Summer 2014 Transfer rumour thread - Part VI

There is no sign of the lack of ambition that others talk about...we have attracted a good manager who has been promised all the money from sales...in other words, Saints have decided that you can't stop determined players leaving, but you can get top money for them and come out laughing. This may be our future...provide a great shop window and make excellent profits on players, but use the money to finance our elevation in the league. Eventually I'm sure we will get into Europe...may be slower than throwing huge sums at it, but is a good sustainable business plan. It's the Southampton Way.

 

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It's always great to be mocked for having an opinion/concern especially when the mocking doesn't really make sense Makes the internet such a pleasant place to be.

Maybe I should just say **** Lovren and twatbeard so I can fit in.

 

It is slightly ironic that despite all the "wait and see" stuff people wouldn't keep an open mind to the possibility that those who have left did so because they had valid issues with the board. I'll still be pissed at Lallana and Lovren for the way they conducted themselves, but I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised to hear that the board is at least partly to blame for them being so desperate to leave.

I get criticised for suggesting this, but there are no such criticisms for those who are so eager to rule it out, despite there actually being quite a lot of supporting evidence for my view, and nothing other than hunches to suggest it's wide of the mark.

But sure, when Lovren specifically states that he wouldn't be in such a rush to leave if Cortese was still here, let's just assuming he's bull****ting because, you know, he's a dick and stuff.

Conclusion: you can make assumptions if they're positive about the club, but not if they're negative. Players who leave are dicks, there's nothing wrong with the board and sorry I can't hear you through all this sand.

For the record, Itchen Masack, I fall somewhere in the middle of your view and theirs.

 

Just be clear, I'm not stating that my view/concern is what is actually happening! Just that it is not beyond the realms of possibility. Trying not to post too much as it's easy to become the target of ignorant frustration

 

I have my moments, but tend towards positivity or at least I get over things pretty quickly. Part of my thinking is that the players who moan are leaving, but the board are staying so it's better if I believe the best (because there is nothing I can do about it anyway). I read something recently that said that outcome is not affected by whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, but optimists have more fun.

My honest opinion is that the board mean us well, but may make mistakes. The players leaving don't care about us at all. Therefore, I choose to believe the board.

 

What do you think the board have to done to persuade Lallana, Lovren, Shaw that they have to leave to play in Europe, and at the same time convince Ronald Koeman that we're the right club for him to manage and take to Europe? Cortese was obviously very popular with the players and fed them all these lines about Champions League etc, but he was spending someone elses money to do this. I believe that KL perhaps a little more careful with the (her) purse strings and won't splash the cash to reach Europe but will do so but steady investment.

Examples?

 

Probably because with Lovren I have heard what he has been like behind the scenes as well. So have no need to wait and see.

 

What about Luc Castaignos? Only 21, decent scoring record in the Eredivisie so I would have thought Koeman knows about him. Also come through Feyenoord's academy. Swansea interested at £6m and he would link well with Dusan.

 

I think the Board's commitment and ambition is as high as ever, but it has lacked a bit of direction and leadership since Cortese left, partly due to Krueger 'learning on the job'. I think they are still finding their feet, but are getting better at communicating and demonstrating that commitment and ambition, and working out each other's roles. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt for now, but the real test will come once the season gets underway.

Les promised we would have a competitive team out there on the first day of the season, and ultimately I think that is where we will be judged.

 

Sure, and clearly he is a bellend, but that doesn't mean both can't be true.

 

They aren't in Lovren's case. He only ever wanted to be a here a season to prove himself again. He never saw us as long term even with Cortese here.

 

Cortese oversold a dream and didn't stick around to pick up the pieces after he realised it wouldn't happen. That makes him culpable to me.

 

People mistake shouting from the roof tops as a sign of ambition....as if saying it loudly enough will make it happen. Nicola hadn't achieved Champions' League...he merely stated it as a certainty rather than as a possibility. Koeman said Europe was the target...but that seems to hardly be mentioned.

 

This is also a definite possibility.

 

If Markus was still around it would be the same situation financially, as the plan was to spend what it earns and be self-sufficient, not run on cash injections. I don't think the problem is a monetary one. I think it's a man management one. Bringing me to your next question...

The media rumours/apparent leaks from players about Reed being disliked having taken on roles which used to be performed by Cortese. Rumours about how he was disliked at other clubs support this too. Dejan's interview, which people are willing to write off as crap because they hate him now, hit on reasons why not only he but others as well might have lost faith. This is evidence, not proof, but it makes sense. Not saying it is the case, but you can hardly say it isn't. There's enough there to at least take the possibility seriously.

 

He left before he could fail. I know a woman whose first husband went down with the Hood aged only eighteen...her second husband of forty years told me that he could never compete with a dead man who would never get old, bald and crotchety. There will be ups and downs in the future, but no point in assuming it would have been all beer and skittles with Nicola.

 

It's a weird way of looking at it that you blame him for the fact he was forced out.

 

We don't know if he was forced out tho do we? There was even suggestions he was offered a job to stay on but declined.

 

The suggestion was that he was offered a lesser role. I don't think there's any doubt that he left because Katharina wanted to assume control.