Ultimatt

Pied still running a bit gingerly. Hopefully he can see out the 90.

http://soccerlegacy.net/premier-league-live-stream-2/ working well for me. Other streams here: https://www.reddit.com/r/soccerstreams/comments/7no6gl/1945_gmt_southampton_vs_crystal_palace/

Romeu getting into Zaha's head. Good stuff. Possibly coached?

GOOOALL. Great finish for a ball behind him.

Oh my god you suck at comprehension. Holy f'ing ****. Let me quote exactly what I said again for you. Lmao. You and your f'ing strawmen. Not once have I said I have an issue with the Lemina/Hojbjerg signings. You just made up that I did to boost your own argument. I'm talking about the bargain bin buys from similar/smaller sized clubs. You can talk about Lemina/Hojbjerg as much as you like but it'll probably be in reply to someone else because I never mentioned them. Clear? Again, it's not about how much they cost, it's about their market value. The club wants to make profit on players. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. When we've got it right we've signed players that were clearly class where they were, came here and continued to be class and all moved on to better things once they proved themselves in the premier league. On the other hand there's something seriously wrong with replacing our best players with players that can't even make it into similar/smaller sized clubs. We're replacing a probably world-class CB with a guy not good enough for Lazio. We're replacing a star in Mane with a guy that wasn't good enough for a relegated Norwich. Why don't we go for players that are on the up instead of on a career-down? A signing like Boufal is a good example of what I want. We'll all agree he's been all-in-all dissapointing so far, but we can all clearly see his talent and why we signed him. He had a breakout season at Lille and has shown glimpses of that raw talent here. Tadic is another one. Great season in the Eredivisie. Came here and continued his form with a phenomenal assist record. At what point in Redmond's career has he shown any consistent signs of having what it takes to be a star? We signed Pelle on the back of 50 goals in 56 games. He came here and continued his good form (less that Winter patch). He played well enough to become Italy's #9 and got a move to China becoming the worlds 4th highest paid player. We signed Austin on the back of consistent goal scoring year on year throughout his career. He's continued that form here as our only reliable striker. At what point in Gabbi's career has he shown any consistent signs of having what it takes to be a star? He's a 26 year old with a grand total of 50 career league goals; what Pelle achieved in only 2 years. For the record I voted Reed in. Check the poll. Same can be said to you.

Played* sorry. Point stands. An Italian powerhouse in Inter Milan came dead last in Europe League group stages.

Obviously not in terms of history/prestige but we're similar financially thanks to Sky. Don't forget who we beat at the San Siro last season. They'll no doubt bounce back but the last few years have been a big lull for Italian football culminating in them missing their first world cup since the 50's Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

So apologies but when I said "When did I want us to pay overs" I was referring to your ridiculous strawman "LETS SPEND $40M ON WILSHERE!". My mistake. A sensible person that doesn't constantly resort to strawman arguments would read that as paying $2m compensation to get our target manager instead of fishing through only unemployed applicants, or spending the £500k/pa on a quality coach/staff instead of promoting internally on the cheap, or targeting players that have just had solid seasons rather than ones that have sat on the bench for a year and are surplus to their clubs. Strawman #2. I specifically said signings from mid/lower table sides and specifically didn't mention Hoj or Lemina. There's no shame at all for a player to not make the grade at Bayern or Juve. It's a different story not making the grade at Norwich/Napoli/Lazio. Strawman #3. I thought I quite clearly said I wanted us to sign players that "dominated their leagues the last season" as opposed to players that spent a year sitting on the pine. On one hand you have players full of confidence showing off their talent week-on-week vs players struggling for game time and stalling their development. Cost isn't the focus, market value is. We paid proper market value for these 4 players because they'd all been playing well in recent times (Austin injured with 6 months left meant QPR had a choice to have him for a handful more games or pocket £4m). Lo and behold all of them continued playing well when they signed here. Contrast that to our bargain bin buying and the results tell a different tale. Gabbi/Hoedt/Long/Redmond/McCarthy were all surplus at similar/smaller sized clubs and none of them have set the world on fire here. The club sees dollar signs when they buy a player in a trough. Low investment/low risk as their value can't fall much further meanwhile huge potential upswing. The glaring reality is that if a player isn't getting picked at a similar/smaller club because they're not good enough then chances are they won't be good enough here.

Such a long post. Sadly for you its based on a completely wrong assumption on what i actually want. Where did i say i want us to pay overs? Also, how can you just ignore Lallana/Shaw when they were both sold under Reed. Why can't they be mentioned when we're rating Reed. Should we just judge him on the last 12 months? Last 3 months? Please let us all know what the acceptable period is before we continue this thread. We'll all be in your debt. Here's what i want. For us to stop with this "depth" nonsense because we don't need a squad built for Europe. We need first XI quality. Why are we buying all these out of form/out of favor players that then spend half the time on the bench? Why did we give our entire squad big payrises and 5 year contracts regardless of whether they're actually a player in demand by a big club or a perennial bench player? Our 2 best signings of recent years were Mane and VVD. 2 players that were guaranteed starters that dominated their leagues. Pelle was a somewhat limited player yet came to us on the back of incredible form and consistently scored here. Austin is the same with a history of consistent goalscoring. Yet the club seems to prefer players like Redmond/Gabbi/Hoedt who have never at any point in their careers been dominant and all struggled for game time at their last club. They weren't getting picked for a reason... if a players not good enough for other mid/lower table teams on what planet do our board think they'll be good for us? This is the cheap nonsense i have a problem with. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Uhh... only because we've had to replace almost our entire starting XI in the last few years when prices have skyrocketed (and we sold them for more than we bought the replacements for).. You appear unaware our club record transfer fee is still below £20m. Name one player/manager we've splashed out big for. Our sales in the last few years: VVD 71m Mane 37m Shaw 34m Schneiderlin 30.5m Lallana 28m Lovren 23m Chambers 18m Clyne 16m Pelle 14m Wanyama 13m JRod 12m Fonte 8m Lambert 5m Juanmi 4.5m Total out = £314m Transfers in: Boufal 17m Gabbi 15m Lemina 15m Hoedt 15m VVD 14m Ramirez 14m Osvaldo 14m Clasie 13.5m Hojbjerg 13.5m Long 13m Wanyama 13m Tadic 13m Mane 12m Redmond 12m Bertrand 12m Forster 11m Pelle 10m Lovren 9m JRod 8m Cedric 6m Juanmi 6m Romeu 6m Gardos 6m Bednarek 5m Total in = £273m We have more "depth" now but have we ever paid overs to really get our man?

The fact that a 22yo attacking english player with premier league experience went for as little as £10m tells you all you need to know about how much Norwich/other clubs rated him.

A relegation scare will hopefully be the wake up call that their strategy the last few years won't work. The board have started believing their hype so much they've lost the plot. "The Southampton Way" is to unearth smaller profile managers that are unemployed/cheap. "The Southampton Way" is to find out of favour players with potential for cheap. "The Southampton Way" is promoting staff/coaches internally for cheap. "The Southampton Way" is using academy kids because they're cheap. In other words "The Southampton Way" is PR bs for being cheapskates everywhere possible. The boards gone too corporate, running the club like a multinational trying to cost-cut and maximise profits in all areas. It's a super dangerous game when all other clubs are investing more on field that we are. The premier league is a case study of the Red Queen Hypothesis; teams need to constantly improve in order to stand still. When the new Sky deal started all the teams around us spent, some spent really big, yet we actually made transfer profit ??? This season we've made profit again with the VVD sale doubling the Hoedt/Lemina fees. They're seriously daft if they think they can be cheap and finish top half, it's just not possible.

This is way too simplistic. A proper coach watches the players train and gives advice on technique, movement, positioning. We have plenty of young players that still have a lot to learn despite being professional footballers. Coaches are meant to coach, not be glorified ball boys.

Who did the great and powerful Cortese appoint to oversee football matters because of his huge trust in his ability?

I can't see Forster going anywhere while Dave Watson has a job. So an AM to replace Davis/JWP and a winger to replace Redmond. Austin ?? - ?? - Boufal/Tadic Lemina - Hojbjerg Bertrand - Hoedt - Yoshida - Cedric Forster Of course given it's midseason, the only players available will be ones clubs don't really need aka Rejects like all our recent signings. "The Les Reed Way". A player struggles to get into a midtable side and somewhere in Reed's mind he thinks that's good enough to challenge the Europa places. 9 times out of 10 the player won't improve us either.

The best midfield in the premier league.

I've seen this bandied about a lot here. Pretty sure it's just spin planted by the club. It doesn't make any sense that the club would want the manager playing more offensive and then sign MoPe on the back of a super defensive Alaves setup. Unless someone has a proper source, I just don't buy it.

You think Pulis is the answer to our goalscoring woes? Mate... No words. Not sure a more defensive manager exists in English football. We'd become the ultimate laughing stock having sacked Puel for "boring football".

I voted for him to stay. Not because I rate him, i actually don't think he's great at all. My main reason is because we're unlikely to replace him with someone better (the 3 sure things in life are death, taxes, and Les Reed hiring an unemployed manager). IMO the real issue lies with our squad; notably our attack. Only Austin has a history of consistent goal scoring. The rest just aren't at the level we need. Almost all our recent signings were leftovers/rejects; players almost out of contract or bench/squad players that their club was happy to let go. It's Les Reed's Southampton Way; Saints FC aka The Reject Shop. I know a lot disagree, but I thought Puel was a solid manager. Good pedigree, a history of exciting counter-attack football. You could see what he was trying to do here. Despite him being a solid manager, even when we setup to attack hard the squad still struggled to score. That's an indictment on the people in charge of recruitment. Swapping managers will just cost us another £6m severance + new manager signing fees and it'll be same old same old until we improve our attacking players. If we have a quality replacement locked in like a Tuchel or Garcia then sure, sack, but 99% sure we don't and we'll replace him like-for-like. So what's the point? Questions need to be asked of those above Pellegrino. It's their fault our squad balance is as poor as it currently is.

Nope. Why would we want our least qualified manager of recent times back?

I can see half a dozen teams finishing under 38 points with the relegation cutoff at 33 or 34 points. We'll be in the mix if we don't sign an attacker that actually consistently scores goals.

One signing will make us a massively improved team. We need a proper Mane replacement. A Zaha/Walcott/Richarlison type player that's constantly getting into space and getting in behind.

Different sectors where it's literally impossible for one to operate without the other. I walk past barriers for a new apartment building and often see branding for both the building developer and the construction machinery company. But sure, they're completely different innit. Yes I was wrong about her investments in Liebherr group though the point stands that she can act as an intermediary between them and Gao/the Chinese market, as well as advancing her own business interests there. Do you believe Gao bought Saints because of a love of football? Do you believe he bought us intending to make a capital gain? Or do you believe he bought us for a mix of political reasons and boosting his other businesses?

Wolves are on track for promotion. Only one I can think of.

Construction machinery is not construction? Semantics. How exactly do you build a skyscraper/bridge/dam without machinery? I'm just posing possibilities of what their partnership entails. Obviously I don't know the ins and outs of all their business dealings and relationships. But I think it's fair to say they're not buying the club thinking they can make profit on it. Football clubs traditionally don't make money. Would you disagree? http://knowledge.ckgsb.edu.cn/2016/09/26/sports/chinese-companies-investing-football-clubs/ "As the buying spree goes on and the market keeps growing, it's worth mentioning there won't be only Chinese players. "Foreign entrepreneurs are also eyeing the Chinese market and so when they're selling, they would not sell 100% of the company or the club," says Feng. Feng's company Deal Globe has helped China tech company Baofeng to acquire 65% equity in MP&Silva. "The reason they held 35% is because they have high expectations in the Chinese market and hope to exploit it with its Chinese partner."