SaintTex

I dunno, Spurs signed Janssen for £18.5M to be a backup to Kane. We have never paid that much for a player ever, much less a back up. But I get your point.. I guess I could buy your argument that Spurs are spending reasonably and prudently compared to Man U or Liverpool, but we still not even close to Spurs in the spending department. Nor really can we afford to.

Ask Lallana. With no Europe and a crowded Liverpool midfield, I am wondering what his minutes are going to be like this upcoming season.

you better be IKT, because I desperately would like this to be true.

I think a really good quality #10 and a back up goal keeper are all that should be in the cards. Done right that is still a lot of money spent, upwards of £20mil to £25mil. I think a like-for-like replacement for Wanyama is unnecessary - Romeu seems certainly capable, PEH possible. Doesn't Puel's preferred formation only leave room for one DM and not a pairing? I think the focus on extending contracts to quality players who want to be here has eaten a bit into what we would expect of a typical transfer kitty after selling upwards of £55mil worth of players.

I agree. as well as another diamond in the rough CB who would be willing to grow into Fonte's position a year and half to 2 years from now. I think more certainly are coming.. Ins and Outs so far In Redmond £11 million Hojbjerg £12 million Puel Out Pelle £12 million Mane £34 million Wanyama £11 million Juanmi £2 million Koeman £5 million (compensation) bought : £23 million sold: £64 million money still left to spend: £41 million (we, haven't spent any of the Mane|Koeman|Juanmi money yet)

he looks creative and smart as hell...exactly what the team needs.

i can't say for sure, but part of the emotion might be attributed to his dad dying of cancer 4 months earlier. ugh, losing your dad at 18.

that is disappointing. £16 million will likely turn out to be a bargain. He has major pace, although looking at his YouTube highlights that is his only one move - kick the ball out in front of himself and outrun the defender to it. I think savy PL defenders will get wise to that pretty quickly. Will be interesting to see how he turns out. He could have been our Mane replacement with £18 million left over to spend on a quality AM

how so? Davis passes the ball. Coutinho go-to is to bomb it from 30 yards out! If anything Mane should start cozying up to Milner.

https://www.clubcall.com/southampton/vitor-pereira-pushes-claims-for-saints-hotseat-1813296.htmlthis report said Pereira wowed Southampton officials during his interview. Who knows for sure really. But looking at his CV and win loss record, I would be happy with Pereira. Would be happy with Pellegrini as well.

well if you believe the club didn't pursue Frank de Boer because he didn't have experience managing more than one club, then Zenga fits the bill in spades! But yeah, I hope this report is bunk.

yeah, no kidding, you think another club would value him at more than £11 million and swoop in. it's a hard pill to swallow losing Wanyama for only £11 million. I mean, hell, we sold Chambers for £16 million.

I vote for the guy whose last name begins with the letter P.

I have no idea if there is any truth to any of it, but you can't argue the results on the pitch. The talent on the pitch for Southampton has never been greater; the result of that is a 6th place finish and less opportunities for young Academy players. That is going to be true of any big club. We are not the same club we were one year ago, three years ago, five years ago. Now, ideally you would love to develop youth academy players who can reach the talent level required to be a consistent top 8 club in this league. This should be a goal and aspiration. However, they shouldn't be inserted into first team games just because; they have to be good enough. NOW, If Koeman made that process of youth development more difficult by what happens behind the scenes or on the training ground that is a completely different story, but other than Targett and maybe Reed now, by my eyes, no one else was close to being good enough to play on the same pitch while fighting and competing to secure European football.

This is political. Say there are three classes of Managers: Class A, Class B, and Class C. The club and supporters aspire for Class A, but the club cant get the deal done for a number of reasons. Ultimately, they know they can get a Class B manager that is competent but not all that inspiring, so they bring in a few Class C managers "to interview", so fans can get all up and arms about that possibility. Ultimately, when the Class B manager is announced and not any of the Class C managers floated about everyone will feel pretty good about the appointment, completely forgetting about the disappointment of not getting a Class A manager. Giggs is one of those Class C types. I will let you all decided who are the Class A and Class B types in our manager search. OR maybe I am completely wrong.

December 2016 3 Crystal Palace (a) 11 Middlesbrough (h) 14 Stoke (a) 17 Bournemouth (a) 26 Tottenham (h) 31 West Brom (h) January 2017 2 Everton (a) 14 Burnley (a) 21 Leicester (h) 31 Swansea (a) that is pretty favorable considering our traditional 2 month dip has teams that finished: 15th 19th 9th 16th 3rd 14th 11th 1st 18th 12th 10 matches (7 bottom half clubs / 3 top half clubs)

that was a beautiful strike by Pelle. Can think of plenty of strikers who would flub that up. I hope we don't shoo him out the door.

I was looking through his twitter feed.. someone posted this in his May18th tweet... haha.. I presume that picture was from a Kelvin Davis event.

Sounds like Howe is Dalek's man!

...

this could easily have been my post. I would be pleased with any of those 3. If Emery's goal is to get a PL job, then the chance that he might come to Southampton is not as slim as it might appear. Man U, City, Chelsea, Tottenham, & Liverpool are all pretty much locked down for at least 2 to 3 years. Maybe Arsenal next year? Pellegrini wouldn't upset me either. Moyes and Howe would be ho hum. I know very little about Flores.

what I find interesting in all this is that Koeman and his agent have put themselves in a very weak bargaining position due to the very public nature of all this. Everton could now say, hmmm, you know that £7million a year salary .. forget that.. how does £4million sound? That might be more to our liking. Don't like it? Well, you could always go back to Southampton, right? Ummm, well not now, he can't.

this. the bridge is burned. Besides, do we want to be the type who takes our girlfriend back after she dallied with some douchebag flashing money around? Koeman has moved on, it's best for everyone that we do as well.

Sell Lukaku + £100m kitty? I like how Everton's solution to their problems is to throw money at it. They don't need to look much further than across Stanley Park to see what a good strategy that is. Think about the money Liverpool got for Suarez and Sterling and they ****ed it all away in two years - from 2nd place and CL to 8th place and no European football. They are basically starting over. I guess you could argue Koeman would be a good start for them, as he has a history of doing more with less, but sometimes when you have more it makes you lazy. You don't have to think, you don't have to be resourceful, the money will take care of it. Hmmmm. Does Ronald have a history of knowing how to spend a lot of money wisely? Liverpool discovered that Rodgers didn't.

Yes, the writing is on the wall. Koeman has taken a step on a path he can't walk back on, I am afraid. It's done and dusted, he is won't be managing for the Saints next season, even if he thought to himself this morning: "What I am doing? I should sign with Southampton, let's get it done." He has lost the trust of the fanbase. Yeah, maybe most would welcome him back, but any dip in form during the season, the knives would be out. It would not be pretty. There really was no point in the season where tying him down was an option. Wouldn't have made sense in the winter and Koeman didn't even want to entertain the idea the Spring. Frankly, we were in great form, no point in the Suits upsetting the apple cart while the football team was humming. Secondly, £6million-a-year or £7million-a-year salary for Koeman was never going to be on the table with Les. Neither was a £100million transfer kitty. That hasn't been the model for Southampton's success the last 6 years and I would be concerned if suddenly it were. Frankly, there are as many failures as there are success stories for clubs that suddenly throw that gobs of money around willy-nilly. Yeah, it might work, but it could just as easily fail miserably. I like Koeman a lot, so this whole situation sucks, but I am not sure there is a whole lot anyone could have done about it. Koeman is steering this ship. He can go where he wants to go, and it appears he doesn't want commit to being at Southampton. I think he is making a bad career choice, but who am I to say. and let me just say.. I like Eddie Howe, as well, but I don't think it would be the right move for Southampton or Eddie Howe. Les and Ralph should aim way higher than that.