If Che is serious about staying, then we have to keep him. It's as simple as that. He is one of our best players, and keeping him will likely encourage some of the others to stay. Not only that but he is a 25+ a season goal scorer in the Championship. That could be the difference between getting promoted or not. Most importantly, if the club is going to ever get its 'soul' back, then we need to stop always making decisions based on money before all else. If a player like Che wants to stay despite getting relegated, he could become a real hero among the fans. And we really need a f*cking hero right now.
CGT you have hit the nail on the head. We have no talisman. JWP isn’t that. We are missing a SRL or MLT. Even Ings was a talisman. We need someone that when they get the ball or if it goes in the box we get excited about.
Completely agree. In a way, I'm actually glad we've been relegated. If we do it right (big if), this is a great opportunity to re-build a squad of academy players and new signings that we love and can be proud of, all while getting rid of people we've wanted out for a while. We should be back at a stage where people want to join us because we're Southampton, not because we are in the Premier League. I don't really know much about the Swansea manager, but he sounds like someone who would grow with us, and I wouldn't be against that. JWP is a great role model, but I don't think he should have been made captain. Maybe there was no one else. His attitude is great, and in interviews/off the pitch he's top class, but he's not vocal or a leader on the pitch. Compare him to someone like Fonte and there's a big difference. Maybe it was key to keeping him in previous seasons, but I think we've been a weak minded team for a while now, and although that's not all down to one person, a good captain would have improved that.
In other words he’s not an idiot and isn’t going to say he doesn’t want to come back because he doesn’t know what will happen, so why burn bridges. I’d be very surprised if he actually wanted to come back here having just had by far the best season in his career being a key player in getting Burnley promoted. Lot of moving parts to that one, how much do we want to keep him especially if his hearts not in it here? How much would we want vs how much Burnley are willing to pay? I’d be surprised if he’s our player come the end of the window but at least he’s got his head screwed on in interviews.
I know a lot of footballers act very spoilt when they don't get the move they want, but I'm sure there are also a fair amount of them who don't. Both Hassenhuttl and Kompany have praised Tella for his professionalism and work-rate, so it might just be that Tella will be content either way; staying at Saints, or moving to Burnley.
So it was a familiar face behind the resignation of our head of player insights - from The Athletic: Nottingham Forest’s fortunes on the pitch have taken a positive turn in recent weeks, losing just once in their last four games. Wins over Brighton & Hove Albion and Southampton and a draw with Chelsea have seen them move up to 16th, three points clear of the relegation zone with two matches to play. Off the pitch, Ross Wilson, their recently appointed chief football officer, has already started making changes behind the scenes, and Forest are focused on building a strong infrastructure under his leadership across all areas of the club. Tom Stockwell, who recently resigned from his role as Southampton’s head of player insights — and who formed a close bond with Wilson during their time together on the south coast — is set to join Forest in the coming weeks, reports Dan Sheldon. Stockwell is highly regarded, having spent over a decade at St Mary’s, and was an important figure there in scouting and recruitment, where he was tasked with adding an analytical and data-driven edge to that department.
The last time we were relegated from the PL in 2005: Our starting XI for the final game of 2004/05 was Niemi, Telfer, Lundekvam, Higginbotham, Bernard, Prutton, Quashie, Redknapp, Le Saux, Camara, Ormerod (with Davenport, Delap, and Phillips coming on as subs). Our starting XI for the first game of 2006/06 was Niemi, Hajto, Lundekvam, Powell, Higginbotham, Prutton, Quashie, Oakley, Belmadi, Fuller, Jones (with Wise, Delap and Walcott coming on as subs). Niemi, Delap and Quashie hung around until the January transfer window of that season (which was also when Arsenal signed Theo). Higginbotham and Oakley saw out the season.
The striking difference between the 2005 and 2023 teams is age/experience. A lot of experienced journeymen in the 2005 team.
KWP has tweeted that he "always sees himself in a Southampton shirt", and that he "loves the club". Starting to get worried about all this hope we're being given.
Attacker I'd be delighted if we managed to get rid of him nice and early. Don't even want to see him in pre season let alone the championship.
