mrfahaji

I've had a few quid on Puel back when he was 10/1, but I'd rather have Pellegrini. Have a feeling if I whack a wad of cash on him something will go wrong! I originally thought that about a protege, but how often does it happen in reality, even when a manager is nearing retirement?

I'm hoping for an average-at-best manager and I'd like to see us replace any outgoing players with complete dross...

Ah gotcha. I do recall us being in for Matt Elliott from Oxford. I'm normally pretty good with recalling obscure footballers but Matt Piper required a google! Now rings a distant bell - although looks like he went to Sunderland instead of us from Leicester. Assuming these are the two you're referring to.

To an extent. Slovakia were eating up those floated balls into the box all day. Even when we had the centre backs forward, did England EVER win a header in their penalty area? With Vardy and Sturridge on, the crosses should have been from getting to the byline and whipping it across the face of goal. Clyne was getting in behind a decent amount, and then we changed shape, took Lallana off, and basically halted that tactic altogether...

Lol, can only assume his first tournament was Euro 2012... Although the username would suggest it wasn't!

I'd be surprised if it was Carvalhal - he did well to get Wednesday close to promotion, but I don't think they did it through attacking football. Before that not sure what he has done that really catches the eye as the sort of manager we'd be going for. Plus, I don't think we'd take a manager from another English club unless they were the stand out candidate. Who knows, but it sounds like another bit of hopeful journalism - if Eddie Howe hasn't quite got the experience or profile at the moment, surely Carvalhal hasn't.

Sorry Chez, that one's gone over my head...

When researching Claude Puel, I also read about Nice's Nampalys Mendy - sounds like a good replacement but unfortunately we'd be competing with Leicester and West Ham. Never thought I'd see the day where Leicester would be obvious favourites to sign someone ahead of us...!

Haha - more likely chatting in a whatsapp group. Probably trying to find a time when everyone is free to celebrate the win.

Like the look of that one. Something to be said for a part-black logo against the red and white, just looks a bit sharper/smarter. One reason why I think the veho kits have looked decent. The9 says the kit earlier could be close, except for a white box for the sponsor. Can't help but feel that with a block of red across the shoulders, a block of white across the middles and a block of some sort on the back, there won't be much of the stripes on show, even if it is technically a striped kit!

Haha, me too! Although I think Pardew was more about off the field, and to this day I still feel Adkins was harshly treated, even if ultimately it did move the club forward.

I thought it was known that the three left in the hat were Garcia, FdB and Puel? If one of them has dropped out the race, that's understandable but surprised there's suddenly an (almost) entirely new 3! I was excited about Garcia, and had a few free bets that I lumped on him, but in the original poll I voted for Pellegrini so certainly won't be disappointed if it turns out to be him. Just typical that I thought I was on to a winner having covered RG, FdB and CP at the bookies!

I'd be surprised if it turned out to be Puel as I think he is quite a defensive minded coach, whereas I think we are looking for someone who plays fairly attacking football? Galtier sounds promising. Also think Fournier is a possibility, brings through youth, took Reims up through the leagues and then did pretty well with Lyon (even though Lyon are one of the better teams anyway). Sticking point on Fournier is I think he plays a 4-4-2, and obviously the club may not want to be associated with gangrene, as mentioned earlier... I enquired in Coral about Fournier, they offered me 25/1 - was hoping for a bit better than that to be honest!

Maybe we don't want people to know that the man we are appointing has links to Portsmouth... Alain Perrin!

I sincerely hope we didn't get the Black Box from PC World.

Similar to me - I remember my Dad wanting Ivan Golac because he had been his hero in his playing days.

Exactly, I've made this point before. People readily confuse 'having ambition' with 'having money'.

Yeah I feel the same - Koeman did a better job than Pochettino (at least in terms of where we finished), but felt we were losing a better manager in Poch. I liked Koeman more but that has been tarnished now!

James Milner busted a gut to close down the Russian player in the last minute, completely selling himself in the process. Dier on the other hand, saunters about but usually makes crucial interceptions/tackles when he needs to. Not sure that tearing about the pitch always equates with the sort of effort you need.

Surprised to read so many negative (not just disappointed or frustrated) comments about the performance. For once I actually thought we played well! Russia rarely threatened, but they got everything right in that last minute. It was frustrating that we couldn't convert more chances, which is probably something we need to look at, but even the inevitable equaliser didn't even seem inevitable in this game as we continued to thwart Russia's attacks. Even though Alli didn't have his best game, thank god Hodgson played Rooney deeper and he played well. Him, Walker and Dier were all excellent, and Lallana was first half (AL fading in the second half, who'd have thought?!) Agree that Sterling was poor but at the same time, who else can play there to maintain the balance? My main concern is that, just as with Italy in 2014, "if we keep playing like that, we'll do well", but then we don't play like that again, and it will turn out to be costly.

(Apologies for quoting my own post, imagine that breaks some sort of protocol, but in addition it would make sense why Southampton would say that they had agreed terms with Everton but Everton moved to quash such rumours and not announce anything on agreeing terms with Koeman, because as soon as they do that there's a case for Southampton to claim he is no longer working for them and therefore doesn't warrant his 2yr bonus.

Even though they are referred to as loyalty bonuses, I think they are more a 'term of service' reward. Even if a lawyer could prove that RK was only staying to earn his bonus, I'm not sure there's is anything in that which would invalidate the contract. Lots of people wait until they've had their bonus before tendering their resignation...

No it doesn't, it just rewards being somewhere for a time period. Players have it too, but they lose it if they hand in a transfer request - which is often why they try to force a move without handing in a formal request, much to the outrage of us supporters! Can't see there's anything that Saints can do to stop Koeman sitting on it for a week, claiming the loyalty bonus and then leaving, even if it is seems abundantly clear what he is doing. What a sh1t though. As if his £7m isn't enough.

Koeman joined Southampton 16 June 2014. That means in a week he will have been here for two years. Cue loyalty bonus? May explain why things are dragging, wouldn't be surprised to see him finally move around 17 June and claiming it was just due to holidays.

I did suggest Berizzo, along with di Francesco and Sousa. Admittedly it was more "no-one has mentioned these guys yet" rather than "I think we should get them". Oh god, I've just thought of someone who hasn't been mentioned... Tim Sherwood!