Genuine heartfelt thanks...

A lot of shopping I'd suggest, after all, no youth team player will be making the step up for quite some time.

 

Apart from the 2 youngsters - Holgate and Davies, who've already had game time this season

Oh and Calvert Lewin who made the bench on Saturday.

 

I would suggest that is the very definition of being well run, having an excellent scouting set up and recruiting well then making profits to reinvest in the squad and bringing young players through. It works too as are totally self sufficient with all loans paid up and improving year on year. That's why football writers recognise Southampton as an efficiently run successful club.

 

The problem with that model, is that you're only a handful of bad buys away from being in the ****.

We lived on that knife edge for years under Moyes

 

We haven't made any bad buys since Cortese left, Tobes, Osvaldo and Ramirez were mainly down to him...The scouting set up we have is thorough, every aspect of a player is analysed. That's why we're not too concerned with sales there are always two or three targets to replace them. It is hard when a popular player moves on, but we are realistic enough to recognise that if a bigger club comes calling there is not a lot we can do to stop them going. We have tied quite a few players to long contracts now and the nucleus of the squad is constant.The club's long term ambition is to have a first team of 50% or more of academy products, negating the need to use the transfer market so much.

 

It's a good model and strategy. However, it doesn't matter how much research you put into a player, there's always going to be players who turn out to be duff buys for numerous different reasons, the hope is that the duffers aren't the key signings.

Your signings in recent years have been exclusively funded by sales of academy products and selling on players who've appreciated in value.

That's worked great, but it's never an exact science, and making it sustainable over the longer term will be an ever increasing challenge, as the entire league has upped their game in this regard.

What's the ambition level of the owners? Where do Soton view their realistic place in the PL, and what's their target for this season?

 

The ambitions of the club have certainly changed since Cortese left, he was after regular CL qualification, Katarina Liebherr along with Ralph Krueger are a bit more pragmatic. The club's debt was starting to get out of control under Cortese and he was after loaning more money that really wouldn't have been sustainable for a club of our size and most fans did not want to go down that road again.
I would say that to consistently be challenging for EL qualification would be a good achievement for the club and if we could do that with a team of mainly home grown talent would please every Saints supporter.
The bottom half of the Premier League really isn't that great and i'd imagine us to be a top ten club for the forseeable future if there is not a change of owner.
Ronald did a very good job for us and I can see him doing well for you I expect us both to be around 6th-8th places.

 

6-8th should Ben our clubs targets. Others have more money so it doesn't help, but giving Koeman time I would expect a top four finish before he is stolen away

 

Koeman is already making a massive difference to our play and mindset.

Sat there on Sunday I thought back to the same fixture last season......

We never looked like letting them back into the game on Sunday at 2-0, I can't remember that happening for 2 years under Martinez.

 

The ref was inept in both games you mention.

 

The manager was inept in one of them....

 

im not having that, he had holgate and lewin on the bench

 

How's that working out now? I see you have managed at total of 2 points from 5 games since making this statement, are you still happy with your massively changed mindset?

 

The last few games have been largely ****e and I'm looking forward to him shipping a few of the bad eggs out in January and building his own side.

 

~Me too, there's plenty of 30mil Bolasie / Sissoko's signings out there.......and Ron will find them.

 

His signings at St Mary's were largely a massive success, but don't let facts get in the way of your bitterness

 

We have a good structure......you have a moshi monster.

 

Yeah Walsh is a dolt like

I don't get the gloating when you're still behind us in the league and have just been dumped out of the EL by some side no-one has ever heard of?

 

He clearly has a big job on his hands. Getting Everton going again will be a bit like trying to jump start my old Mk V Cortina on a freezing winter's morning. I hope for your sake Ron is up for the challenge .

 

There's some there who don't deserve to wear the shirt, and it appears some know their time at the club is coming to an end, and playing like it!

Has Ron got the stomach for it? We'll see, what I want to see in Jan is that we put right some of the **** ups from the summer window and bring in some quality.