But imagine NOT qualifying these days (if you have an imagination at all)....how strong would Real, Athletico or Bayern be if they weren't offering top level footy? In those days you couldn't even get to the top table unless you were a great TEAM We were winning it in the days before the set up was simply to pander to the likes of Real and Barca....we were winning it when it was a mans game, no second chances if you lost, no dull as **** group games etc....use your brain lad Anyway back to Southamptons European record ................................................................................................. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Thanks for the reply. Looks like I've been a bit misinformed or willfully ignorant. I still stand by my point which is that players who play for 6 years at a club have more often than not left their imprint on it and have earned the right to decide their future - if their future is uncertain. If its about money then I'm all for telling a player to shut up and honour their contract. But if a club goes through huge turmoil its natural for a player to look to more stable pastures. I feel that Adam's mind was made up around the time Cortese left. Seeing Poch go probably made it worse. As a 26 year old you probably don't want the club to begin a downward slide that will leave your career forgotten. For a while (remember your Cortese leaving thread) Saints fans were quite worried about their footballing future. The players probably even more so. I understand not wanting him to leave and I understand feeling a bit used (we went through worse with Nando). I just think a bit of this is a frenzy where his actions are overanalyzed and critiqued. There is no proof of what happened (shirt wearing, leaking things to the press) and in a club vs player situation, especially when the player gets what he wants, it becomes a case of who has more reputation to protect. That side is more likely to put spin on a situation. Liverpool long forgot to mention that Torres submitted a transfer request early on in the window - then insisted on cashing out when he tried to withdraw it. All of this is alleged too - like the phone call incident. So who risks more in this case? The stability of a very large English club and the personal reputation of a player don't even compare. Southampton will have had a large PR cleanup campaign, while Lallana will have done basic damage control. Keep that in mind.
So it seems Liverpool are gonna spunk away more money on a flavour of the month player in Divrok Origi, based on one WC goal. It seems world class players like Sanchez have been following the standings of the Pl table table for a while anyway.
What Lallana and Lovren are spewing is complete crap. It makes no sense whatsoever, and it is completely obvious they are lying. How can you state that a response to a transfer request is what made you seek a transfer when you already put in a transfer request? How can you slate a board for "lack of ambition" because they let Lallana leave when the club only let Lallana go when he refused to play, just as Lovren himself is doing? If he wants "ambition" then he should be pleased as punch the club refuses to let him go and he should have encouraged Lallana to stay. The board tried to keep Pochettino. They tried to keep Lallana. They want to keep Lovren. All three of these guys had their minds made up to go as soon as or even before the season ended and now they are trying to blame the board for not fighting hard enough to stop them. It's like dumping your girlfriend and than retrospectively trying to say you only wanted to leave because she didn't handle your dumping well. What kind of bassackward logic is that? I can understand the viewpoint that all players are lying, cheating mercenaries and maybe Southampton should stop being naive and get with the game. It's true-- it happens to Liverpool as well. It happens really, to every club in the world because players are spoiled and change their minds on a whim. They want all the playing time and all the glory and all the money and everyone to bow down at their feet, and most of them aren't worth it. But if LFC supporters want to claim they've seen it all and this is just how football works, then you should know better than anyone that these want-away players are lying their asses off. As a Saints supporter, that's what annoys me about all this. Not that Lallana and Lovren wanted to go. And not even that they were ruthlessly pragmatic about finding a way to go. It's that they insulted my intelligence by trying to claim they were the aggrieved party.
It always hurts when you are dumped for someone else, and in essence that's what it feels like when a player you admire wants to leave the club you love. If you think about it in those terms we are lucky to get 1 or 2 people in your lifetime that you really love and who love you back, soulmates if you like. The same can be said for football you are lucky to get 1 or 2 players in a generation that will stay with a club their whole career and love the club as the fans do. Both Liverpool with Gerrard and Carragher and Southampton with Matt Le tissier have been lucky in recent history to see that happen in a time of increasing rarity, lets just be thankful for that, afterall its better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Based on one world cup goal?? We've been scouting him for a while, and I hear we're sending hime straight back to lille for a year to get more game time. Definately one for the future though.
Liverpool fans in general are pretty knowledgeable and usually good for engaging in debate. You are just ignorant and and not prepare to hear any if the facts that are being offered to you. having reached this post I'll stop reading the thread. Good to see the likes of Jerez on here still posting sensible stuff.
I have some news on Sanchez - Looks likely he Arsenal bound. Anyway what a strange question Bit like me saying any news on Di Maria?
Ah good, a Liverpool fan that acts in the true tradition of your club and is interested in learning, rather than the true tradition of a football forum and just interested in arguing and trying to wind faceless people up! Yes, I think there's a lot of truth in what you're saying absolutely, but it doesn't escape from the fact that as our captain we do have the right (as much as he does to leave) to be treated with a little more respect. An interesting contrast is the one to be made between Lallana's words and behaviour and the current words and behaviour of Morgan Schneiderlin - another recently capped player getting interest from a bigger club who has also grown with us from the League 1 days. It's chalk and cheese.
What planet do you exist on? "it doesn't escape from the fact that as our captain we do have the right (as much as he does to leave) to be treated with a little more respect." Why do you have the right? You have a different take on events. You do not have the right to demean the opinions of Liverpool fans who disagree with your take. From my perspective you your stance is indefenceable. Southampton have always been a smaller club than Liverpool both in terms of support and success. Perhaps it is that failing that makes a great number of your supporters appear so arrogant that you you believe that you can come here and lecture us on how we are supposed think and react. Now, I truly don't care if your club remains in the Premiership. You have already lost a number of your key players and the prospects for your long term development are being sold out from underneath you. That is not just my opinion before you start! That's your problem but don't blame clubs like LFC for taking advantage.
