But, as simple as it is to say that, there are not a lot of Mane's & Pelle's hanging around at the £15 - £20M range. And, sometimes when you find one, its doesn't pan out as it should. So, to be more objective, perhaps we should consider how well we did to get those two in at the time that we did. Maybe.....
With hindsight, we should probably have just told Liverpoool to **** off and not come back when they started sniffing round Adam Lallana
Nobody considered Redmond a Mane replacement (now it’s laughable but even at the time it wasn’t realistic). When did anyone say we would be fine with yoshi, Stephens and hoedt? I thought the general consensus was VD would be replaced. He wasn’t. Pellegrino was hired on the assumption he would change his approach? Defending the boards choices really is clutching at straws.
It is very convenient for people to bleat on about hindsight (not suggesting you personally just saw the word in your post so i get my easy in) but plenty have seen this decline happening and said as much over the last couple of seasons. The decision making from the club has been poor for a good while now culminating in the jan shambles when we bought nobody until the panic signing of MPs man at the end. And that despite MP resembling a dead man walking since about mid october.
I agree with the footballing comments of this post. With hindsight, keeping Puel would have been a better option than Pellegrino but I doubt if anyone really believed that the new manager would be so inept. The football seemed marginally better as a spectacle to begin with and I thought that the issues were teething problems inherited from Puel. By the end of November, it was clear that things would never improve and we should have bitten the bullet at that point. The proof will be in the eating of the pudding next season if Puel can improve upon the current season with Leicester. Personally, I feel we were a bad experience for each other and maybe Claude has learned something that he failed to bring to Saints. The signing of Carillo is a staggering piece of poor scouting. He is just too slow and I think he has proved to be akin to the likes of Delgado insofar he arrived with a good reputation which was clearly not deserved. Every time I have seen him play I just think what we might have had instead if someone else was in charge. Whoever sanctioned that move did not do their job properly. I can see his signature being debated for months to come if we go down and think no one will own up to recruiting him. Simms is still young and inexperienced yet I would select him time and time again over Carillo.
Do I think Carrillo is the greatest signing? No. Is he getting a massively tough time because he's our record signing and was signed by the worst manager we've ever had? Absolutely. He clearly has deficiencies, but none of our strikers have been thriving because they have little more than scraps to feed off of. I think it's hard to judge him tbh, in the same way that I stand by Gabbi despite his lack of goals. They just have nothing to work with. In any case, Carrillo at least looks interested and is trying. There's plenty that aren't, and those are the ones that get my goat.
I'm struggling with Carillo. I want him to do well and like him, but I just cannot see him ever scoring. I hope he proves me wrong, but we (Saints) have got so much wrong this year, I doubt he will
The question is not so much the why isn’t this player as good as the last but why did the last player want out so desperately? One or two is one thing but over the last few seasons we have lost. So. Damn. Many. When Fonte, who came through from nowhere to the upper reaches of the EPL and a European cup win with saints is desperate to jump ship and gloating on social media about another one gone when VVD leaves I am thinking there is something seriously wrong here. Couple this with our last three or four windows and the spider sense is going nuts. Every window has been the same, we are signing second string players who need to move to get their career going again. We always seem to be chasing BIG signings that don’t quite make it because it is ‘difficult’. It’s glaring at us, such a marked change from four seasons ago. And it’s not just about money. There is more at work here.
And despite what our resident board member would like us to believe, that keenness towards the exit door DID start when Cortese went.
Exactly. And that’s where the “lack of ambition” started, which led to Pochettino, and then Koeman walking. Yes, they both had lucrative offers from bigger clubs, but there was little or no effort to keep either.
I am not one to defend the board as I think they have been ****ing up far longer than others, but I struggle to see the players staying even with Cortese. He left just as those players were starting to get recognised as being good enough for bigger clubs so they still would’ve been circling. Let’s not forget that Chamberlain (or his dad) kicked up a fuss under Cortese and left, I’d guess it would’ve been the same with the others. Obviously all guesswork though
Poch wouldn’t have gone had Cortese stayed. Players wouldn’t have gone had Poch stayed. To a greater degree (in my opinion) anyhow.
I don't think I have heard fans chant a song about a Director's before or since Cortese left. That is all.
Without getting into too much detail, you are likely right to a degree but can anyone point to another club that has had the same issues? Are we really the only club with good players? Because we seem to operate differently and be picked over more than any other club in the league. I'm sure that's not my imagination.
Taking the trying out of the equation, I just can’t help but look at Carillo, his movement during a game, his touch, his apparent lack of strength, his runs, his not winning balls in the air, his positioning and wonder what it is he could bring. Everyone can have bad games, lack of service and other things go against them, even making lots of mistakes but I can often see ‘something’ in there that makes me think it can turn good. I haven’t seen anything yet to suggest it is coming. Sadly.
Even from the vids before he came, there was not much special to see. Bundling the ball over the line seemed to account for a fair %, and sadly goal keeping errors made up the rest.
