Rich102

Was disappointed with Long initially but thinking about it he makes sense as a replacement for J-Rod (either injury or transfer wise). He's quick, has a good first tough and good work rate, and played in that position that lack of goals won't be such a problem. Also first impressions were that Pelle was even less mobile than Lambert so will need a runner up front with him at some point. 10mil seems a lot still...

Bit late but mixed feelings about yesterday. Quick thoughts: Positives - Tadic looks class, especially playing on the right with Clyne. Taider also looked good when he came on. - Bertrand looked solid at LB. Not obviously at Shaw's level but more than good enough for an upper mid table side. - Ramirez looked fitter and a bit more interested when he came on, and played well. Fonte and S.Davis were also excellent. Negatives - We miss J-Rod badly on the left. Would love to see Isgrove step up but I don't think he's quite got the quality. - Pelle looks decent but will need much more service into the box to be effective. Made me realise how good Lambert was at holding the ball up and linking up play. - In general we didn't look as capable of suffocating the game as we were last year. Obviously it's early days for this squad, but Koeman seems to want to rely on the wingers more, and be more direct going forwards (more longer balls to Pelle). This might work in some games, but I think we're going to end up conceding a lot more than last year whoever we play at the back. Should be more exciting but I'm not sure this kind of system will work as well in the PL as it did in Holland. In short, we should have no relegation worries, but we're clearly weaker both as individuals and a team. This probably isn't news, but it was a bit sad to see all the same. Still, given that a painful adjustment had to be made at some point I think we've come out of it pretty well and, dare I say it, the board and the management probably deserve more credit then they're getting.

Very disappointing. How sure are we that Spurs offered £10mil because if that's true then it looks like a coordinated attempt to rip us off, and any sympathy I felt for MS will dissipate rapidly.

Fine except the average number of first team players sold is

Cheers and annoying.

Don't speak enough French to tell if this is genuine, but looks fairly real: saphir.taider @SaphirTaider1 · 16h va s'engager avec le club @SouthamptonFC https://twitter.com/SaphirTaider1/status/495339822261997568

Hate to say it but this fits the staying up on a shoestring theory.

Yes. If you can't see the difference between the Lovren and the Schneiderlin situation you need to look harder.

Or Arsenal. Or a host of other clubs. No-one's saying he has the legal right to move. It's just a shoddy way to treat him. The situation when he signed the contract was totally different to what we're facing now. Especially after we've let equally contracted mercenaries leave left right and centre.

Yep but it's clear that he's done everything else behind the scenes and in the right way. We've left him no option. He's been here 6 years ffs, and we're denying him the chance to play at the top level and triple (or more) his wages. No sympathy with Lovren etc, but this is shoddy on our part.

Ralph is already fish food. Utter insanity to make bull**** promises knowing players weren't on board. There'll be days more crisis PR coming our way. Utter utter amateurs. And to be honest if anyone has earned a move of the 6/7 its Schneiderlin. A ridiculous place to draw a line in the sand. We're fu**ed.

Maybe, but I'd imagine the conversation was more like "Sorry Morgan, we simply can't afford to lose any more first teamers (in both football and PR terms). You'll have to wait until January/Summer". Easier to take this line with J-Rod too as he'll want to prove his fitness. Still, it's the right move to stop the rot so I'm not complaining.

From the Echo: BIG claim if true: Saints chairman Ralph Krueger has insisted that Jay Rodriguez and Morgan Schneiderlin will not be sold this summer. Krueger spoke to the Daily Echo this afternoon and moved to reassure nervous fans over the future of the club and manager Ronald Koeman’s squad with five first team players already sold this summer and Schneiderlin and Rodriguez heavily linked with moves to Tottenham. He said: “Specifically to Rodriguez and Schneiderlin, they will not be going anywhere. “We see them as part of a core and the core we’ve got right now and in place is a core that is where Ronald would like to go and they a part of that core. “Any reports that Rodriguez or Schneiderlin are leaving or we are in engaged in transfer conversations are totally off the mark. “They will not be sold.”

Morgan 100%

Part of me wonders of Koeman is part of the problem here. He's clearly confident he can build a team from scratch on about 3 weeks. That might be possible at a big club in the Eredivisie, but I worry he's in for a shock with the PL which is utterly unforgiving. Would a lesser name manager be so blasé? (For the record this should not be read as 'Koeman out')

It doesn't even hurt any more.

This.

I'm increasingly on-board with the Liverpool sales and Shaw. If the players didn't want to be here post MoPo then we've done well to get shot, and get good prices for each. Can't see how their leaving for money and ambition is the fault of the board. (The Chambers sale worries me though because players like him have to be the Plan B now that we've sold the core of last year. There's also no rush for him to move on, and the price isn't too good to refuse. A strange one.) That said i think the board should be judged on two things. 1) Who we bring in. Tadic and Pelle look good, but it's going to take a hell of a job to get 5 or 6 more players in the next few weeks. 2) Whether anyone else leaves (Morgan, Fonte, J-Rod, Cork). Given how strained the team is at this point it would be madness to lose any of these established players - almost regardless of price or foot stamping. Teams can only tolerate so much change and we're already in risky territory. If we bring in 4 or 5 good quality players, and don't lose anyone else, I'd say the board have handled a s*** situation pretty well. And Koeman was a big coup, so reasons to have faith.

Is it not that they made a 90k loss *despite* a one off windfall of £1mil, extra equity from HNW and plenty of bucket shaking? To be fair it's definitely still a feel-good story. Just not for them.

Also, whilst we're right to accept ~£30mil it's worth noting that from Utd's perspective this is good business too. He's easily got 10 years at the top level ahead of him (or resale value), and £3mil a year for a world-class left back is a snip. One way to think about it was whether it would have been worth paying £30mil for Ashley Cole at 18 (I'm convinced Luke is of this standard). To me that's a no-brainer.

Scholes is the most obvious offender: http://www.offthepost.info/blog/2014/06/man-utd-legend-paul-scholes-slams-southampton-over-luke-shaw-asking-price/

If it's £30 million or over, that's great business and best of luck to him. Also astonished as the stupidity/arrogance of all the Utd hacks criticising us for the fee. If £34mil is what we're willing to sell for, and what Utd are willing to pay, then that's the f******* market price. Do they really expect smaller teams to accept a loss so that English players remain "affordable"?

Hoping this isn't true, and remembering Guan's warning about Ashton/the Mail. But... can't help thinking that Dejan and Fonte are apparently good buddies, and *if* we are messing Fonte around in the way it's been reported, the unhappiness with management makes more sense. Hopefully we're as on top of things as Reed claims, but if he really is talking out of his ar5e then the off the pitch stuff has been handled criminally since Spring.

"The value of your shares may go down, as well as not up..."

This is much more promising. The Lambert sale looks fair, and the situation with Lallana looks more like something we're on top of - esp if this stuff about us playing hard-ball with Liverpool is true. It still looks to me like KL, RK and LR were caught off-guard by MoPo leaving, but if we're moving quickly to get a new manager of Koeman/Moyes stature, and getting good value for players we sell that looks a good save to me. Need to get Cork and Fonte sorted out and make sure Schneiderlin, Lovren etc are kept on board, but if we do - and invest wisely - then hell, we might actually come through this in decent shape.