RobM

The board have to act in the clubs best interest and must not be bullied into making any decision. But surely it's in the clubs best interest to keep our players informed, motivated and engaged with the future of the club. Simply answering the phone is a start, maybe giving them an insight into their plans and how they may achieve them is a good idea too. Then, if players like Adam are convinced that we are ambitious still and will invest to achieve those ambitions, they may decide they WANT to stay here. If our motivational speaker can't do that, who can blame a talented player for wanting to progress. So long as it's done respectfully, of course.

It's weird hearing so many comments about Krueger being a motivational speaker, given the other comments about players being fed up with a lack of communication, questions not being answered and no direction being provided.

What are you going to do instead?

No, we should not, we should wait. For all we know the board had been pushing Pochettino into making a decision and he wouldn't. Being under contract their only options would be to wait, or to sack him and risk losing a very good manager for nothing (plus, probably, some incoming from Spurs buying out his contract). They may well have a shortlist of candidates draw up, feelers put out and be ready to move quickly to the next stage. Equally, they may have been far too trusting, been played by Pochettino and ultimately and naively caught out and are now desperately wondering what to do next. My gut feeling is the truth is somewhere in the middle. The fact that Katharina Liebherr was unaware of how 'her' company was being run by Cortese and was therefore surprised at the financial state of 'her' company suggests she isn't as strong as we may hope. Equally, she moved quickly to get rid of Cortese when she found out and she had people lined up and ready to step in at short notice (some rumours suggest Kruger was around long before Cortese left). Time will tell whether she chose the right people, but she did at least make a decision. So IMO it's what happens next that counts. I'm ****ed off with the way things are going, but I'll judge them on what they do next as we clearly don't have enough information to do anything else.

Renewed also with no hesitation at all. Club legends come and go, replaced by future legends, who will also leave one day. That's football, that's life. I'm a Southampton fan first and foremost and I want to watch them as much as I can. I am very fortunate that I can afford and justify the season ticket and I am able to attend every home game. These were my only considerations.

The comments about waiting until after the World Cup totally contradict the comments from last pre-season, about getting our transfers done ASAP so we have a full, settled pre-season with our new-look team. The only reason to wait until after the World Cup is in the hope of getting more money, but if our 'transfer committee' (which features the same key people as last year, again led by Les Reed) have negotiated well this will be taken into consideration in any valuation. If we've done a deal now, it is because the club got the money they want, the terms they want and have done so quickly to give us time to finalise replacements and additions. It also removes any risk to us of Lallana getting injured; that's Liverpool's problem now. For all we know we've got a replacement lined up and we want the income from Lallana ASAP to get the deal(s) done. The main problem I see coming is the reaction when Lallanas price is announced (or found out, as they case may be). It's not going to be as high as people expect, as he doesn't have that many years left performing at this level and he has only been in the Premiership for two seasons, of which only really this season has been at the very top of his game. I also see outrage when our signings are announced. Nobody will be able to live up to Lallana, so however great they may or may not be, it'll be a failure in some peoples eyes.

As hinted above, it'll be Chelsea not Utd... maybe the deal to Chelsea is already done and Utd are just trying to disrupt things having found out yesterday. All should become clear in the near future I hope, we need some certainty sooner rather than later.

The funny thing is people who really are ITK will be smiling at that comment, as there was an announcement to the players pre-game today about Lallana and Shaw's future that hasn't been discussed here, proving the point that those ITK don't bother sharing information with this site anymore.

Great news. He's shown real promise recently; clearly not the finished article, but looks like he's going to be a great option to have around and could be challenging for a starting place if he keeps improving and playing as he has been.

I'm glad somebody posted this, as he reminds me of JRod in his early days with us. He runs at and presses the opposition well, his movement isn't bad, his work rate is very good, he gets into some decent positions, but he lacks experience, lacks the confidence to shoot from distance, he hasn't adjusted to our game yet and he isn't fully aware of how his teammates play and move. He has done nothing wrong, but nothing spectacular. But if he keeps playing and improving he does have the ability to work well for us next season. Whatever happens, playing him now is a very safe way of finding out whether he is worth sticking with. We have no other fully fit, fully mobile strikers. We have no 'better' options. We also have nothing to lose so there is no downside to playing him for a few games in a row.

Hopefully Juve not wanting him will deflate his ego a bit, making him realise he isn't actually Gods gift to football, nor worth £15m, nor able to play for Europes top teams. As for it being in the clubs best interest to get him on the pitch, that's only true if he performs to a high enough level. If his average performances this season are anything to do by, its in our best interests to NOT have him on the pitch, nor the wage bill.

I'd love to see this. I've wanted Gallagher to get a run of games ever since we had nothing to play for. Tell him he's in for the remaining games and its his chance to prove himself, learn, improve and stake a claim on a starting place next season. If he's good enough he'll make it, if he isn't we'll find out when there is nothing to lose.

The biggest thing for me is proving you don't have to leave Southampton to play for England. That and Premier League football should be enough to convince many to stay with us. All that's left is European football, which the very best talent will want to be involved in. If we continue the way we have been recently - retaining our homegrown stars and adding some quality via the transfer market - European football is the next logical step. If we sell up too many (I think we have to accept at least one will leave) then we can forget it.

There's always West Quay, so you have food choices as well as parking. A taxi from there should be easy enough, especially via the downstairs 'back' entrance by Waterstones and Costa.

Big Vic is rarely impressive on his first game back, he seems to need to get up-to-speed for a bit first. I'd play a similar team to last week but with Cork and Morgan in the middle.

It wasn't that long ago that JRod was crying out to be played centrally as a striker rather than out wide. In fact, I remember him doing bloody well there when he was given that chance, so I'd like to see him in that same position again. I still also want to see JRod and Gallagher given a run of a few games together.

Isn't that exactly what people are saying? It's hardly disgusting, it's pretty factual and nobody has 'turned' on Lambert, but most people can see he isn't performing anywhere near the standards he previously set. It's also pretty clear that this has been the case for some time and shows no sign of a sudden turnaround. That's not turning on him, that's not neglecting the huge, huge contribution he has made and it certainly doesn't mean he is any less of a Saints legend, it just means his performances are tailing off and now is the time to look to strengthen the position he plays. If we never look to add players better than we already have - legend or not - we will go backwards.

You're probably right, but if we're serious about our stated ambitions, we'll have to start considering wages like that sooner or later. We're going to limit the quality we can attract if we don't, not to mention how difficult it will be to hold onto homegrown talent when the big boys come knocking. I'm not advocating reckless spending, but a few key players on that sort of money wouldn't bother me if they improved us sufficiently.

Honestly, if that's ALL we do I'll be happy enough (although a CB and LB cover wouldn't hurt, nor a 'Gaston-type' AM). We need a replacement for Lambert, who still has a place to play, just not a regular starter and we need quality competition to give us options. Some games might suit JRod and two others up front and drop Lallana a bit deeper and more central, for instance. We're very one-dimensional at the moment and that, IMO, is purely because we have such limited starting options in attack. Although unlikely, I'd make Remy a priority.

Yes, the improvement since he's been with us is incredible. We're sitting in a great position in the league, have great young players coming through, being played and actually making a difference and there is nothing to suggest our progress won't continue IF (big IF!) we strengthen again this summer like we did last summer (while under Pochettino, I should add)

Adkins does have something to offer the EPL, but he had reached his upper-limit with us in the mid-table positions. He doesn't have enough about him to take a team beyond that. MP came in and got more out of the same group of players and has taken us onto the next level. In recent times, without the three key signings we've made since Adkins, he's still shown we're a better team than we were under Adkins. Saying that takes nothing away from my respect for Adkins and how mad I was when he was sacked. In hindsight, it was the right decision and has been an utter success.

Signed. Good luck!

Oddly enough, that would probably be a good move for him! Would leave a slightly bad taste in the mouth though.

Have you ever been on this forum before?

It's about football. Saints are a football team. It's also a poor idea and adds yet more rules and disruption to the game, IMO.