The Virgil Van Dijk Stays at Southampton Thread

Why? I don't get this one bit

 

I just detest what top flight football has become. Just all about money and hype.

The general matchday experience is ****e, and so ****ing sterile. Atmosphere appalling at 95% of games, where you go to games and see 'fans' in the home end taking pictures of the opposition players celebrating a goal, or someone attempting to video an entire game.

**** that, an absolute crock of **** and not what I want from my matchday experience... which is why I'm going to sacrifice a lot of home games for aways this year

As Archers said, I really miss league 1... that was proper football and I genuinely wouldn't be too bothered if we ever went back there one day

 

TBF, you are a ****

 

I don't wum.

 

This is true, you can't just turn up with any old ****e. You have to explore those hidden depths within yourself, Dig deep and find those fart jokes you wouldn't dare tell your nan when you were 10.

 

What do u expect?

 

Morning Lieb....your probably in bed after your night shift anyway

I totally get what you mean...I hate plastic behaviour too...but your team won't go onwards and upwards if it's always in the lower leagues. You wouldn't have had your VVd's, Jason Euell would still be turning out for you.

But I got to agree with you....the game has sold its soul

 

Franny played every second of his career in the top flight. Legend, still turns up for our city.
Jason Euell would have been a better example. Cringe.

 

****, as a joke this is now actually rather appealing.
It's not that I want my team to be a big fish in a small pond, after all it's not like we swept the board in L1. For the first time ever I wish that group of european clubs who wish to form a breakaway league just did that and buggered off. They could play increasingly meaningless games against each other, evolve in to american franchise opportunities while claiming it's the "world championship". Sky can pay them in solid gold, diamond encrusted turds and we could be sponsored by a local building firm again. It's not no ambition, just a different one.

 

lol true say fam


Because Benali was a legend...he is memorable...edited my post HR

 

Worth remembering that there have always been big clubs with more money that attract the top talent. The tv money of today has certainly made matters worse but it's always existed which is why teams such as Liverpool, United and Real Madrid have such well decorated histories.

 

I agree with this but in a different way.

Seeing the amount of money thrown around in the premier league so far this summer has been nothing short of sickening. You know it's getting bad when your average premier league player that is not much better than championship standard is now fetching 11-20m or so. Would I feel better about it had Saints signed someone for mega buck tomorrow? Probably not, it would be just a sigh of the times.

As mentioned before, it's almost impossible to progress above 7th-8th in the premier league without spending stupid money or, like a couple of seasons ago, the top 6 have a terrible season and a miracle happens. And when you do well but don't make it, the scared top teams take your players. A prime example of this was Rickie Lambert. Never going to be a starter for Liverpool, wasn't going to be there for long, but Liverpool knew that taking our talisman, the one we never thought would go, would be so so easy, and would also be like taking the central log out of a beaver dam. Once he went, who knew who could go. It was a very real example of player stocking. It didn't matter if Liverpool didn't play him, as long as a rival didn't have him.

Then of course the atmosphere at games. In the lower leagues it was so much better. There was actual noise and away fans were actually decent. Yes their are a couple of decent away followings in the premier league like Palace and United, but most are pretty quiet and tame, much like home crowds. In the prem you get a lot of fans who mysteriously arrived for the first match after promotion, having disappeared for the past 7 years. These are the same morons who now moan at every single player, leave early and have no connection to the club at all. In League one it was fantastic. You filtered out these fans. Yes gates were less but it was full of fans who really supportered the club, the ones who didn't mind what league we were in. I loved coming to games in league one and the championship. The game was low key in the UK so it wouldn't be all over the papers the next day if you lost or won.

There is the other side of the coin to the Prem however. There are still great memories to be had. We wouldnt see superb players, such as Mane, Van Dijk and Romeu, grace our shirt if we stayed in the lower leagues. Finishing high in the prem has given us opportunity to play against European opposition, giving us great nights such as the Inter Milan fixture at ST Mary's. You get a great feeling when you also get something against the big teams, and although the premier league is getting more dislikable every year, no fan can be unhappy if they see their team progress. Whilst I love the championship and league one, let's not forget that we have such great memories of it because we won almost every weekend. We soared up the leagues, keeping a group together that we really bonded with. Would the memories have been so fond if we just tread water all the time. I'm sure Ipswich fans are pretty miffed at being constantly stuck in midtable.

Basically I don't mind being in the prem as long as we progress. I would also not like to go down, as we know what can happen financially, but I wouldn't mind or be scared of going to the lower leagues.

 

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/15415757.Saints_stand_firm_on_van_Dijk/

 

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/sa...m_on_van_Dijk/?action=success#comments-anchor

Article from the Echo saying that VVD is staying and he has made no attempt to hand in a transfer request. I'm taking this as possibly an update from LR in response to all the noise in the media. Les has already said that he can't make our position clearer, so he won't be likely to come out and speak directly again. I wish Virgil would do something positive, but I guess he is still harbouring hopes that things might change. I think we are doing what we did with Morgan, Mane and Wanyama...one more season and leave on our terms.

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I loved the lower leagues because we were successful there....more successful I should say as we aren't doing badly in the PL. The variety of opposition was good as well. But I wouldn't want to be back there....the main target when playing in a league is promotion, so what's the point of wanting demotion. And the financial penalties can be massive....if you think we don't compete for top players here...just imagine life in League 1.

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There is no great conspiracy against Southampton....it makes no difference to a top club if they are second behind United or us, they are still second. They see us as a place to get easier pickings for good PL experienced players....because top teams are often reluctant to sell to each other. Saints is the centre of our Universe, but not the centre of any other teams. Even the press just see us as an easy story requiring no thought....they bear us no malice (apart from one).

 

What bothers me about the PL money is, us the fans still get bummed without Lube.

An 'Elite' home shirt is costing a Spurs fan 90 quid. You can pick up a very good fake from China for about 7 quid. I bought one for 4 quid in 2010.

Our new ground should have a 90'000 capacity, tickets should be 20 quid a pop...watch it get filled up.

You have to embrace Lucifer or you will just become another Bolton....it's commendable but a tiresome process with everyone trying to reach the promised land you boys detest. Then again we are ever presents in the PL and relegation was back when shorts were tight enough to make everyone look like they got big dicks...so maybe I lack the true grasp of the despair. We have a wage structure at Spurs, for years I was proud of this, that we don't just give a player what he wants. However I like the direction we are going in..it's what football is about...moving upwards...stand still and you get swallowed up...therefore now I want us to break the wage structure so we can maintain our top quality players...it's awesome watching your team smash 7 past Hull, 6 past Lesta(lol)...contain some superstars and to have a genuine belief of progressing.

I like the ethos at your club...and I totally understand the defensive attitudes you have, having seen your team's talent get poached by bigger clubs...but you can't think '**** it' let's just play lower league football. The PL is a different animal...there was once a time we always sold our top talent...different now.

 

A discussion about the OP?

 

Those cheap shirts really make your nipples sore though, or maybe I need a(nother) bra.

We are defensive about poaching, maybe because not choosing to just buy talent we spent time on building a decent scouting and development system. Then when a top team openly breaks what few rules there are (and tries to fiddle us out of a bit of the proper financial reward due) we get arsed off about willy waving posts. Justifying the willy waving by saying "your got a thread with our willy waving team's name in it" is just more wum in my view.

But hey, life goes on, lets all enjoy the new season.

 

Who's been willy waving then?

 

I think your comment about Liverpool signing Rickie so that a rival (us) is wrong. We all knew he would badly play for us that following season, let alone another club. He was on the way, sadly. He could have played a part, but only ever was going to be a small part.

Yes to the part about our talisman being signed, but No to them signing a player so we couldn't play him. If this was the case, then it is embarrassing for Liverpool and the manager at the time. Surely they wouldn't have been that blind.... *checks who manager was*

Oh hang on .....

Ps.pulling your leg now, but your last paragraph? Really? Did you leave any bases uncovered with that line?

 

8 past Sunderland...... just saying