Monk's Corner

[Hamilton Saint]

Firstly, I do not expect you to all agree or perhaps like the following post. I suggest you take a deep breath before you read:

 

Over the last five years, I have witnessed a number of bedwetters on this forum panicking from 'issues' such as not purchasing a player who posses pace, no weekly press statements regarding a stadium expansion to hideous car park charges. However, following our most successful and enjoyable season in the PL we now have a stomach churning summer which has a number of us questioning 'why we bother'?

 

Ultimately, we are not a big club. People come and go with ambitions to progress us and sometimes those ambitions have been reached. I urge you to bare in mind it is just as easier to fall from success than it is to maintain it (success in our case was cracking the top half with a philosophy). We as a fan base easily get carried away with anything, whether its positive or negative as opposed to just supporting our club.

 

However, the last few weeks I have found incredibly unsettling and uncomfortable as a large number of you have. The majority of you will respect the fact it is now the close season, the media go into overdrive with their imagination regarding transfers. There's much more column inches to fill daily now there is no PL/FL matches to cover, that's just how the English media is and we MUST get use to it. I do hate it when people say 'well you/we must be doing something right if clubs are interested in your players' - I can assure you, nobody knows this more than the fans that pay £40 a week to watch the team week in.

 

It is incredibly bizarre that we have endured our most successful campaign but have since lost our manager and potential 4 key players but as they say, that is football. It happened to Villa, Newcastle and Leeds for whatever reasons but it happened. I am not happy with the way the club has conducted itself from closed doors. My personal opinion is Southampton's board should of notified potential bidders/agents that any approaches for our players before the WC will be deemed as disrespectful and we will not take it lightly (no deal will be done with that club or run the risk of paying a higher fee).

 

I appreciate everybody is feeling the pinch of uncertainty around our club its completely valid, just take a deep breath as unfortunately we can only do one thing WAIT until the new management comes in.

 

Thunder is just a noise and it can't hurt you, when lightening does strike that's another bloody matter!

 

Good, thoughtful post. Maybe we should just all take a break for the summer. Come back on here in late-July/early August.

 

[JoeShmoe]

There are 3 or 4 posters who have posted constantly negative ****e on every thread repeatedly for 3 days straight with higher post counts than Glasgow

 

One little bit of bad news and the new breed of Alpine and Barry can't help themselves

 

Get outside, it's sunny, have a beer

[Kingsland Codger]

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

 

W B Yeats

 

I awoke this morning to the news of SRL's possible transfer but I took solace in the statement of Mr Krueger on Wednesday. No-one would be sold until a new manager was announced and even if the newcomer thought it best to sell our talisman it sure as heck wouldn't be for a derisory fee with "add-ons". A club "in control" doesn't do "add-ons"; a club "in control" demands cold, hard cash and lots of it.

 

When come lunchtime it was clear the deal was done for a mere £4m and Mr Krueger had either willfully treated his customer base with utter contempt (unlikely) or been royally stitched-up by someone else on the Board (more likely) then, like those who have posted on this thread before me, I felt mightily disillusioned.

 

But at least I now know there isn't a team of twenty dedicated scouts out there scouring Europe and beyond for potential players, coaches and managers. I now know Mr Reed has not been inundated with applications. It was silly of me to have been duped by Mr Krueger's words.

 

There will be no transfer kitty, the new manager will not be hired "in days not weeks" and whoever he might be, he will be underwhelming.

 

What, indeed, is the point?

 

I lack all conviction - although bouts of passionate intensity crop up from time-to-time.

Edited 30 May, 2014 by Kingsland Codger

[Smirking_Saint]

Yup. Been chatting to SuperMikey & Pap on Twitter on similar lines.

 

I'm usually a pretty positive guy when it comes to Saints, especially on here. I've often been called a Happy or a Clapper.

 

But the uncertainty is what is really getting me at the moment. I just have no idea what is going on (that's not a call for the board to put out more statements). I cannot for the life of me remember a situation like this (yes, emotion may cloud my judgement on this one) after such a successful season. As others have said, I cannot think of any time where a club comes off the back of such a decent season, not in the financial mire and looks set to lose so many key personnel.

 

I expected outs, but I never expected to lose MP, 3/4 possibly 5 first team players. In even my worst case scenario I never saw Rickie leaving. I don't begrudge him it at all, I really don't. In other circumstances I'd be absolutely made up for the bloke (deep down I am really, but it's just a bit raw at the moment).

 

As I said, I'm not usually one for all the doomsday stuff, and yeah this isn't the end of the world and of course there will be a team next season, but I really have to say, recently I have been thinking the same thing as Monk. "What is the point?".

 

Why bother trying to develop your own players, recruiting good managers, building a decent infrastructure, if the second you have any kind of 'success' (it's depressing enough that an 8th place finish is seen as a success) the heart is ripped out of the team. Is this the best we can ever hope for?

 

I don't know, I'm probably just moaning, and venting a bit, and come August I probably will be back in the full swing of watching games and supporting the team. But, right now, my love for the game is being tested to a point it never has been previously.

 

So yeah, what is the point?

 

Top post

[Cascadia Saint]

Yup. Been chatting to SuperMikey & Pap on Twitter on similar lines.

 

I'm usually a pretty positive guy when it comes to Saints, especially on here. I've often been called a Happy or a Clapper.

 

But the uncertainty is what is really getting me at the moment. I just have no idea what is going on (that's not a call for the board to put out more statements). I cannot for the life of me remember a situation like this (yes, emotion may cloud my judgement on this one) after such a successful season. As others have said, I cannot think of any time where a club comes off the back of such a decent season, not in the financial mire and looks set to lose so many key personnel.

 

I expected outs, but I never expected to lose MP, 3/4 possibly 5 first team players. In even my worst case scenario I never saw Rickie leaving. I don't begrudge him it at all, I really don't. In other circumstances I'd be absolutely made up for the bloke (deep down I am really, but it's just a bit raw at the moment).

 

As I said, I'm not usually one for all the doomsday stuff, and yeah this isn't the end of the world and of course there will be a team next season, but I really have to say, recently I have been thinking the same thing as Monk. "What is the point?".

 

Why bother trying to develop your own players, recruiting good managers, building a decent infrastructure, if the second you have any kind of 'success' (it's depressing enough that an 8th place finish is seen as a success) the heart is ripped out of the team. Is this the best we can ever hope for?

 

I don't know, I'm probably just moaning, and venting a bit, and come August I probably will be back in the full swing of watching games and supporting the team. But, right now, my love for the game is being tested to a point it never has been previously.

 

So yeah, what is the point?

 

Totally agree with this.

 

I'm absolutely gutted about Rickie leaving. It really does seem like ripping our heart out first, before they start hacking off limbs.

 

We need a manager and a direction ASAP.

[Latheal]

Like others, starting to question the point, but still find myself handing over £1,260 to the club. I was not too bothered about Poch going as felt that he was always moving on. It just meant his replacement was so important. I wasn't being swayed by the pending Shaw transfer and whilst Lallana's does really worry me, as long as all the money we get for those two (minus sell on clauses, obviously) goes to the new manager then willing to accept it.

 

What has really, really angered me is the way we have basically rolled over and "given" Liverpool an International striker seemingly one day after declaring nobody would be leaving the club until a new manager came in. People can play with semantics all they want, argue over the actual words that RK used, but the underlying message in his interview was that nobody would be going until a new manager was in place. For the talisman of the club to be going the very next day, with seemingly no fight, no forethought to the interview just broadcast, undoubtably makes us look like a laughing season. I keep hearing its "Rickie's dream club". I really don't give a ****. He's under contract, he was a Saints player, and if he's been pushing for a move, how the hell did he find out about it? Ironically, I'm pretty sure Real Madrid was Suarez's dream club last year but Liverpool managed to hold on to him.

 

I cannot find a valid reason why we should have buckled to Liverpool's demands to sell before a World Cup (or even before a new Manager is in place). What does that, in anybody's right mind, have any baring to us? They'll move on? Let them. We end up with an England International rather than 3mil we can do sweet FA with.

 

It's also set a precedent. What if they now come back and say its £25mil for Lallana before the World Cup or they are off. What if Utd do the same with Shaw? The players may now push for it as they've seen no backbone in the club and we're willing to roll over and just give in. It's just a pathetic way to manage any business. We even had a perfect get out of jail card by simply stating we are waiting for a new manager before any sales go out or in.

 

The new board have just put even more pressure on themselves - the new manager was already going to be under immense scrutiny from fans and media. Now, it's even worse. We've already got to replace 30 odd goals from last season with Jay out and Rickie going. It's just really difficult to have any faith in them at present.

[Hamilton Saint]

Everyone's been to school - everyone's an education expert.

 

Everyone's played football - everyone's a footballing expert.

 

Everyone's had a boss - everyone's a management expert.

 

Everyone's felt anxiety - everyone's a crisis expert.

 

Apparently ...

[david in sweden]

I've never heard of a club losing their manager and their four best players in one transfer window. If that happens to us surely it is unprecedented?

 

Mmm........records get broken all the time - don't they?