better spent on a striker who could have justified his price tag with 15/20 goals. And mentioning Sunderland, we didn't manage to beat them in three attempts last season, despite the fact that they were at the bottom of the table for much of the season. Wigan? That would be the team managed by Martinez, lauded as one of the best young managers in the division.

Adkins teams played some exciting football and we weren't far adrift of a good team under him. The defence was a bit suspect, but the attack wasn't too bad. Adkins would already have had a better defence had he had Lovren and Boruc with Shaw and Clyne/Chambers and Wanyama in front of them. Pochettino introduced something extra with the high pressing game, which wasn't anything new as he learned it from Bielsa, but it was new in the Premiership and worked well initially. But after a while, the canny managers worked out how to counter it and although the top teams were more gung-ho about keeping their usual attacking style of play which suited us, the lower down teams just parked the bus inviting us to break them down and then hitting us on the break. Pochettino just didn't have a plan B, as others have mentioned, especially if key elements of the plan like Rodriguez were missing up top, or if there were other key injuries to the defence, as with Lovren and Boruc. If we get in somebody like Koeman, It is to be hoped that he will see the success we have had from our high-pressing game and yet have the tactical nous to fine-tune it with some astute additions to the team, but also the ability to get results against those teams who park the bus to counter our strengths. Pochettino was generally good, but Adkins was pretty good for us too. There really is not reason to doubt that Koeman, or whoever else we appoint will not be an improvement also.

The Express reckons that Liverpool are "ramping up the pressure" on us to allow them to sign Lallana, or they will instead sign Markovic. Well, go on, Rodgers. Sign Markovic. See if we care.

It's all starting to fall apart for Liverpool, isn't it? They huff and puff over Lallana, desperate to get him at a knock down price, threatening to have him stay with us if we don't cave in over their final offer. Somehow they fail to recognise that our target valuation of him is designed to either gain a silly price, or hack them off so that they withdraw. Now they are getting desperate because if they cannot get us to hurry up, they risk losing another alternative target to somebody else. And in the meantime, another target of theirs is now being courted by those bastards Spurs. They had again sought to offer less than Moreno's club wanted for him and Spurs are offering a player and the loan of Soldado plus money, which brings the deal closer to what Seville want for him. Poor old Liverpool. You do have to feel sorry for the tight-fisted scouse gits.

Really? There are two words that explain the reason he is picked. Manchester United.

I'm impressed with what I've read about him. He seems just the sort of manager from left field that could do a job for us. I hadn't noticed though, is he in the frame?

I think that we ought to royally **** off the scouse gits and put in an offer for Alberto Moreno, who is a left back. They want about £16 million of him and we could pay that and still have about £14 change when Shaw goes.

I note that others have pulled you up on the highlighted bit, and with good reason. The value of anything is what somebody is prepared to pay for it, or what the vendor is prepared to accept. You seem to ignore the second part. Just because Liverpool or you seem to think that Lallana's price is overvalued, does not make it so, accepting also that there is the probability that they might just wish to get him on the cheap. Your valuation and Liverpool's is obviously not along the lines of that made by the club, which is affected by other factors such as the cost of replacing him with a player of the same calibre, and also factoring in the message that would go out to other clubs that we would be prepared to sell our captain who is on a long contract and on the verge of playing for his Country in the World Cup. If we would do that following on from selling our manager and our talisman striker, where would we take a stand? The position is clear; if Liverpool are not prepared to meet our valuation for him, then they can go and take a running jump into the Mersey. Posters have been calling for the board to put their foot down and say that we have no need to sell our players and now that we effectively are playing hard-ball, we have our own fans suggesting that our players are not worth the figures being bandied about. Of course they aren't, but the point seems to have escaped some, that players will only be sold for stupid money if we wish to keep them. And if clubs are prepared to pay stupid price, that then becomes what a player like Lallana is worth.

What is the inference here? That the players in that match were beyond our pocket? That we couldn't afford to buy any player that played in that match? How does this bloke know that Pochettino wasn't there to scout a player? It is like several other points he raises, like the dismissal of Dodd and Williams. He doesn't know the background, so jumps to conclusions based on rumours and guesswork.

Lallana: "Do you actually come from Liverpool, or are you just a glory-hunter, sonny? I'm sorry, but I don't have much respect for glory-hunters myself."

No, that's either a load of cobblers, or something deeply fishy. Pompey players maybe, but not ours.

One more and it will be the Brian Auger Trinity, which will be much better than being on the Oblivion Express.

I'm tending to agree, even to the extent that like you I'm getting a bit hacked off with Lallana. I do hope that the Club are as good as their word and that they won't even consider any offer from Liverpool until our new manager has arrived. Liverpool have indicated that £25 million is their final offer. What arrogance from them if they believe that such a negotiating tactic will have us quaking in our boots, especially now that we have made a statement saying that we will not sell any more of our players before we appoint our new manager. If they are unprepared to up their offer to a level that we would consider too good to turn down, then all well and good, but otherwise they can go and get stuffed. Nobody is fooled by their attempts to get Lallana before the World Cup where he might well distinguish himself and therefore command a higher price afterwards. I read an article about him a month ago suggesting he was worth £15 million. A player is worth what somebody is prepared to pay for him, but also has a value to the selling club based on what it might cost us to replace him. I really do hope that Liverpool throw a strop and stick to their threat that this was their final offer. I'm sure that they are surprised that they can't just snap their fingers and expect players to prostrate themselves in front of the mighty scousers, but I'm sure that they will be able to buy another player as good as Lallana for much less money, somebody who has dreamed since boyhood of playing for a major world renowned club like them.

Really? As the player who has been the subject of the most media speculation is an academy product, is valued at a record price for a left back, let alone an 18 year old one, and that there has been speculation of other academy products being coveted by other teams, why is that so surprising to you?

:lol: The trouble is, all the words in the original phrase are monosyllabic, whereas "typically" has four and would be straining the mental capacity of those with the attention span of a gnat who complain at the length of Frank's posts. Mind you, those complainants usually spread their thoughts over five or six posts instead of a paragraph or two in one post. Perhaps they find themselves incapable of collecting their thoughts in a short time span and just post whatever enters their minds when things occur to them.

In his long career, there will always be an acknowledgment from any commentator that it was Southampton that picked him up when he was in the doldrums of the third division, that we spotted his potential and nurtured it, to produce the player he is today. He was a rough diamond that needed polishing. He always had the ability, but lacked the self-belief, the fitness and desire. We gave him that, and he rewarded us with the performances and goals that propelled us and him into the Premier League. At every stage the doubters said that he wouldn't be able to play at the next level and every time he proved them wrong. Whenever he was compared to other strikers like Carroll, or Holt, we knew that he possessed the football brain that they didn't and that he brought other attributes to his game that many others did not have. Those attributes and his character and personality have driven him to the very pinnacle of the English game and he has been rewarded with his rightful place in the England World Cup squad, where I am sure he will distinguish himself further. Liverpool is the one club that could have tempted him away from us and we couldn't deny him his childhood dream of one day playing for them. It is a fairy tale ending for the young lad released by them as not being good enough and fighting his way back to them. We are proud to have provided him with the platform enabling him to achieve that and wish him all the best with Liverpool.

It seems an eminently sensible statement to make in light of the mass hysteria on here from those who believe every story fabricated by the media based on rumours and innuendo. But the problem is, if those posters are prepared to believe everything they read in the gutter press, they aren't going to take the word of the board that they do not wish to sell players before a new manager is appointed. Have a read of this as a clever expose of the crassness of the press in their attempts to destabilise the club and our players:- http://www.anorak.co.uk/398871/sports/transfer-balls-adam-lallana-signs-for-liverpool-for-10m-less-than-southampton-demand.html/ These same people are the ones who have militated for the board to make a statement every five minutes and when they actually state that apart from the special circumstances surrounding the transfer of Ricky Lambert they have no intention of selling any other players until the new manager is in place, every word is dissected and spun in the direction that suits that particular sceptic's agenda. Despite asssurances that we have no need to sell any players, there will always be those who nevertheless believe that KL is asset stripping us before she sells the club. There will also always be those who disbelieve any statement of intent to continue our ambition of playing in Europe, at the same time laughing incredulously at our stupidity in believing that the ambition is feasible in the first place. And there will always be those who believe that despite players leaving as the natural progression at any club, there is no possibility at all that those players sold might be replaced by an even better player, especially not one who could cost less than the fee gained from the sale of one of our players. In the same way, some cannot contemplate that our next manager might actually be better than our last one and take us further up the league. Given all of these possibilities, the sensible position is to wait and see what happens, firstly with the new manager's appointment, secondly on which players leave and thirdly which players arrive to replace them.

A good post. Arguably there has never been a time since we were one of the founder teams of the Premier League that we have been as attractive a proposition as we are currently for an incoming manager. Our financial situation is secure (regardless of what an inept board leak suggested), we have achieved a position just below the European League places and the club still say that we are ambitious to press on upwards. We have several exciting prospects coming through via the academy and are prepared to invest in the extra few players who would upgrade the current squad. We have received plaudits for the style of play and in the Liebherr era, have enhanced the reputations of the three managers who have taken us upwards in our progress. Subsequently, Pardew and Pochettino have gone to bigger clubs and it is to be hoped that in the same way as Pardew subsequently has been found out at Newcastle, Pochettino might be too at Spurs. For a European manager looking to try their luck in the English Premier League, we are probably the best set-up club to initiate themselves in to it. The biggest clubs can command the highest profile managers, but we represent the next best opportunity for a European manager to enhance their profile, as Pochettino has done. We are likewise the best club for an ambitious and capable British manager to progress his career. We are now at the stage whereby we can attract a manager with a reputation, one sufficently good enough to attract players to come here to play for him. We are at a crossroads in our history and as you say, the path that we choose to take in the furtherance of our ambitions, is now firmly in the hands of our board.

Do you mean in the same way that Pochettino didn't seem a good signing based on his latter results at Espanol? Or like Adkins didn't seem an exciting prospect before him? From what I read about him, his chararacter seems very similar to Pochettino's

Their expenditure doesn't guarantee instant success. And as they hope that some of that money will buy some of our players who cost us little or no outlay beyond their development via our academy, there clearly is an alternative to just p*ssing money up the wall in the hope that it will buy them success. If they had an academy producing a batch of players like their class of 92, then they wouldn't need to spend much at all, but it seems that they no longer have the ability to produce more than the occasional star through their academy any more. Tottenham spunked £100 million or so on Bale's replacement and signed expensive flops apart from maybe Eriksen. It is arguable that had they kept Bale, they would have had a more successful season than with his replacements. United's success next season relies both on the players they buy in and Van Gaal's ability to get them to gel with the existing players. As good a manager as Van Gaal is from his record so far, he hasn't managed in England, so even he is isn't a guarantee that they will succeed. And even with expenditure like that, they are still the poor relations of Manchester City when it comes to how much they spend on players.

scouse git: So will Liverpool sell us Suarez for £23 million? They can have Lallana for £20 million, so that just leaves £3 million we owe Liverpool for Suarez. Let's get the deal done now, no reason to fart about.

Liverpool say £25 million, final offer, take it or leave it. Why don't we just say f*ck off, Scouse gits?

The problem is that as soon as Cortese left and the Club issued that crassly inept statement that they had inherited a financial situation that caused concern, the media vultures have circled overhead and incited a frenzy of rumours that we will have to sell all of our star players to balance the books. Now that they have opened this particular Pandora's box, even if they subsequently backtrack and say that there is absolutely no need for concern, the media are going to take exactly the same line as the OP and believe that there is no smoke without fire. The least the club should have done, having failed to keep their big mouths shut in the first place, is to stick by their statements that no player is for sale. A bit late to have the caveat that no player is for sale without the blessing of the manager, as the manager was for sale himself. Having subsequently sold our our talisman striker too, our position is extremely weak. When we get the mega-buck fees for the likes of Shaw and Lallana if he goes, then we will get stiffed by any clubs whose players we wish to buy, because we will be rolling in money. Our only hope is to claim that this money was needed to plug the giant hole in our finances and that we are now skint and cannot afford to pay over the odds for players.

Renewed mine and my son's today. By the first match of the season, we will have a new manager and some new players. Why would I wish to miss seeing live how they all fare? I'll be able to say that I watched their first match in a Saint's shirt, the first steps on the onward march to 6th place at the end of the season.

What players would come here after this? Well, let's see. I suspect that quite a few players would be attracted to come here if we appointed a top rate manager, you know, somebody better known than Pochettino was when he arrived. That didn't prevent us signing the likes of Wanyama, Lovren or Osvaldo, (crap as he turned out to be). We are yet to know who that manager is to be, so a bit premature to make sweeping generalisations at this stage, eh? Naturally, in the same way that Pochettino is hoping to take some of our star players with him, the new manager could very well bring several of his former club's star players with him too. And then there are all the other possibilities to consider. We could attract a player from the lower divisions like Lambert, who is going to giants Liverpool. Or we could attract the next Rodriguez. There are players like Cork or Sinclair, who belonged to top teams like Chelsea and City, but are now surplus to requirements. Any of the players lower than us in 8th, would see it as a step up. Additionally, there are dozens of decent players sat warming benches of the bigger teams who might be open to playing regular football for us instead. Or we could sign any number of players like Swansea did with Michu, who didn't cost much, but was a revelation when he arrived there last season. And then of course, there are the up and coming academy players, the next batch who will or could replace the likes of Shaw, Lallana, Chambers, Ward-Prowse, who when all is said and done, were virtually unknown quantities until they hit the first team.