What I would say, is that there is an air of "panic" at St Mary's at the moment. Not just amongst the playing staff.
Absolutely, and understandably so - because there's no clear end game or strategy being communicated (and stuck to) by the board.
Once the big boy's have had there fill of our squad which is rapidly becoming a carcass it would not surprise me one bit if the lesser lights come sniffing around. I believe we still have couple of players who've only a year to rundown their contracts.
Fair enough not that I've seen these other comments, and yes this board is understandably a bit more crazy than normal with all that's going on.
In simple terms, it's when an investor takes over a going concern, sells off the assets for a quick return thereby destabilising the business, then looks to unload what's left with little regard for its long term future.
Well if we start selling players to Leicester, of course at the right price, we truly are in the sh*t.
We don't know that yet tho do we? If we buy quality replacements it would be pretty **** asset stripping.
Agreed. Until such time as players like Maya, José, Jack, Steven start leaving for similar or 'lesser' clubs, I can kind of understand it. Big club approaches for impressive player, he then asks to go, we then try to do the best deal possible. We're not hearing that anyone has been forced out or made to feel unwelcome at Saints, so I don't think it's an asset strip. I just think the board are naïve and weak and they opened the floodgates when the others left earlier in the window. But ultimately, there's not a lot they can do when a big club chucks so much money at our players. HOWEVER, what they should be doing is spending good money on replacements and spending it at a faster rate than we have so far.
I think LTL's earlier comment is right. This smacks of incompetence. I don't think the board considered the effect on morale the exit of MP and the first few players would have on the squad. Once those sales were finalised I think they were shocked that players were asking to leave as they thought of it as a sinking ship. With virtually no continuity in any aspect of the clubs management the player will feel no connection or attachment to saints and will jump at an offer from a 'big' club. With contracts being what they are (pretty much worthless) the club is suddenly faced with a bunch of players who see everyone else leaving and as such will force a move one way or the other.
The frustrating thing is how very easy it would (have) been to rectify this with a bit of strong leadership.
I wouldn't say asset stripping. This is an inevitability. A good season and going to the world cup makes a player think they should be playing in the champions league. Which they are all doing. It is a fact of life in modern football. When a champions league team comes calling a player leaves. I would be more miffed if they went to a mid table team which happened a lot in the past. You could say the club have done some very good business transfer wise. If you include the sell on clause for Lallana the players who have left or are leaving cost about 27 million in transfer fees. If we can get our money back for Osvaldo we will receive over 100 million in transfer fees. Bare in mind the Saints team last season didn't cost even 50 million. Personally I would have preferred that some of them went abroad but few English players do this.
At the end of the season I was convinced that we would lose Lallana, Shaw and Lovren. These players would demand huge fees and I thought that the money would be invested. I was shocked to see Lambert go even though I was sure that 2014/15 would be his last season with us. Losing Chambers was a shock but it is fantastic business for us if he goes for £16 million. This does get me a bit worried when you hear than Morgan and Jay are also widely touted for moves. The peculiar thing about the business is was that there were a number of fringe players I expected to he out of the door sooner have remained. Osvaldo was the prime candidate and probably next on most fan's list after Guly. I also anticipated that there would be no way back for Sharpe or Mayuka yet they seem to have been welcomed back to the fold. On top of this, Gaston has flattered to deceive and I had been convinced that we would have cashed in on him in the summer. In addition, Yoshida and Jos don't seem to be quite PL standard and I thought they would have been sold. Other than our top talemt, surely most Saints fans would have listed these players as being most likely to have been sold. The skeleton of the squad now looks a bit threadbare and with over £100 million being recovered through sales no one doubts that a hefty chunk of this will need to be spent. The selling of Chambers may be good business yet it seems unnecessary as the club must have recovered any operating losses with the sale of Lallana, Shaw and Lovren. Something doesn't seem quite right and I wonder whether Cortese knew of the intention for the team to be broken up prior to his departure. I'm not sure about asset stripping but the selling of players seems almost like a Tory austerity measure in being too quick, too vicious and of doubtful necessity. Re-building a squad from scratch back-fire with Spurs last season and I am worried just how many new players you can successfully bring in in one go. Not aware of any inkling about Cork going to Leicester but I agree that such a move would set alarm bells ringing regarding Katarina's intentions for the club. Difficult not to agree with some of Beddy's observations.
No none us know what her intensions are but it does make you wonder?.....the outgoing players are heavily outnumbering any quality replacements. With the start of the season looming its critical we get some decent players in quick. But with all that's going on I can't see us being a very attractive destination for decent players to come to.
Lovren Shaw Lambert Chambers Lallana Pelle Tadic Only 3 players less atm so not heavy outnumbered really.
Beefy The one point that hasn't been mentioned is that, with the exception of Lovren, all these players are English.
Beef - I admire (and agree with) your continued belief that it'll all pan out okay when all is said and done, but it doesn't take away from the concern of top-down incompetence. As things seem, Koeman will be a success (if he is) despite the board, not with their assistance.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28498546 With Jose Mourhino saying players demands are wrecking the game, are we the first Club to be saying if you want to be greedy, go somewhere else and do it? Could cost us our Premiership place in the long run, is it worth that?
