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European football at St Mary’s


Saint George

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So Kruegar has finally nailed his vision to mast.....European qualification

 

So how do the peeps who were ridiculing Cortese for the same ambition feel about this?

 

Personally i think we had a better chance under Cortese.....This lot are gunna have to make a huge step up and restore some drive...but anythings possible for me

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Quite, Europa League and Champions League are two different things.

 

All I would say is that if they are looking to break into the top four in the future, that should be made clear to the players. We don't need to know at this stage, but they do.

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All I would say is that if they are looking to break into the top four in the future, that should be made clear to the players. We don't need to know at this stage, but they do.

 

Come on, if you're going for the Europa, you're only 3 wins away from the CL.

 

Sometimes less ;)

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I hope he does not tell the players that he wants Europe. One spiv already did that

 

And I hope he doesn't tell them that they have 20 scouts on their books as evidence of their European ambitions. Very odd example to give.

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So Kruegar has finally nailed his vision to mast.....European qualification

 

So how do the peeps who were ridiculing Cortese for the same ambition feel about this?

 

Personally i think we had a better chance under Cortese.....This lot are gunna have to make a huge step up and restore some drive...but anythings possible for me

 

yeah as others have said bit of difference between Europa and CL. If we improve again Europa league is not out the question but I'll laugh in the face of anyone who thinks we are going to break into the CL on a regular basis anytime soon.

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And I hope he doesn't tell them that they have 20 scouts on their books as evidence of their European ambitions. Very odd example to give.
almost as odd as someone telling his daily mail bum chums about taking our own mattresses to away games as an example of the southampton way ?
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I think the big difference is that Cortese and Poch wanted to qualify for the CL, avoiding if possible the Europa League. My big frustration with Poch last season was that as soon as it became clear we could not qualify for the CL, he (and by extension the side) lost interest and our form took a major dip. He even came out in the media if I remember correctly and stated that he did not want to participate in the Europa League. It seemed this also meant that he didn't want us to qualify by reaching the FA Cup final, with the result that we were woeful against Sunderland in the cup match (much to my horror as I was at the match!)

 

I hope we still desire to eventually qualify for the Champions League, but will now be prepared to make qualification for the Europa League as a stepping stone to this. We obviously need to be realistic that it is a big step to qualify for the Champions League, but we also need to recognise the amazing success of both FC Basel and Atletico Madrid, which has shown that not only can a small club qualify for a tournament like that, but it can do very well in it with the right commitment.

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In a 20-team league no club can choose one place in the table to 'target'. Each must do the best it can to win every game but league position doesn't only depend on a club's own performance; it also depends on the performances of the other teams.

As someone whose personal experience of football never rose above the Hampshire League, I'm far removed from being able to give advice about reaching European competition but an observation is that last season Saints used mainly the same 12 or 13 players to create the first 11 except for injury-forced changes. Teams that were competing in Europe had more games to play and so had a larger pool of 'first choice' players who could be swopped about more frequently.

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This is great news.

 

It means we won't have 2,000 page moans getting flushed into TMS or the Lounge for 6 months about why we picked promising Academy kids to play away to Sunderland.

 

Which, when re-visited, made interesting reading that those who wanted MP "fired" for doing that seem to be the most vociferous in venting their rage against the machine that let him go...

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oh god. Not more moronic european football claims

 

hi, meet the new boss, same as the old boss

 

We were (In my opinion) a class striker away from European football last season. The amount of games we controlled without winning, was primarily down to not taking our chances, that a killer striker probably would have. We went for it with Osvaldo - It didn't work out and 15 million was probably the ceiling of strikers we could have made.

 

The squad wont stay together this close season and of course losing MP is a huge blow - That, when wrapped up all together will almost certainly set us back in the short term (Next season) but the foundations are there to build from and depending how much and how well any money is spent, it is entirely possible that we end up with a stronger squad (On paper) than where we are today. Who we go for as a manager, could tell us an awful lot, but assuming we spend well, and the overriding "Southampton Way" is still supported the season after next could be very interesting.

 

People on here will cite the amount of points we finished below a European place this season, but from a quality perspective, we actually weren't that far away - It was just the execution that was missing.

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oh god. Not more moronic european football claims

 

hi, meet the new boss, same as the old boss

 

you do know saints played in Europe about ten years ago don't you? With a team arguably no better than, maybe not as good as, we have now? CL is too big an expectation, but Europe is exactly the sort of aim mid table teams should have.

 

Moronic indeed, Jamie.

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I couldn't care less whether we are in the Europa League or the Champions League, the goal for Saints as a progressive club should be to be competitive in all competitions. This means investment in a strong squad of players to avoid the drop that usually follows a cup win and foray into the Europa, but whether we qualify via league position or cup we should go for it. The club needs silverware and the best way to build history, gain fans, and expand has to be via the trophy cabinet - the feel good factor that followed the FA Cup win in 1976 lasted for almost a decade, and 50,000 odd fans at the JPT suggests that success, even minor success, galvanises and gives identity to the club / project. We would have beaten Arsenal in the FA Cup Final.

 

Get Yakin or Koeman in Ralph, f*ck off any player that doesn't want to be part of our trophy hunting mentality, buy quality and depth and b*lls out to win...

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I do think we were further away from European qualification last season than 8th place suggested. If we had beaten Villa and Cardiff at home instead of losing, beaten Stoke at home instead of drawing and had drawn with Tottenham instead of losing, we would have only been 9 points better off and still below Tottenham in the table so not only must we not drop as many points against 'ordinary' sides, like losing at Norwich, but we must also have more results like the brilliant 1-0 win at Anfield. It is a way to go that does need more than just holding on to what we have but strengthening as well. Maybe a sale in order to buy would make sense but I'd hope that would be one international player sale, max.

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Yep, we all know how disastrously that ended, ****ing promotion to the premier league and our best finish in the PL ever. What a spiv ****!

 

I don't think I'm being dramatic when I say it's been a total disaster.

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How dare some forum members forget to use an exclamation mark when making a sarcastic comment. It's disgraceful and is surely the fault of the current board at the club. We must make a stand against just this sort of thing or we'll find ourselves back in League 1 before we know what has happened.

 

Oh....'!' ;-)

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How dare some forum members forget to use an exclamation mark when making a sarcastic comment. It's disgraceful and is surely the fault of the current board at the club. We must make a stand against just this sort of thing or we'll find ourselves back in League 1 before we know what has happened.

 

Oh....'!' ;-)

 

Would never have happened under Cortese!!!

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Not sure losing our manager to Tottenham is indicative of a club with genuine European ambitions really.

 

it's called the `Hoddle Tactic'. Give them a manager that fails and you have one less team above you come the end of the season! Some patience is required as it's a two season approach.

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