Why does the club fall apart every summer ?

[alpine_saint]

We do sod-all to keep our players.

We leave our transfer activity so damn late

We dont even handle management changes very well.

 

Is it deliberate ? Does the club deliberately leave the fan base desperate so that when cheapo replacements are brought in a few weeks before the first match of the season we are so grateful that some stability is being generated that we are too stupid to notice the huge amount of asset stripping in the sales vs buys figures ?

[angelman]

Why do you come out and whinge like a little girl every summer?

[ErwinK1961]

Like clockwork.

 

All we need is Les' summer video and the set will be complete.

[Saint-Reece]

Here's this years 'Run like a 1 star B&B' thread then. Pretty early even for you Alps

[Badger]

He does have a point though.

[hypochondriac]

Clearly not many will agree with Alpine's annual meltdown thread but I do think the club could be a little bit more honest about this dance we do every summer. It's a bit insulting to our intelligence to suggest that this year will be any difference from the previous summers. We will be selling multiple players again and they could be a bit more honest about what our model actually is rather than saying "this year is different, there won't be a lot of sales." It erodes trust with the fans.

[GGalpin]

It's the first week of June. How can you possibly judge how we've done business this window when it doesn't end for another 12 weeks?

[alpine_saint]

It's the first week of June. How can you possibly judge how we've done business this window when it doesn't end for another 12 weeks?

 

Because its always the fecking same

[so22saint]

Because you touch yourself at night

[Crab Lungs]

A combination of weak leadership and being around the middle of the European footballing food chain.

[S-Clarke]

Standard alpine start of june thread.

[Saint-Reece]

Clearly not many will agree with Alpine's annual meltdown thread but I do think the club could be a little bit more honest about this dance we do every summer. It's a bit insulting to our intelligence to suggest that this year will be any difference from the previous summers. We will be selling multiple players again and they could be a bit more honest about what our model actually is rather than saying "this year is different, there won't be a lot of sales." It erodes trust with the fans.

 

To be fair I completely agree with you, previous summers I didn't mind so much, as we always recruited well. However after last seasons debacle in the transfer windows and the feeling around the season in general has left me feeling very annoyed for the first time about the dishonesty and the routine we go through, I think this is the biggest transfer window for us in quite some time. Get it wrong and we could be in serious trouble. The thread just made me laugh because it came from Alps bless him

[angelman]

He does have a point though.

 

But why be so trite about it, if it happens every year and will continue to do so? What new is going to be added to the discussion? If there was something that hadn't been discussed before, rather than the same old boring rubbish that we have had for the past 3 years, then the thread might have some merit.

 

I look forward to be being shown to be wrong and something new crops up. However, I won't hold my breath.

[californiasaint]

It's not like any of the players or coaches who have been let go have been generational talents. Meanwhile the team has enjoyed the most successful run in history. If that's what falling apart is, I'll take it.

[alpine_saint]

Standard alpine start of june thread.

 

And ?

The content is incorrect ?

 

Are you impressed with how the club conducts itself during the summer ?

[Saint Billy]

We do sod-all to keep our players.

We leave our transfer activity so damn late

We dont even handle management changes very well.

 

Is it deliberate ? Does the club deliberately leave the fan base desperate so that when cheapo replacements are brought in a few weeks before the first match of the season we are so grateful that some stability is being generated that we are too stupid to notice the huge amount of asset stripping in the sales vs buys figures ?

 

Agreed, I don't like this business model based on Kats huge tax bill.

[GGalpin]

Because its always the fecking same

 

Contrary to popular belief, we've not actually sold Van Dijk yet. It'd be a minor miracle if we had considering there hasn't been a bid, and if he does go he'll go for nigh-on £70m. It's either that or he doesn't go.

 

If we done "sod-all" to keep our players, surely we would put a far lower price tag on him and wouldn't have stuck him on a new contract a year into his original five year deal.

 

Manchester City may come in with a bid north of £25m for Bertrand, but as it has been rumoured he has wanted to go for quite some time, that's a very good price for a 28 year old left back. It's understandable he'd want to go given the wages on offer, Champions League football and a chance to play under Guardiola, but sticking to a price that we can ultimately decide because he was stuck on another long-term contract last summer is hardly doing sod-all either.

 

For the transfer activity being so late, you can't say it'll be the same this summer as the window, er, hasn't actually opened yet. It opens on Friday.

 

The management change hasn't been quick, but given the players don't return from holiday until June 26th, wouldn't you rather we take time sorting a proper replacement, instead of plumping for your ultra-ambitious pick of Gordon Strachan who is hardly wanted by Scotland fans, let alone any Premier League club.

 

Last summer was a poor one, I'll readily admit that. But how you can say it's the same this summer when it hasn't even happened yet is absolutely crazy.

[Andy Durman]

The club doesn't fall apart every summer. It's only some people on this forum.

 

Read fact not speculation.

 

React only to official statements.

[S-Clarke]

And ?

The content is incorrect ?

 

Are you impressed with how the club conducts itself during the summer ?

 

All you're doing is responding to speculation and press, the club it's self have said nothing. We don't really know what's going on behind the scenes, but you seem to just listen to the speculation and claim it as the truth.

[wild-saint]

Clearly not many will agree with Alpine's annual meltdown thread but I do think the club could be a little bit more honest about this dance we do every summer. It's a bit insulting to our intelligence to suggest that this year will be any difference from the previous summers. We will be selling multiple players again and they could be a bit more honest about what our model actually is rather than saying "this year is different, there won't be a lot of sales." It erodes trust with the fans.

 

Unless you are a complete fcktard, you really shouldn't need LR to come out with a statement confirming how we run the the club and our model.

 

You may or may not agree with how we have been run over the last few years but you can't really argue that it's been pretty successful. Time will tell whether it's luck or good judgement. We can only hope for the second.

[Winnersaint]

He does have a point though.

 

No he doesn't. It's just football. Surely the model is clear to see, it's been running the same way ever since we got back to the Prem. The only things falling apart are the entitled bunnies on this increasingly ridiculous corner of social media.

[SKD]

He does have a point though.

 

4 top 8 finishes in the last 4 years would suggest he doesn't though.

[Kieran1uk]

I love this.... proper laughing here in office

[Secret Site Agent]

****, I went home from work and started my holiday and realised I was about 3 weeks early.

You used to be able to set your watch by Alpine and his summer rant, now he's just too early all of the time.

 

My answer is the same as the last 5 years

 

No,No,yes, only in your mind, I don't see that, agree to a point, not sure what you are getting at, no,no,yes, Sundays, Les, MP,no,no,yes, Kat does you know, maybe,I can wait, loverly, need some perspective, no, no,League 1 and beyond, yes, maybe, no,yes,yes, what? I'm not sure, maybe, good.

 

Ahhh summer is here.

[Snopper]

He does have a point though.

 

....and he`s perfectly entitled to have his opinion

[tajjuk]

4 top 8 finishes in the last 4 years would suggest he doesn't though.

 

Yeh we are doing pretty well for a club that falls apart every year, I guess they are having more fun over at clubs like Sunderland, Newcastle, Crystal Palace etc. with their roller coaster rides of flirting with relegation and sacking managers.

 

A lot is going on, well actually, more correctly a lot is being speculated.

 

Are we selling VVD? Club seems to say know and the complaint to the Premier League seems to dispel most of the media reports about him essentially already being a Liverpool player like 6 months ago.

 

We are getting rid of our manager yes, but I presume we are doing this because we want to be better, rather than having stability for the sake of stability, also if you listen to some reports we are getting rid of the manager to appease players like VVD and Bertrand.

 

Plus there is the whole takeover thing, but getting more money into the club to improve can't be a bad thing and if it's fallen through we are no worse off and other investors could come forward.

 

And finally hardly any teams have signed any players yet, plus people should remember that we broke our transfer record in January.

 

I can't see how it's us falling apart, we can't do anything about speculation for our players, if they truly want to go then there is not much point keeping any unhappy player, we chose to change the manager and I'd imagine that has an impact on transfers as we will want his input on them. The investment thing is probably something that is going on in the background all the time, the club is continually looking at ways to increase revenue, grow the brand etc. so why worry about that.

 

I kind of think this sort of meltdown thread is more of an August thing.

[St Jim]

We do sod-all to keep our players.

We leave our transfer activity so damn late

We dont even handle management changes very well.

 

Is it deliberate ? Does the club deliberately leave the fan base desperate so that when cheapo replacements are brought in a few weeks before the first match of the season we are so grateful that some stability is being generated that we are too stupid to notice the huge amount of asset stripping in the sales vs buys figures ?

 

[captainchris]

It's the first week of June. How can you possibly judge how we've done business this window when it doesn't end for another 12 weeks?

 

If you read his post he was talking about all the recent summers, however so far this one is exactly the same so far - is it not ?

Lack of control, mass speculation regarding exits which in previous experience always come to fruition by the way and

buggers muddle until the start of the season in prospect again where we will scrabble around at very last minute to find a new manager and players to fill the voids caused by a lack of management of the out of season period.

In short chaos....

[ALWAYS_SFC]

We do sod-all to keep our players.

We leave our transfer activity so damn late

We dont even handle management changes very well.

 

Is it deliberate ? Does the club deliberately leave the fan base desperate so that when cheapo replacements are brought in a few weeks before the first match of the season we are so grateful that some stability is being generated that we are too stupid to notice the huge amount of asset stripping in the sales vs buys figures ?

 

[alpine_saint]

If you read his post he was talking about all the recent summers, however so far this one is exactly the same so far - is it not ?

Lack of control, mass speculation regarding exits which in previous experience always come to fruition by the way and

buggers muddle until the start of the season in prospect again where we will scrabble around at very last minute to find a new manager and players to fill the voids caused by a lack of management of the out of season period.

In short chaos....

 

Yep.

 

And for all those bemoaning the predictability of my thread, perhaps its worthwhile pointing out that their responses are always the same over-spun "the club knows what its doing" postivity too.

 

We finished 8th last season because the rest of the middle-tier clubs were even more sh*t. We failed to get out of a god-awful Europa League group. Yes we got to the League Cup final, granted, but it wasnt THAT great a season, compared to beating all the top clubs and finishing 6th the year before, ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool. Last summer we did poor business on players and manager.

[Micky]

The club doesn't fall apart every summer. It's only some people on this forum.

 

Read fact not speculation.

 

React only to official statements.

 

This. Almost exactly what I was going to write.

[broncoboy]

Yep.

 

And for all those bemoaning the predictability of my thread, perhaps its worthwhile pointing out that their responses are always the same over-spun "the club knows what its doing" postivity too.

 

We finished 8th last season because the rest of the middle-tier clubs were even more sh*t. We failed to get out of a god-awful Europa League group. Yes we got to the League Cup final, granted, but it wasnt THAT great a season, compared to beating all the top clubs and finishing 6th the year before, ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool. Last summer we did poor business on players and manager.

 

This last season you could see the wheels being in danger of coming off. Entering the season light on strikers, the situation we found ourselves in when Fonte left and VVD got injured, dismal number of goals scored , turgid football

It's incredibly difficult to find replacements for the better players that leave. At some point it will go tits up for us

[tajjuk]

 

We finished 8th last season because the rest of the middle-tier clubs were even more sh*t. We failed to get out of a god-awful Europa League group. Yes we got to the League Cup final, granted, but it wasnt THAT great a season, compared to beating all the top clubs and finishing 6th the year before, ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool. Last summer we did poor business on players and manager.

 

I'll give you all of that, but none of that = 'the club is falling apart'.

 

In fact it shows the opposite because the not great season with 8th papering over the cracks is why we are changing manager, so instead of 'falling apart' would this not actually be recognition of the management that A. The season was not that great despite the finish and cup final, and B. They made some mistakes, particularly in the recruitment of the manager that they are trying to rectify.

 

Wouldn't you be just as critical, if not more so if the club came out and said what a great season we'd had and gave Pule a 2 year contract extension?

 

Would you also not recognise that by making that decision and making the managerial change, that will have an impact on potential signings we make.

 

 

This is not particularly direct at you, but again I don't really get what people expect the club to do when a bigger club than us flashes more money at our better players, and the said player decides he wants to go, the best we can do is hope the club plays as hard ball as possible, either extracting a massive fee or trying to get the player to stay on another year avoiding a full blown tantrum/strike.

 

If VVD doesn't want to be here and he wants to go to Liverpool then there are limits to what can be done, the club can refuse to sell, and particularly to Liverpool and that is what they seem to be doing but they risk having an unhappy player that really benefits no one.

 

Hell supposedly we have reported Liverpool for an illegal approach, not sure how that equates to 'We do sod-all to keep our players.'

[beatlesaint]

The club doesn't fall apart every summer. It's only some people on this forum.

 

Read fact not speculation.

 

React only to official statements.

 

Absolutely - quite often its people's perception of whats going on rather than what is actually going on that makes it seem like "the club falls apart every summer".

 

There are moans if the kit isnt announced by a certain date, if a signing isnt made by a certain date blah blah blah.

FFS give them some credit, the ride we have been on since 2009 has been terrific. They have made what ? one major error with Puel - who got us to a Cup Final - oh and the "cant keep hold of our players" thing but who can ? Even Chelsea are rumoured to lose Hazard, before him it was Costa. Its the way of the world of football now unfortunately. It's not Southampton's fault that every players contract virtually means **** all, we arent the only ones !

[CB Fry]

We do sod-all to keep our players.

We leave our transfer activity so damn late

We dont even handle management changes very well.

 

Is it deliberate ? Does the club deliberately leave the fan base desperate so that when cheapo replacements are brought in a few weeks before the first match of the season we are so grateful that some stability is being generated that we are too stupid to notice the huge amount of asset stripping in the sales vs buys figures ?

 

Why don't we show AMBITION and recruit Gordon Strachan as manager IMMEDIATELY?

[Doctoroncall]

He does have a point though.

 

In what respect?

 

It's the perception of a meltdown which is at odds with the reality. The club is still in the premier league, earnings are up, talented pool of players, European football, some dull football played under a dull manager and a cup final which was far from dull.

 

Very little has changed from last season, or the previous one to that yet apparently the club has gone through a meltdown each summer, whereas it's really Alpine that has had the crisis.

[Chris27687]

Went well for West Ham when they told Payet he couldn't leave....

[doddisalegend]

Why don't we show AMBITION and recruit Gordon Strachan as manager IMMEDIATELY?

 

 

I want this to happen just how Tadic copes,with WGS as manager....

[doddisalegend]

In what respect?

 

It's the perception of a meltdown which is at odds with the reality. The club is still in the premier league, earnings are up, talented pool of players, European football, some dull football played under a dull manager and a cup final which was far from dull.

 

Very little has changed from last season, or the previous one to that yet apparently the club has gone through a meltdown each summer, whereas it's really Alpine that has had the crisis.

 

 

The difference is the talented pool of players isn't as talented as it once was...

[James]

The title of the post is completely over the top but I do think that we are one summer of mass exodus and poor recruitment away from being in trouble. That doesn't mean the club doesn't know what its doing but there is pressure on them to get it right this summer and with several things quite uncertain, even at this early stage, it does make the job a lot harder to do.

[Dan Johnson]

The club doesn't fall apart every summer. It's only some people on this forum.

 

Read fact not speculation.

 

React only to official statements.

 

Absoultely this... NOTHING HAS HAPPENED!!! NOTHING, yet everyone is loosing their ****!

[Doctoroncall]

The difference is the talented pool of players isn't as talented as it once was...

 

Maybe? It's hard to tell, different manager may well have got more (or less) from them. The point is it's still a talented squad.

[Highfield Saint]

What choice do we have? Our income doesn't match the biggest clubs and as I understand it FFP limits what we can spend on wages etc meaning we cant buy or keep the best players and that we have to grow the club organically to establish ourselves for the longer term as an aspiring club. The strategy do achieve this is buying, improving and selling on a selective basis. What is so hard to understand?

 

It does seem to be working and if we sell Bertrand and VVD then in theory we have £100m to spend on a combination of transfer fees and salaries. That is likely to be more than the clubs around us and once again we would expect to see an improvement in the club's relative position.

 

Wether that strategy will take us into the top 6 is unknown but unlikely as the gap between us and the 6 is too big to bridge in that way. Perhaps that is why additional investors are being sought?

[skintsaint]

ah.....its that time of year again!

[fish fingers]

Absoultely this... NOTHING HAS HAPPENED!!! NOTHING, yet everyone is loosing their ****!

 

It's the Southampton Way.

[suewhistle]

ah... I was just about to write what skint did. I was going to make it a question though! :-)

[Saint Albert]

It seems a little bit too early for this thread doesn't it? So far we have probably sacked a manager who many of the posters on this thread want to see gone anyway, and asked the PL to investigate Liverpool for tapping up VVD. Those can be seen by many to be positive developments.

[hypochondriac]

It seems a little bit too early for this thread doesn't it? So far we have probably sacked a manager who many of the posters on this thread want to see gone anyway, and asked the PL to investigate Liverpool for tapping up VVD. Those can be seen by many to be positive developments.

It's the annual alpine meltdown thread. If anything it's a bit late this summer.

[tajjuk]

The title of the post is completely over the top but I do think that we are one summer of mass exodus and poor recruitment away from being in trouble.

 

There was quite a lot of poor recruitment last year, Hojberg and Boufal were very mixed (they are young and first prem season so still plenty of hope for them), Redmond was good but no Mane and it seems we very clearly got the managerial recruitment wrong. We also lost several key players, Wanyama, Mane, Pelle and Fonte.

 

But we still finished 8th even if the points total was pretty low, we were very far from trouble.

[Chez]

We do sod-all to keep our players.

We signed them all on long term contracts, paying bigger wages than ever before. We tell everyone they are not for sale. We even hold one or two to their contracts, despite potentially losing resale value. We increase the attractiveness of the club by investing in improved training facilities and even have the audacity to improve final league position each year. Is there much else the club can do to try and make the players stay?

 

The fact is we are way down the pyramid and top quality players will be bought by those higher up. Always have done, always will. If you have a solution to this problem, I'd be interested to hear it and if that response includes the phrase "just hold them to their contract" or "make them sit in the stands" then you will be wasting your breath.

 

We leave our transfer activity so damn late

Activity? By that do you mean announcing the signings? I say that because scouting and negotiating with a player's club and agent can often start months (even longer for scouting) before the deal goes through. Often the transfer relies on the selling club having a replacement lined up. Deals fall through, others become available. Another factor is cash flow. Sell Mane, real money is available to pay off debts and make down payments on the next player. Its not championship manager. Things take time. If you are at the top of three pyramid like Man City you can lead the way, but as ManU showed a few season back, even with their money and clout, there is no guarantee that targets will be got and got quickly.

 

We dont even handle management changes very well.

Not sure Saints are any worse than the next club. What's you ideal scenario. Sack manager before the media get a hint of whats going on. Tie up all lose ends in a day. Announce the new guy the following day? Good luck with that.

 

Is it deliberate?

Hope so. As it seems to annoy squinnying fans.

 

Does the club deliberately leave the fan base desperate so that when cheapo replacements are brought in a few weeks before the first match of the season we are so grateful that some stability is being generated that we are too stupid to notice the huge amount of asset stripping in the sales vs buys figures ?

Yep. That's the plan...