Article: West Ham v Saints match thread Football Southampton

Fingers crossed then Beef! We certainly need some-one!

 

Agree with trixter,already discussed but we should have got in more defenders, saying they weren't available to me suggests we just didn't get the deals done.

 

Like I said

 

If we got Ogbonna I would be stunned but absolutely thrilled, he's a big time player, and got some big time clubs in for him, and he would have undoubtedly moved to a bigger Italian team by now if it weren't for them not having enough money for a cornetto between them.

But if you said the same thing to me about Ramirez early in the summer my reply would probably be almost identical, so you never know I suppose.

If we signed him it would also finally cheer up those looking for a pacey CB!

 

Agreed just imagine Ogbonna and Dawson as our Cb's. Not that I rate Dawson that highly, But he is far better then we have atm.

 

I think we could easily have Fonte or Yoshida alongside Ogbonna and it would still be a huge improvement. Ogbonna like I said is a big player with the biggest teams in the world after him, even bigger than Gaston. Short of Real and Barca, name a big team and they've probably been linked with Ogbonna, United, City, Liverpool, Bayern, Juventus, Milan, PSG all reported to be in for him. I doubt all of them are seriously interested in him, but 2 or 3 of them definitely are.

As much as we have the money to compete, and clearly with the coup of Gaston we showed can make some surprises, but I can't help feeling Ogbonna is a touch out of our reach. He's right up there as probably the best young CBs in world football not already on the books of a big team along with Dede and possibly one player who I do have a cheeky feeling we could have a go at which is Aleksandr Dragovic of Basel, what with Cortese's obvious swiss links.

 

What like Wolves and Blackburn did?

 

The point we have been making for months, though some people believe we are amateurs for not getting it done on the 29th April.

 

Poor examples. Both clubs would have stayed up if one wasn't in total turmoil at boardroom level and the other hadn't sacked their manager and replaced him with a coach that failed to win a single match.

You are a good, well run side that is superb at attacking and just needs a bit of leadership/experience at the back.

If you had signed 2 experienced centre halves either instead of or as well as Ramirez, you would be in far better shape IMO.

 

It wasn't for the lack of trying, trixter. Nigel mentioned on the first day of the season how bloody expensive defenders are. Every other club's evaluation was apparently much higher than ours. I think we were inevitably seen as a club with plenty of dosh.

 

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I think come January unless we are hopelessly adrift we will find ourselves a decent CB at what ever cost is needed.

 

No idea where that first line came from.

 

Well, aren't the Liebherrs (spelling?) multi billionaires?
I remember seeing somewhere that Southampton had the 5th richest owners in the top tiers of football.

 

also you can have collins if you want him

 

Yes, but our chairman is determied to make the club self-financing and run it in a better manner than a lot of football clubs usually are.

 

The examples given in any debate, are usually said to be bad ones

Let's go the other way. Birmingham got relegated with quite a mean defence becasue they didn't score enough. We may well stay up yet (it is only October and although not looking good, Norwich have just jumped from second bottom to 14th/15th with one win - let's not write any obituary yet) by scoring lots of goals. I have said all though hte pre-season and season to date that I think we will get some real polar results, including some right batterings. We got one Saturday and it won't be the last. We have given one out so far and I am sure we will give out more.

 

So we are coming round the notion of players and there availability should of been done sooner and we should of got more players ? Good very good , if we lose more you will be saying WHY we did not get more and be asking for reasons .
I have only been saying this for 3 months .

I suppose being late is better than never showing up , shame there will be no apologies either .

 

With respect, We had Tomkins and Reid as our first choice CBs last season. When Collins signed, it was generally felt that he would be back up. But his experience and leadership at the back has been absolutely vital to our solid defensive displays this season.

He may not be the most gifted defender in the world, but he throws himself in front of every shot and gives it 100% every time and to be fair, would walk into your side if you had him.

 

Trying does not cut it in this industry , do you think Cortese will not sack people because they are trying ? Pathetic excuses .

 

Of course. It is very early days and 2 back to back wins will see you in mid table.

All I am saying is you have started slowly and had you concentrated on defensive signings in the summer, you would, more than likely, have 3 or 4 more points by now.