But you came, you saw, you posted. You didn't even bother reading why we are talking about Barca.... just the fact you felt the need to comment speaks volumes. You couldn't resist putting a little digging comment here. We're just enjoying our little journey.
Have you even read the beginning of this thread? You couldn't make some of this stuff up . If you don't want digging comments then I suggest you advise your fellow posters not to be so insulting.
We refer to it of course but we're not obsessed with it, we're obsessed with getting glory now, this is why we won the League Cup last season and reached the final of the FA Cup, we have a hunger to win Suarez is an absolute ****. But he's our **** (ironically I used to think the same of Le Tissier after the whole cheating scandal) Kinda what we're doing too... Suso, Sterling, Sama, Robinson, Flanagan, Kelly & Wisdom have all made league appearances this season and have all come through our academy, we also have Ibe, Morgan, Sinclair, Ward, Pelosi, Teixira, Ngoo & Adojan who will be ready soon and we're still constantly recruiting top youth talent. Players like Forren & Courtinho would be used to bulk out our squad, neither of those (and I could include Rameriez in that as Sahin was dropped like a stone for not being good enough) would be in the 1st team week in week out without doing a hell of a lot to prove their worth first. Liverpool are picking up youngsters all over the place (this seems to be working, our u21 side is unbeaten in the league this season and we smashed the current next gen holders last week to qualify for the knockout rounds), we are making big money signings to add to our first team (Sturridge, Allen, Borini) and the squad players were non too fussed about - Assiadi, Sahin, Forren, Courtinho - if they sign they sign, if they don't there's plenty more fish in the sea. Liverpool fans just get in a tizz because we like the idea of spending money. our owners are stuck between a rock and a hard place, they get blamed if they do spend (overpriced ****e) and the get damned if they don't (Sneijder, Dempsey, Sigurdsson, Ramierez). Liverpool fans need to realise that because we missed out on a 24 year old who has spent his career having a stellar role in the norweigen league isn't the end of the world
Is it sacrilege to say **** Barcelona? Don't like them, never have, and all that "Mas Que Un Club" bollocks really winds me up. They have bought their success, every bit as much as Real Madrid, and every bit as much as Man City and Chelsea. I'd rather we aspire to be like Bayernh Munich, personally. Though it was probably a bit cold to visit Munich in January. As for Liverpool, no one can argue with their history. Which is just as well, since living in the past seems to be a trait among scousers.
So, it's OK when you say it, but when a "smaller" team alludes to the same thing, you're all over it like Scousers on a car left parked on the street?
I would happily bet anything against that, no but seriously i am a poor student i could use your cash.
If you go on other people's sites, you are bound to see things you don't like. You have to have a sense of humour. No one thinks we will be Barcelona, but we know that our Chairman wants us to develop talent and uses Barcelona as an ideal. We have got draws against Stoke, Chelsea and Arsenal and, although we were outplayed, we only lost 1.0 to Liverpool. It's perfectly reasonable to think we could win at home. You have to have a massive chip on your shoulder to worry about that prediction. We are also enjoying being a biggish player in the market at the moment...don't be so sensiive.
The difference is, is we're doing it and doing it now. We've won 11 trophies in the last 13 years - the last time was as recent as 11 months ago. In 2009 we finished 2nd in England, you were relegated to the 3rd teir of English football. It's like Portsmouth saying they are going to try and emulate Southampton, it's virtually impossible, they do not have the players, finances or the brand reach to get anywhere near
This is a bit like last year when the likes of West Ham (whatever happened to them?) and Leicester and Leeds and Millwall fans were constantly on this board telling us that the Championship is a tough league to get out of. We managed that one OK, and we'll stay up in this one, thanks. Next step might take a year or two but we'll get there as well. Just you watch.
The truth is none of us know what money Saints have. Cortese just reaches down the back of the sofa and comes up with it. We were so lucky with our late owner...bought us an interesting business deal proposed by Cortese and then became a fan. He made sure to leave us provided for after only one season. Cortese knows that we won't be able to compete with City and United, so wants us to use the Academy as a source of players and income (hence the 2.5 million spent on each year). Seeing what has happened up the road when crooks get hold of you, we are blessed.
Honestly Ze, if you read these posters regularly, as I do, you would know it's all tongue in cheek. I mean why do you think they named hose three scorers ina three nil win against Liverpool? Er, maybe becasue it would be kinda funny with you having being linked to them. It is simple. We haven't seen a Liverpool fan on here, now all of a sudden you come a looking. I wonder why? We slaughter United on here, but their fans stay away becasue we are small fry to them. We must be getting closer to your club! I didn't see any insults, just a suggestion that aspiring to be a United or a Barca might be higher up than a Liverpool. If you think that currently you are that high, you must be as deluded as you suggest we are.
I agree but at no point did anyone say we were going to do it over night or that we would actually get to that level. But for most teams yourselves included, that was why you got Rogers, the aim is to learn from the model Barcelona (I said it again) have laid out. To be able to have pretty much a team of home grown players who can compete at the top level, whilst playing a perticular brand of exciting attacking football. If you look at our record at producing top players is it really that far fetched to think we can at some point achieve something similar.
Or more likely Poch didn't quite finish clearing his stuff out of his house, and couldn't yet get the leave within his probation period/without the magic all-clear letter from HR.
I don't want to get into this debate as I saw it coming as soon as I saw the thread, but I will just take issue with this. Your statement would be quite right, except we do have the players (not all of them, of course), we do have the finances (and forgive me for some minor one-up-manship, but a lot more than your club), and as far as I know, brand does not win you football matches. I completely understand Liverpool and other clubs fan's reactions to this, on the face of it, you come in and you see little old Southampton fans aspiring to compete with Barcelona and Liverpool etc., worth a laugh or two right? But there's nothing ridiculous about it, we have a determined chairman who has in depth plans to take us to the top end of the Premier League and into Europe. We have one of the best youth academies in the country, if not in Europe, and a philosophy to help those that we produce flourish and realise their potential. We don't expect to finish third next year, this is a project, it could take a decade, hell it could never happen there's no certainties in football or life, but our long-term goal is to make Southampton a top English footballing side and that goal is not unachievable. We're not going about this like QPR, just throwing money at old has-beens and luring players with huge wages, we are building a young talented side that can grow and improve alongside the club. There's a sense of belief and excitement around here, it got cut short a touch with Nigel going as that was very upsetting, but we believe Pochettino can bring us a great future. For years we were plucky underdogs, frequently punching above our weight and surviving against all odds, then the club was taken apart before our eyes with players sold and money evaporating, the odds caught up and we plunged into the depths of the football league and administration. Then Liebherr and Cortese came, we were excited at first purely because our club was saved, but then once we realised the vision these men had it was a real shock to the system of hardened pessimist Saints fans but eventually we got on board as their plans became clearer and were being realised. A new footballing philosophy, a poorly-run broken down club streamlined and tightened up into a slick business, money pumped into both the team and academy, new stadium plans, we wouldn't have believed it in 2008, and I don't expect you to believe the vision yourself, why would you? But I hope that goes a way to helping you explain why us poor deluded fools believe that some day (hopefully) in the not too distant future, we can be competing the the mighty likes of Barcelona and Liverpool. It's not arrogance, delusions or any of that, just hope and belief.
