Don't think it will be long if saints continue at this rate of success and quality before poch gets approached by one of so called big clubs ,just hope he has bought into NC ,s bigger picture otherwise he will be off , also can't ever remember seeing other managers looking so lost not knowing how to play against a team let alone a southampton side , long may it continue
I don't think it will be long, but I think he's on to a good thing with us, and isn't a daft man. He has the right type of players here, money to spend and a supportive chairman with huge ambition. It's like wearing a more expensive glove - doesn't necessarily mean it will fit as well.
Don't underestimate his loyalty to NC. Not many managers threaten to walk in support of the Chairman. I'm not worried, but his future does look rather bright.
I was thinking this earlier...I don't think it will be long before papers decide he is too good for us, but there has to be a vacancy before anything remotely serious could happen. He might get better players at other clubs but doesn't mean they would accept his style of play. After all, it isn't just positional changes...it involves a big increase in fitness training and acceptance by star players that they have to change their style and become real team players. One or two might, but do you think the whole Real Madrid side would (for instance). Saints fans are in a perfect place now...wonderful players playing exciting football and so much attention....don't even want to think about losing Poch and/or Nicola. Have a dread of doing so well that we get sold to a Russian oligarch or a dodgy Arab. Going to lie down now.
In that Balague interview he talks about being wanted by Real Madrid, and seems to have no interest in it at all.
As Fran said, I just don't think a club like RM would suit him and the way he clearly develops and works with teams. Saints is the perfect job for him.
If his Saints career carries on in this upward curve then I do think Barcelona may come calling and they play the same style. That would be a good few years away and by which time we would have enjoyed European football and i'd be an even happier supporter.
How many seasons like this challenging in the top quartile of the league do we need before we'd be considered big? Or is that notion more historical and based on club size etc?
It's based on a combination of trophies, how much money a club has floating around it, and a lot on how old pundits memories are. I could roll out my time honoured example of Huddersfield Town. One of the biggest, most successful clubs before WWII, when the likes of Liverpool and ManU were nothing. Nowadays Huddersfield are not even known as sleeping giants. We all look at ManU as the model of the great big club, but before the Premier League came along they really weren't that special. They were one of the bigger clubs, but that's all. They have been the British football phenomenon [that's twice I used that word today] of the last 20 or so years, by realising that football is a business, and acting upon it, before any other club did. It may not seem as if it could right now, but it could all come to an end very quickly. Unlikely though.
He's just moved to England and is still learning the language, he wouldn't come here for a quick spell. The best teams aren't in England so if he were to stay in England (which he will), the offers won't be hugely tempting.
The thing about Pochettino is that Cortese cherry picked him. Cortese properly researched Adkins replacement, and no less than Mourinho said Pochettino was the man to go for. Poch buys into Cortese's vision, which is to get 50% of the 1st team from the Academy, and be here for the long term. It's exactly what both Barcelona and Bayern Munich are doing and it's a stable way of achieving success. And if you're first out of the blocks to do it, and have the necessary infrastructure to go with the vision, it can happen. This is not intended to be a flash in the pan.
Like some of our young players, they could get more money somewhere else but there are things here that you would be barking to walk away from. If Lallana had left for a better team, and he could have, I don't think he would be in the England squad now. Poch is a young manager, things are progressing, why chuck it all in the bin. I'm sure some managers are openly jealous of him.
Selling out every home game would be a start! I am aware of being careful what I wish for. As a non-ST holder (work it out) I don't find getting tickets for home games difficult, and even for our high profile away games I seem to be able to get tickets with a little help from my Southampton contacts. If we are to be big, I should be forced to be a ST holder or miss games I want to see. I have always felt that there is insufficient interest simply around Southampton to boost the attendances so that a 50,000 seater stadium would be needed. The club needs to go global, and I am sure that this is where NC intends to take it.
