Adam the Lama to return to Saints? Is this true?

[Chris cooper]

Alice band has seen last season that Walcott properly had it off here with in the region of 90/100k a week wages .

So it’s blatantly obvious he wants a slice of that cake too .. family are local etc it’s no brainer for him.

Dragan tho after the final Sunday talking to Jim white from talksport..said they now know the  glaring mistakes SR made in the prem & are not about to make them again this time round.

He also went on to say they signed to many kids last season & want to mix it up next season with bringing in more experienced players to balance the younger players ..ie Adam lallana looking to be the 1st one of those.

personally him in ings have had their time here & the way the both left us is still salty as fuck for me .. I bet if you ran a poll most of us on here wouldn’t want them back .?

[Lord Duckhunter]

They’re  all disloyal cunts,  but some are better at hiding it. 

[Saint_clark]

28 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

If it was some 36 year old from Wolves or Everton with no link to us I doubt we'd see anything like this clamour.

Good way of looking at it. Lets get Tim Ream, Angelo Ogbonna or Willian in on player/coach deals. Pay them a players wage to play less than 10 games and coach our youngsters with no experience or qualifications. 

[Fan The Flames]

Why don't Brighton want him as a player coach and mentor?

[Saint Mikey]

25 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said:

Why don't Brighton want him as a player coach and mentor?

They did. They offered him a playing contract. De Zerbi wanted him to stay. He turned it down to be closer to his family, so he says - we may be offering more money or more coaching opportunities.

[Chez]

7 hours ago, ally_uk said:

Whocares how he left the club I don't. Most the melts whinging will soon pipe down when Lallana top bins it! 🤣🤣🤣

I care. If he wants to threaten to go on strike, that's up to him, but don't come back looking for a job and expect me to welcome him back. 

[Dellyears]

6 minutes ago, Chez said:

I care. If he wants to threaten to go on strike, that's up to him, but don't come back looking for a job and expect me to welcome him back. 

He's a great talent, we shouldn't turn down the opportunity if Martin wants him. It was a sad end here but we are big enough not to hold a grudge. These things happen in football. He could be just the man to direct our youngsters. Welcome home for the next stage of your career!

[Oldandtired]

When it all boils down to it all footballers are mercenaries. End of.

[Chez]

10 hours ago, Dellyears said:

He's a great talent, we shouldn't turn down the opportunity if Martin wants him. It was a sad end here but we are big enough not to hold a grudge. These things happen in football. He could be just the man to direct our youngsters. Welcome home for the next stage of your career!

Oh, forgive my hesitancy, I didn't realise he was coaching god. All is forgiven son. Welcome 'home'.

[Weston Super Saint]

15 hours ago, Saint Mikey said:

They did. They offered him a playing contract. De Zerbi wanted him to stay. He turned it down to be closer to his family, so he says - we may be offering more money or more coaching opportunities.

It would be lunacy to offer him more than a coaching contract with a "pay per game" clause to top up the money. Could even include a generous goal bonus.  Win, win.

[Totton Saint]

Why would we need him as a coach when we have RM? Furthermore his pay would be better used to add to any offer made to, say, Downes for example.

[CamSaint]

53 minutes ago, Totton Saint said:

Why would we need him as a coach when we have RM?

Assistant Academy Director Tash Patel, and Under-21s Head Coach Adam Asghar both left the club earlier this month  https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/academy-duo-to-depart-the-club. Perhaps he is being lined up for a role there, especially as he has been helping out with theEngland U-21s?

[Totton Saint]

3 hours ago, CamSaint said:

Assistant Academy Director Tash Patel, and Under-21s Head Coach Adam Asghar both left the club earlier this month  https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/academy-duo-to-depart-the-club. Perhaps he is being lined up for a role there, especially as he has been helping out with theEngland U-21s?

Thanks - you are well informed. It all makes sense to me now.

[egg]

On 29/05/2024 at 21:53, Chez said:

I care. If he wants to threaten to go on strike, that's up to him, but don't come back looking for a job and expect me to welcome him back. 

What's the authority for this allegation? I've heard the allegation loads, but never one link to back it. 

[Chez]

15 hours ago, egg said:

What's the authority for this allegation? I've heard the allegation loads, but never one link to back it. 

I can't remember, but it was discussed at considerable length at the time and the conclusion I came to was it was more likely he made the rant/threat than the counter theory that the club put out fake news to make them look better in fans eyes.

Les Reed said shortly before that "Lallana needed to stay a little longer" (they had lost Shaw and didn't want a mass exodus) - basically one more year. They didn't want to sell him that summer. Lallana could see his dream move disappearing so forced the issue. 

In an interview, Lallana denied it happened. If that's the case, why the curt announcement on the saints website? If everyone was happy, why didn't Saints give him a nice send off?

He was absolutely brilliant for us. Signing a long term contract when we went down (all be it for big money) when he could have moved to Wolves was the start of everything good during that period. In my eyes he was close to legendary status.

 

Edited June 1 by Chez

[egg]

7 minutes ago, Chez said:

I can't remember, but it was discussed at considerable length at the time and the conclusion I came to was it was more likely he made the rant/threat than the counter theory that the club put out fake news to make them look better in fans eyes.

Les Reed said shortly before that "Lallana needed to stay a little longer" (they had lost Shaw and didn't want a mass exodus) - basically one more year. They didn't want to sell him that summer. Lallana could see his dream move disappearing so forced the issue. 

In an interview, Lallana denied it happened. If that's the case, why the curt announcement on the saints website? If everyone was happy, why didn't Saints give him a nice send off?

He was absolutely brilliant for us. Signing a long term contract when we went down (all be it for big money) when he could have moved to Wolves was the start of everything good during that period. In my eyes he was close to legendary status.

 

I never understood the lurch from "forced the issue" to him striking. The lad stuck with us when we went down, and in a short career, he had to take the big move when it was on offer. The big contract was as much for our benefit as it was his - without it,  we'd have got a much lower fee. 

Personally, I think there's at least as much chance as it being sour grapes from the saints side as anything else. I certainly wouldn't take Les Reed's word over Lallana's. 

[Chez]

51 minutes ago, egg said:

I never understood the lurch from "forced the issue" to him striking. The lad stuck with us when we went down, and in a short career, he had to take the big move when it was on offer. The big contract was as much for our benefit as it was his - without it,  we'd have got a much lower fee. 

Personally, I think there's at least as much chance as it being sour grapes from the saints side as anything else. I certainly wouldn't take Les Reed's word over Lallana's. 

Tell me how the conversation between Reed and Lallana might have gone then.  Because Reed telling him "We are are not selling you this summer" and Lallana replying "I'll never play for the club again" seems extremely plausible. 

I wasn't there, I dont know, but explain the send off on the Saints website to me. I'm more than happy to listen to other arguements and to change my mind. But for me it simply does not stack up that all parties acted appropriately and then SFC decided to throw Lallana under the bus to avoid fan criticism. IMO they were annoyed at Lallana and thus they gave him the short news announcement on the website as they had no inclination to sing his praises.

What makes Lallana more reliable than Reed by the way? Was Reed caught lying about other stuff?

[sfc4prem]

2 minutes ago, Chez said:

Tell me how the conversation between Reed and Lallana might have gone then.  Because Reed telling him "We are are not selling you this summer" and Lallana replying "I'll never play for the club again" seems extremely plausible. 

I wasn't there, I dont know, but explain the send off on the Saints website to me. I'm more than happy to listen to other arguements and to change my mind. But for me it simply does not stack up that all parties acted appropriately and then SFC decided to throw Lallana under the bus to avoid fan criticism. IMO they were annoyed at Lallana and thus they gave him the short news announcement on the website as they had no inclination to sing his praises.

What makes Lallana more reliable than Reed by the way? Was Reed caught lying about other stuff?

Don't you remember the one line short news send off for Lambert?

[Chez]

1 minute ago, sfc4prem said:

Don't you remember the one line short news send off for Lambert?

I don't. I was probably crying in my beer by that time. It was a pretty painful summer football wise.

 

[Saint Fan CaM]

It seems Lallana has been forging a decent name for himself around the England U-21’s and beyond, so I can believe there is an attraction to bring in that expertise and experience into the club, particularly with someone who has past links. If the rumours are true it seems clear he’s not burnt bridges with the club, so any talk of bad blood etc. probably stem from Les Reed and others, who did a pretty appalling job dismantling a superb few seasons of building a great base. On balance, I think Adam L should be welcomed but not as a 1st team player.

[Graffito]

Lallana categorically denied he threatened to go on strike. There are press reports confirming this. Is there anything from the club confirming he threatened to go on strike? If yes, then it’s a question of who you believe. If no, the balance of probability is that Lallana did not threaten to go on strike. It’s all water under the bridge anyway and has no bearing on what he may or may not be able to do for the club now.

[egg]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

Tell me how the conversation between Reed and Lallana might have gone then.  Because Reed telling him "We are are not selling you this summer" and Lallana replying "I'll never play for the club again" seems extremely plausible. 

I wasn't there, I dont know, but explain the send off on the Saints website to me. I'm more than happy to listen to other arguements and to change my mind. But for me it simply does not stack up that all parties acted appropriately and then SFC decided to throw Lallana under the bus to avoid fan criticism. IMO they were annoyed at Lallana and thus they gave him the short news announcement on the website as they had no inclination to sing his praises.

What makes Lallana more reliable than Reed by the way? Was Reed caught lying about other stuff?

Why do you take Reed's word over Lallana's? I heard things at that time and given the choice of two versions, I take Adam's. 

I also think that it's wrong to comment without understanding the context. Many players sign extensions with a gentleman's agreement not to block a move, and I think that's a distinct probability here.

Lallana wasn't the black sheep in my opinion. 

[egg]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

I don't. I was probably crying in my beer by that time. It was a pretty painful summer football wise.

 

It was, and people bought into Adam being the scapegoat. 

[SNSUN]

On 01/06/2024 at 10:11, Chez said:

I don't. I was probably crying in my beer by that time. It was a pretty painful summer football wise.

 

Yep, although thankfully it coincided with one of our best transfer windows of all time thanks to the appointment of Koeman. 

 

[Ted Bates Statue]

On 01/06/2024 at 09:02, egg said:

I never understood the lurch from "forced the issue" to him striking. The lad stuck with us when we went down, and in a short career, he had to take the big move when it was on offer. The big contract was as much for our benefit as it was his - without it,  we'd have got a much lower fee. 

Personally, I think there's at least as much chance as it being sour grapes from the saints side as anything else. I certainly wouldn't take Les Reed's word over Lallana's. 

Perish the thought that Sir Les Reed might just have twisted the situation to his own benefit, using his friendly mouthpiece Jeremy Wotsit (?) in the Telegraph.

Lallana handled his departure so naively but there are two sides to each story and I suspect the truth might be somewhere in the middle. Still, it provided Saints with a useful scapegoat to distract the fans from the fire sale.

 

[Badger]

On 01/06/2024 at 10:04, Chez said:

What makes Lallana more reliable than Reed by the way? Was Reed caught lying about other stuff?

No idea really on the first part, but wasn’t there a similar situation when Fonte left/ forced out depending on your standpoint?

On the one hand he was acting like a knob, and was diruptive behind the scenes (which both at the time, and now seemed a bit out of character), on the other it was said Reed wanted to move him on due to his age and the stories were said to be a campaign of ‘misinformation’. 
 

We’ll never likely know the truth on this either. 
 

For me, both players played a significant part in our rise from L1 and retain credit for that. Not sure on the coming back bit though. 

[eurosaint]

On 01/06/2024 at 11:27, egg said:

Why do you take Reed's word over Lallana's? I heard things at that time and given the choice of two versions, I take Adam's. 

I also think that it's wrong to comment without understanding the context. Many players sign extensions with a gentleman's agreement not to block a move, and I think that's a distinct probability here.

Lallana wasn't the black sheep in my opinion. 

I was told directly at the time by an eminent national sports journalist that Reed hung Lallana out to dry in order to court favour with the fans as he was highly unpopular then !

Make of it what you will but please don’t make out that Mr Reed was a paragon of virtue !!

 

[egg]

46 minutes ago, eurosaint said:

I was told directly at the time by an eminent national sports journalist that Reed hung Lallana out to dry in order to court favour with the fans as he was highly unpopular then !

Make of it what you will but please don’t make out that Mr Reed was a paragon of virtue !!

 

Absolutely. Staggering that the fans swallowed the bs as gospel. 

[Raging Bull]

Assuming he signs, I give it 5 minutes into his first appearance before the “makes Messi look shite” song pops up and everyone is in love again 

Edited June 2 by Raging Bull

[notnowcato]

17 minutes ago, egg said:

Absolutely. Staggering that the fans swallowed the bs as gospel. 

Aye, 2 sides to every story. 

[St Chalet]

Paging The VMan

[CB Fry]

2 hours ago, eurosaint said:

I was told directly at the time by an eminent national sports journalist that Reed hung Lallana out to dry in order to court favour with the fans as he was highly unpopular then !

Make of it what you will but please don’t make out that Mr Reed was a paragon of virtue !!

 

 

1 hour ago, egg said:

Absolutely. Staggering that the fans swallowed the bs as gospel. 

Sorry to break your hearts lads, but it's entirely that both sides acted the prick, and that the eminent journalist could very well be in bed with Lallana's agent or Liverpool or both so just spouting that side of it.

Everyone has an agenda, including lickle Adam Lallana forced by the bad man to go to Liverpool against his will

[Nolan]

We won't know the full story unless someone tells us. 

We can make assumptions based on lallanas advert in the Echo and Southamptons website stories at the time, but if his presence next year can be a net benefit (for both coaching and paying) then does 10 years ago really matter?

Edited June 2 by Nolan

[SaintsLoyal]

Lallana leaving isn’t the issue, it’s the role he had as Cortese’s gofer in the dressing room. Also the les reed stuff is total bunkum, the poor guy was firefighting the damage that was being done by cortese. It was great Reed stuck two fingers up to him and his poison PR man David Bick.  I would love to say more but Lallana returning would be a right kick in the bollocks/fannys for all Saints fans.

 

Edited June 2 by SaintsLoyal

[egg]

15 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

 

Sorry to break your hearts lads, but it's entirely that both sides acted the prick, and that the eminent journalist could very well be in bed with Lallana's agent or Liverpool or both so just spouting that side of it.

Everyone has an agenda, including lickle Adam Lallana forced by the bad man to go to Liverpool against his will

Sure, it's possible that it was Lallana at fault, or the club, or both. What I never understood at the time though, and still don't now, is why the masses assumed that the line fed from the club was the correct one. I don't believe it was. 

[SaintsLoyal]

9 minutes ago, egg said:

Sure, it's possible that it was Lallana at fault, or the club, or both. What I never understood at the time though, and still don't now, is why the masses assumed that the line fed from the club was the correct one. I don't believe it was. 

It’s a shame Les Reed is still involved in football as I would get him to show Saints fans exactly what was going on in the run up to Cortese resigning and the fall out at the end of the season.

There are still a couple of senior staff at the club who should be telling Parsons and the chairman what was going on and realise Lallana should be nowhere near our club.

[egg]

13 minutes ago, SaintsLoyal said:

It’s a shame Les Reed is still involved in football as I would get him to show Saints fans exactly what was going on in the run up to Cortese resigning and the fall out at the end of the season.

There are still a couple of senior staff at the club who should be telling Parsons and the chairman what was going on and realise Lallana should be nowhere near our club.

Is your info from a source other than Reed? If it is, I'm interested. His perception, I'm not. 

[S-Clarke]

Water under the bridge and all that, what happened happened - he acted like a dick, the club acted like sour bitter pricks as well. No one came out of it well, but we might as well move on from it.

[Oldandtired]

What is the point of all this raking over old dead leaves? I would've thought that what matters now is what's good for the club moving forward.

[darren2]

I can't help but think that Lallana signed his last contract with us (and many of us were surprised when he did) with some assurances from Les Reed that Reed then went back on, such as being allowed to move if a big club came in.  Adam did say it got heated but also said he never refused to play and regretted how it happened. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/31524487

I wouldn't want to see him back on a Walcott deal, but at the right price.......

[Saint Fan CaM]

Yes, what’s gone before is over and if Lallana was the right guy then so be it. But he’s not, at least in a playing sense. My view is that brining him in as a 1st team player will be divisive and indicative of trying to get things done on the cheap. A coaching role fair enough, although I’m not sure what credentials he has to earn his crust.