eddie

Not to repeat what others have said, but this is from a French friend who lives in Lyon: Interesting stuff.

It's interesting, had a read of the Utd fan forums. Seems that most of their ideal First XI for next season features Schneiderlin in midfield alongside a new signing (e.g. pogba). This Mkhitaryan guy seems to be more attacking, and Mata/Fellaini folks want out. Will be interesting to see how Utd juggle all these top paid midfielders. I think there's not a chance that MS will return to us.

Hasn't this been announced already? Been ages.

Chuffed with this kit. It's the first round with the new sponsor, think they've done a smart job The away kit looks good, only downside is a little too like Liverpool's away kit last season or the one before. Home kit looks decent, sponsor logo looks good on the shirt and they've made it different enough from the other red and white stripes teams, which is good. 50/50 with the bra comments, I don't know how high your missuses/friends wear their bras, I think the kit looks alright. I'll be buying the away kit this year, and I'll wait to next season for home as I think that will be a much better offering. But for the first year, I think it's great! don't get all the viscious comments...there are some horrendous kits out there and ours definitely isn't among them.

Me. It's me, guys. I'm the next target. ITK.

haha.What on earth are you advocating for then? That we force them to stay? Stick them on the bench to teach them a lesson, maybe? You're being delightfuly optimistic about the state of footballers these days. I guarantee that the people who are most outraged at this sale, would be the people most vocal in the case that he did stay about what an awful 'waste' and a ridiculous decision to keep mane on te bench, or any other tactic to somehow force him to stay against his wishes because we want his pitch performance, not his value. He wanted to leave, let him the **** go. We got a transfer record for him, or nearly. Man Utd can keep players like morgan nowhere near the first team because they are an enormous club. If players are being uppity, they won't get near the teamsheet. If you think saints is at that size you're delirious. We have barely 13-14 first team players. Mane is exactly the kind of player who is going to mope around and have an awful attitude if he wanted to leave the club but was forced to stay. I don't know the bloke but Mane I don't think would have had any great objection to the Saints way, the Saints team, or the south coast. Either he wanted to leave for money (in which case, see ya later) , or else he wanted to leave because his relationshio with Koeman was crap (not the clubs fault, and he's now left leaving us with 5m anyway).

My days. You lot. Thirty four million pounds for a player who, albeit being very creative (though not the most assists for us, that guy is still here by the way) wanted to leave? That's an astonishing amount of money. To say the money is a terrible reason to sell, and that it demonstrates that the club is just about 'profit not fans' these days, is incredible We were in administration in 2009 for goodness sake. That feels like yesterday. To sell a player like that, for an enormous profit, who seemed never that happy to settle with us, for me does not imply a) we have no ambition as a club or that b) the footballing results still aren't central to what we do I want to know what you suggested after Shaw went to UTd? That we had lost all ambition, and of the sale of a young player who we could have kept? But we now have Bertrand for a third of the price - is it a lack of ambition? Did we forsake the football for the sake of money? Shaw was one of the standout performers of the season before he left. It's astonishing that people seem to have no trust whatsoever that the club is capable of recruiting someone to replace him. And even if we only recruit Redmond like for like, and bring in another defensive midfielder, and we finish 10th, or 12th...we're southampton for pete's sake. The fact that people are abhorred by the fact we aren't focusing on pushing on to champions league either demonstrates that they have become saints fans in the last two years, or that they have been so jaded by the success of the last 2-3 years that their expectations are wildly out of kilter. What a great few years we've had after a fairly rocky period since moving to st marys. The club has demonstrated that players with big egos and a desire to play elsewhere, and who can fetch a tidy profit, shouldn't play for saints. And that they should be consistently replaced by hungry, young players. Some of whom turn out tobe utter stars who don't just maintain a midtable finish, but can help us push on and finish even higher. What a great motto to have.

This thread has taken exactly the turn I hoped. Moved from just listing out of work ex premier league managers who wouldn't even turn on the saints fan whose only expectation is staying up from relegation (moyes) to suggesting little known, continental types with a knack for attacking football and tracked for years by the saints board to guarantee they are a good breed. I'm excited.

just a warning. I work for a humanitarian non-profit and know many others in the charity sector worth flagging that not all of 'em use the money wisely. Vast majority of our funding is from different gov'ts or institutions, so there's a lot of stringent accountability and if you don't show results, you won't get nowt. A lot of these other charities, especially those that don't get grant funding but instead rely on bake sales and sponsored walks, tend to be pretty shabby in their use of money. I heard that British heart Foundation is one of the worst. Their indirect costs are over 50%, for comparison, ours are 15. Not wanting to be all down, and theres some great ones out there!! For that list of comparison see: It's not exhaustive and most of what I've heard is from word of mouth http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/10225883/How-much-charities-spend-on-charitable-activities.html

When you put it like that... Wonder in what terms you'd describe Juanmi's imminent departure then...'We've lost who? Never heard of him'.

haha amazing. People have gone from not being able to go to the sitter because they didn't want to miss Koeman signing his glossy new contract with Saints, to giving him the finger and wishing he mothballs his new job as he moves up north At least whatever happens new supporters have realised there is life on the south coast beyond ronald koeman and his dutch or eredivisie army we were ok before and we'll be ok after.

FYI Guan's post is just naming national newspaper rumours with a big after it. There's no mention that this is the insider knowledge on the shortlist, and he even said so a few posts afterward. Most of us are just using the shortlist for Everton, adding Eddie Howe / ex-prem out-of-contract managers and choosing the best one - I think it wouldn't be at all unlike the saints board to bring in someone that pundits and fans alike are surprised by and that could go either way in results terms. For me the annoying thing isn't that Koeman is likely to go to Everton - they are a really decent club. The frustration is with all this club/coach communication. I feel we've been run round the mill, Koeman reaffirms his intention to stay in a presser, Les releases this glossy marketing video about contracts going well...it all feels a bit like yet again the fans are being treated like one of many interested parties in this club, including sponsors, the press, owners, partners, kit manufacturers, FA, league bosses etc. That's the world we live in, but it's difficult to take. I said about the Les video and I'll say again, my honest belief is they put out that video just to appease fan unrest about the manager situation. They've got their extra few weeks of quiet, while behind the scenes talking with a new club about RK. Sorry, it sounds like I've jumped to conclusions. I have. The reality is that I am not so angry at the club, because that's the way clubs are run these days. It's just a sad reminder.

Be interesting to see how who they define as first team. Variety in playing system means we have a first 14 or so...e.g. the kerfuffle at right back shows us that we have two 'first teamers' for that position depending on whether the opposition plays a beefy, or slight and fast, left midfielder. Tadic wasn't first team for quite a bit of the season, whereas Yoshida got a good run of games in the Autumn but has now been relegated to a place we're all more relieved with, i.e. 3rd or 4th choice centre-back.

A lot of the sarcasm in this thread appears to be going over heads.

you're just a glory hunter, supporting Saints, so you are

either it's their policy to be very open about transfers, or there is someone at the club hemorrhaging information to newspapers for a tidy fee

Agreed about romeu, clasie gives us reason to hope. Davis can be the best player in front of the back 5 on occasion, some days the game seems to pass him by. Reed I mean sure, two or three seasons ago he looked as if he could hold his own in the midfield. I honestly have no idea if he's improved or gone downhill since then. Let's hope!! JWP I just cannot place his best position. He's looked both excellent and also awful in various positions, #10, right wing, defensive midfield. I think that's about enough to give both rotation, a bit of variation and to some extent allows Reed/JWP to get game time - without relying on them too heavily - and improve. Although it was very unclear....what I was trying to say was more that Wanyama's replacement could go one of two ways: - we assume that by the time he leaves (this summer?!) players like Romeu, Clasie, assorted others are of a level that they can start for saints and help them push to top 6 in what we expect to be a competitive coming football season. Wanyama's replacement can be at a similar level to what Romeu was last season; not world class, takes time to get to speed but undeliably solid and learning fast - If they aren't at that level yet, I'd probably say they aren't, then we assume that his replacement is of good enough quality that he can step straight into Wanyama's shoes as being the man to lead our midfield. This might be hot air at the end of the day, if VW ends up going this summer, we'll have to be quick to either do our business early, have a good pre-season and hope that we're good to start, or else we could be left in a situation where we wished we had 1 more season for our current centre mids to mature.

arguably still light in midfield though. We've struggled with knowing what is our first choice - wanyama/clasie apparently. Even with the club coming out with statements/quotes after a victory without wanyama like "even with injuries/suspensions this win shows us we have squad depth" I'm not convinced. I'd rather have extra cover in midfield now, even if VW stays for 1 more year, so that the newbie has a season to bed in. Unless it's some kick ass central midfielder, which we aren't likely to change our transfer policy and splash out on.

are people really saying we 'dont want him back'? I hope it isn't because we've not been hot on returnees in the last few years. Seen a few threads about ex-players being driven by money, left the club in difficult circumstances, made some comments about 'wanting to win things', etc etc. Chambers seemed to be an alright lad, young and with promise. He moved to arsenal for a tidy sum of money - bear in mind we bought mane for less than we sold chambers - and now there's a rumour he'd return for a few seasons, do a job for us, with an option to buy we hope. How on earth is that a bad thing? In effect we have cashed in early. Instead of receiving the funds at the end of his time playing with us, he continues for a couple more years. Imagine if we got 30m for Mane this summer but he stayed and played with us for two more seasons while we use the money to find a replacement. Who would complain? Chambers isn't a game changer admittedly, and the situation isn't the same, but he's not as bad as some of our other replacements along the back line . Get him on board...he can't be on too high wages.

How on earth is Mario Gotze only rumoured to be worth 20m EUR? Seems crazy low, even given there's only as year left on contract, for an established 23 y.o. international playing for a champions league club, and scoring for them too. Wages will be extreme and he's pledged allegiance to Bayern, and not a chance he'll be coming to saints, but at least it gives an insight into how jaded we've become in england and how many options there are in other leagues. on the continent it seems 20m actually goes a long way..

thanks for making sure there wasn't any possibility of us hoping for the best

In fairness Juanmi did get quite a bit of press/hype. Lots of videos being posted of his goal against Barcelona a few seasons ago and the fact none of us knew about him meant we were fairly optimistic about being a '2nd striker to Pelle'. In recent years he'd be up there on my list of people with biggest gap between hype and reality/performance. Yes the hype wasn't as much as some of the others...but the reality...he was abysmal, probably as much in training as much as when he got some game time.

if you mean the fact he's black, I doubt even know where to start... Kante.. Dembele.. Drogba.. Great attitudes. Think how much crap was thrown at Berbatov for his lazy personality.

good find. how do you even work these things out?

Can't be as bad as that Reading PR song, They call us the royals or whatever it's title was. all these tattooed nutters in the stands looking embarrassed and staring at the floor while it was blared out on the tannoy.