Nordic Saint

You're right it was van Dijk and Caulker in the Liverpool game. But, the key thing is in both games we missed Fonte. We cannot afford to sell him at any price.

I agree. Selling Clyne, Wanyama, Mane and Pelle was bad but cashing in on Fonte would be terrible. Where is all the money going???

We won't face easier opposition than that all season. Watford are understandably one of the relegation favourites and erratic keeping from Gomes gifted us a goal. But, when they waltzed through the centre of the defnece for the opening goal, I thought this looks very much like when van Dijk and Yoshida played together in our 6-1 home defeat to Liverpool in the League Cup. We were very fortunate that Watford lacked the self-belief of a top team like Liverpool to press home their advantage but sat back like the relegation strugglers they are and decided to hang on. Our defence and the whole team badly missed the leadership of Fonte. If he had started, I doubt Watford would have scored. We also missed conventional central striker. Why Puel left it so late to bring Austin on only he knows. But, it suggests he doesn't know the players very well yet. When we face better teams who have players who will run at us more than Watford did, the lack of an imposing defensive midfielder like Wanyama to stop them overrrunning us is going to be even more obvious than it was yesterday. The positives were that Hojbjerg made a very promising debut and looks like a classy player and Redmond although, especially in the fuirst half not really looking like a striker, also showed a lot of promise in the 2nd half and took his chance well. Pied is an unspectacular but steady replacement for Martina. But, with Fonte, Wanyama, Mane and Pelle, we would have won that game at least 2-0. That was a game against very easy opposition, who came here with no real belief that they could win an away game against a team which finished 6th last season. The Man United game will tell us a lot more.

As I recall, Koeman was very positively received and his appointment certainly lifted fans' spirits again after the losss of Pochettino. An equivalent appointment this summer would have been Frank de Boer.

Carlos Vela was on loan at West Brom but they didn't think he was good enough for them and he spent most of the time on the subs bench so let's hope it's not him.

The lack of appreciation for the quality of Fonte from some Saints fans for our captain puzzles me. He wasn't 'a bit crap' for Portugal in the European Championship finals, was he? We are lucky to have one of the best central defenders in Europe playing for us and he's one of the main reasons we've done so well in recent years. I can fully understand why Mourinho would consider him to lead the Man United defence the way that Terry led Chelsea's. There are few other players in the world who could do it so well.

Saints have done worse. A season ticket was denied to at least one administrator of a messageboard which published views contrary to the club's own. It also appears that the club uses a PR firm to post messages on fans' messageboards as well as the comments sections at the end of Saints articles, in the form of ITK leaks. I expect a lot of clubs do it. It is a strategy in the modern business world, as exemplified by the fake reviews on amazon and Tripadvisor.

"Originally Posted by OldNick View Post Yesterday in the press Lovren and wife were mentioned and it said that Lovren was earning 16k per week. Considering we have been told that the players leave for massive wages (in football terms) perhaps we are not paying high wages as I had assumed he would have been on 20-30k at Liverpool Saint86 Saint86 is offline Registered Use We had the 14th highest wages in the league last season. From that you can take it as we are not paying massive wages. I hope the wider fanbase take note of this." The players are sold because the club wants to make money out of them. That's the way the business operates. Generally, if they are sold to a bigger club and get higher wages, they don't complain. But, the view that club's PR spin promotes through its ITK leaks etc that all of the players and managers who leave are selfish and greedy, would refuse to play if we tried to keep them and the club is letting them go reluctantly is at least 50% bullsh!t. Mane was sold because the club wanted the cash more than the player. Van Dijk and Forster or Bertrand will be sold for the same reason next summer, as it is club policy to cash in on 1 or 2 of our most valuable players every summer.

To be fair, it's not "the Liebherrs". That whole family business empire is distinct from Katharina, whose father broke away from the family business, built by his own father. The smaller Mali group of businesses he owned and left to his daughter has now been sold off by her, and all that's left is this football club. Markus wanted to own a football club. His daughter just got left with it. I think she knows her father had an emotional attachment to it and he also referred to it in his will so it must be difficult for her to sell it. Another way of looking at it is it's the only business she's got left generating an annual income. However, it is generally assumed she must have billions in the bank from busineses that have already been sold. Whether she really does, nobody knows, as Swiss banks are fairly secretive. None of the hundreds of millions of Premier League income the club has received over the last couple of years appears to have been invested in new players or the stadium and only part of the money received from the sale of players has been spent on replacements. So, it does make you wonder where all the money goes. Quite a lot must go on wages but nowhere near that much.

David John is just Sporting Life's betting expert. He's from Leeds and, unlike one of the Daily Mail reporters, doesn't have any issues with Saints.

What a great buy. He's the stikrer I've wanted us to buy for the last couple of years. We could have got him for less than half that price last year too.

Fonte won't really want to go to Everton but the club might want the big money they get offered and cash in on him while they still can and if it's made clear to him he's not really wanted here, he'll go. Later the PR spin on it will be that the player was greedy and looking for a last big pay day. He will be a massive loss to the team this season if he is sold.

Spot on. It is ridiculous, when matches are sold out, that there is a swathe of empty seats on the halfway line. The number allocated to executive boxes should be reduced.

Watford seem to have been very active in the transfer market, signing a few internationals. "The Hornets have also rejected a £37.5m bid from Shanghai SIPG for Odion Ighalo". Would we reject a bid that big for any of our players? http://www.sportinglife.com/football/transfer-centre/article/168/10331106/watford-sign-isaac-success-from-granada-for-club-record-fee

I thought it was quite d ecent performance today, especially the 2nd half. Fonte's influence on the team is enormous. Everything seems to start from him at the back. I was pleasantly surprised by Pied. He looks a tidy player and I'd expect him to be an improvment on Martina. Hojbjerg is a very good passer. Some of his long, crossfield passes reminded me of Liam Brady. Tadic looked very uncomfortable in his new position. It jsut doean't suit him. Sadly, Rodriguez looks the same as he did at the end of last season. I really wonder if he is ever going to be the player he was before he got injured. Austin came close to scoring a couple of times, which is promising. But, we very clearly need a nother pacy striker and I'm sure Puel knows that. Let's hope we get a good one and not Zaza. Overall, better than expected so I'm feeling a bit more confident about the Watford game.

Transfer fees are rising rapidly. He'll be worth at least 80 million in future. Next year we could have got 50 million for him. I was expecting this year to be his breakthrough season but more importantly for him to help us win a trophy. He's going to keep improving for the next few years. He certainly looks a better porspect than Bale did when we sold him. A player as gifted as Mane is virtually irreplaceable. We'll be very lucky to see a player that good playing for Southampton in the next 20 years. Selling him so soon, when he still had 2 years left on his contract, was a huge mistake. For those who say he doesn't try, bullsh!t. He gave 100% effort every time he took the pitch for Southampton and he would have continued to do so if we hadn't sold him.

He's certainly one of the most exciting players I've seen play for Saints in more than 50 years of going to games. Who would you rather have in your team, Mané or Pogba? I'd take Mané. He reminds me a lot of Luis Suarez. I understand the argument that have to sell our best players to the big clubs but I always think we sell them a year too soon. Young players like Mané increase rapidly in value, so even with just one year left on his contract, we'd have got a lot more for him next summer than we did this one.

Clyne, Lovren, Lallana and Mané in a side beating Barcelona at Wembley. I think within 2 years Mané will go to Barcelona or Madrid for 100 million. He's iimproving all the time and I'd have expected 20+ goals from him this season if we'd kept him. He could one day rival Bale as the best player we ever sold.

No rational person could. It's all a bit like the Stepford Wives.

Good, then maybe you can finally stop posting pathetic insults at everyone who disagrees with you. I just clicked on your previous posts and they were all pretty much the same childish stuff. It's ironic that you posted this, isn't it? by Fan The Flames Replies 3,436 Views 535,708 I'm assuming from your user name and your mild aggression that you have a very small ****.

When I saw the fixture list, I thought great, we've got Watford at home in our opening game. We could win that 4-0. This is our chance to go top of the Premier League for the first time in our history. It's a very small milestone I know but one I was looking forward to and it would give us some momentum. I'm still hoping we can pull it off. But, the loss of both Mane and Pelle and the lack of a replacement so far makes it look less likely. Even if we do bring a new striker in, it would probably be too late for him to play in our first game. We seem to have left our pre-season planning and transfer dealings a bit late this year. When last season ended, I couldn't wait for this one to begin and my expectations were that we would finish 5th this season, do well in Europe and possibly even win a cup. I think most fans shared those expectations after the 4-1 win v Palace. Season ticket sales soared and those initial sales before the loss of Koeman, Wanyama, Mane and Pelle, mean that most games will sell out this season. But, after the losses of those key players, as well as the manager some of that optimism was lost. I think this summer could have been handled better by the club. But, I'm still hoping they've got it right and we can pick up this season where we left off in May.

Totally agree. The last 3 seasons we have progressed: 8th, 7th, 6th. So, we should be aiming for 5th this season to maintain that steady progress. I concede that because of our smallish stadium size we only get the 12th biggest gates in the country but we have, apart from a short spell in the late 70s/early 80s and the last few seasons, arguably been throughout our history, for our size, one of the most underachieving clubs in the country. Most clubs of our size have a spell in their history when they win a few trophies. I feel that now is our opportunity to do just that. We should not let it slip away. It might be decades before we get another chance like this.

This is about all there is on him on Google: https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://www.zerozero.pt/player.php%3Fid%3D418747&prev=search

It's unusual for you not ro resort to personal abuse or the lowest form of wit. But, the improvment is appreciated. What we've seen of his play since he came back from his injury. I like him and think it was a real tragedy that he got injured when he did. But, since he's come back he doesn't look as sharp or as dangerous in front of goal as he was. I really hope he improves.

We seem to be targetting players who are available for 10 million or less and, sadly, nowadays, very few Premier League class players are. We might get lucky with one and a couple of others will probably be disappointments. I wonder to what extent the so-called Black Box decisions were down to Paul Mitchell. Our last really great signing, Van Dijk, was identified during his time here as we had been linked with him for more than a year. I doubt that the likes of Martina, Steckelenburg and Clasie were. Pied and McCarthy seem to have more in common with them. Redmond and Hojbjerg may be good. Let's hope they're in the Van Dijk class. I guess we'll find out this season from how Saints and Spurs respective signings turn out whether the Black Box room, with its videas and scouting reports, is a standalone sytem or whether the head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell, was the really crucial factor. There is still such a massive amount of PL prize/TV money and money from players sold in the kitty that maybe the club will concede it can afford to go up to 20 million for one key player. i think we definitely need one to replace both Mane and Pelle. Based on the available evidence, I can't see Rodriguez and Austin both lasting a full season and in the case of Rodriguez we've seen nothing yet to suggest he's the player he was before he got inhjured..