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Les Reed interview today


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We have been made to look very naive yet again this summer when it comes to transfers. I am starting to wonder if Saints transfer committee believe their own hype a little bit too much sometimes. I certainly think we started to believe all the hype and propoganda about our black box and transfer strategy after the great start to last season.

 

Maybe Paul Mitchell leaving for Spurs was a bigger blow than it looked.

 

The questions I would ask Les Reed is do we have actually have a long term transfer strategy or are we just running around in a blind panic trying to fill short term holes. And do we actually have a transfer fund to spend.

 

Losing Clyne this summer was inevitable - but losing him to Liverpool and not a Champions League club for just £12.5 million was just stupid. After they way he left Crystal Palace he was always going to do it to us. We should never have let it get to the stage of just having 1 year on his contract.

 

But I guess we couldn't sell him last year after losing Chambers to Arsenal unexpectedly - who would have provided cover at right back, holding midfield and centre back supposedly - and who we also haven't replaced yet.

 

Losing Alderweireld to Spurs is even more stupid - and makes us look incompetent and there for the taking again. We should have made it a permanent transfer in January or pushed a deal through right at the start of the summer - and given Spurs no room to push their way in. It looks like we have been on the back foot and caught right out when we should have been on the front foot.

 

Lets hope we can sign Virgil Van Dijk or some similar to fill the hole and provide some competition for Gardos and Yoshida.

 

This summer we should have been bringing in a long term successor for Fonte and a replacement for Chambers and to give some competition at right back - but now we are looking to fill a gaping hole in our defence. I was also hoping we'd sign an out and out striker to give Pelle some competition but I think we are hoping Rordriguez can do that. I think we are also hoping Targett can take a major step forwards this season to provide some real competition at left back.

 

Cedric Soares look like a great replacement for Clyne but I hoped he was signed to provide some competition at right back - but now we are back where we were a year ago when Chambers and Lovren departed.

 

The signing of Cuco Martins - a journeyman defender from a mid table Dutch team who looks like he's been bought it to provide cover at right back and centre back just makes it look worse - and looks a bit of a panic signing to me.

 

Juanmi looks like a good signing - and he and Cedric are the kind of players we should be signing - young players between the ages of 21 and 24 for £3-5 million who have played at the top level, our internationals, great value for money, full of potential and with a great chance of getting better and doubling or trebling in value.

 

It was also obvious Morgan was going to leave us this summer - and that was obvious a year ago - so why the hell did we let Cork leave the club in January. If Cork was still here with him and Victor Wanymana providing competition and cover replacing Morgan would be so important as it is going to be - or as difficult. Surely having let Cork go in January we should have had a replacement for Morgan already signed and sealed before we sell him.

 

At £12 million Shane Long looked like a panic buy last summer - and I am not sure we can afford any more of those after the failed signings of Forren, Osvaldo, Mayuka, and Gaston Ramirez. Long hasn't been a disaster but at 28 and with only 7 goals he was never worth the fee we paid.

 

I think we rode our luck quite a bit at the start of last season - and had a great start built on a very solid defence. This season we will start our first couple of games with only 2 players from the 7 who started at the back last last season - Fonte and Wanyama. And that does worry me a little bit.

 

Our midfield also looks weaker - with just Wanyama, Davis, Reed and Ward-Prowse to choose from whereas last year we had Cork and Morgan as well. I would liked to see us bring in at least two players to replace Morgan - an attacking midfielder like Wijnaldum and defensive midfielder or playmaker so we can play 4-2-3-1 with a double pivot in front of the defence or 4-3-3 with two attacking box-to-box midfielders. And I'm not sure we have a Number 10 who can play in the hole unless Tadic can fill this role - Juanmi looks more of a wide striker to me and a replacement for Elia, Djuricic and hopefully and competition for Mane and Long.

 

I think we are probably going to finish mid table this year - and probably behind a few clubs we thought we were better than such as Swansea, Newcastle, Crystal Palace and West Ham - and maybe we should be happy with that given where we've been and where we've come from.

 

Maybe it is a case of we're simply not a big enough club to compete with the top six - or maybe we just don't have the money to spend in the short term us fans think we do.

 

But we could still make the three or four great signings we need to stay at the level we reached last season - and compete in Europe - so lets not judge to soon - but I do think we need to take a bit more control of our transfers and show a bit more sign of having a long term strategy to grow and strengthen the team by buying and selling players - we can't always rely on our academy to turn out little gems.

 

I thought Cork was in his last year of his contract and refused to sign a new one, that being the case then he wouldn't have been here now anyway. We should have offered him a new contract last summer though.

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Les, stop wasting time with interviews and go out and sign some quality players. You seem to be quite good at selling them.

 

Seems a bit unfair, i'd say he's quite good at buying them as well. With the exception of Morgan and Jose weren't all our starters in our just gone best prem season recruited in the past 3 years - most likely with Les' input (Bertrand, Forster, Toby, Mane, Tadic & Pelle last year, Wanyama the year before, Davis and Clyne the year before that).

 

Early signs for Cedric and Juanmi look promising (too early to tell though) while Martina clearly seems to only be there for depth/backup in an emergency. We still need another CB to replace Toby and a Morgan replacement when (if?) he goes and I still think we need a Cork replacement (neither JWP or Davis have particularly impressed me in that position and Reed is still on a learning curve).

 

I am still interested in why the Toby deal went so tits up but i'm sure that's something he won't discuss in any detail. Apart fom that I would like to know where/when he thinks the academy players will be integrated into the first team this season - with League, Cup and Europa games i'd like to think there would be some opportunities for game time for some of them.

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Here is a question for you Alpine. Given that Toby clearly wanted to sign for Spurs and Clyne was clearly not going to sign a new contract, what you do suggest that Les should have done differently to make them change their minds?

 

 

Playing devil's advocate but perhaps offered more money? Both men appeared open to persuasion going by comments made by RK.

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i think the point is also about the replacements. its all very well losing players to bigger clubs, inevitable for us, there is no doubt about that, just as we bought the likes of lambert and fonte when we div 1. But it's what we are bringing in and though RK might not fancy Charlie Austin, for example, Palace have just bought Cabaye. Yes, people are going to come on here and say this and that about him, but he was ficking class for Newcastle and i would have though a good replacement for Morgan (not as good though). Just seems like we 'are' trying to make a decent profit on transfers.

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i think the point is also about the replacements. its all very well losing players to bigger clubs, inevitable for us, there is no doubt about that, just as we bought the likes of lambert and fonte when we div 1. But it's what we are bringing in and though RK might not fancy Charlie Austin, for example, Palace have just bought Cabaye. Yes, people are going to come on here and say this and that about him, but he was ficking class for Newcastle and i would have though a good replacement for Morgan (not as good though). Just seems like we 'are' trying to make a decent profit on transfers.

 

As good as Cabaye is, I doubt they would want to replace Schneiderlin with a 29 year old for £13m on an apparently £100k p/w contract. Signing someone like Jordy Clasie is more of a Saints style signing and both Koeman & Clasie keep dropping hints about it.

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"By waiting on players to leave before we look to sign their replacements, are we in danger of missing out on our top targets?"

 

Eh?

 

- We signed Cederic before we sold Clyne

- Schnderlin hasnt left yet so we may well sign a replacement before he leaves

- Toby wasnt our player, we were trying to sign him, why would we try and sign someone else before Toby made his decision who he was signing for?

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i think the point is also about the replacements. its all very well losing players to bigger clubs, inevitable for us, there is no doubt about that, just as we bought the likes of lambert and fonte when we div 1. But it's what we are bringing in and though RK might not fancy Charlie Austin, for example, Palace have just bought Cabaye. Yes, people are going to come on here and say this and that about him, but he was ficking class for Newcastle and i would have though a good replacement for Morgan (not as good though). Just seems like we 'are' trying to make a decent profit on transfers.

 

If we have decent players then the bigger clubs are going to want them. If we're going to lose players we might as well make a profit on them.

 

The way to avoid it all is to be utter turd so that nobody wants our useless excuses for players...

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If we have decent players then the bigger clubs are going to want them. If we're going to lose players we might as well make a profit on them.

 

The way to avoid it all is to be utter turd so that nobody wants our useless excuses for players...

 

 

You mean become sunderland?

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We have been made to look very naive yet again this summer when it comes to transfers. I am starting to wonder if Saints transfer committee believe their own hype a little bit too much sometimes. I certainly think we started to believe all the hype and propoganda about our black box and transfer strategy after the great start to last season.

 

Maybe Paul Mitchell leaving for Spurs was a bigger blow than it looked.

 

The questions I would ask Les Reed is do we have actually have a long term transfer strategy or are we just running around in a blind panic trying to fill short term holes. And do we actually have a transfer fund to spend.

 

Losing Clyne this summer was inevitable - but losing him to Liverpool and not a Champions League club for just £12.5 million was just stupid. After they way he left Crystal Palace he was always going to do it to us. We should never have let it get to the stage of just having 1 year on his contract.

 

But I guess we couldn't sell him last year after losing Chambers to Arsenal unexpectedly - who would have provided cover at right back, holding midfield and centre back supposedly - and who we also haven't replaced yet.

 

Losing Alderweireld to Spurs is even more stupid - and makes us look incompetent and there for the taking again. We should have made it a permanent transfer in January or pushed a deal through right at the start of the summer - and given Spurs no room to push their way in. It looks like we have been on the back foot and caught right out when we should have been on the front foot.

 

Lets hope we can sign Virgil Van Dijk or some similar to fill the hole and provide some competition for Gardos and Yoshida.

 

This summer we should have been bringing in a long term successor for Fonte and a replacement for Chambers and to give some competition at right back - but now we are looking to fill a gaping hole in our defence. I was also hoping we'd sign an out and out striker to give Pelle some competition but I think we are hoping Rordriguez can do that. I think we are also hoping Targett can take a major step forwards this season to provide some real competition at left back.

 

Cedric Soares look like a great replacement for Clyne but I hoped he was signed to provide some competition at right back - but now we are back where we were a year ago when Chambers and Lovren departed.

 

The signing of Cuco Martins - a journeyman defender from a mid table Dutch team who looks like he's been bought it to provide cover at right back and centre back just makes it look worse - and looks a bit of a panic signing to me.

 

Juanmi looks like a good signing - and he and Cedric are the kind of players we should be signing - young players between the ages of 21 and 24 for £3-5 million who have played at the top level, our internationals, great value for money, full of potential and with a great chance of getting better and doubling or trebling in value.

 

It was also obvious Morgan was going to leave us this summer - and that was obvious a year ago - so why the hell did we let Cork leave the club in January. If Cork was still here with him and Victor Wanymana providing competition and cover replacing Morgan would be so important as it is going to be - or as difficult. Surely having let Cork go in January we should have had a replacement for Morgan already signed and sealed before we sell him.

 

At £12 million Shane Long looked like a panic buy last summer - and I am not sure we can afford any more of those after the failed signings of Forren, Osvaldo, Mayuka, and Gaston Ramirez. Long hasn't been a disaster but at 28 and with only 7 goals he was never worth the fee we paid.

 

I think we rode our luck quite a bit at the start of last season - and had a great start built on a very solid defence. This season we will start our first couple of games with only 2 players from the 7 who started at the back last last season - Fonte and Wanyama. And that does worry me a little bit.

 

Our midfield also looks weaker - with just Wanyama, Davis, Reed and Ward-Prowse to choose from whereas last year we had Cork and Morgan as well. I would liked to see us bring in at least two players to replace Morgan - an attacking midfielder like Wijnaldum and defensive midfielder or playmaker so we can play 4-2-3-1 with a double pivot in front of the defence or 4-3-3 with two attacking box-to-box midfielders. And I'm not sure we have a Number 10 who can play in the hole unless Tadic can fill this role - Juanmi looks more of a wide striker to me and a replacement for Elia, Djuricic and hopefully and competition for Mane and Long.

 

I think we are probably going to finish mid table this year - and probably behind a few clubs we thought we were better than such as Swansea, Newcastle, Crystal Palace and West Ham - and maybe we should be happy with that given where we've been and where we've come from.

 

Maybe it is a case of we're simply not a big enough club to compete with the top six - or maybe we just don't have the money to spend in the short term us fans think we do.

 

But we could still make the three or four great signings we need to stay at the level we reached last season - and compete in Europe - so lets not judge to soon - but I do think we need to take a bit more control of our transfers and show a bit more sign of having a long term strategy to grow and strengthen the team by buying and selling players - we can't always rely on our academy to turn out little gems.

 

Excellent summary

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He's obviously got something to say so it should be interesting, no getting away from the Toby questioning.

 

I'm going for "Judge our business at the end of the transfer window" or he is annoucing the signing of Wesley Sneijder as morgans replacement alongside Jordy Clasie

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Amy Lewis ‏@SkySportsAmy

Les Reed says he's never put more effort into signing a player but wishes Alderweireld good luck adding "I hope he's made the right choice"

 

Amy Lewis ‏@SkySportsAmy

Interview coming up on @SkySportsNewsHQ. He says no new bids for Schneiderlin and he's not trying to sign Vlaar

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The club have made it clear on multiple occasions that they track players for a long time and have succession plans in place for all our players.

 

What was out succession plan for Toby a side from bidding for a player who was already signing for someone else? What's the strategy behind Cuco Martins?

 

I think this place gets a bit carried away sometimes. We balls up on transfers as much as anyone and we continually need to be replace more than others so I'm not sure I buy into the cult of the black box.

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Amy Lewis ‏@SkySportsAmy

Les Reed says he's never put more effort into signing a player but wishes Alderweireld good luck adding "I hope he's made the right choice"

 

Amy Lewis ‏@SkySportsAmy

Interview coming up on @SkySportsNewsHQ. He says no new bids for Schneiderlin and he's not trying to sign Vlaar

 

 

What "efforts" did he make to sign Toby ? He PREFERRED Spurs. End of

 

 

Re Morgan, Did he confirm what the "old" bids were by any chance

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Yeah I bet threatening the selling club with legal action was a great idea for someone you wanted so much :uhoh:

 

Alderweireld and his dad had already implied AM were difficult to deal with. Threatening them with the law might have gone down well. Who knows.

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Adam Blackmore ‏@bigadamsport

#saintsfc Les Reed confirms no improved bid from #mufc for Morgan Schneiderlin, despite United saying their interest remains in player

 

Adam Blackmore ‏@bigadamsport

#saintsfc Reed adds if United or any club want Schneiderlin they pay the valuation or he'll remain at club, which player is aware of

Edited by SuperSAINT
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How hard could it of been to sign Toby

 

1. If our bid was accepted then you offer him a contract,Toby knew what we had to offer and knew the club/players so half the battle is won

 

2. Our bid was rejected,so make a improved offer if you want him

 

To me it seems clear he didn't want to come back and used us a shop window as soon as a slightly better offer came along.

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Adam Blackmore ‏@bigadamsport

#saintsfc agreed fee with A Madrid for Alderweireld says Les Reed but he got a phone call Monday night saying the player was choosing Spurs

 

Adam Blackmore ‏@bigadamsport

#saintsfc Reed added that they were never in a position to sign Alderweireld before summer because of terms of loan deal

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Adam Blackmore ‏@bigadamsport

#saintsfc agreed fee with A Madrid for Alderweireld says Les Reed but he got a phone call Monday night saying the player was choosing Spurs

 

Adam Blackmore ‏@bigadamsport

#saintsfc Reed added that they were never in a position to sign Alderweireld before summer because of terms of loan deal

 

So he chose Spurs over us. As simple as that and as most sensible people thought would be the case.

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So, no player in to replace the obviously departing Morgan. Until Morgan leaves. Which is dragging on

 

Next summer, it will be mane and vic. Maybe even Rodriguez on the move.

 

I really don't see that it's all that obvious, not sure that anyone is actually going to pay the asking price myself.

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So, no player in to replace the obviously departing Morgan. Until Morgan leaves. Which is dragging on

 

Next summer, it will be mane and vic. Maybe even Rodriguez on the move.

 

Okay so we replace Morgan and he doesn't go which although as you say is unlikely is still a possibility - then what? We've signed a player as a 1st teamer and he is behind Morgan and we have spent cash for no reason.

 

Just as an aside, your posts come across as so defeatist and miserable.

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Okay so we replace Morgan and he doesn't go which although as you say is unlikely is still a possibility - then what? We've signed a player as a 1st teamer and he is behind Morgan and we have spent cash for no reason.

 

Just as an aside, your posts come across as so defeatist and miserable.

 

Then we have a brilliant squad to cope with the extra games.

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Playing devil's advocate but perhaps offered more money? Both men appeared open to persuasion going by comments made by RK.

 

Did they though? Toby says that Tottenham is his dream move and that he always followed their results. Do you think we could match Clyne's wages at Liverpool. You know better than most how bad things were when Lowe said he didn't know where the next £ was coming from. We don't want to go down that road again do we?

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Last summer many bed clothes were soiled at this point and those of us with more bladder control were saying wait until the transfer window closes before you bring out the plastic sheets. Just a thought. Why not try that this summer too? There is absolutely no point in bursting a blood vessel until we know what our squad comprises of.

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Then we have a brilliant squad to cope with the extra games.

 

So if you were Les Reed you would buy another player who could make a similar impact to Schneiderlin regardless of whether Schneiderlin leaves or not? Out of interest how much would you spend on this player? £15m? £20m?

 

We are Saints, we can't just spend money willy nilly and have 2 1st team quality players per a position.

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This will obviously happen! :mcinnes:

 

It has happened the last two years we have been top half of the table

 

I would like to hear les come out and say they have started contract talks with victor now:

 

Not wait till he has a year left or so

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