It's so difficult to be positive about Saints now. This summer has really diminished my love of football. Literally have no excitement for the new season what so ever, I'm just extremely worried.
That's not good enough. It's too little too late. If we lose Schneiderlin and Jrod that will mean we've lost 7 of our previous first team 11, add those 7 that need to be replaced to a squad that already needed 3/4 new signings before we started selling everyone and it's a total disaster. I honestly think we have near no chance before a ball has even been kicked, no manager regardless of ability or reputation can rebuild a squad needing over 10 players in 3 weeks.
You could be wrong? Know one knows how we get on. Yes it will be tough but at least see what happens before writing us off.
Apologise again for saying refer to my original post....But there must have been a breakdown between board and MP/squad (ITK's on Saints Web predicted this in early May, they must have known something, its happened) for such a mass exodus. The board must be somewhat culpable to allow the issues to fester, they should of fixed it or at least had a contingency plan. Whatever plan we have now it will certainly have to be quick fix one!!
At this rate we will sell Tadic and Pelle for a profit before they've played a single game for Saints!
I blame Cortese, Pochettino and the board. The board should be more open with the fans and didn't realise what was happening until too late and too big a problem, so they are naive. They have done the whole bunger down and close up ranks until they have good news. It may work in the long run who knows.
He could be wrong Beefy, I hope he is but I certainly know where he's coming from. Your right...it will be tough and none of us have got a f*cking clue how we'll get on. Probably none of us in our hearts are really writing us off, though you might justifiably beg to differ. But unfortunately its s**te atm and not one of us can control what has/will happen. We just take the pain.
That often works, but in this instance, the inconvenient truth is out there right under our gaze. It would be useful if someone with an absolute knowledge would clarify things because otherwise there is a whole fanbase who are going to angrily make it up for themselves. And Saints don't want that.
We'll not know the whole truths, but too many fans aren't prepared to join dots. Think back to that favourite girlfriend who split up with you; it won't have been one thing (unless she caught you in her sister), but a combination of things gaining momentum. She left you and then she'll give you some half hearted reason why. You'll focus in that reason and try to dispel it, telling her to stay, or you'll ask why she didn't say anything at the time. It just happens over time and things build up. Then the clincher, and "it's not a good time do do this"... It never is! NC and MP have some mud stuck on them in my opinion. The Board appear to have been caught out and handled a lot of things badly. They've been spanked. I think they sat down with Ron and said that there is some poison running through the club and they decided that whoever wants out goes, but for maximum return (fee). They maybe didn't think it would be this many but perhaps have said, "sod it" and time to start again. In my head now, we are where we are. Lets start looking at the next potential girlfriend and forget the one that's gone. Look closely she's probably better looking anyway and might just turn out better in bed
Good analogy FLT, but we still don't know the real reason, and I actually think it's owed to the Saints supporters, on this occasion. We have gone from flying high, and promising a lot higher, to being as flat as a pancake, in the space of 6 months. I think it is asking a lot of supporters to just take that on the chin and bear with it, while the assets walk out the door. We can't bugger off and choose Liverpool, Arsenal, ManU or Spurs [well we could, but it's pretty much unthinkable]. We're a captive audience. However, if didn't turn up for matches we'd get some answers pretty damn quick. Unfortunately, the Club itself, the innocent party in all this, is the only thing that would suffer. But the fans would get an answer, which is all which would be required. Even if it was an answer we didn't particularly like.
I don't quite understand what you expect to gain from this explanation. Perhaps the club will comment, but until this plays out at the end of the window it's going to be very difficult to make any sort of comment without being shouted down. Many on here have already said that the club were naive in making statements towards the end of last season knowing full well that bids were being lined up and players were ready for moves. Even though they said in coded speak that players were going to be leaving they got shouted down at the time and now they're getting shouted down and having these comments rammed back at them. The truth is they can't say they're selling all the players who wish to leave for as much as they can and then buying replacements at half the price as it would not be good for negotiations . What they did say is that players would leave in the best interests for Southampton football club and all money would be invested back into the squad. This is still the explanation you crave and fans have to get their heads around that
Why? It would be like pushing your ex for a different reason. It's happened, she's left, look elsewhere. It is one of the sad things of football in recent years. I agree we are a captive audience but that's just the way it is. One things for sure though, maybe some fans will be a little more realistic.
New, big name manager, new team, new plan. Not a ridiculous scenario. The old team did well for us, almost got us to dream land, but couldn't quite get over the line. So, we start again, not from Division One with a 10 point reduction but from 8th in the Premier League and with a shed load of money. How many league clubs are there? All but about 6 would be incredibly envious of our current situation. Who knows why everyone is jumping ship. As always in football there are 3 sides to very story and the whole truth never properly comes out. Trying to forget about the past and concentrate on the future for the minute, the problem seems to be the speed, or lack of it, of our incoming transfers. It took long enough to get the managerial situation sorted and now every transfer just takes a ridiculous amount of time when we really don't have the time to spare. I don't want them buying players for the sake of it. They have to be the right people but I think we would all calm down a bit if we could get some new names IN for a change. The two we have got in seem like decent signings but we need more of the same and quickly otherwise the moral of the remaining few will surely drop at just the wrong time.
Lff: 'So, we start again, not from Division One with a 10 point reduction but from 8th in the Premier League and with a shed load of money. How many league clubs are there? All but about 6 would be incredibly envious of our current situation.' Very good point. We've had a great few years and we all enjoyed the good football we played under Adkins (don't forget him) and MP, but we haven't returned to rock bottom. Unlike other periods in Saints history, we have the money for rebuilding. And we have a decent manager to direct our renaissance...the style may not be so exciting, but we will learn to like it.
