ADutchSaint

Im not surprised if these West Ham rumors are true, said it in here before but i dont see a top 6 club paying 10 million for a 33 year old defender. It doesnt really make sense for them to do so. Says a lot tho that a player who's been with the club for 7 years wants out for just a small pay raise.

Thats not good enough if you want to compete for the title tho but i dont see Liverpool coming for Fonte as well. In fact i dont see any big club coming for him, it just doesnt really make sense for them if you ask me.

Mostly agree with this, it wasnt so bad today, we were just very unlucky. And blaming Puel goes a bit far but ill never understand why you would substitute a winger for a winger when you are 1-0 down and only have like 10 minutes to go.

He's out of our league tho, for sure he's going to sign for Bayern or what ever other big team.

Janssen far better? In what area's? Haller aint rubbish, thats nonsense he has qualities all tho im not convinced he will make it, but i also wasnt convinced about Janssen and i also wasnt convinced about Pelle but he did more then alright. Jannsen aint that much better then Haller, if you ask me Haller has more chance of doing decently in the Premier League then Janssen. Spurs just massively overpaid, he shouldnt have cost more then 10/12 million. 18/20 million for a guy with one year experience in the Eredivisie is absurd, especially when they guy didnt even play for one of the top clubs in Holland. The Premier League is not a easy league for strikers, if you look at the topscorers then they either have physical qualities like height and power (Costa, Zlatan, Lukaku, Kane etc) or incredible technical skills and quick (Sanchez, Aguero etc). Jannsen doesnt shine in any of those area's, he has some height and power and decently with his feet but has nothing that really stands out, well he stands out for working his ass off on the pitch but thats not really what you want from a striker when you are Spurs. If you would give me a choice of either getting in Janssen or Haller, i would go for Haller any day of the week atm simply because his qualities suits the league and our team better.

All managers want more money, all managers want more players and they all want their 'own' people. Some are just more outspoken then others, otherwise they are all the same.

When you open the gates..... Seems like all these rumors might have something going for them otherwise the captain of a team doesnt hand in a transfer request in the winter transfer window, otherwise he would have put one in last summer or next summer.

And how much is left of all that after getting in replacements, running the club, after taxes and all that stuff. I'll tell you, not as much as you think.

Going to be interesting how Fonte and Yoshida will deal with Lukaku, first time this season i think that Virgil isnt playing so lets see how big of a factor that will be. Why is Bertrand again on the bench btw? Small injury? Good to see Boufal will be going to AFCON nice and rested tho...

I think its just a confidence issue, you can see his legs almost shake when somebody passes the ball back to him and he like almost panics cause his timing of hitting the ball is totally off.

Absolutely outclassed all over the pitch. Our midfield was completely overrun and out muscled... Pretty fancy team they got their with Dembele, Alli, Eriksen, Wanyama.... Very complete midfield, something we don't have at all. I'm afraid this week with 3 games ain't going to be a good one.

Mediocre first half, much better second half with players pressing forwards and midfielders and defenders playing their first ball forwards instead of backwards or to the side. Good win, so more of that and less of what we have seen the last few weeks.

I dont see how Redmond made it possible that we won against Boro with a deflected shot from outside the box. That was the only difference between the first and the second half cause we didnt create more of bigger chances. Last night you could have taken off Davis or JWP or a fullback to put in Tadic on the left, Redmond on the right and Boufal behind Long or Jrod. Or put Fonte or Van Dijk up top and pull Romeu back down the pitch, just get some more people in attacking positions, you could even put in Yoshida as a pinch hitter etc etc etc. Possibilities are endless but nope, it was more of the same against a mediocre (cause how many of them would be starters in our squad?) Stoke with 10 players. Winger for winger, striker for striker and everything stayed as it was. And what was Puel afraid of? Walters to beat Fonte and Van Dijk in a sprint on a counter attack or some? The had zero pace in their entire team with Arnautovic and Shaqiri gone. Said it last night but i didnt get it and will never get it and to me this was as poor of a display of a manager as you get.

At the end winning is all that matters but right after that comes entertainment and entertainment is good football. You can play bad tactically and make mistakes on the pitch but as long put a lot of entertainment against that then people will say that you play good. Possession and controlling games might be good football in some peoples eyes cause 'the other team cant score when you have the ball' (and that kind of nonsense) but its boring, its been the biggest topic in Dutch football the last few years where coaches and players were padding themselves on the back because they had 70% ball possession, well who cares, you created one chance with that so thats a pretty poor job you did there. Passing the ball from your CB's to your midfielders, back to the CB's, then to the full backs and then back to the midfielders again isnt exciting and very easily to defend against. Playing it safe with a good organisation on the pitch and going forward with as less risks as possible will get you some results, might even give you some compliments in the media but at the end, it will all blur away in the minds of the fans cause there's nothing memorable about that. And lets be honest, those are the only moments that stick in your mind while the rest of the season fades away. In my eyes we dont play good football, havent been impressed this entire season so far and that started with the first game i saw in the pre-season. Now i wont blame Puel for the options we have on the midfield but then i dont understand why he wants to play in this style we play. So im not that impressed with Puel, havent seen a single substitute or change on the pitch as well that changed a game. Its all the same and very predictable, last night was a another prime example of that.

Simply not good enough, we lost points tonight for no reason. I just dont get it, does Puel know he's allowed to put on more then 3 attacking players on the pitch? Why not keep Redmond or Long on the pitch and substitute a defender or a defensive midfielder instead. Put at least some more players in the box and change something ffs... Again, i dont get it.

We sit too far back and in possession our play is so damn slow and predictable. There's no depth on the pitch, all players want the ball in the feet and no one makes runs. You can exactly predict where the ball will go when Fonte or Virgil have the ball and then you can the draw the whole build up play before it even happens. Too slow, too static, too predictable.

I agree, playing him as a striker doesn't make sense. Until there is a extreme urgent to score goals and its all or nothing tho, then he can be very useful and he's pretty good at it as well. First time i've ever seen him play a match he started as a right fullback and started as a striker in the second half causing all kinds of trouble. But he's a better defender as a striker so playing him as a striker wont make sense but when your 1/2 goals down and only 10 minutes or so to go? Put him up front.

I cant say i was surprised with last nights display cause its been something we have seen all season and i said have it before and ill say it again, rotation doesnt work. It has never worked for any club and never will. Anyway at the end we should be ashamed that we failed to qualify in a group with a terrible Inter and 2 other mediocre teams.

Suarez had a unusual release clause in his contract at Liverpool that said that Liverpool had to respond and engage in any offer that matched the clause. He didn't want to run in the problems he had with his transfer to Ajax where Groningen initially refused to talk to Ajax and he had to go to court and all kinds of shenanigans. It all depends on the clause. Summer/winter window, certain teams/leagues etc, there's all kinds of nonsense in those but that one Suarez had was pretty unusual cause it wasn't really a release clause.

Not correct, a club has to accept any offer that matches the release clause and the player is entitled to talk to that purchasing club. Thats what a release clause is.

Well we will find out soon enough of this is true or not, i personally think there might be a release clause in his contract but 25m sounds too low. It could be true tho, we know Virgil is included in the whole current football leaks saga. So maybe the Mirror has seen his contracts and is the first one to throw this out there. So far only a Dutch newspaper has publicized a few details about his contract (at least from what i can find) but well time will tell.

Well apparently Tadic gets 2.5k for every goal, 5k after 10 goals, 10k after 20 goals and 15k after 30 goals. Pelle was getting 2k for every goal. Apparently the club has a pretty complicated bonus system as well with bonuses up to 3k for all players on the pitch winning a Premier League match. Interesting times with this new giant leak.

It all depends who comes knocking at our doors. If the top clubs come with premium fees for Fonte and/or Van Dijk then i can even see them both going. And really, i wouldnt have a problem with that if we have replacements ready to come in. And i can see it happening cause clubs are desperate to get into Champions League spots, more then ever.

Well maybe i think that way because i do business that way, i learned pretty quickly that its better to get a fair deal for all parties then to try and squeeze everything out of it and deals fail. That only causes issues in the future and what ever you sell or lose in the deal, there's always more out there. 40m in the summer or 50m this winter is a ****load of money for a defender, the club gets a good return on their investment and can put that money to good use with getting a replacement (and there are many options out there) and do what ever else, the player gets a pay raise and the move he wants and the buying club has the player they want. Win, win, win really. Plus delivering players to the top clubs in the world is the best PR you can get. Just like we do with our academy, there's a pathway to the first team and for players coming from outside the club i think the club should make it clear that we are a pathway to the top for players. And hopefully the club can grow to the status of a top club one day while delivering players. As long players from outside the club weren't dreaming of playing for the club when they were young kids then you will be never be able to hold those players for long. So why not take advantage of that and show that its probably better to come to Southampton as a young and talented player for a few years then sitting on the bench at City, United or what ever club. You are overestimating Napoli really, they arent that much bigger then us. Historically yes but not in figures. They pay lower average wages, they have lower annual revenues and they dont sell more tickets. They were able to sell Higuain for that amount because they paid 30+m for him and 5m or so in wages every year. Juve needed a striker after selling Morata and Juve has the cash. Plus Higuain is a name who sells and not to mention and he had a insanely good season. For example if we would have bought Mané for 30+m and he became one of the top scorers in the league then you would be looking at figures like 60/70m as well. Thats why Everton can demand 60m or what ever for Lukaku even in a ****ty year, they already paid half of that amount when they bought him. And we paid 12m? or so for Mané. Thats the difference. We wont sell players for 45m when we bought them for 30m and with 3/4m annual wage. Just like we wont sell Boufal when he comes good for 25 or 30m. And of course its easier to buy players from us then Dortmund, they play in a different league and are a giant club who double our annual revenue.

I dont believe that for a second. All these numbers the media, agents and clubs throw around are a bunch of nonsense really. Same with the 'bidding' nonsense, there are no such thing as bidding wars for players. Its just a matter of offering higher wages cause the player picks where he wants to go, not the club. Virgil is earning how much? 2/3m a year? Well multiply that with how much years he got left on his contract and add 150% of his last transfer fee. Basic rule of what a player is worth and then 40 million sounds about right. Other factors can jack up the price a bit more (merchandise sales, transfer window summer/winter, performance on international tournaments etc) but 40 million would be a fair and good deal for him in the summer, 50 if anyone comes knocking this winter. 40m would get him in the top 3 highest transfers ever for defenders and the highest fee ever for a Dutch player. Im a massive Virgil fan but that already makes is sound ridiculous to me. 60m are De Bruyne, Di Maria, James fees, thats not realistic. If Napoli rejected that for Koulibaly then they are ****ing crazy.