if we got relegated i actually think lallana wouldn't want to leave but he feels for his careers sake that he should stay in the premier league, so i think we would season loan him to a club in the premier league, and if we got promoted on our first season in the championship he would come back, if not then he would make the loan deal permanent.
If the Saints team is as crap as you keep saying it is then why are you worried about it? 1) Who would want all of those players after they have been proven not good enough and 2) Why would we miss them when they go. On the other hand, if the players are good then perhaps Saints won't be relegated. But if we must analyze, overall I think Saints are in decent shape. The better players might go but they most are under contract and also mostly young so Saints should get a decent sum. Lallana, Jay Rodriguez, Mayuka, Ramirez, Davis, and Clyne are all here until 2015 or later. Gazzaniga would probably stay as he isn't established yet and at his age could use the experience, but he is under long term contract as well. The only two that are a bit worrisome are Schneiderlin and Lambert whose contracts run out in 2014. They could put some pressure on the team because if not sold they would leave on a free after next year, and are not easily replaceable. But Saints could at least have one year to get promoted, change their minds, and resign them. And Lambert is getting on a bit and might not find that attractive a deal. And Schneiderlin at least plays in a position where Saints have good cover though losing him would still be a blow. What you don't want are high wage veterans on long-term contracts who you can't sell or low wage young players who can walk for free. Saints don't have either of those problems.
Why are we stopping here? Let's assume we are relegated and all the players are sold...which supermarket would you like built at SMS? Getting a bit previous here I feel.
Saints are like a giant jigsaw puzzle with a few missing pieces and some in the wrong place! Or looking at it another way it's like a game of snakes and ladders, we have been climbing the ladders for a couple of Seasons, but at the moment we are heading for a snake, however a decent roll of the dice could see us safe.
Just a quick point , a footballer is under contract and you think that means we have them secured ? We would lose all our best players or the ones not wanted by others which really means they are not good enough , you also need 10-15 premiership quality players in your squad not the 8-9 we currently have .
Yup, all true, Barry was an absolute legend on old 606. With some very exotic name changes to boot, my favourite was the one about a magical Martin Chivers golden Goan trumpet. Or something like that.
I've changed my mind. Southampton won't go down this season regardless of whether you keep or sack Adkins. You might go close if you keep Adkins, but there are easily 3 worse teams in the league than you. I actually think West Ham and saints will both end the season on around 45 points leaving us both between 10th and 14th. Reading, Norwich and either villa or QPR will drop IMO.
Well I am big enough to change my opinion rather than blindly stick to my guns. I think that a change of manager would be wise but with all the players and fans still backing old Smirky face I can't see how you can all be wrong. I have been looking at the prem fixtures this morning. West Ham have a most unpleasant 10 fixtures coming up and I expect you to draw level with us come Boxing Day. However, your January, February and march don't look much fun. Overall, I think we will finish just above you but we will both be safe with a few games to spare.
The younguns now Meowth dont think out the box when it comes to posting , its all the same , I miss being on your boards or the Scottish ones as there used to always be good banter on there . I will add not many posters got a bbc thank you for posting on the old 606 , posting grey dull posts do not inspire conversation .
Not the same now , the moderators are a different thing now and where they do it in their own time I respect them far more , I used to give the beeb ones the right run round We should have more cooking/whats for tea and favourite hairdo threads , they inspire controversial debate , the bob or side parting , the easy over egg or scrambled , Christ I used to live.....................
By definition, yes. They cannot play for another club unless Saints sell their contract. "Sell" meaning Saints would get money. That makes no sense. You need 10-15 players to get promoted from Championship and yet Saints only have 8-9, which would presumably include at least a couple of players picked up this summer. So last year Saints had even fewer. Then how are we here? Saints would get decent fees for their wantaway players. Maybe not as much as they paid, but enough to be significant at the Championship level. Many of those players are also on the highest wages so that would free up additional funds. I think if Lallana, Schneiderlin, Ramirez, Jay Rodriguez and Clyne were sold it would be at 20 million pounds coming back plus 12 million pounds in parachute payments (for another four years). 32 million pounds plus most of the biggest premiership wages off the table should buy a promotion contending side. Relegation is no longer the disaster it once was. Look at West Ham. They were in bad shape financially with some very large contracts, got relegated, still outspent everyone in the Championship on transfers, got promoted again and now look like perhaps they will be okay (not just staying up but in terms of finances). Admittedly, they cut it very, very close and had they not one the playoffs could have been in serious trouble. They took a huge gamble, but it worked. Saints should have a bit more cushion and hopefully won't have to do things that way. The reason Saints ran into trouble the last time was not because they got relegated. Lowe had a lot of huge flaws, but he was fairly good (perhaps overly good) at not spending too much. What hurt Saints was all the infighting at the top, creating a lack of planning as well as a fiscal shortfall with the club being taken over by owners without enough cash. It was bad leadership, not relegation. Even with all the turmoil, Saints still made the playoffs that first year and had they done so, would have done exactly what West Ham just did. Here is a list of recently relegated teams: Reading-- 18th Premier League Birmingham-- 17th Championship Derby-- 13th Championship Newcastle--10th Premier League Middlesborough-- 3rd Championship West Brom-- 8th Premier League Burnley-- 14th Championship Hull-- 6th Championship Portsmouth-- Haha West Ham-- 9th Premier League Birmingham-- 17th Championship Blackpool-- 12th Championship So out of 12 clubs, 5 returned to Premier League and 4 are still there. Another two are looking like possible promotion candidates this year. The rest are solidly placed in Championship. The worst placed club is Birmingham at 17th and they were one of the clubs that got promoted after relegation so even for them relegation was not a death sentence. Obviously the one team that sticks out is Portsmouth. But it was not relegation that destroyed them but rather a remarkable display of corruption and buffoonery. It was their financial issues that caused their relegation, not the reverse. None of us have access to the books, but I believe Saints have enough cash to spend on some defenders in the January window. But if I'm wrong and they don't, I hope they spend nothing and get relegated. The "avoid relegation at any cost" is the worst strategy you can have. Essentially you are in debt and doubling down. That's actually how you destroy the club. If you just take your lumps and consider relegation a minor setback from a 10 year plan (where Saints are currently ahead of schedule) the club will be fine. It's possible that Cortese is crooked and cooking the books, or that the club will be sold to some incompetent, or whatever doomsday scenario you seem bent on hatching. But every single team in the world, including Barca, Real, Man City, Man U face the same risk. A bad or corrupt owner can easily destroy a club. Get used to it, or stop watching sport(s). In the overall scheme of things, Saints are really not in bad shape.
Brilliant post and your spot on. The only problem is I have a bet with a mate in which relegation this season would be a disaster so no gamble it all!
We've got all that on the Pompey board, or something similar. I know what you mean though, Barry. When it was on the beeb and you managed to get away with going completely off topic, it was more fun. I must have got 50+ warnings about it, but I was never banned.
You just compared West Ham , why did we just not copy them ? They are in a better position than we are so they have done something right . We have only 8-9 premiership standard players at best but you need at least 15 say to stay in the Leagues unless you are very lucky with injuries . Going down would be a disaster as all the youth that has come through with us would go , and it's more of a disaster than it ever was to go down .
