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An Assessment: Southampton Football Club - where are we at right now?


Saint-Armstrong
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Tried to input the post into here, but for some reason it didn't work. Exceeded character limit I think (didn't realise I'd said that much?!)

 

It's a bit of a long read, but I hope if you give it a chance you'll see where I'm coming from.

 

I also tried to break it up so it wasn't painful on the eyes to follow.

 

 

http://connorarmstrong.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/southampton-football-club-where-are-we.html

 

 

Feel free to let me know if you think I'm talking ****, or if you agree with any points raised.

 

Decided to put it all into one piece rather than venting different points in different areas.

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Good read and a sensible assessment of the situation. I see us following the ere-divisie style you have mentioned... Buying talent cheaply and young and selling them on for big money and repeating the cycle. Time will tell I guess!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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My source tells me that NC was NOT a good boss.The Club was not built around him.ML had the business acumen and appointed NC to expedite his plan. Unfortunately ML passed away before he saw the results of his investment.KL inherited the Club after her fathers passing and left NC to run it.We are seeing the results of a massive sea-change and it's not very pretty to watch.I've supported Saints for over 57 years now and seen players and managers come and go.The grass (money) is greener on the other side of the hill which has added a new variable to the equation.We'll get through this but it will not be pleasant.

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A good article, Connor, sensibly argued points.

 

As you rightly say, the big boys have bought our best players, but we have royally screwed them considering what they cost us and there is no reason that they cannot be replaced with their equivalents with the money we got for them.

 

But another pertinent point, and one that I've made before, is that the top teams can only have squads containing a certain number of players and once those places are filled, then there is a respite until the next transfer window at least. Also, these top clubs make bids for several players for each position and when they sign somebody, those other targets of theirs are up for grabs. I suspect that where the likes of Scousehampton balked at paying the price we wanted for Lallana and Lovren, there was a list of players suggested who were deemed to be as good as them, but costing much less money. It seems to me that those players having been jilted by Liverpool as their suitor, could then be courted by us.

 

So for all the paranoia from a section of our fanbase that these players cannot be replaced adequately and we are going to hell in a handcart, there are other players coming through the academy to replace Shaw and Chambers, who were only themselves introduced very recently and unexpectedly to cries of disbelief that we were blooding these relatively unknown kids before they were ready. There is quite possibly another Lambert somewhere in the third division. There is also another Lovren unfancied and a pariah in his European CL team who will have another chance with us and distinguish himself and then **** off to a glory team. Then there is another Pahars out there, another Killer, another Beattie.

 

We have an excellent academy, a very good global scouting netweork and barrow loads of cash. It shouldn't be beyond us to rebuild a team as good or better than the one that ended last season.

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Very good article.

 

I agree with Wes - but we have to start signing quality players and start signing them quickly.

 

Can't help but feel that losing so many players will make it harder to attract decent players. Even losing Schneiderlin I would fancy us to stay well clear of relegation this season but we do need new blood quickly.

 

Feeling pretty low that we had a strong team with so many youngsters (and primarily English) that have all jumped ship at the earliest opportunity.

 

As it stands, it would be really helpful to have the club issue some kind of statement of intent: either through a marquee signing or clearly stating what the new 'project' is. Right now, rightly or wrongly, it comes across as they have not got a clue what they are doing.

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A decent well written article.

 

Just listening to Talksport and they are talking to a Raf Honigstein, a German journalist, who has come up with a couple of interesting stories regarding German clubs. The first one was around Pep Guardiola wanting to sign Marco Reus from Dortmund. It was actually veto'ed by Bayern themselves as they didn't want the negative reaction of signing yet another Dortmund player after Gotze & Lewandowski. Could you imagine Liverpool not signing Lovren as they didn't want the bad publicity!

 

The other one is warning about inflationary wages. The reason Toni Kroos has left Bayern is that he and Mario Gotze share the same agent, who obviously knew that Gotze signed for three times the wages that Kroos was on. Obviously Bayern weren't willing to match wages so he decided to move.

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