There's a reason people tend not to completely make up direct quotes. "A source close to the player told us" or "We understand that" can be complete fabrication, direct quotes would be libel.
He's probably visited not606 since that interview was released, seen the mass outbreak of spineless wobbling his words have unleashed, and decided to backtrack for everyone's sake.
Sure, they mean you can tell your players to keep their mouths shut on social media. Does that mean he definitely wants to stay?
The club can discipline him for disobeying club rules. Plus if he falls out with the board then that probably lands him in a state of having to find a new club or being in limbo at this one. I'm not saying he wants to leave, but if he did, he would still fall in line with the board unless he was really stupid.
As far as i'm concerned, anyone who doesn't want to wear the shirt of Southampton Football Club can piss off right now, we will still have the best academy in the country with a crop of young talent to replace them. As for the Board not trying to keep Poch, it is my understanding that they offered him a substantial salary increase and that he actually had to resign to push the move to Spuds through....if he thinks they can offer him more, then good ****ing riddance I say.
I have also heard he was offered decent money to spend too. It sounds as if nothing could have dissuaded him from pursuing his ambition.
tbf to Victor, further down the article he talked about us being even better next season, so his talk of wanting to play for a club in the CL didn't mean immediately.
RK said they did all they could and trying to understand why people do things is a waste of time...that's good advice, I'm sure we've all fretted over the incomprehensible behaviour of some people. Read elsewhere that the offer was big enough that the 3 coaches wanted to stay, but MP wouldn't have any of it.
It's all relative as the boards definition of being ambitious and what they intend to invest to get there is probably different to ours. Look how much the top four clubs have paid for players we can't possibly compete as our commercial revenues are so much less and I dont think KL will be putting her hands in her pocket. I just hope we get a manager who can excite and get us playing to our potential
The important difference is that the board have to pay for ambitions, whereas all our ambitions come free. We had a rapid rise up the leagues and achieved things quickly...further improvements will be slower. I will be happy if the board intend to keep us financially sound, doing well in the EPL, and aim for Europe (even with an undefined time scale). Stamping our feet and demanding Champions' League because Cortese (who is no longer here) promised us is ridiculous. People are acting if Nicola's dream was a dead cert and the new board just binned it.
