Giordano

If the question is "whats happening about Mopo?" then is it any wonder there is nothing to say to players, staff and supporters? And, to be honest, since when is it the prerogative in any world apart from the loopy loo land of pro football for its employees to demand answers from the owner on anything? So, a number of staff cannot get the answers they want from the Board. Put another way- the Board are not telling them anything/or what they want to hear. Deary me, next it will be the catering staff leaking that they " cannot get the answers they want" from the Board, or the groundsman. Players are employees ~ like the cleaners accountants ticket office people and receptionists. You go to work and you do your job the way your manager asks you to do it for the money they agreed to pay you. So you hear a rumour your line manager is leaving. So? Get on with doing your job. If you want to leave as well leave but until a rumour is a reality and it might affect you job in some way- positive or negative who knows - are you really going to get funny because the board are not giving you the answers you want to hear? Lets rewind a little to when Nigel went- or was about to be got rid of. Did the players do this "im not getting answers sh+t??"...and if at that time NC had said " yeah actually im getting this unknown argentinian guy in instead who does not speak english " what affect would that have on players? Exactly. Its another example of professional footballers thinking they are above normal working people. They are not. They are staff like everyone else, special staff its true, but staff nevertheless. They should stick to doing what their contracts tell them to do at those astronomical wages of theirs or go find another job.

Thank you red&white56. AS Roma fell away a little bit right at the endthis season but I was genuinely surprised at how well they did despite getting rid of nearly $100M worth of talent in a short space of time plus losing an obviously talented super-coach now confirmed as Barca new coach. SFC could lose over $100M worth of talent and an obviously talented super-coach within a short period of time too....LS is $40M, Adz $30M, Osvaldo is $15M and Morgan or Dejan no less than $25m but put a Saints tracksuit on Yakin, and a few striped red shirts on Caulker, Schmeichel, Swansea's Jones and probably someone exciting like the Swiss international winger/MF Shaqiri to follow countryman Yakin as a replacement for Adz plus one mega CF (Mandzukic?) and would we struggle next season???

Yup Weston and stthrobber...I could'nt agree more. Nobody serious gobs off about who they are going to buy or sell in public neither do they rabbit on about when and how any negotiations or contracts with current or forthcoming players are going unless they want to pay double or are ignorant or disrespectful and / or lack professionalism. Our suicide brigade want Saints to be all four ~ probably because they suffer from ignorance of how things are in the commercial real world ~ and in addition I suspect that the nappy rash has started to burn a bit much and its gone to the head. A statement saying " we don't like all those clubs / media saying they want to buy our players" or "we are going to buy the best players in the world" are worse than useless. When there's something to say it will be said. Until then, please stop crying over nothing.

You should avoid sacking very popular long term ex club captains at all costs. If they have to go then they should always be allowed to resign somehow. If it's a sacking he's either been and done something really bad or SFC have been very clumsy. The team results do not warrant him being sacked. If that's the reason it is surely unreasonable to do so with a squad as fluid as his and the development expertise already evident? It's obvious all Saints fans respect JD so IF it's not the former then it's an unwise move by the powers that be.

Apparently two staff sacked- via Alan Nixon.

Is it interesting? It might be comparable though i am in no way saying saints are anywhere in the same league as AS Roma of course, but its an interesting situation to observe and certain aspects may happen or are about to happen at SFC.. So: Roma were involved in a big US inspired investment group takeover about 3 years ago. Recent league finishes were 6th in 2008-09, 2nd in 2009-10, 6th again in 2010-11, 7th in 2011-12 (when they got taken over) 6th in 2012-13 and 2nd this season. What caught my attention was that within the first year or so of that new Debenedetto regime As Roma made some interesting decisions. As a consequence in the first full season they finished 6th under the new regime and this year they came 2nd. What were the interesting decisions? (1) They dumped the hot shot Manager Luis Enrique (you may have heard of him, he is now about to become the next barcelona coach..). They brought in Luis Garcia from Lille who at the time were playing attractive attacking football under him. (2) They bought then sold the Brazilian international Marquinhos to PSG. He was supposedly the best defender in Italy after one season at Roma. But they sold him for treble what they paid after a year. (3) They sold there leading goal scorer from last season. A certain Pablo Osvaldo who had broken into the Italian National team whilst at Roma. (4) They bought and sold Erik Lamela from River Plate. The next great argentinan player. They unloaded him to Spurs for double after a year. (5) They bought and sold Borini for double what they paid in about a year when he went to Liverpool. (6) They bought Pjanic, Destro, Benatia and Strootman ~ all improved further and are easily top level stars much in demand (but strootman broke his leg i think so will not be going anywhere a while). (7) They kept Club idols De Rossi and Totti on ridiculously stratospheric wages. Now im not saying we should become like Roma - a bit of buying and selling and improving and selling on as main role of football club and win matches along the way - that's the typical italian seria A model of the last 5 years frankly, but in Italy it would not be regarded as quite so unusual to see Mopo off this season to a "higher" club or a number of good players sold (even young ones) if it was at a good price and left funds to buy some promising new ones from the market as long as the core was kept right. In our case the core would be idols like Adz and Rickie, the sellable assets people like Luke and Dejan and the next ones to buy (and improve) players like Caulker and Schmeichel..A new coach could easily be that promising young (swiss...hmmm...) coach who did so well for Basle last year for instance~ Murat Yakin ... I'm not advocating doing that - just showing that's how others do work- and work successfully if you see they came 2nd last year (albeit in a weak league), so there are different operating models available.

It strikes me that Mopo is a tough competitor. At whatever he does -be it as a plAyer or as a manager or in negotiating the best deal for his future. Should saints fans be taking umbrage at someone who is like that and should they be surprised at how difficult he is to " get one over"? It is his nature and part of why he is so good at doing what he does. When and if he is back with z new deal at SMS expect that same attitude -but this time focused totally on Saints behalf. If his optimism about his value exceeded the reality and exceeded the historical upwards gradient line of results achieved them i would criticise him and say he was foolishly unrealistic but he is not and he is just " playing the game" and playing it very well. There is no disrespect in doing the best you can for yourself when it is the time to do so. For the next 5 years in return i would, if i wasKL, expectvthat he would sacrifice himself totally to make Saints the best they can be too. So-if he stays -brilliant, if he goes, so be it but i hope it is not the high water mark of saints time as an " ambitious" club...

As as silly example of what you can buy out there with the kind of figures bandied around for Adam and Luke: He would not join us BUT Mario Balotelli is 24 years old. He would cost about £23-£25M. Milan need cash. Salary is about £4m per year so would have to up that to say £6m per year. In other words its what we could spend the Adz(£20M) and Osvaldo (£10m) money on if we really wanted to with hardly any net difference to overall payroll or level of debt. Saints could actually buy in the big boys shop if they wanted to. I'm 99.9% certain we will not be shopping in the big boys shop but i thought it might be worth pointing out for those of a less nervous disposition.

Big news that. Monaco is a big project alright with lotsamoney. Newcastle, ahem, I don't think that a good match now that Mopo speaks perfect English ~ he will have to learn Geordie ( and French) the former far harder than English or French to speak let alone understand. :-)

Hes brilliant. I loved the way Chile played at Wembley against England. I love the style and the attitude. Victory of attitude, tactics and team culture over individual brilliance, truly the exemplar of how the little teams can beat the so called big teams full of superstars. And they played like that away to Germany recently too. Finishing third in south american group is pretty good too after shocking start. They are utterly fearless and as persistent as f8ck. If he is available after the WC he's an absolute upgrade on Mopo and a perfect fit as you say with our current culture. I expect Chile to do well and would not surprise me at all if they knocked Holland out of group B and pressed Spain very close indeed for first place. Id still rather keep Mopo of course!

Good points- but we have got more than three players at the World Cup - Uruguay, Italy, Japan and Croatia all will have a Southampton player. Its not inconceivable that Southampton have the most players in England's entire group as there are five in total just there.

Stevie Williams. That is all.

There must be another specialist right back in the seven on standby. There must be. If Kyle Walker is out then surely there is a possible chance for Clyne or Chambers on standby? The Liverpool kid got taken off and I know Jenkinson scored yesterday but seriously....who else is there?

If you MAKE a final squad for your country it is arguable that the greatest transfer value that the owner club may achieve for you, and indeed for the vast majority of the players attending WC, will be BEFORE they even kick a ball. There can be only one winner and 30 odd losers. a small bunch of reputations enhanced, a bigger bunch no change and a larger bunch decreased. Being PICKED for the Costa Rica squad will be the highlight of your career for example because afterwards the 95% certainty is you will return to virtual anonymity. Extreme example but you know what i mean. If i asked the knowledgeable saints fans on this site if they could even name Germany or Holland's midfield and defence I doubt many could... Of course if Luke Shaw or Adz play and score a hat-trick against Italy it's a different matter but it is going to be very hard for them to get into the first team let alone do anything but keep up ~ and just getting out of the group should be regarded as a good result for England such is the high level out there with the heat and the pressure etc. The reality is that neither of them or Rickie (if selected) are even guaranteed to kick a ball and it would not be a major surprise if our Southampton players accumulate zero or very limited playing time out there. There is the other way of looking at it as well though : the owner might, in doing her due diligence in assessing the situation, ask herself this question : IF England pick our players, they don't play but are knocked out early ( ie we are shown up as not very good) what would it say+do about the Saints players who could not even get on the pitch- and their transfer value? £50million for Adz and Luke might become a lot less, perhaps. So it could quite literally be a £10million question looked at in that way. Hopefully she understands though that the EPL is a special case and that we have got EPL proven top talents whatever happens at the WC. That suggests strongly to me that whatever England and our boys do in the WC we will still be able to get big bucks from Man utd and Liverpool afterwards. Indeed if anything there is upwards potential as Adz might just score a few or Luke release a left foot thunderbolt.. so theres no pressure to sell ahead of the vfinals really unless its to generate the funds to purchase...and that's what i'm most worried about. The other question she would ask (with RK and LR) is what and who do we spend the £50m on - and do they bring guaranteed ability, continuity and propagation of club status as symbols of the Southampton Way like Mopo Adz, Rickie and Luke do if they stay? And how much is losing that going to cost versus the risks of recruiting new players and a new manager? If we release key players will the manager want to go as well? We might make £50m alright, we might lose Mopo alright, we might spend £40m on some new players and manager and coaches alright...but any guarantee they will do the biz? There no guarantees in football but if you keep the current team that represents overall the best chance we have of replicating this year and improving on it ~ in my opinion. And that means plenty £££ needs to be spent on additions. It needs to be am ambitious "project" though....do KL and RK know what an ambitous project is when viewed through the eyes of our current squad and manager though ....I'm not so sure on that..

Nice work as usual. I enjoy your writing style and your lack of subjective bias and total objectivity :-). You support Saints, so when you write about them it comes from the heart. The reader knows where he stands, no subplot secret agenda, you can appreciate the article for what it is ~ or you do not, but you cannot say "well he would say that wouldn't he because he supports them" because it's a given. And as an aside, in what is a bizarre quirk of human nature probably shared by many a Saints fan, if you are a true saints fan its actually ok to criticize your team in front of non saints fans (within reason), but if you are not, then its not ok and you can fark right arf...:-) . So you are perfectly entitled by that reasoning to criticize them on occasion, but some mugs in the national press - no they are not.

Thanks for the info Derry. I've always felt that MP has got too strong a hand for any delay to be purely down to how much he wants to get paid for himself (and his coaches as a collective i would assume lets not forget) and everyone should really know this by now. It really cannot be about his (and his coaches, physios and sports scientists etc.) pay packages because Saints would pay a large premium to renew and retain him and his team for the next 5 years+ knowing that this is exactly what the players and the fans want and which is best for continuity and growing this team momentum. The delay, for me, is simply about two things :1. SAINTS TRANSFER BUDGET. The size of the budget is a good barometer of the scope for Mopo to grow himself and this team further. The bigger it is, the more likely he will stay. 2. MOPO ALTERNATIVE EMPLOYMENT OPTIONS. In a nutshell: What other clubs are there with attractive ambitious footballing projects with budgets to match wishing him to join as their new head coach. This would have a personal financial aspect but it is not the be all and end all for him because professional development is more important than money to him at his level. He is someone growing an excellent international reputation and will be paid accordingly in due course. One day he will probably want to manage Argentina national team for example and/or a Real Madrid or a Milan for example. Footballers are not the only ones with ambition - young coaches have it too so if there's an interesting project out there then that's a possible. I can think of a couple off the bat : Monaco and Milan. With luck I hope he stays and so do the team. I hope we get to spend a "net" extra £35M without letting any of our star players go, if that's the budget, (ie its not £35m but we sold MS or LS to fund it) because for that we can get 4 or 5 good players to add to current squad and that could make a significant difference to the capability of the team next year. We all know the main positions that need strengthening.

I was there in 1984 and if I was at the front I'd have been on the pitch to be honest. it happened. But c'mon let's get over it. Everton are Everton. When we finish above them next year I for one will will feel satisfied. Saintly regards Giordano

Moyes is a top notch EPL manager. If he was at Saints I would be extremely proud and happy. He is a decent man and would be just right for solidifying us into that just below top five area I think - based on what he did for Everton. He would be a safe pair of hands if we lost Mopo and that might just appeal to the owner.I don't buy all that negative football rubbish. His results and EPL finishes speak for themselves.The players he had were never as good as all that but his results were. But I don't think we are the kind of club for him and as others have intimated - arousing other sleeping giants like Newcastle might be more his new role. Playing a high risk new style with loads of very young players is not in his DNA and it now seems very much the "Southampton Way" - so for that reason i think its unlikely he will ever manage at SMS. It might be good for him to go the the Bundesliga or similar to show that he CAN do it. If Mopo left i would not be surprised to see another young manager in there of foreign extraction but with a similar perspective. We have seen they do not even need to speak English. But they do need to be in a hurry to impress and probably managed elsewhere to a good degree of success. They should also be able to think global in line with Krueger and be highly intelligent - not just a "football" person. I think that rules out a lot of spurious candidates but also rules in a number that some here would not even dream of being possible - mainly from overseas.

Yes i guess so regarding lambert - he does play young english players but they are not as good as ours! Villa have been very up and down this season - perhaps the kids are not disciplined enough to obey his orders consistently is more the problem. Beating arsenal away for instance great result but benteke is not the same player of last season and Allbrighton and delph only plays one good match every three...

I think you missed one - Lovren. He was going nowhere playing in France despite promise and international caps yet appeared World Class at times playing at Saints under Poch. Most interesting for me was not only has Poch picked young players - as he said he would - but that he also got a lot out of older players. I am not certain of the stats but am fairly confident we played the youngest team in the EPL this year and had the most English teenagers on the pitch at the same time for more minutes than any other team this season. And we finished likely eighth. What will they be like next season with this year under their belts and no doubt a few more pushing through from below? What other manager would have been doing that with the yoof in the EPL? Poch has got a recognizable style and it includes playing domestic yoof - something which is rapidly becoming a must-have quality teams are looking for in the ffp times of elite level football.. Lets have a look at a few of the other contenders: Fat Sam? You got to be kidding me. He has one of the best young talents in english football in Ravel Morrison and he loans him out! Mourinho? You cannot be serious. Ryan Bertrand plays for Everton as does Lukaku. Jack Cork is a Saint. JM is no good for young english players. period. Martinez- yeah hes ok with the yoof. Pellegrino: not a chance. The closest he gets is letting his youngish english cb get splinters wasting a great potential. Pardew-yes- if they are french.But hes not got long left before hes sacked... Wenger- yes he has got principles + does try - in capital cup and at least he knows a good young english player when he sees one... wilshire oxo and theo are good young players. Many of his foreign young ones are hit and miss though... Rodgers: yeah he's good too. A bit easier when you got suarez and gerrard to build a team around I'd say though. Bruce, Hughes and Pulis - get outta here. Moyes: not really. Nice guy but bit tactically limited and who apart from Janusci has he got through this year? And thats only a few minutes here and there. Even the young english contingent of man utd players all look mediocre at best this season. Not one has "moved up"- even Welbeck - whilst others notably went backwards... Villas boas/sherwood: nah, S is just picking his best players available and asking them to play whilst AVB was all style no substance at spurs. Lambert: tactically inept. Gus Poetry in motion. lol. nope. nope. nope. Chris Hughton: nope- how can you NOT play Redmond if he's a norwich player in that team? Has to start has to be developed has to play.But did not. Would have done under Poch. Pepe Mel : has had no chance Magath: has had little chance but is just chucking whoever hes got out there. OGS: : ditto. Garry monk: ditto. Looking at it from that perspective you'd have to say Mopo has been outstanding for Saints and for English football.

Lots of teams would buy him for that. Italy are not one of the eight WC seeds ( but they should be frankly given that they are not only because they played luxembourg or liechtenstein in a friendly and that f*cked up their fifa coefficient, anyway different argument that), but my point is that if you look at the top seeded nations playing at the WC, and then just value their strikers I'll bet you that very few come in at under £9M transfer value if they are under 30 years of age. The older they get the less transfer value of course, but Osvaldo is only 28 in any case. If you play for a top international country as a striker and are under 30 you don't get bought and sold cheaply. Name a Spanish, German, Brazilian, Argentinian, Uruguyan, Swiss, Columbian or Belgian forward let alone Italian english dutch, french, portoguese, croatian, russian or chilean that's going to play out there yet is available for under £9M, and I could probably find two or more that are worth more.It tends to be the rule not the exception. Osvaldo's current value is £11.5M according to transfer market anyway.

Next seasons side largely depends on next seasons targets. Next seasons targets in football are usually based on doing a bit better than the year before in standard times, or if there is a significant additional investment made then usually an additional raising of targets is normal. In our recent past expectations of promotion to the CCC and EPL in line with the internal investments made were reasonable. Today is different. If there is no significant ie above average investment made in the team then there can be no real justification in expecting any major improvement in on-field performance. And the cost of breaking into the top four is much more expensive than anything we have ever attempted to date, even with the benefit of Billionaire owners and Academy prodigies adding value match by match. If there is no above average on field investment then as sure as eggs is eggs other teams around us will be strengthening relative to us and we will weaken ~ comparatively speaking. Our likely finishing place will be eighth next year - at best - but anywhere from bottom upwards is much more likely than before if that happens. Spending money on new big money players each year is no guarantee, but when you look at the paucity of the squad that we have going into the last 6-8 games this season you should just be relieved we are not in a relegation dog fight as there is nobody on the bench beyond our best 11 that was realistically ever going to save us in which case. We certainly need 5-7 new players in the summer in all the key areas that all the contributors on this site already know about. We got some good young players coming through but we also need some more finished articles if we want to hit the ground running next year. Not maybes or "squad" but bona fide top players that know they have to fight for that starting place - and are used to winning that fight cos they're good.

Paulo Bandini has got an agenda in favour of his fave striker Immobile ( literal translation - immobile ie like a statue- not a good name for a striker!) Osvaldo HAS scored twice in Europa league for Juve. Only started 3 games in the league though so what does he expect? Even Llorente ( a richer man's Osvaldo, or Osvaldo is a poor mans Llorente) cannot score with this Juve team so i don't get why Bandini is expecting a goal blitz from Osvaldo playing few minutes in an out of form juve just spluttering over the line to the Scudetto? Unless it suits his agenda of course...

I'm sorry for being unsporting and all that but i'm desperately hoping that Welbeck picks up a knock as does Cole. Nothing serious mind, just enough to rule them out, sprained ankle will do. If so Luke and Jrod are next in line. I think Ads and Rickie are going to Brazil whatever. Rickie is way different to the other strikers and Adam is just in a purple patch playing his best ever footie...just keep it going son in the Brazilian sunshine and make us proud out there!

When Mopo is "quoted" you do realise that it is an interpreted quote? I.e. it has been spoken in Argentinian Spanish and converted to english. There's always going to be something "lost in translation" as they say. FWIW its nonsense to say he is the World's best or even close. He does not even play for England- yet, regularly. Has he played against Messi/Ronaldo/Zlatan in a World Cup or champions league or any European tie? Nope. You can judge it on potential and his EPL performances and 45 minutes at Wembley if you like in which case its a very good and very strong possible with hope for the future ~ but to expand it out from there is silly without him actually doing anything. And Mopo did not even really say that - he intimated that Luke "might" be the best in his position right now for all we know. A mischievous seed of a comment motivated by - well we can all surmise as to the reasons.... My way of judging such questions is to ask the equivalent of "Show me the medals". In England alone, Shaw has nothing, Baines has got a record for taking EPL penalties but not much else whereas Ashley Cole has a museum full. The best current lb in England is Cole by that reckoning. Of course I want Luke to go to Brazil though so I think he should go as understudy to Baines. Cole should retire from internationals with dignity and footballing reputation intact.