Lovren joins Liverpool - Official

[CB Fry]

Liverpool are enacting a strategy that has served other PL teams in the past...buy up near contender clubs best players to break up the squad, even if they're not really needed. It kills two birds with one stone - destroys the other team and bolsters the depth of their own squad. They knew Saints were on the brink of something big - let's face it, we stood tall against them last season - so unfortunately Saints became the natural target.

 

Unfortunately, our owners don't have the dangly bits to stand up to the bullies and use financial muscle to keep players under long contracts with the club. Not only that, but we've got decent youngsters knocking on the 1st team door waiting for their chance - the strategy is of course to sell our first team, not our Academy products. We have had it confirmed to us this summer that we are nothing but a breeding ground - that's what's "#happening'.

 

Lovren is an incidental - a player brought in to bolster the PL squad as we didn't have that quality coming through to claim a CB slot. If the funds are there and a decent player available, then he's replaceable.

Shaw and Lallana were on long contracts, one of the reasons we secured such significant fees.

 

Liverpool don't see us as rivals. Just a fantasy in your little head.

[Goatboy]

I see both sides here. Football careers are short and if Dejan wants out, to some extent, it sucks but that is ok.

 

But he has a contract with us (a well paid one!) and we brought him to the premiership and did wonders for his reputation so I think he owes us a little.

 

I would like to see us play hardball ... £24mil to a premiership side or £20mil to a foreign side. We turn to Lovren and say this is our line, if anybody wants you enough that is a fair price ... if not don't worry son, have a blinding season and next year it will be barca, juventus, city calling not spurs and liverpool.

 

Seems fair and relatively realistic right? (Ok a touch optimistic but it's how I see it)

 

This.

Also, if as KBilly suggests, the strike stories are untrue, I would like to see Dejan sue the s**t out of the Echo, Star et al.

[Saint Fan CaM]

Shaw and Lallana were on long contracts, one of the reasons we secured such significant fees.

 

Liverpool don't see us as rivals. Just a fantasy in your little head.

 

Don't be such a naive girl....if we were not important to them, why try to buy our best players. Everytime we faced them we were their rivals you dinlo.

[whelk]

Haven't ploughed through this thread but guess even the usual 'wish him all the best' , 'secure the best deal for his family' ,.give him polite applause when he returns' 'grateful for his year's service' well-wishers stop short when comes to a striking player.

I am just remembering his Spurs away performance to help me cope

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Don't be such a naive girl....if we were not important to them, why try to buy our best players. Everytime we faced them we were their rivals you dinlo.

 

Have to agree with CB Fry, the tactic you're using is what Bayern do to Dortmund, but Liverpool aren't doing that to us. The point is the players they are purchasing from us fit their system well.

[St Chalet]

Liverpool do not see themselves as our rivals. Sorry to burst some bubbles.

[MarkSFC]

IF Lovren wants out then that's disappointing an shows a lack of respect and commitment after only one season. IF he is willing to go on strike to force a move I say it's worth losing money on his purchase to make a statement and put him in the development squad. Striking within a temporary contract is pathetic. I agree with the right to strike but not in this instance, far from it. Reality check Mr Lovren IF this is what you are going to do.

 

 

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[Lallana's Left Peg]

I do not blame Lovren for wanting to leave. He joined us from a team better than us and clearly brought into the upward momentum we had with the other signings and our prospects. Right now we've shown we can't hang onto our Manager, two of our best players, and even our talisman. What is his motivation for staying? What message does that send him? He joined us ahead of interest from better teams and I would completely understand if he wants to leave.

[sadoldgit]

I do not blame Lovren for wanting to leave. He joined us from a team better than us and clearly brought into the upward momentum we had with the other signings and our prospects. Right now we've shown we can't hang onto our Manager' date=' two of our best players, and even our talisman. What is his motivation for staying? What message does that send him? He joined us ahead of interest from better teams and I would completely understand if he wants to leave.[/quote']

 

If he bought into a myth that he would get CL footbal with us more fool him. What he did was sign up for Premiership Football. What we have shown is that we have lost a manager who messed us around and replaced him with hopefully a better manager. Cortese was going to sell our "Talisman" to West Ham so no surprise that he has gone. Two other players have gone, others will come in. What does that show him? That we are exactly the same as other clubs and that people come and people go. If he goes to Liverpool and Suarez is sold what does that tell him?

[Lallana's Left Peg]

If he bought into a myth that he would get CL footbal with us more fool him. What he did was sign up for Premiership Football. What we have shown is that we have lost a manager who messed us around and replaced him with hopefully a better manager. Cortese was going to sell our "Talisman" to West Ham so no surprise that he has gone. Two other players have gone, others will come in. What does that show him? That we are exactly the same as other clubs and that people come and people go. If he goes to Liverpool and Suarez is sold what does that tell him?

 

I appreciate your positivity but I do not blame the player whatsoever for wanting to leave now. The Manager and his best team mates have now left. Why on earth would be want to stay as well when he took a step down to join us?

[notnowcato]

I appreciate your positivity but I do not blame the player whatsoever for wanting to leave now. The Manager and his best team mates have now left. Why on earth would be want to stay as well when he took a step down to join us?

 

Warming Lyon's bench to first team PL football for a side that finished 8th is not a step down... IMHO.

[OldNick]

If he bought into a myth that he would get CL footbal with us more fool him. What he did was sign up for Premiership Football. What we have shown is that we have lost a manager who messed us around and replaced him with hopefully a better manager. Cortese was going to sell our "Talisman" to West Ham so no surprise that he has gone. Two other players have gone, others will come in. What does that show him? That we are exactly the same as other clubs and that people come and people go. If he goes to Liverpool and Suarez is sold what does that tell him?

Was it not rumour about RL going to WHU I have not seen any evidence. personally i would have RL finished his career with us, but if we are going to get 4mplus for him and at his age then it was decent business.

[Lallana's Left Peg]

Warming Lyon's bench to first team PL football for a side that finished 8th is not a step down... IMHO.

 

Even then he had interest from Liverpool and Spurs last summer and we worked hard to bring him here. The summer before he was linked with Barcelona. Whilst I don't doubt whatsoever we took advantage of his situation after he had a poor season at Lyon it took those of us at the West Brom game about 10mins to work out he was far too good for us. I do think we could have hung onto him if we showed the ability to hang onto our players and push on. But right now he is our best player by far along with Schneiderlin and both have now seen our best players and Manager move on. I would understand them wanting to leave in this circumstance.

[corky morris]

Cash in, move on! All who want out can go IMHO. Build again, mid table mediocrity & hopefully a full strength side in the FA Cup!!

[notnowcato]

Players that move are 99% of the time linked to other clubs - it's a fundamental negotiating position to take. Why didn't he go to Barce, Liverpool or Spurs at the time? I suspect that the links may not have been as strong as suggested in the media.

 

Change happens but I'd be gutted if Morgan and Lovren left. They are outstanding players but they also have age on their side. IMO the club should significantly up their contracts for this coming season, ask for one more season to push us to the next level.

[Daft Kerplunk]

If Lovren goes to Liverpool, then so be it. They are legitimately one of the biggest teams in football and no-one can realistically argue with that unless they're only aware of the Man Utd. years. If he goes to Spurs, then that would be a big blow even though they are bigger than us with a more successful history, they are not really that close to the top in terms of european success. it'd be better if he went to Barcelona out of anyone.

 

As Saints fans, we need to hope that this transfer window is a blip where we lose some players who bought into a different vision of the club's last regime and that we get players in who want to create something else, possibly even ore successful but that might take a bit longer to achieve. It is possible to do if the club vision is consistent and strong. It would also be much better if we as fans, didn't get attached to players, and the shirt became absolute. The current culture of hero worship of players is what leads to this disappointment and feeling of rejection when they leave. It's highly unlikely that they love the club, just as employees don't usually love a company they work for but whilst they are part of it, as long as they do their best, then fine. They are doing a job for the shirt, and whoever is in the shirt gets our support but not individual adulation. With players like Lallana the fan adulation has been counter-productive and clearly and his agent thought that it would see fans backing him and not the club. He forgot what side fans are on, but that's also partly our fault for putting players on a pedestal. We fans should be comfortable with the idea of players moving on though as once they've left, and ultimately, always welcome them back to realise that the club is bigger than them and always will be. It's a more positive way of making the team the star.

[Matthew Le God]

Amy Lewis ‏@SkySportsAmy 1m

LFC have not gone above £18m for Dejan Lovren I'm told. Saints value him as their best player & won't accept less than £25m #LFC #saintsfc

[hypochondriac]

Amy Lewis ‏@SkySportsAmy 1m

LFC have not gone above £18m for Dejan Lovren I'm told. Saints value him as their best player & won't accept less than £25m #LFC #saintsfc

 

Heard this before. Expect him to be off to pool at some point for an undisclosed fee.

[Wes Tender]

Even then he had interest from Liverpool and Spurs last summer and we worked hard to bring him here. The summer before he was linked with Barcelona. Whilst I don't doubt whatsoever we took advantage of his situation after he had a poor season at Lyon it took those of us at the West Brom game about 10mins to work out he was far too good for us. I do think we could have hung onto him if we showed the ability to hang onto our players and push on. But right now he is our best player by far along with Schneiderlin and both have now seen our best players and Manager move on. I would understand them wanting to leave in this circumstance.

 

It's hard to take you as seriously somehow, now that the player you have named yourself after has proven to be a greedy, egotistical git, threatening to never play for us again to gain his move to Liverpool. And bingo, if reports are to be believed, here is another player threatening the same action to gain a move to where? Ah, yes, Liverpool. Lallana thought that he was too good for us and here you are saying that Lovren is far too good for us too. He might be capable of not looking out of place in the top club team, but frankly I resent the implication that he is too good for us. Citing other teams that were allegedly after him when we were making overtures holds little water; after all, he chose us. One would have thought that any player would have gone to Barcelona over us, wouldn't they? It is rather suggestive of his agent trying to inflate his purchase price by mentioning other interested parties, is it not?

 

The truth is, his career was a bit in the doldrums at Lyon and he resurrected it with us and now wants to jump ship for a glory team. Whereas I don't blame him or Lallana, or Shaw for wanting to improve their lot at a bigger club, the way that he appears to think that he can achieve that, stinks as much as Lallana's actions did.

 

So we lose our manager, and a couple of players comprising a ageing striker returning to his roots, a young academy product prodigy and Lallana, and Lovren somehow without discussing the club's ambitions with Reed or the new manager, believes that the pie in the sky ambitions that persuaded him to join us, are no longer in existence. What needs to happen, is that he has a week or two before he returns to us from the World Cup and and when he does, he hopefully finds that as well as hiring a better manager than Pochettino, we will have also signed up a better striker than Lambert and a better midfielder than Lallana. Then he can sit down with Reed and Koeman, who should be able to persuade him that our ambitions are undiminished.

 

If the truth of the matter is that like Lallana he wishes to leave because he has had his head turned by excessive wage offers from Glory clubs, then the club should play hardball with him, point out that he had signed a lengthy contract and hold him to it. If he wishes to stain his career by gaining a reputation as a maverick, prepared to renege on his contract by blackmailing his club, then I would be delighted if we were prepared to make an example of him.

[angelman]

If he wishes to stain his career by gaining a reputation as a maverick, prepared to renege on his contract by blackmailing his club, then I would be delighted if we were prepared to make an example of him.

 

Don't be naive. How is he going to stain his career by forcing a move from Saints to Liverpool? Sure a few thousand Saints fans will be upset, but wow, who cares?

[Saint Charlie]

Out of any of the players Lovren is the one we should kick up the most fuss about. He only joined a year ago and we have massively boosted his profile. Deserve to get a big fee for him, and to be honest anything north of 20m is a great financial deal for us.

[Mallagroth]

If Lovren goes to Liverpool, then so be it. They are legitimately one of the biggest teams in football and no-one can realistically argue with that unless they're only aware of the Man Utd. years. If he goes to Spurs, then that would be a big blow even though they are bigger than us with a more successful history, they are not really that close to the top in terms of european success. it'd be better if he went to Barcelona out of anyone.

 

On account of my youff etc, I looked up some wikipedia articles on Liverpool and table finishes. According to the wiki articles we seemed to do pretty well in the 80's too as did Notts Forest and QPR. BTW who counts as an illegitimately big team?

[Fitzhugh Fella]

25m is a good price again. But, hard to get excited about it. Morgan will go for 20m+ too, so rumoured 30m to spend and a further 100m in sales.

 

We aren't going to spend £130m.

 

Can't see that especially as we seem to be struggling to sign 2 sub £10m players at the moment

[Dig Dig]

Can't see that especially as we seem to be struggling to sign 2 sub £10m players at the moment

 

And based on that ratio we would have to sign about 14 players to spend it all. I think we will end up spending between 30-40M.

[Saint_Tony]

So sky sports reporting we're in negotiations with Liverpool. This is beyond a joke now, we might as well take the squad up to Liverpool and let them have whoever they like. At least that might speed things up so we can focus on bringing players in.It's absolutely sickening, we're the biggest joke in football right now

[Lallana's Left Peg]

It's hard to take you as seriously somehow, now that the player you have named yourself after has proven to be a greedy, egotistical git, threatening to never play for us again to gain his move to Liverpool. And bingo, if reports are to be believed, here is another player threatening the same action to gain a move to where? Ah, yes, Liverpool. Lallana thought that he was too good for us and here you are saying that Lovren is far too good for us too. He might be capable of not looking out of place in the top club team, but frankly I resent the implication that he is too good for us. Citing other teams that were allegedly after him when we were making overtures holds little water; after all, he chose us. One would have thought that any player would have gone to Barcelona over us, wouldn't they? It is rather suggestive of his agent trying to inflate his purchase price by mentioning other interested parties, is it not?

 

The truth is, his career was a bit in the doldrums at Lyon and he resurrected it with us and now wants to jump ship for a glory team. Whereas I don't blame him or Lallana, or Shaw for wanting to improve their lot at a bigger club, the way that he appears to think that he can achieve that, stinks as much as Lallana's actions did.

 

So we lose our manager, and a couple of players comprising a ageing striker returning to his roots, a young academy product prodigy and Lallana, and Lovren somehow without discussing the club's ambitions with Reed or the new manager, believes that the pie in the sky ambitions that persuaded him to join us, are no longer in existence. What needs to happen, is that he has a week or two before he returns to us from the World Cup and and when he does, he hopefully finds that as well as hiring a better manager than Pochettino, we will have also signed up a better striker than Lambert and a better midfielder than Lallana. Then he can sit down with Reed and Koeman, who should be able to persuade him that our ambitions are undiminished.

 

If the truth of the matter is that like Lallana he wishes to leave because he has had his head turned by excessive wage offers from Glory clubs, then the club should play hardball with him, point out that he had signed a lengthy contract and hold him to it. If he wishes to stain his career by gaining a reputation as a maverick, prepared to renege on his contract by blackmailing his club, then I would be delighted if we were prepared to make an example of him.

 

You resent the implication he is too good for us? Deal with it. He is. We signed a great player and he is clearly destined for better things than we can ever offer him. You seem pragmatic enough to understand Saints' place in the football pyramid so what makes you think for one second we can hang onto him? The idea that we could make an example of him is laughable. I'm as gutted as anyone else about the way they are going about this but strong reports emerged at the start of the summer about how the Board were not communicating with the players about their plans etc. So the club isn't faultless as far as I am concerned. Maybe this can be a lesson to them that when they have some good players they may want to let them know what is happening otherwise they'll just up sticks and force a move. We've already had two players do it to us this summer.

[hypochondriac]

So sky sports reporting we're in negotiations with Liverpool. This is beyond a joke now, we might as well take the squad up to Liverpool and let them have whoever they like. At least that might speed things up so we can focus on bringing players in.It's absolutely sickening, we're the biggest joke in football right now

 

Very predictable and all the talk of not being for sale and only accepting huge fees seems like another pr move to appease the fans. This is sickening.

[Saint Without a Halo]

Heard this before. Expect him to be off to pool at some point for an undisclosed fee.

 

This getting fing ridiculous I have supported Saints for 50 years and we have had some good teams and players. We have always sold one or two! but I have never seen anything like this, where all our key players are for sale 4 weeks before the season begins. If this continues they will have to reduce the size of the kit to fit our under 12's as they will be the only ones left!

 

Surely we cannot contemplate spending 130m in 4 weeks that is over 30m a week!

At this rate the cardboard cut outs will be the only players left at the new training ground!

[S-Clarke]

Very predictable and all the talk of not being for sale and only accepting huge fees seems like another pr move to appease the fans. This is sickening.

 

If an elite club want one of our players to the point whereby they put substantial money on the table, for both player and club, then they will leave.

 

It's not hard to understand....we're only Southampton.

 

The only thing that seriously ****es me off about all of this is why we didn't do any better. 5 players could go for £100m and didn't do anything in the cups. A total waste of a season looking back now.

[saint_ed]

We should learn from the mistakes of Man Utd last summer. They needed to buy 5/6 players yet could only push one or two over the line once they had paid extortionate fees.

[Saint_Tony]

Very predictable and all the talk of not being for sale and only accepting huge fees seems like another pr move to appease the fans. This is sickening.

Yes, it's all well and good saying we will only accept x amount for a player, but we all know Les Reed will eventually bow down to the mighty Liverpool, followed by an explanation that we got a good fee and will invest it in the squad. But fear not! The stripes are back so everything is good right now at SFC

[Lallana's Left Peg]

Yes, it's all well and good saying we will only accept x amount for a player, but we all know Les Reed will eventually bow down to the mighty Liverpool, followed by an explanation that we got a good fee and will invest it in the squad. But fear not! The stripes are back so everything is good right now at SFC

 

Reed deserves the transfer window to do his work but I must admit I am very worried about him having such a transfer kitty at his disposal. I am desperate to be proved wrong!

[Badger]

Heard this before. Expect him to be off to pool at some point for an undisclosed fee.

 

So sky sports reporting we're in negotiations with Liverpool. This is beyond a joke now, ...

 

Yes, it's all well and good saying we will only accept x amount for a player, but we all know Les Reed will eventually bow down to the mighty Liverpool, followed by an explanation that we got a good fee and will invest it in the squad. But fear not! The stripes are back so everything is good right now at SFC

 

It's disappointing that we seem incapable of maintaining a "not for sale.. " stance from the outset and adhering to it.

 

Despite whatever good Les Reed is doing elsewhere, he and 'the board' are proving to be feeble when it comes to negotiations of players leaving. Hope they prove their worth on incoming players but I'm not holding my breath.

 

KL was ill advised in not bringing in a CEO with more football experience in my view.

[Whitey Grandad]

New manager, new team. Simple.

[Big Bad Bob]

So sky sports reporting we're in negotiations with Liverpool. This is beyond a joke now, we might as well take the squad up to Liverpool and let them have whoever they like. At least that might speed things up so we can focus on bringing players in.It's absolutely sickening, we're the biggest joke in football right now

 

Very predictable and all the talk of not being for sale and only accepting huge fees seems like another pr move to appease the fans. This is sickening.

 

Of course we're in negotiations with Liverpool, they've offered us 2 amounts which we've rejected, we've said we want £25m or you can do one...isn't that the definition of the word??

[Dig Dig]

If an elite club want one of our players to the point whereby they put substantial money on the table, for both player and club, then they will leave.

 

It's not hard to understand....we're only Southampton.

 

The only thing that seriously ****es me off about all of this is why we didn't do any better. 5 players could go for £100m and didn't do anything in the cups. A total waste of a season looking back now.

 

I don't buy into the concept of us being completely powerless. Everyone who has gone or will go are one very good and long contracts and ultimately we should be looking at the best interests of the club. I can accept 1 or 2 but there should he no expectations around losing 5 key first team players in one window. The club set our stall out earlier in the year and now this is the end result.

[Saint_Tony]

We may well have said we want £25m, but what are the odds he leaves for less than that? Long odds on I would say

[sadoldgit]

Every player has his price. I would like us to play hardball with Lovren but at the end of the day is someone is prepared to pay over the odds we can get shot of someone who doesnt want to be here for someone who does. Lovren is good but he is not that good.

[Dig Dig]

New manager, new team. Simple.

 

So that's the blue print every year to 18 months is it?

[S-Clarke]

It's disappointing that we seem incapable of maintaining a "not for sale.. " stance from the outset and adhering to it.

 

Despite whatever good Les Reed is doing elsewhere, he and 'the board' are proving to be feeble when it comes to negotiations of players leaving. Hope they prove their worth on incoming players but I'm not holding my breath.

 

KL was ill advised in not bringing in a CEO with more football experience in my view.

 

I don't know what people expect though. We've got a world record deal for a left back, an incredible fee all being told, and a pretty shiny £25m for a 26 year old.

 

The club doesn't want to sell, it doesn't need to sell - but the players want to go. I posted a quote on here from Morgan from last year, which was along the lines of ''If NC and MP go, then it will bring all players positions into question' - so that's what's happened. They bought the waffle NC fed them, and it was waffle because it wasn't his money he was trying to achieve it with. He should be bloody crtisisied for building up this mutiny as much as anyone else. He created an unhealthy environment full of promises and ambitions that weren't going to happen.

 

He didn't have the finance and KL didn't have the finance, so why was he banging on about winning the league?

 

At the end of the day, as I've said, elite club wants player - they go. Barca want Suarez - he goes. Chelsea want Torres - he goes. PSG want Luiz - he goes. We got ourselves into quite a unique position by having so many players that elite clubs are after, and as we're not an elite club ourselves, it's almost impossible to bat the interest away.

 

What is happening now would have happened whoever was here. We hit a glass ceiling, we cannot break that glass ceiling, so the best players will leave and go their separate ways. NC knew what was going to happen. Trust me.

[sadoldgit]

Was it not rumour about RL going to WHU I have not seen any evidence. personally i would have RL finished his career with us, but if we are going to get 4mplus for him and at his age then it was decent business.

 

It was a very strong rumour. It was also said that RL was upset and didnt want to go. KL was said to have squashed the rumoured deal. Not seen anything which says otherwise.

[S-Clarke]

I don't buy into the concept of us being completely powerless. Everyone who has gone or will go are one very good and long contracts and ultimately we should be looking at the best interests of the club. I can accept 1 or 2 but there should he no expectations around losing 5 key first team players in one window. The club set our stall out earlier in the year and now this is the end result.

 

There have been a few dim comments in the media fro Ralf, opening up the door per say - but this would have happened anyway. The players clearly want out, Lallana saying he doesn't want to play for us any more, ditto Lovren - so what can the club do? Keep a player after the transfer window, on 40k p/w, who doesn't actually play? It would be a dim move.

 

If the player is, at is seems, that desperate to leave then it's up to the club to get the best possible deal they can. They can reject it if they want, but the players have set their stool out and IMO have come across as complete and utter pillocks.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

If an elite club want one of our players to the point whereby they put substantial money on the table, for both player and club, then they will leave.

 

It's not hard to understand....we're only Southampton.

 

The only thing that seriously ****es me off about all of this is why we didn't do any better. 5 players could go for £100m and didn't do anything in the cups. A total waste of a season looking back now.

 

100% this. Either the players aren't actually as good as the money we're getting for them (which I suspect they're not) or Pochettino was a failure on Moyes level last season.

[S-Clarke]

100% this. Either the players aren't actually as good as the money we're getting for them (which I suspect they're not) or Pochettino was a failure on Moyes level last season.

 

I think he was a bit of a failure, we should have won something with the group we had. Great players. 8th means diddly squat, we might as well have finished 15th based on what's happening now.

[saint_ed]

I think he was a bit of a failure, we should have won something with the group we had. Great players. 8th means diddly squat, we might as well have finished 15th based on what's happening now.

 

I'm not sure we can call him a failure. Ultimately the squad depth is the reason we didn't win something IMO. Arguably the fault of the whole committee?

[S-Clarke]

I'm not sure we can call him a failure. Ultimately the squad depth is the reason we didn't win something IMO. Arguably the fault of the whole committee?

 

I don't think you can blame the squad depth for the cups tbh. He put out weak teams in the cups, for some reason. Then put the 1st team back out in the following league game.

 

The league - totally, the depth wasn't there to go any further or sustain our start, but in the 2nd half of the season the priority should have been in the cups as it was obvious we were safe in the league and not really in danger of dropping out of the top 10. Not sure a club such as ours will ever have such a ''free run'' at a cup!

[Goatboy]

There have been a few dim comments in the media fro Ralf, opening up the door per say - but this would have happened anyway. The players clearly want out, Lallana saying he doesn't want to play for us any more, ditto Lovren - so what can the club do? Keep a player after the transfer window, on 40k p/w, who doesn't actually play? It would be a dim move.

 

If the player is, at is seems, that desperate to leave then it's up to the club to get the best possible deal they can. They can reject it if they want, but the players have set their stool out and IMO have come across as complete and utter pillocks.

 

Sounds like a load of s**t to me.

[OldNick]

There have been a few dim comments in the media fro Ralf, opening up the door per say - but this would have happened anyway. The players clearly want out, Lallana saying he doesn't want to play for us any more, ditto Lovren - so what can the club do? Keep a player after the transfer window, on 40k p/w, who doesn't actually play? It would be a dim move.

 

If the player is, at is seems, that desperate to leave then it's up to the club to get the best possible deal they can. They can reject it if they want, but the players have set their stool out and IMO have come across as complete and utter pillocks.

the problem is that any player we are looking to buy will be looing and seeing our squad decimated. To somebody outside would then perhaps think they were joining a relegation threatened season and may look at other offers. Perhaps NC vision he used to get some decent players to join is now not being used and Reed etc cannot persuade quality to come here. The next fortnight will show how much NC's departure has hurt us. I accept some players would have left for big wages but all of them???

[S-Clarke]

the problem is that any player we are looking to buy will be looing and seeing our squad decimated. To somebody outside would then perhaps think they were joining a relegation threatened season and may look at other offers. Perhaps NC vision he used to get some decent players to join is now not being used and Reed etc cannot persuade quality to come here. The next fortnight will show how much NC's departure has hurt us. I accept some players would have left for big wages but all of them???

 

But what vision? It was a vision in his head, but using someone else's money. It was never going to happen. He now looks like the god of Southampton, but the reality is that he's created what we're seeing now.

[hypochondriac]

Of course we're in negotiations with Liverpool, they've offered us 2 amounts which we've rejected, we've said we want £25m or you can do one...isn't that the definition of the word??

 

Seems unlikely we would be that strong in negotiations. After all, we weren't with Adam or Luke or rickie.