Minty

Awesome, is that the first anti-Koeman post or have I missed one? Priceless.

Oh stop it Frank. We have no divine right to anything. And pretty much any club in the world except the biggest would've accepted £30m for an 18-year-old. The board aren't treating fans like idiots, fans are just behaving like spoilt brats and can't handle the real world. Yes it's disappointing to lose players, but sh!t happens.

Good, get them all done in one day, so I can avoid the forum for a week whilst on holiday and come back to rumours of signings rather than departures.

Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach 3m Adam Lallana looks likely to follow Luke Shaw out of #SaintsFC today. He is having a medical at #LFC at 2.30pm.

Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach 3m Ever heard the phrase it never rains but it pours?

The bar graph at the side makes for interesting reading now Shaw's move has been confirmed. 7 words way ahead of the rest.

S'funny, Shaw has now deleted his 'Man U player' twitter biog... cue panic from Man U fans. lol

Yes, thought exactly the same, certainly saves me having to trawl through lots of crap on the #saintsfc hashtag when i have a quick look for news.

Thanks everyone, we get it, he's gone. lol

Working now. Only got that error the first time. Looks good. Arguably more useful when there isn't one obvious story dominating tweets (Luke Shaw is off the Man U? Who knew?!) but like the idea.

Oops.

lol, oh dear god no. Leave it in the past!

It's just football. There are very, very few players that have anywhere near the level of loyalty that we do. Some, like Rickie, come to love a club a huge amount but it still doesn't mean they'll never leave. Unless you get used to that, you'll always be disappointed. But, while those players are here, and they feel like they're both progressing personally and helping the club to progress, then they'll feel loyal to the club and will enjoy their time here. They're not mercenaries (apart from the odd one), they're just human. And it's no different to any company. Some people move jobs purely for the money, some move because they don't feel part of a good set-up, some move for one reason and then realise the grass isn't always greener, some wonder why they didn't move earlier, some move because of someone they know, some leave because of the people, and so on and so on.

Once again we seem to have some kind of black or white portrayal of things... either our Academy players stay and we keep the bond and morale that has stayed with us since we were in League 1... or we're a team of mercenaries who play for nothing other than their pay and the bond is gone completely and forever. Erm, no. Funnily enough, there is a big grey area in the middle of that too. It's a balancing act for sure, and it can go wrong. But clearly if you get the right people in, with the right attitude and a desire to improve themselves and the team, then there is no reason why new signings can't be brought in and become part of a new bond and gain from the existing morale amongst players who remain. Koeman is key to that of course, but the club as a whole has a mentality about it... you only have to look around the stadium and training ground to see that there is a clear emphasis on the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, and that no one person is bigger than than the team. Yes it is disappointing to lose good players, and yes there can be changes within the group, but it doesn't mean it is all going to collapse.

Not rumours as such, but two names that have reached me recently as potential Shaw replacements: Nicolai Boilesen and Jetro Willems. Both play in the Netherlands, almost certainly known to Koeman, both young and have fledgling or potential International careers. I know nothing about either, but their names have reached me so thought I'd pass them on.

lol. There was also this post on a Shaw thread, which may explain it all: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?43109-Shaw-Injured&p=1618963#post1618963

The whole situation reminds me of Chambers breakthrough last pre-season, not many had seen him at all before then, and all of a sudden here was this composed right back who looked a decent player from day one. We'll see.

Interesting. Looking back at his posts, he seems to have been fairly accurate about Shaw all along. And then I found this one: On the Cortese leaving thread, posted back in January... Probably just coincidence, but it'll get some people going.

One for the stattos: http://www.soccermetrics.net/team-performance/effective-time-in-football

I accept that some people will always speculate, but all I see here is people dissecting the player departures almost for the sake of it. Even without new signings to judge, a balance in the discussion can and should be struck IMO, but I realise not everyone seems to think the same way. And the issue IMO, is not the club strategy, but that people are unable to accept that even with that strategy, some will always leave, either because we are offered an amount of money that they judge, on balance, would be silly to turn down, or for other reasons. A strategy is not a black or white issue, just like every other aspect of the club, or indeed any business. Strategies need to be flexible to allow for certain circumstances. And I personally believe the strategy is more along the lines of 'We will keep our best home-grown players unless we feel it is in our best interest to sell'. And I personally think £30m is in our best interest.

Indeed, hence I said "How about we judge things later in the summer when we have made some signings and look at the overall balance of the situation?" What does this thread achieve just now, other than providing a sounding board for those who only like to focus on negatives?

Here's a question: When you get your bank statement, do you look only at the outgoings column? If you run a business, when you get your monthly management accounts, do you only look at the costs, and not the revenue? Right, so why when looking at Southampton Football Club just now, is it only about the players leaving? How about we judge things later in the summer when we have made some signings and look at the overall balance of the situation?

Not at all alps - just by saying 'as we speak' he recognises that that is the state of play at the moment, and to not judge fully until we get into pre-season and then start the season. And technically it's not true, as we have Gallagher, but I understand the underlying sentiment because we can't rely on him.

I didn't say that. Yes I think he will be given plenty of funds anyway, but with Shaw going he'll have even more. You might be right, he might not have had much say in the matter, but the end result is still the same... the new manager has significantly more money to spend on improving the squad. Given that one of our main problems last season was the quality of back up players when we had injuries etc, I don't think this is a bad thing.

It's probably not that he wouldn't *want* him, but that he feels he can get 2 or 3 good players in for the 30m we'll receive, which will improve the team and squad more overall. So on balance, he is happy to let him go.