There when Franny scored

Interesting article. Apologies if already posted. http://www.benefoot.net/koeman-gave-feyenoord-its-pride-back/

Source who said Poch was definitely going a couple of weeks ago (who also said De Boer had made his interest known) said that the offer they made to Poch and his staff was so large that all three of his backroom staff wanted to stay. Poch was determined to go though. Again, make of it what you will. Just passing on what I was told from a decent source with significant proximity to relevant people at the club.

Source close to club has told me this: - Poch is going to Spurs. Probably annouced by tomorrow; - De Boer has applied to be our manager; and - Shaw and Lallana finalising their respective moves at the moment. Good source, not going to say anymore for obvious reasons. Make of it what you will.

Very useful for analysis. I am continually surprised by how low Cork's rating is. I think it's because the ratings are based on specific actions so doesn't recognise things like workrate.

http://www.canalejuve.it/news/osvaldo-ad-un-passo-dalla-juve-112740 Osvaldo one step away from Juve Pablo Daniel Osvaldo, is closer to his return to Italy. Juventus is negotiating its sale, after aquisito some more certainty about the departure to Arsenal by Mirko Vucinic. With Southampton are being defined agreements for the figures relating to the loan and the right of redemption of Oswald, in addition to the personal contract of the attacker former Rome. We provide short term. During the day you should define everything in order to allow the player to leave for Italy tomorrow, Vinovo destination

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/456396/Mauricio-Pochettino-in-the-dark-over-Dani-Osvaldo-s-Southampton-future http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/456464/Monaco-weigh-up-moves-for-Man-Utd-s-Javier-Hernandez-Southampton-s-Dani-Osvaldo

Not hard at all. Samuel's article is completely contrary to one of football's more accurate cliches "Money doesn't guarantee success". He attempts to suggest that Cortese was merely an efficient administrator (which in itself is underestimated given the numerous other clubs that have suffered from serious financial mismanagement) which is incorrect. Cortese appointed Adkins and Poch and there are several accounts of his skill as a negotiator. Whether or not he is an odious character is besides the point. He got the major calls correct on a consistent basis and our success as a result has been almost unprecedented since he arrived. The article also completely ignores smooth transition after Marcus' death which must also have had something to do with Cortese. In my view attempts to discredit the achievements of Cortese from various posters and the media, either because they didn't like him or to reassure themselves as to our future plight now he has departed, are vitriolic and ill-conceived and I fear that history will demonstrate the same. Hopefully I am wrong.

Someone suggested on the "MP staying" thread that it may be to protect them from the public spotlight from the fall-out after he left as well. Personally, I hope he comes back. I enjoyed having such a dogmatic, determined immune to the "old boys", "not a football man" network and antiquated ways of running a football club. To me, it appears unlikely a new chairman will be as successful.

Good point. If he is part of a takeover bid it will probably take some time. Would be interesting to see if he has cut all ties with the area altogether. If he genuinely believes it is probably he will come back he might retain a property. If the rumours about Sunseeker prove to be correct maybe he will just park his yacht in Ocean Village as most of the players seem to live there in any case!

I tend to agree with you, but it is a bit strange Cortese has removed his kids from their school. Suggests a move away of some permanence.

If he's coming back soon why would he take his kids out of their school though? See post #702 on the "Cortese has left..." sticky

Totally agree. The possibility of Cortese taking over the club with a different backer is surely a valid topic of conversation given his past assertions of having other interested parties waiting in the wings. Even if the OP's source was a bit vaugue it would be interesting to have some sensible contributions on this. My opinion is that he appears to be a single minded man who has already put a lot of effort into the "project". Not sure he would walk away that easily if he sees an opportunity to come back with a more ambitions backer.

Alex Goring Crook ‏@alex_crook ·1 min Is now likely family will appoint a ceo with experience of buying and selling clubs with a view to finding new owner in the summer #saintsfc

Adam Blackmore ‏@bigadamsport 4m Two likely outcomes to Cortese problem - he leaves, owners stick a chairman in & instruct someone to sell, or agreement signed for 2-3 yrs Quite poignant - http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/espnfcunited/id/704?cc=4716

Worth considering the timing. We are pretty much safe now so Cortese probably feels he can afford to destabilise things a bit. If he was walking away for good he could have done it at any time as I doubt he would have cared what happened to Saints if he was never coming back.

Tancredi Palmeri ‏@tancredipalmeri 33m Southampton have been contacted by Inter for the loan of Osvaldo. Deal very difficult Marc Wilson ‏@marcwilson87 30m @tancredipalmeri do you know if he would like to leave? Tancredi Palmeri ‏@tancredipalmeri 3m @marcwilson87 he would

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/video-the-secret-footballer--has-this-crafty-danish-journalist-exposed-dave-kitson-as-the-anonymous-author-9024314.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/video-the-secret-footballer--has-this-crafty-danish-journalist-exposed-dave-kitson-as-the-anonymous-author-9024314.html sorry, link doesn't seem to paste. Just google "Dave Kitson Secret Footballer". Third hit

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/fa-league-cups/southampton-fume-as-mark-clattenburg-is-cleared-to-work-9038118.html Pleased the club are not letting this go. I appreciate that there is a lot to be said for conducting yourself with a quiet dignity, but Adam doesn't strike me as a player to make a fuss about nothing so we should back our club captain.

Gave his shirt to a disabled Everton (?) Fan after he scored. Got booked for it. Would love to see some common sense applied every now and again. Surprised he didn't get sent off for not having a number on his back thereafter.

The worst thing about the clear penalty not given was that he was in a good position, up with play, but you could almost see him consciously decide not to give it. No wonder AL got booked protesting. Very poor and he does this regularly in other games I've watched not involving Saints. Not a Prem ref and never has been.

He and Osvaldo have been pretty poor this season. If we are serious about progressing, Lambert ill need replacing.

I think you are right, although the undertone of the article does perhaps convey a slightly acerbic agenda as you say. However, I appreciate that she is saying that the media would perhaps turn these stats against Pochettino if he was at a bigger club, but having looked at the stats more closely I'm not sure that that's accurate. Possibly the preconceived starting point of the article has led her to select statistics that are neither negative nor would be perceived as negative in the media. Hence she is falling foul of her own message because she failed to apply the rigour advocated in her article when assessing performance to her own interpretation of the statistical analysis of Southampton's performance. For example, I don't think the media would pick up on the 80% pass completion rate when Man U and Everton are 83% and Chelsea and Liverpool are 84%. That Fulham have a 1% better completion rate than us is more an indication that Fulham are overachieving in that area relative to their overall performance. The long ball one possibly, but again if you look at the stats more closely the most long balls in home games are played by Chelsea and the most in away games by Swansea. I think if it were any reputable sports journalist they would be critisising the disparity between our home and away performance (as they do with Man City). E.g. pass completion home 83%, away 76%. You could select several others, but for the top teams the difference is much smaller, i.e. they generally maintain performance away from home. We still do not, although we have had more difficult away fixtures. To belatedly conclude, she says "Nobody is pointing out that Southampton play more long balls than any other Premier League side and have a pass completion rate lower than Fulham". I think nobody is pointing that out because nobody sees, or would see if they applied more scrutiny, those stats as particularly negative. If she'd applied the same thoroughness to the selection of statistical indicators that she's demonstrated in assessing MP's performance I don't think she would have selected those stats in the first place.

I did understand the point which I suppose can be summarised as MP has received, almost without exception, praise in the media for his style of play, use of young Englishman etc., but a closer analysis belies some of the hype. The point I was making, althouth perhaps tangentially, was that the statistics she herself is using are a little misleading so you might argue that she falls foul of her own message!

You can interpret statistics however you like to suit the point you are trying to make. We also have the 2nd most possession and are 7th best for short passes. We play an average of 69 long balls per game whereas Chelsea in 10th place play 64 so the range is compact. We are in 10th place for pass completion with 80% which is indeed 1% below Fulham and 6.9% behind Swansea who are the best but are below us on points. http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/3853/Stages/7794/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2013-2014

http://www.tuttomercatoweb.com/europa/rennes-il-southampton-sulle-tracce-di-pitroipa-508727 Jonathan Pitroipa Sorry if already posted.