Mark Hughes

, but we ain't minted and I can't see £50mil kicking around.

Yet Gao is rumoured to be looking at buying another club in Austria or Switzerland. No doubt well intentioned, but pretty misguided. His best investment should be in the first team here.

Koeman walking, was nothing to do with Reed.

.

How do you figure that one out? He had a year left on his contract. Reed supposedly told him to sign a new one or leave. Koeman said he was more than happy to continue. So either right or wrong Reed played a huge part in him leaving earlier than contracted to.

With the amount we have paid off Puel, MP and MH wages/bonus we probably could have kept Koeman anyway.

But Reed thought he was king Midas and could basically get anyone to do a similar job on the cheap.

Not saying it's you but there seems to be a few on here re-writing history a fair bit to defend Reed.

I'm sure in the end Hughes will sign up but the people in charge do have history of not getting things done after they have said it's almost done. Just look how many times they said xyz was happy and won't be sold only to be gone a few weeks later ie Clyne.

How do you figure that one out?

Not saying it's you but there seems to be a few on here re-writing history a fair bit to defend Reed.

I'm sure in the end Hughes will sign up but the people in charge do have history of not getting things done after they have said it's almost done. Just look how many times they said xyz was happy and won't be sold only to be gone a few weeks later ie Clyne.

It was intended as sarcasm.

I'm certainly not looking to defend Reed, he's been a smug tosser for the last few years (first indication was the Alderweirald episode and interviews given) who has been central to a balls up every year, sometimes twice a season and more.

Unbelievable how poor our management has been over so long. Forster, extended contract, not repalcing CB's, etc etc

Maybe it doesn't have a bottomless pit and some players will go. But I fail to believe a club that has racked in a profit from transfers for the last 4 seasons, has had record income from TV money and only 4 months ago sold a player for a world record fee, whilst recording tens of millions of pounds of profit last accounts hasn't got a least a few quid to spend without having to sell first. You say the van Dijk money sent just sitting in the bank,there are instalment payments, agents fees, managers to pay up, running costs etc, but guess what? Every other club has those as well. Every club pays transfer fees in installments, why are we any different? I simply dont buy this BS any more, you can only blame Corteses over spending for so long. We recorded huge profits last year whilst the club got away with relegation. They seriously need to back Hughes or whoever comes in, the squad needs and injection of quality and experience and I don't believe the money isn't there to do it, maybe the desire is though.

Totally this. If the club really are saying there is no money at all to strengthen unless we sell despite what you have said above, then hard to see how we will attract another decent manager if we don't secure Hughes. There are clear areas of weakness in the squad that need addressing and Hughes would be right to push for assurances that the club are serious about backing him to do something about them.

That's not to say we can throw huge amounts of cash about but there must surely be something left from the Van Dijk sale and getting the highest earner off the books?

We have to also take into account that there are far fewer of our current players who you would expect to be sold for big fees after this last season. So if we are relying solely on that, we will really be shopping in the bargain basement!

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If we don’t have all the VVD money to spend then Kruger has been feeding us a pack of lies.

 

But not appointing/retaining the manager already in place .. really does take Reed and the club to a new level of incompetence. The master of dither appears to have surpassed himself.

Who signs off the wages, transfer budget and managerial appointments. Is Les Reed answerable to anyone, or is his the final say. Until you know the answers to those questions it's hard to apportion blame.

It could be that Reed wants Hughes, thinks we should pay him what he wants, but somebody higher up the food chain disagrees and won't cough up. It could be that Reed doesn't really want Hughes so is putting obstacles in his way. Unless you know the budget and responsibilities Reed has it's pretty hard to judge

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I fail to believe a club that has racked in a profit from transfers for the last 4 seasons, has had record income from TV money and only 4 months ago sold a player for a world record fee, whilst recording tens of millions of pounds of profit last accounts hasn't got a least a few quid to spend without having to sell first. You say the van Dijk money sent just sitting in the bank,there are instalment payments, agents fees, managers to pay up, running costs etc, but guess what? Every other club has those as well. Every club pays transfer fees in installments, why are we any different? I simply dont buy this BS any more, you can only blame Corteses over spending for so long. We recorded huge profits last year whilst the club got away with relegation. They seriously need to back Hughes or whoever comes in, the squad needs and injection of quality and experience and I don't believe the money isn't there to do it, maybe the desire is though.

Gao paid a hefty price for the club. It possible he bought it to look the big man and philanthropic - but more likely he was spun a yarn about how much money was swilling about the PL and what a nice earner Saints would be. I imagine, based on very little admittedly, that KL has walked of with a big heavy bag of cash and Gao is trying to recoup the cost of his investment as quickly as he can. Maximising his rake and spending just enough to stay in the PL is probably the height of his ambitions atm.

The club must have money following all those sales and the TV money. If Hughes does not sign then it will be obvious the Gao family have no ambitions for Saints in football terms. Unless we spend a sizeable amount of money we will go down next season. Nothing stops still in the Premier League. If Saints can’t hack the big league investmentwise then somebody else will take our place. Other clubs that are smaller than us seem to do just fine, yet our Board would have us think that we are a tinpot small club with no money - ‘living within our means.’

If we only have money for transfers from what we sell, then so must every other club in the league bar the top 6.

As I said before, if Hughes doesn't sign, then Krueger's interview last week will have proved to have been bullsh*t. Put out there with the sole intention of trying to sell a few season tickets.

Hopefully, Hughes will sign though and that won't be the case.

Christ, you lot have worked yourselves into a proper lather overnight.

Other clubs that are smaller than us seem to do just fine, yet our Board would have us think that we are a tinpot small club with no money - ‘living within our means.’

There's been an obvious massive change of direction and the club/Ralph has been preparing fans particularly over the past year or so. When Kreuger started calling us "small" in interviews it was to reign in fan expectation, to change the mindset from how they'd previously portrayed our "progressive", "Champions League Challengers". Before they loved all the plaudits for how this 'middle-sized' club was kicking the heels of the real big boys and couldn't wait to champion the "Southampton Way" to the media but now we're mostly getting condescending bullsh*te from our chairman.

It's a tough gig managing the expectations of a football crowd but they're also guilty of taking a lot of us for mugs.

Officially

Christ, you lot have worked yourselves into a proper lather overnight.

That’s what perceived untruths about selling to someone who will ‘invest more to keep us as a top 10 PL club’ does to people. I’m past caring, Hughes revived my interest but I will be watching Exeter Chiefs again and for the first time in 35 years not watching SFC live once if one of Reed’s puppets appears again and there isn’t a decent net investment in net players. I agree that there may not be 50m exactly sloshing around with the VVD sake but all of it potentially disappearing? Something that would have happened in the Portsmouth Takeover Thread. The authorities need to keep a close eye on SFC although the PL let the fans and staff down badly by letting KL and Gao push this through in the first place.

Christ, you lot have worked yourselves into a proper lather overnight.

Lol exactly

Arsenal even managed to interview 8 people.

Hughes is probably getting the deal of the century, or the lawyers have gone on strike

Does anyone genuinely know what the hold up is?

Fairly likely that something has gone awry as from various club mouthpieces it was a formality with an announcement due 'early' this week, which has clearly now passed.

From what was said before, Hughes was going on holiday last Friday and had expected talks to be concluded by then (which was exactly what those same sources, Echo, Wilson etc said had been done).

If, and its still an if, there has been a problem then Krueger's interviews last week are an absolute facepalm.

What a load of hysterical nonsense based on what exactly?

In the real world there is not a single article , tweet, sky sports ticker thing about Hughes not signing. Pretty sure if there was any truth it would have started to leak.

How about the reason it is delayed is because the club want a massive double announcement of a new player signing at the same time? Probably not true but more plausible.

Or perhaps because all parties have been working together for 8 weeks there is no rush. Transfer targets have been discussed, pre season timings agreed etc. No need to pay extra to get lawyers to work overtime to get it done.

I'm going to concentrate on winding scousers up about getting beat on Saturday and how they owe it all to us anyway.

If it really does come down to the transfer money available or otherwise, most posters on here were saying throughout last season that our current squad ought to be comfortably mid table and pressing for europe, not fighting off relegation, and that was almost entirely down to the manager. So if this window's transfer funds have to be covered by player sales alone, why is that a problem?

I've been told by a source that the reason for the hold up is that, as we do not have any money, Hughes £1m bonus was paid by robbing the charity boxes of the Saints Foundation and as anyone would know counting a £1m in 1p, 2p and 5p is not a quick process. Apparently Hughes has said as soon as the last penny is accounted for he will sign - Dont shoot the messenger

Hopefully that is bullish!te. If it is not we’re nailed on for relegation next season.

With our track record, its much more plausible than the "lawyer" explanation. That's plain bullsh*t.

If they aren't willing to back Hughes then this 30mil for Promes is a load of ********. Tbh we've just sold a player for 75 million. Anything but a healthy transfer kitty for a team that really should've been relegated (36 points!!) will be the final nail in the coffin from this board and a totally farcical oversight.

Get in done and back the man you tight c*nts!!

Does anyone genuinely know what the hold up is?

Someone on Twitter who is claiming to know says Hughes is on holiday this week, official announcement will be next week.

I've been told by a source that the reason for the hold up is that, as we do not have any money, Hughes £1m bonus was paid by robbing the charity boxes of the Saints Foundation and as anyone would know counting a £1m in 1p, 2p and 5p is not a quick process. Apparently Hughes has said as soon as the last penny is accounted for he will sign - Dont shoot the messenger

The club must have money following all those sales and the TV money. If Hughes does not sign then it will be obvious the Gao family have no ambitions for Saints in football terms. Unless we spend a sizeable amount of money we will go down next season. Nothing stops still in the Premier League. If Saints can’t hack the big league investmentwise then somebody else will take our place. Other clubs that are smaller than us seem to do just fine, yet our Board would have us think that we are a tinpot small club with no money - ‘living within our means.’

In recent years we've spent relatively big on Osvaldo, Ramirez, Boufal, Carrillo. How much success have they brought? The Southampton Way of finding cheaper up-and-coming players with potential before the big clubs find them, getting a few good seasons and then selling at a profit used to work. The reasons it hasn't worked recently are greedy players and greedier agents coupled with too much money in the system. We used to be able to sign players such as Mané under the radar. Now, the moment we show interest, players don't seem interested in just getting a foot on the ladder: agents tout our interest around other clubs and they want the big bucks straight away. And because there's too much money around, stupid fees are becoming commonplace.

The equation of how much of the VVD money us left is interesting. Of £75m, £19m + wages wasted on Carillo, probably £5-10m on agents, plus Celtic's cut. We've paid off two managers in the last year and found a bonus for MH for keeping us up. And it's reasonable to assume we budgeted for a mid-table finish and up to £20m more in prize money than we got. I can believe there's not much left.

I'm still not convinced there's any truth in this story, which is unsubstantiated, but something's holding things up. Hopefully a compromise can be found. We don't need a huge clear-out. Properly managed, and with two or three additions, this squad is easily good enough to be mid-table.

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Well there's a lot to be concerned about but that's quite clearly bullsh*t.

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It is like we may as well have gone down. All the talk from Ralph about the season gone not being acceptable and starting to do business early was the usual fluff from the club. That is the way it is shaping

 

No doubt we have enquired about Arteta and other types with zero experience and very cheap

 

we will know when it is off when the ITKs here along with Jeremy Wilson start telling us Hughes was demanding too much etc. Saints spin machine is a well oiled beast

Arteta way above our level IMO. Was touted for Arsenal job.

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What a load of hysterical nonsense based on what exactly?

 

In the real world there is not a single article , tweet, sky sports ticker thing about Hughes not signing. Pretty sure if there was any truth it would have started to leak.

 

How about the reason it is delayed is because the club want a massive double announcement of a new player signing at the same time? Probably not true but more plausible.

 

Or perhaps because all parties have been working together for 8 weeks there is no rush. Transfer targets have been discussed, pre season timings agreed etc. No need to pay extra to get lawyers to work overtime to get it done.

 

I'm going to concentrate on winding scousers up about getting beat on Saturday and how they owe it all to us anyway.

The most likely scenario is that Hughes is on Holiday

The most likely scenario is that Hughes is on Holiday

They said that knowing Hughes was on holiday this week, so not sure why his holiday would now be an issue, but wasn't then?

But Saints knew he was going on holiday last Friday and he said so on Solent but they still told their media bros that an announcement would be early this week.

 

They said that knowing Hughes was on holiday this week, so not sure why his holiday would now be an issue, but wasn't then?

We're probably just starting the post-season review this morning.

Les probably has meetings planned with Emery & Tuchel next week.

The most likely scenario is that Hughes is on Holiday

Didn't we appoint David Jones while we were on holiday?

Just because a bloke is lying on a sunbed no reason why an announcement can't be made surely?

It's not as if it's going to headline grabbing anyway.

I think the delay more likely to a disagreement over funds available.

My mate at the club tells me Hughes is stalling over a, money available for incoming and b, not having full say in transfers.

No idea whatsoever if accurate.

Didn't we appoint David Jones while we were on holiday?

Just because a bloke is lying on a sunbed no reason why an announcement can't be made surely?

It's not as if it's going to headline grabbing anyway.

I think the delay more likely to a disagreement over funds available.

Agree. Everton showed Koeman holding up an Everton Shirt in the Parque do Golfe at Vale do Lobo as he has a villa nearby.

It's just a thought but, if there is to be no deal with Hughes, don't you think something would have leaked by now? Not necessarily from the club but from Hughes, his agent or his backroom team. They will all be looking for their next job and it does them no favours for prospective employers to think they are settled here.

Why don't we all calm down, stop working ourselves into a lather over the speculations of the usual ill-informed posters and wait for an announcement? I'm reasonably confident it will be Hughes but, if it isn't, it will be someone else and there's nothing much I can do about that. As a much-loved manager once said "control the controllables."

Agree. Everton showed Koeman holding up an Everton Shirt in the Parque do Golfe at Vale do Lobo as he has a villa nearby.

We employed Pellegrino while he was on holiday too.

Jesus wept there are some prize bellends on this forum. Put the keyboards down and go outside and enjoy the sun.

My mate at the club tells me Hughes is stalling over a, money available for incoming and b, not having full say in transfers.

 

No idea whatsoever if accurate.

the dead hand of a club with no ambition whatsoever, other than to pay off Gao's bills

If we have no money, is it safe to assume that we've already signed Promes? Seeing as we claimed to the press that all parties wanted it to happen and it would happen in the summer instead.

I mean, that wasn't a lie, was it? Just to appease us? I can't see the club ever putting out false statements....

Whilst I agree that the signs are that Gao has no football ambition beyond keeping the repayments on his loan rolling in, I disagree with the concept, encouraged by the media (especially Sky), that you have to spend big to be successful.

 

In recent years we've spent relatively big on Osvaldo, Ramirez, Boufal, Carrillo. How much success have they brought? The Southampton Way of finding cheaper up-and-coming players with potential before the big clubs find them, getting a few good seasons and then selling at a profit used to work. The reasons it hasn't worked recently are greedy players and greedier agents coupled with too much money in the system. We used to be able to sign players such as Mané under the radar. Now, the moment we show interest, players don't seem interested in just getting a foot on the ladder: agents tout our interest around other clubs and they want the big bucks straight away. And because there's too much money around, stupid fees are becoming commonplace.

 

The equation of how much of the VVD money us left is interesting. Of £75m, £19m + wages wasted on Carillo, probably £5-10m on agents, plus Celtic's cut. We've paid off two managers in the last year and found a bonus for MH for keeping us up. And it's reasonable to assume we budgeted for a mid-table finish and up to £20m more in prize money than we got. I can believe there's not much left.

 

I'm still not convinced there's any truth in this story, which is unsubstantiated, but something's holding things up. Hopefully a compromise can be found. We don't need a huge clear-out. Properly managed, and with two or three additions, this squad is easily good enough to be mid-table.

 

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That is far too sensible a post for many on this forum.

We employed Pellegrino while he was on holiday too.

Someone should have told him it was supposed to finish when he arrived in England.

Whilst I agree that the signs are that Gao has no football ambition beyond keeping the repayments on his loan rolling in, I disagree with the concept, encouraged by the media (especially Sky), that you have to spend big to be successful.

 

In recent years we've spent relatively big on Osvaldo, Ramirez, Boufal, Carrillo. How much success have they brought? The Southampton Way of finding cheaper up-and-coming players with potential before the big clubs find them, getting a few good seasons and then selling at a profit used to work. The reasons it hasn't worked recently are greedy players and greedier agents coupled with too much money in the system. We used to be able to sign players such as Mané under the radar. Now, the moment we show interest, players don't seem interested in just getting a foot on the ladder: agents tout our interest around other clubs and they want the big bucks straight away. And because there's too much money around, stupid fees are becoming commonplace.

 

The equation of how much of the VVD money us left is interesting. Of £75m, £19m + wages wasted on Carillo, probably £5-10m on agents, plus Celtic's cut. We've paid off two managers in the last year and found a bonus for MH for keeping us up. And it's reasonable to assume we budgeted for a mid-table finish and up to £20m more in prize money than we got. I can believe there's not much left.

 

I'm still not convinced there's any truth in this story, which is unsubstantiated, but something's holding things up. Hopefully a compromise can be found. We don't need a huge clear-out. Properly managed, and with two or three additions, this squad is easily good enough to be mid-table.

 

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The problem I see with our approach now is that transfer fees have shifted. Whilst we were picking up Lovren for £8m, Wanyama for 12m, Jay for 7, Clyne for 2.5m, Mane for 10 etc back a few years ago, players of similar calibre now are in the £25m+ bracket. We need to adjust our approach so we enter that bracket, as clubs know PL sides have money so they won't sell cheap.

What you now get for the 12-15m mark are unproven players that big clubs want to shift (Hojbjerg, Lemina, Hoedt).

As a club we need to be prepared to spend £25-30m on proven players if we want to improve positions and not just bulk up the squad. The feeling that we're seemingly not prepared to will see us left a long way behind a lot of sides.

It's a kind of depressing way to look at it, as it's still a lot of money....but it's the way this league is going.

My mate at the club tells me Hughes is stalling over a, money available for incoming and b, not having full say in transfers.

 

No idea whatsoever if accurate.

Paying off Gao's bills and Uncle Les still believing he is Gods gift, in other words.

Hughes' contract is performance related (allegedly) ... go figure.

Paying off Gao's bills and Uncle Les still believing he is Gods gift, in other words.

And you say this, with confidence, based on the word of an unnamed mate of someone you don't know? OK.

And you say this, with confidence, based on the word of an unnamed mate of someone you don't know? OK.

It fits the established behaviour pattern of the club.

Is there anything concrete about all this no money to spend upfront hearsay (i.e. Blackmore or journalist on the inside) or is it just knickers in a twist o’clock?

Is there anything concrete about all this no money to spend upfront hearsay (i.e. Blackmore or journalist on the inside) or is it just knickers in a twist o’clock?

Nothing other than our last 2 seasons of taking too long & ultimately getting our managerial appointments wrong.

My mate at the club tells me Hughes is stalling over a, money available for incoming and b, not having full say in transfers.

 

No idea whatsoever if accurate.

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Jesus wept there are some prize bellends on this forum. Put the keyboards down and go outside and enjoy the sun.

Nah, did that all last week. Now suffering from acute sunburn.:)

Why don't we all calm down, stop working ourselves into a lather over the speculations of the usual ill-informed posters and wait for an announcement?

I think perhaps the main cause for the angst is that it's not just the "usual ill-informed posters" that have suggested/hinted that the Hughes announcement would be done and dusted by now but that the usual club media organs have also implied/stated as such since the end of the season. Even dear old Ralph was dropping not so subtle hints that it was a rubberstamping exercise a couple of weeks ago.

But that said, whilst I'm curious as to why there is a percieved delay, I'm not about to join the mouth frothing brigade any time soon

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