SaintTex

well if you believe the club didn't pursue Frank de Boer because he didn't have experience managing more than one club, then Zenga fits the bill in spades! But yeah, I hope this report is bunk.

yeah, no kidding, you think another club would value him at more than £11 million and swoop in. it's a hard pill to swallow losing Wanyama for only £11 million. I mean, hell, we sold Chambers for £16 million.

I vote for the guy whose last name begins with the letter P.

I have no idea if there is any truth to any of it, but you can't argue the results on the pitch. The talent on the pitch for Southampton has never been greater; the result of that is a 6th place finish and less opportunities for young Academy players. That is going to be true of any big club. We are not the same club we were one year ago, three years ago, five years ago. Now, ideally you would love to develop youth academy players who can reach the talent level required to be a consistent top 8 club in this league. This should be a goal and aspiration. However, they shouldn't be inserted into first team games just because; they have to be good enough. NOW, If Koeman made that process of youth development more difficult by what happens behind the scenes or on the training ground that is a completely different story, but other than Targett and maybe Reed now, by my eyes, no one else was close to being good enough to play on the same pitch while fighting and competing to secure European football.

This is political. Say there are three classes of Managers: Class A, Class B, and Class C. The club and supporters aspire for Class A, but the club cant get the deal done for a number of reasons. Ultimately, they know they can get a Class B manager that is competent but not all that inspiring, so they bring in a few Class C managers "to interview", so fans can get all up and arms about that possibility. Ultimately, when the Class B manager is announced and not any of the Class C managers floated about everyone will feel pretty good about the appointment, completely forgetting about the disappointment of not getting a Class A manager. Giggs is one of those Class C types. I will let you all decided who are the Class A and Class B types in our manager search. OR maybe I am completely wrong.

December 2016 3 Crystal Palace (a) 11 Middlesbrough (h) 14 Stoke (a) 17 Bournemouth (a) 26 Tottenham (h) 31 West Brom (h) January 2017 2 Everton (a) 14 Burnley (a) 21 Leicester (h) 31 Swansea (a) that is pretty favorable considering our traditional 2 month dip has teams that finished: 15th 19th 9th 16th 3rd 14th 11th 1st 18th 12th 10 matches (7 bottom half clubs / 3 top half clubs)

that was a beautiful strike by Pelle. Can think of plenty of strikers who would flub that up. I hope we don't shoo him out the door.

I was looking through his twitter feed.. someone posted this in his May18th tweet... haha.. I presume that picture was from a Kelvin Davis event.

Sounds like Howe is Dalek's man!

...

this could easily have been my post. I would be pleased with any of those 3. If Emery's goal is to get a PL job, then the chance that he might come to Southampton is not as slim as it might appear. Man U, City, Chelsea, Tottenham, & Liverpool are all pretty much locked down for at least 2 to 3 years. Maybe Arsenal next year? Pellegrini wouldn't upset me either. Moyes and Howe would be ho hum. I know very little about Flores.

what I find interesting in all this is that Koeman and his agent have put themselves in a very weak bargaining position due to the very public nature of all this. Everton could now say, hmmm, you know that £7million a year salary .. forget that.. how does £4million sound? That might be more to our liking. Don't like it? Well, you could always go back to Southampton, right? Ummm, well not now, he can't.

this. the bridge is burned. Besides, do we want to be the type who takes our girlfriend back after she dallied with some douchebag flashing money around? Koeman has moved on, it's best for everyone that we do as well.

Sell Lukaku + £100m kitty? I like how Everton's solution to their problems is to throw money at it. They don't need to look much further than across Stanley Park to see what a good strategy that is. Think about the money Liverpool got for Suarez and Sterling and they ****ed it all away in two years - from 2nd place and CL to 8th place and no European football. They are basically starting over. I guess you could argue Koeman would be a good start for them, as he has a history of doing more with less, but sometimes when you have more it makes you lazy. You don't have to think, you don't have to be resourceful, the money will take care of it. Hmmmm. Does Ronald have a history of knowing how to spend a lot of money wisely? Liverpool discovered that Rodgers didn't.

Yes, the writing is on the wall. Koeman has taken a step on a path he can't walk back on, I am afraid. It's done and dusted, he is won't be managing for the Saints next season, even if he thought to himself this morning: "What I am doing? I should sign with Southampton, let's get it done." He has lost the trust of the fanbase. Yeah, maybe most would welcome him back, but any dip in form during the season, the knives would be out. It would not be pretty. There really was no point in the season where tying him down was an option. Wouldn't have made sense in the winter and Koeman didn't even want to entertain the idea the Spring. Frankly, we were in great form, no point in the Suits upsetting the apple cart while the football team was humming. Secondly, £6million-a-year or £7million-a-year salary for Koeman was never going to be on the table with Les. Neither was a £100million transfer kitty. That hasn't been the model for Southampton's success the last 6 years and I would be concerned if suddenly it were. Frankly, there are as many failures as there are success stories for clubs that suddenly throw that gobs of money around willy-nilly. Yeah, it might work, but it could just as easily fail miserably. I like Koeman a lot, so this whole situation sucks, but I am not sure there is a whole lot anyone could have done about it. Koeman is steering this ship. He can go where he wants to go, and it appears he doesn't want commit to being at Southampton. I think he is making a bad career choice, but who am I to say. and let me just say.. I like Eddie Howe, as well, but I don't think it would be the right move for Southampton or Eddie Howe. Les and Ralph should aim way higher than that.

you mean, discussing how we are currently 40 points away from safety?

This. To add: You got this ahead, project seasons ahead and his potential impact. If he puts together a season for Saints like we all think he is capable of next season (2016-17)... say 20 goals... his value will increase despite being on the last of year of his contract that following summer. Secondly, if he puts together a monster 2016-2017 with Saints, CL qualification increases highly. [Consider where our place on the table might have been this season if he had doubled his goal total.] If we qualify for CL for the 2017-2018 season, just maybe, maybe he re-signs with us or we sell him for a monster price. We potentially have way much more to gain by having him on the squad next year.

Take a look at all 13 of Dušan Tadić's assists from the 2015/16 campaign. https://grabyo.com/g/v/Qp9iWPsx0xJ

To be honest, I have no clue how attractive or unattractive a club we are to truly top class managers. Yes, we have had three straight Top 8 finishes, certainly a plus. Further, I think Leicester winning the League this year helps us, as the stigma that a small club cant win no matter what has been shattered. No talented player or manager is going to want to come to a club if success is not possible due to a systemic league set-up, re: La Liga. The negative of course is that we are not a glamour club. We are not based in London, Manchester or Liverpool. We are never going to be showy. I think the board has done an excellent job. It has been a slow, steady, calculated burn, where I think long term , a team like Leicester's will fade. I am if the opinion are in a critical period right now. We have made positive incremental steps. Promotion, 14th, 8th, 7th (Europa qualifying), 6th (Europa Group Stages). All the while adding better, more talented players and managers, with depth. We can't think small, but at the same time we can't overreach, while ignoring the successful processes which have gotten us into this position. I am kind of all over the map with this post, but who would have thought at the beginning of this season we can offer players European football while Chelsea and Liverpool cannot. That being said, what we cannot offer is a bigger paycheck than those clubs can. Hopefully, all the other pros we offer, can counteract that con. We'll see.

Losing your best three offensive players and your best defensive minded player not named VvD is certainly a meltdown. Goal leaders last season: Mane (11), Pelle (11), Long (10), Tadic (7) Assist leaders last season: Tadic (12), Pelle (6), Mane (6), Long (4)

I feel dirty, but this is a good thing. Group Stage!!!

Liverpool 2013-2014 | 2nd place | 84 points | Champions League (welcome Lallana, Lovren, Lambert) 2014-2015 | 6th place | 62 points | Europa League (welcome Clyne) 2015-2016 | 8th place | 60 points | nothing This is a team going backwards - good job! Oh and thanks for the £61.5 million. We put it to good use.

Liverpool tears taste so delicious.

No, No, No.. it's Wes Morgan!

it's a big deal if we can avoid the qualifying round. At the beginning of the season our squad was far from settled. in the second leg of the Midtjylland game this was our starting XI (far cry from what we start with now) ------------------Stek-------------------- Martina-Yoshida-Fonte-Caulker-Targett ------JWP------Romeu------Davis------- -----------Pelle--------JRod-------------- We would be better sorted for Europa next season if we don't have to play until September in the group stages. Go Bournemouth!