Redslo

That is why things are looking good here. No Southampton manager would have to deal with players being bought who don't fit his system because both the players and the managers are chosen because they fit the system.

The real problem for Manchester United is that even if Van Gaal does his three year rebuild brilliantly, their next manager will want to change it again--and they will have a next manager pretty soon even if Van Gaal is never fired.

I sort of did. It was the one that was too full of omissions for you to read.

I let it expire years ago and haven't asked for a new one. I am not on any sort of no fly/watch list--as far as I know.

Thanks for the response.

I would go for Alderweireld over Bertrand right now, but it would also depend on how good Gardos is and we cannot judge that yet.

Won't that cause you to disgrace yourself?

Never. I am not one for watching games in person. I have never been to a 49ers game, for example, even though I have followed them since my childhood. I haven't been to a SF Giants game since the early '90s. Also, I have no passport right now.

My bad for providing a less than complete quote, but to be fair the speech was 38 minutes long and the transcript of it is on my blog. (Here is the link: http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/2014/10/i-have-transcribed-les-reeds-38-minute.html ) Just before the part I quoted before he said: "We have two academies. We have one in Bath University which is part of the Bath University schools complex where we produce all our Commonwealth gold medalists and Olympic gold medalists and so on over the last few years in different sports. So that cross fertilization of high level elite environment with everything it brings with it and the elite development of young players is a terrific tool for us to use. All the resources that are at Bath are replicated at our main academy at Southampton and that enables us to get really into the bits and pieces of talent identification. So when they’ve been spotted in their own environment, we’ve done the due diligence, we feel that they have got the potential to be a player, we bring them into our talent development centers and around Bath University we have 8 talent development centers and we have the same around the Southampton one. We are just about to open a new one on the fringes of London. "

Thank you for that response. I think there is little doubt that football is one of the strongest forces fight against racism--in part because the opportunity to be judged purely on merit is present--and that it tends to lead, rather than follow, society as a whole. Certainly, progress has been most visible in the way fans treat their own players. (Although Mario Balotelli might not agree. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2014/article-2635044/Mario-Balotelli-suffers-racist-abuse-Italy-fans-World-Cup-training-camp.html ) I have no doubt that the vast majority of Southampton fans pay no attention to the race of their own players or of their opponents. Not being there I do not know the answer to this question, but I wonder if the issue is less pressing because of the relatively low minority population in Southampton (under 8%) and Hampshire as a whole (under 4%). http://www3.hants.gov.uk/factsandfigures/population-statistics/census_pages/census_information/pop_ethnicity.htm Of course, it would be ridiculous to force minorities to move to Southampton so that they could not be discriminated against. Just out of curiousity, how common are minority fans at St. Mary's? It would be interesting to interview someone like Nathaniel Clyne to see what his experiences have been like, but given where I live I am in no position to seek out such an interview.

In his speech recently Les Reed talked out Southampton's area being the south east: "We cover the whole of the south east. It is very rare that we will go to the midlands or the north to scout and the reason for that is that we believe that our success is based on actually being the best in our own environment. So south of London right the way down to Cornwall and across to the Kent coast is where we feel we specialize. We dominate that area and we get the best players very young in that neck of the woods. We feel that if we concentrate and focus on that rather than the method employed by some other clubs which is to spread their wings further and their tentacles further also to recruit players who are already in the system by paying compensation . We do that very rarely. What we try to do is make sure that there is no kid in our region that we haven’t seen." On the other hand, as an American, I never thought of Cornwall being in Southeast England.

I have published a new article entitled “Eleven Games, Twenty-??? Points: What does it mean? (Part 2).” It does not use Football Manager 2015 in any way. http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/ http://redsloscf.blogspot.co.uk/

I was joking. There is no way a part time American blogger about Southampton is going to win this award even if it were a goal. Also, I would spend more time on the graphic presentation of my blog if I wanted to win awards. But I won't.

It may not be particularly likely but if we can beat Manchester City the same week Bayern Munich knocks they out of the group phase of the Champions League, maybe we can get Pelligrini fired. Sure he is not as personally annoying to us as Rodgers, but still a worthy goal.

I addressed this in an August blog post. http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-i-became-southampton-fc-fan.html

They fixed it. http://www.squawka.com/news/who-is-englands-next-long-term-right-back-chambers-or-clyne/213935

I would have voted for the League One Minus 10 blog.

I have published a new article entitled “How Close Are We? (Part 2)” in which I use the new Football Manager 2015 database to analyze Southampton’s current situation and to annoy those people who are annoyed by my use of the Football Manager database. http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/ http://redsloscf.blogspot.co.uk/

I was a professor for a year in 1989-1990.

I didn't know there was an award for football blogger of the year. Now I have a goal to shot for. Or at least a possible resting place for my misdirected crosses.

The human body would have been better if it had evolved to play football his way. But that is probably too much of a long term project even for Van Gaal.

The ESPN video is particularly amusing since a former Portsmouth player is saying we are the 8th best team in the world right now.

The salary cap limit is separate from the FFP limits. And the salary cap this year is 56 million. Only related party transactions are subject to reduction this way. There is no exception for contracted wage increases. If there were, the rules would have no teeth. Actually that's a joke. They have no teeth in a sense because the big clubs with high salaries get to keep paying those high salaries and can increase them by at least 4 million pounds a year. But the salary cap is still a real limitation on smaller clubs unless they can increase their income. To be fair, if we do well this year we are probably in a position to significantly increase our income.

I think we can stop saying we are being ignored or underrated. http://www.espnfc.com/video/latest-videos/600/video/2133317 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2823856/MARTIN-KEOWN-FIVE-centre-backs-good-form-entire-Premier-League.html http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/nov/05/southampton-reaping-rewards-philosophy-new-training-ground http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/southampton/11211882/Southampton-reveal-secret-to-their-success-in-quest-to-reach-promised-land-of-the-Champions-League.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2822742/Southampton-open-new-40m-training-facility.html http://www.football365.com/faves/9550624/Tadic-v-Lallana-WhoScored-Do-The-Math And, of course, there were lots of other articles about the new training facility.

And we know a team would never sell a player if that might cause an uproar.