baggytrousers

Think Les's statements are a lot closer to the mark than your ridiculous claim that staying up would be a success. What a load of rubbish you come out with !!

Les, Ralph and Mauricio might be stringing everyone along with their public quotes on this issue purely to try and get the best price. That's a possibility. It's also a possibility that they're telling the truth and we're not going to sell. Their statements on VVD have been a lot more definite than I can remember on any player in the past and the situation with VVD is much more favourable to Saints in that the club are now debt free and have a player with 5 years of a 6 year contract still to run, which is a way stronger position that in any previous situation. Whilst it's true that keeping an unhappy VVD could be cutting off our nose to spite our face the same is equally true for Virgil. He is already out of the Holland squad for their vital World Cup qualifier with France next week whilst new club teammate Wesley Hoedt is in. How does it possibly benefit him to continue to play up when 1st September has come around ? Would all the big clubs around Europe be impressed by this behaviour and clamouring to sign him or would they be more likely to come in for him if he got his head down and put in some good performances for us in the Premier League and Holland in their qualifiers ? He's 26 now and will be 31 when his current contract with Saints runs out. Granted it would hurt Saints to keep VVD on the books whilst not playing but it would also hurt VVD's career at the same time. That's the nature of contract disputes - both sides lose and the longer it goes on the more they both lose. It would be naive to think that the possibility of Saints holding him to his contract for the best years of his career would not focus VVD's mind come September 1st.

Highlighted the only meaningful word in your stream of complete drivel. Unless you're a chartered accountant with inside knowledge of the deal plus an intimate knowledge of our new owner's finances and intents I'd humbly suggest that speculate is a euphemism for talking out of your big, fat @rse and that you in fact know nothing, just like the rest of us. How about we give him (and indeed Kat) the benefit of the (very considerable) doubt and consider the possibility that they may have the best interest of the club at heart given as, unlike most of the financial experts on here, they have put their money where their mouth is.

Spot on !!! Don't know why more people can't see this.

Just been listening to the podcast while cooking tea. It was a good listen and some interesting points were made even if I didn't necessarily agree with all of them but on the whole I though it was an intelligent, well-made and balanced podcast that seemed to represent the thoughts, opinions of most Saints fans pretty well so well done and keep up the good work. Prior to listening to your podcast I downloaded one call the Saintsfanspodcast. Big mistake !!!! It was basically an hour and a bit of whingeing and complaining about the club management, not spending enough money, lack of ambition, etc, etc. Sadly the sort of drivel we're all too familiar with on Saintsweb. They must have used the phrase "Happy Clappers" at least twenty times and continually misrepresented any viewpoints that weren't slagging the club off. Didn't make it to the end but there was an hour of my life I'll never get back. Avoid at all costs. Your podcast came as a blessed relief after that. Keep up the good work. Cheers Baggy

The point is that VVD's sulk could be about to cost his international career dear unless he has a change of heart. Longer this goes on you may well see Advocaat's stance change as he'll just want to see VVD playing, probably doesn't care where.

Good article on a dilemma facing VVD and **** Advocaat if this situation carries on much longer : https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/46195/

Interestingly enough Jamie Redknapp has told the scousers that Virgil is a professional sort (don't choke) who will buckle down and play if he doesn't get his move : "If he does stay at Southampton, he will get on with it and he will be exceptional for them" says ex-Liverppol legend and son of Hangdog. http://www.empireofthekop.com/2017/08/08/jamie-redknapp-what-ive-heard-about-virgil-can-dijk/

5) Call his bluff. Refuse to sell and then accept him back into the team after 1st September when his head miraculously returns to being in the right place. It's a World Cup year. He's not going to keep this cobblers up for much longer.

This x10. This is the last throw of the dice from VVD. Stand firm Saints.

When Poch joined Spurs Roberto Soldado was their main striker and Kane was a youngster who'd returned from Not particularly impressive loan spells. Dier was a very average reserve centre back, DannyRose was very unimpressive and Dele Ali was a little known Mk Dons youngster. He's take these youngsters and realised their potential which has taken not only great coaching but also depended on the kids grabbing their chances and staying injury free. In contrast Southampton have not yet realised the potential of the talented young players we currently have in our squad but we do have that potential. Whether all our fans have the patience for this approach is another question. To suggest that Daniel "money bags" Levy has splashed the cash and that Spurs success has nothing to do with good management and a fair wind is, in my opinion, risible.

Last season was an exceptionally good one for Spurs and a poor one for us, culminating in us sacking our manager. The previous season we only finished 7 points behind Spurs who themselves finished third. Last season Spurs moved forward with their strategy under Poch, in my view by far our best manager of recent years, where we stuttered under Puel, who clearly fell short of expectations. The key point in this whole thread is that our strategy is not wrong just because we've had one season where we slid back bit after seven seasons of moving forward. Spurs present us with the classic example of a club unable to compete financially with the big boys (their wage bill is massively short of the other top six clubs) but who have found a way to do it on the field. Moreover, that way was not to throw money at big-name transfers. They tried that post-Bale without much success. Instead they've moved forward organically and intelligently and the way they've chosen to do it hasn't been much different from Saints. It's not the strategy but the quality of its implementation that has differentiated the two clubs recently. That has come down to a combination of good management (I believe Poch is the best manager in the league, bar none) coupled with a fair wind, both of which Spurs possessed but Saints lacked last season.

Yes. Spurs are at this point in time, man for man, better than us. That doesn't mean that our strategy is wrong as it's basically the same strategy as Spurs. The difference is that under Poch they've been a bit better at it than we have recently. However, I don't think we're as far off from making it succeed as many on here would have us believe.

Good that you've noticed that the club have adopted a new strategy. Most on here don't seem to have noticed and are still touting the "Les sells all our players to fill Kat's pockets" line. You make some good points but it feels like you have overloaded your argument. To say that only 1 of our players is being courted by another club is wrong. Bertrand and Cedric have certainly had big clubs interested in them this summer but we have nipped that attention in the bud by making it known we're not selling. Wouldn't surprise me if the same was true of other player like Romeu. What you should have said is that only 1 of our players has rebelled against this situation. Which begs the question why, when he signed a new long term contract last year, like the rest. Other very important points you missed are the fact that we have signed very young promising players who are at the start of their career. Hojbjerg for example is still only 21 but people are complaining that he's not as good as Wanyama in his prime. We also have great facilities and put a premium on employing excellent technical coaches with the obvious intention of making these young prospects significantly better as they mature. Last season our team had the second lowest average age with only Tottenham being younger. Indeed, if you want to look at one club in the premiership who adopt a very similar strategy to the new club strategy you've identified then look towards White Hart Lane. Were Tottenham better when they spent all their Bale money on a host of big name signings or when they built up a talented young squad from smart buys (e.g. Ali from MK Dons) and their academy and gave them excellent coaching and their chance to prove themselves ? You're correct in identifying that the club have changed tacks from the days of being forced to sell on our better players to along term more sustainable strategy but I think your analysis misses some vital points. Ask Tottenham fans if their happier now in their young squad, don't spend much current state or when they had all their expensive Bale money guns-for-hire a few years back.

If only Saints had realised that the black box was actually single-handed recruiting genius Paul Mitchell then they could have saved some of the 40 million they spent on Staplewood. Silly old Saints !!!!

Really. Is Rome really burning ? Seems just a tad melodramatic. Two games ago we beat St Etienne 3-0 away with a makeshift side. We weren't worldbeaters then and we're not completely rubbish because a different makeshift team lost 4-0 at home. If Rome really is burning then why don't you try throwing your mattress on it. Should be pretty damp by now.

Whilst last night was undoubtedly a terrible performance a lot of people are drawing some rather melodramatic conclusions from what was, at the end of the day, a FRIENDLY. If we were to draw similar conclusions from other recent friendlies then it would appear that Bayern Munich and Real Madrid are in dire need of complete re-vamps. Come on people. It was a bad day at the office with a team half full of reserves in a game that didn't matter. Let's keep some perspective here.

Why on earth would we do that ? To accept a cut price deal from Liverpool would be the worst of all worlds. Crazy stuff !!! We should absolutely stand firm. Matt Le Tiss had it spot on with his comments today. The tide is turning and we have the upper hand in this situation. Let's use it.

Really don't understand the fans who are urging the club to get rid of VVD. Guess it's a purely emotional thing like being jilted by a girlfriend but to me it makes no sense. Really think the club are doing exactly the right thing by effectively putting him on 'gardening leave' until he eventually comes around. Which he will. What other choice does he have ?. VVD is playing the game that he's been ill advised to do by his lousy agent and some dodgy scousers but the only cards he's got are to use up some of the club's budget on wages for him not playing and to disrupt the team. We've been paying his wages for the last 6 months without him kicking a ball so what's the difference and we're keeping him seperated from the team (this was our mistake with Fonte) by having him train alone. Meanwhile his country are sitting third in their World Cup qualifying group 3 points behind both France and Sweden and are playing both sides before October is out. In fact the France game is this month and is shaping up as one of that illustrious country's most important games of recent years. Let's not forget that he has 5 years of his contract left to run. 5 years. So what exactly are Virgil's options if we stand firm ? If he agrees to come back to the team and then plays up we simply kick him back into solitary for a while and adopt a more hardline attitude about when he can get a move away. If the club continues to hold firm then Virgil's only real options are to come around, give us one last season and then get his move or to play up and knacker his own career.

Well worth seeking out this week's Dellivery podcast. It's a bit lame at times but this week's guest is the guy who does the Archers Road End blog. They discuss all things Saints including the Monk inspired Twitter meltdown on Friday. The Archers Road guy (Ben) pretty much summed up where we are Ada a club and talked a lot of sense I thought.

Top 6. JWP, Boufal and Gabbiadini to have good seasons. Fraser Foster to put a lot of his critics in their place.

Well the snowball that Monk has set in motion continues to grow : http://www.anfieldhq.com/virgil-van-dijk-liverpool-done/ This is how complete nonsense becomes accepted wisdom

Why would it be true ? Even Monk says it may well not be and he was the one that started this meltdown.

WOLF !!!!!!!!

This is a complete myth. Are you really saying that VVD, Cedric, Romeu and Gabbiadini are all bad signings ? What has changed in our recruitment strategy is that we are getting our players younger so they need more time to come to fruition. As I recall many people on here were slagging off Mane during his first season with us before he got acclimatised to the Premier League. He obviously did come good but he was older and more experienced than Cedric, Redmond, Hojbjerg and Bouffal so the time taken to do this would be less. I think there is also a tendency to romanticise those players we lost. Mane in my opinion was our biggest loss of all but even he was inconsistent. As for Pelle he used to drive me mad at times with his ill-judged flicks and poor touch but was OK in the eyes of a lot of fans because he had the lucky knack of coming up with goals at important times. Let's not forget that at the time we sold him Shane Long had replaced him as our first-choice centre forward and in our present squad the same Shlong is now very much third choice. I would agree that we haven't yet adequately replaced Mane (although I do believe Bouffal has got it in his locker to be just as good given time) but as for the rest : VVD is better than Toby Cedric is now about the same as Clyne Romeu is about the same as Wanyama (not quite as good defensively but a much better passer) Gabbiadini looks a far better player than Pelle from what I've seen so far. So, basically it's our inability to instantly replace Mane that has hurt us (coupled with an uninspiring coach last year). However, what we have undoubtedly done is increased the depth of the squad (we have two decent options in every position now) and done it with mostly younger players who have plenty of potential upside. Personally, I don't think that's too shabby on the recruitment side myself but understand that we live in a world that demands instant gratification and that a more patient view where we buy talented youngsters and help them realise their potential won't suit some fans. As for these madcap theories about Les Reed somehow being responsible for everything that doesn't instantly come good but not having any hand whatsoever in any of our positives, I'm going to treat them with the disdain they deserve.