ADutchSaint

De Boer, by a mile really. Cocu can use 1/2 more years at PSV i think but both will become great managers in the future.

Call me crazy but i dont see Koeman going anywhere, he said publicly a lot of times he regretted leaving PSV early for Valencia and that in the future he wouldn't do that again. Now if Barca came along i can see him taking that train cause thats his dream but for Everton? I dont see it happening.

There's a lot of stuff going on with Twente atm. The Dutch FA (or better yet a commission that hands out the licenses for professional football, not sure what its called in English) wants to relegate them to the second division as a punishment for all the crap they pulled last few years. Twente is fighting it in court, they claim the club falls over if they will be relegated and that the Dutch FA has no grounds for giving that punishment, its a pretty complicated case really. But there's a real possibility the club will fall over if they lose their case. Tthey did a lot of dirty and fishy stuff which they might pay the ultimate price for, so i can see clubs waiting with offers cause you might can get Ziyech this summer as a free agent if it all goes bad for Twente.

Think most clubs will wait if Twente even still exists in a few weeks.

Chelsea doesnt have a partnership with Vitesse, they own Vitesse. Not on paper because you are not allowed to own more then one club but behind the scenes everything is connected to Abramovich/Chelsea. The first 'owner' was even forced to transfer the shares to someone else because he was spending too much money and wasn't listening. And other people that were fired at that moment said on public television as well that everything that goes on at the club was controlled by 'London'. Even the sponsor they now have is a company owned by Abramovich and they needed that because they were violating the FFP rules and were spending a ****load more money then was coming in and couldnt find a sponsor. Its all very fishy and a joke really. Everybody in Holland knows Vitesse is owned by Chelsea but everything on paper says otherwise so nobody can do anything. Depends on the partnership i guess but i've never heard of a partnership where the other club receives players on loan for absolutely nothing, then it almost makes more sense to keep the guy at the club and use him to jack up the level of your U21 squad for example or put him out on loan to someone who can and will pay his wage. Groningen for example had a partnership with Udinese and they tried to loan players from them but still couldn't or wanted to pay the wages Udinese was asking and some players simply didnt even want to come. But maybe Southampton will be the first that i know to send their players for free (no wage that is cause like i said, players are never totally free) on loan but again Groningen, or any other decent club in Holland, wont and cant guarantee that they will get a spot in the starting squad and regular play time cause what if a player from their own academy breaks through? Your not going to block the development from that player because the player on loan needs to play, fans would go absolute ape**** and the media will burn you to the ground for it. Maybe if you can arrange that the player on loan stays at least for 2 seasons, a club like Groningen might be interested in receiving a player on loan then but i doubt the player himself is going to agree with that. Putting players out on loan is just tricky and a mess, you see it everywhere and it almost never works.

Well its not my opinion. Its the opinion from pretty much every club in Holland that has a few bucks and they have said so publicly pretty often that getting players on loan is a last resort. Exactly for the reasons i've mentioned before on here: they dont make you any money. What i mean with expecting 'a kid to come and carry the team' is that if you spend money on a player that you get on loan, that player needs to add something besides being a rotation or backup player. He's not going to make you any money and he will be around only on a short term so he better deliver or your ****ing money away, which you almost dont have, with almost no return. And i say kid cause Dutch clubs dont have the money to pay salaries/wages of older players. All the players (besides Van Ginkel at PSV) on loan in Holland are young kids at the age of 18/19/20 from Manchester City, PSG, Juventus etc who are on their first contract with low wages. And most of them are 'ok' players at best, just like the dozens that Chelsea drops at Vitesse. Most are 'ok', 1 or maybe 2 of them will be great, the rest isnt even good enough. And there almost aren't any experienced players that carry the team. The average age is extremely low in Holland cause they all play with young talented kids that might make them money. There are almost no good experienced players in Holland. Why would you still be there if you are any good in the first place? If your past 25 and your still playing in Holland, your mediocre at best otherwise someone would have bought you long before that. (Again) Players on loan are not free, there isnt a club that sends their players on loan for free (not to mention other costs that players bring with them) so Dutch clubs can only pay the wages of young talents. Groningen has tried to get older players on loan in the past because they couldnt find a replacement for a player they just sold within their budget but they simply couldnt afford them to get them on loan. They got a kid from Liverpool on loan not that long ago tho, wasnt good enough by a long shot. And they already said that they wont do that again in the near future cause it didnt do anything for them, so instead a year later they bought a kid from City that did good on loan at a smaller club. That makes a lot more sense for them. Anyway ok lets take Isgrove as a example, the average salary/wage at Groningen is about 200k a year. What's Isgrove on at the moment? I doubt its around that and Southampton isnt going to send Isgrove to Groningen while they have to keep paying his (or large part of it) wage. Plenty of clubs out there who could and will cover that wage when they take him on loan. But Isgrove helped Burnley getting promoted, which results in more money which would justify it. Problem is, the only way Isgrove would make a club like Groningen money is by getting them into Europe but Groningen wont reach the group stage so they pretty much dont make anything with that really. He's not going to help Groningen get into the Champions League (only way to make real money for Dutch clubs btw besides transfers) and a few places higher on the table doesnt cover his wage as well so again, there's no point for a club like Groningen to do so. And smaller clubs are kinda of a mess and not that interesting cause most of them they dont even have the money to play on grass so they play on artificial pitches, which is terrible for developing players if you ask me. The big and decent clubs in Holland wont be interested in taking players on loan from Southampton on a regular base. Otherwise they would have been doing it already from other clubs but none of them do because they spend millions on developing players from their own academies with a potentially much larger return on players. Its really as simple as that and i really cant make it anymore clear then this.

Players are never free, you pay their salary or a percentage of it, insurance and everything that comes with it and not to mention they take up a spot in your roster, which you could have given to a kid from the academy which you potentially do make a profit on and who will be longer at the club. Most Dutch clubs dont have giant training grounds with a giant staff. They only have as much as they can afford and that aint much when you work with a 15 million pound annual budget for everything like Groningen. Your working with limited resources to develop players, so why spend those resources and money on players that you dont own? Doesnt make much sense. Dutch clubs that have some money dont take players on loan besides them being brought in as backup players, you will have to look at teams that have zero money. Or you would need to buy a club yourself like Chelsea did with Vitesse.

Of course its not a disgrace to get players on loan, its just most Dutch clubs need the income from transfers to pretty much survive without having to cut into budgets. When the loan ends the player goes back and you have no income what so ever to replace him. And if the player on loan stands out there's a big chance a club will come in and swoop him up with a bigger offer (same kinda happened with Toby). Like i said in my previous post, Groningen actually needs to sell players from time to time with a profit to fill hole's in annual budgets and you dont make profits on players who are on loan, simple as that. Plus a 18/19/20 year old kid aint going to come in at a club like Groningen and carry the team, i've really only see 2 guys at that age doing that in the last 15 years or so and those 2 were Suarez and Robben. And if you have talents like that i highly doubt you need to loan them out. So if the player on loan aint carrying the team immediately and wont sign with you after the season (for what ever reason) your left with nothing at the end of the season and you can start over. And pretty much all you did was developing and putting time and money in a player for someone else. So why would Groningen (or a different club similar to them) take a young kid on loan when they could buy one on their own with potentially a large transfer fee coming their way in the future? There is no reason really. Revenue from transfers are just way too important for most Dutch clubs, thats all and has nothing to do with getting players on loan being a disgrace or not. The only teams in Holland who take a lot of players on loan literally have no money to buy players on their own and those are not teams where you want to send your players to to develop in the first place.

Groningen and Southampton have close relations thanks to the Koeman brothers, i know that a lot of people from Groningen have visited Southampton multiple times but i dont think a club like Groningen would want to take a lot of players on loan. And really not a lot of teams in Holland will want to do that, at least not the top half of the table. Pretty much all clubs in Holland heavily depend on transfers. Groningen for example needs to sell players pretty much every year to balance and fill holes in the budgets. Thats why good scouting and academies are so important to Dutch clubs, selling players is the only real source of income for most clubs. Getting players on loan is a last resort for a club like Groningen.

When it comes to these 5 players, i really dont see a big problem. I dont see anyone who isn't replaceable. I only worry about Forster and Van Dijk, who i have no clue who to replace it with but otherwise: Pelle -> Borja Bastón Tadic -> Kostic Juanmi -> Asensio Mané -> Inaki Williams/ João Mário / Promes Wanyama -> Dendoncker / Zakaria Maybe add 1/2 more 'cheap' players to the squad like Ziyech and Van Ginkel and i think the squad would even become stronger. Dont get it twisted, if a big, big club comes next summer Virgil wants to leave as well. Celtic removed Virgil from the squad for one match because Arsenal put it a last minute bid on him and he wanted to leave and at Groningen he already said publicly during the winter that he wanted to leave the next summer. The only people that have a little bit of loyalty in football are the fans, you can forget about the rest. They all (well 99% of the players) move along when they can earn more and who wouldn't if they can earn 2/3/4/5 times more somewhere else? They are all the same and i dont care really, i start worrying when nobody is interested in players.

Never been really impressed with him. Decent player tho but if you ask me then there's cheaper/better options out there

Different kind of winger tho who can play on both sides, could be a replacement for Mané if there's any truth in this. Or if they are looking at playing Long as a center forward from now on, we could use another pacey winger anyway even if Mané stays.

http://www.fussballtransfers.com/bundesliga/poker-um-kostic-noch-drei-bundesligisten-im-rennen_64888 Southampton one of the clubs interested in Filip Kostic. Lots of competition tho with Leicester, Schalke, Wolfsburg, Leverkusen, Inter Milan, Juventus according to the article but i would love to see that guy at Southampton.

I'm not jumping for joy about any players from Newcastle, I think for every decent player they have you can find better and/or cheaper alternatives. Maybe I would take Krul if Forster gets a transfer but otherwise, no thanks really.

Tadic vs Lallana statistics

Doesnt have much to with being Dutch, if people seriously think he will be here for 6 years then they might need a reality check. He signed a long contract because it raises his transfer fee for the club and a wage increase for him, nothing more. If a big club comes knocking next summer with big transfer fee, he will be offski just like anyone else.

Great news, we dont have to worry about him in the summer. Otherwise it doesn't mean much if you ask me, only that his transfer free has doubled but if clubs want him they will get him at the end anyway. There probably was some snooping around already otherwise you don't extend/upgrade a 5 year contract with a another 2 years. I would put my money on Koeman taking him with him to Arsenal.

Ill play... Sell (9 players): Graziano Pellè (centre forward) for £15,5M Gallagher (centre forward) for £750k Juanmi (secondary striker) for £7,5M Reed (central midfield) for £2,2M Steven Davis (central midfield) for £5M Jordy Clasie (defensive midfield) for £12,3M Yoshida (centre back) for £4,5M Florin Gardos (centre back) for £5,6M Cédric Soares (right back) for £11M Extra budget from selling: £64,35M -> total budget for buying = £124,35M Buy (9 players): Borja Bastón (center forward) for £6M from Atletico Madrid Marco Asensio (attacking midfield/winger) for £6M from Real Madrid Filip Kostic (winger) for £15M from Stuttgart Hakim Ziyech (attacking midfield) for £20M from FC Twente Mario Pasalic (central midfield) for £7.5M from Chelsea Marco van Ginkel (central midfield) for £10.5M from Chelsea Fabian Schär (centre back) for £6M from Hoffenheim Andreas Christensen (centre back) for £12M from Chelsea Kenny Tete (right back) for £8,26M from Ajax Balance: £33,09M profit, strippers and whores for every season ticket holder.

Consistency is the key factor of quality players. Every player has his moments where everything goes right, they make all the rights decisions on the pitch and they look like world class players but you are only really class when you do that every single match. We have a squad with good players, even great players and sometimes they even look like world class players but the lack of consistency makes them good/great players and thats why they are not playing for Real Madrid, Barca, Bayern or what ever top team. If you ask me Pelle, Long, Tadic, Mané etc all play pretty much to their full potential. One match everything they do works out, the next one they might make all the wrong decisions. Nothing wrong with that really and its more then good enough for the level the club is chasing.

Cracking match, great performance from the team. In control from the start and never got under a lot of pressure while the front 3 were causing them all sorts of trouble. Only 3 more points and we have the same amount of points as last season, not too shabby..

Milik the best young striker in Europe... Now I've seen it all. I don't even want that guy on a free, let alone on a huge fee. He's mediocre at best.

I dont know how much Mitchell played a role in that but without him Van Dijk would have been playing for Southampton as well. Koeman wanted to bring in Van Dijk even before Toby, he has been knowing van Dijk for years. Ronald's father (Martin Koeman) was the head scout at Groningen in Holland when they brought Van Dijk in from Willem 2. And its not a secret that Ronald always liked Tadic and Van Dijk and through his father, he knew everything about them. Van Dijk and Tadic spanked Feyenoord in one match, in Koeman's first year as the manager, when they both played at Groningen and won 6-0 with both scoring goals and assists. So i dont know how high Van Dijk was on the scouting reports before Koeman joined the club (probably pretty high) but Koeman knew everything about Van Dijk before Mitchell even joined Southampton.

Thing with Tadic is tho, at least if you ask me, he can be extremely frustrating at times because you know he can do better but i kinda have the same with all our attackers. Mané for example has flashes of brilliance but a minute later i see him running balls over sidelines for no reason or other weird simple stuff that goes wrong but i guess if they didnt do that on a regular base they wouldnt be playing for Southampton.

Frustrating match, think the team played well but some bad luck and quality in front of the goal lost us 2 points. Going to be difficult to reach the 60 points from last season now, once again a game that confirmed to me that we need a proper attacking midfielder next season.

Apparently AS Roma and Inter and others have shown interest in vd Wiel. He's a free agent in the summer but he probably wants a big wage and I'm not sure he's worth it. I would take him over Janmaat tho.