http://talksport.com/football/exclu...ity-check-says-ex-striker-davies-140728104196 For an alternative view, I guess... DTLW
He's not wrong. The exact same would happen at Newcastle, Aston Villa, West Ham, Sunderland & Everton. If the top 4 or 5 come calling for your players, there's nothing you can do but get the best price. I still can't think of an example of a player at a "mid table" Prem club who was stopped from joining a Champions League position Prem club
Whilst I agree with a lot of what he says, some of it's absolute bollocks. Our team has been torn apart an unprecedented amount. Clubs lose players to bigger ones all the time, but I can't name a single other time when 6 or 7 go all at once. The closest I recall is villa after their great season, they lost Milner and young but made Barry stay to soften the blow. It's nonsense that we HAD to sell. No matter how many people keep repeating that we had no choice - of course we did. They wouldn't have all gone on strike, and if we had fought harder we wouldn't have lost so many. Especially if we said to them "we will let you go next year"
No, he's not wrong. I noticed that he obviously keeps an interest in Saints as well. Players like Matt Targett and Lloyd Isgrove aren't yet on everyone's but he knew them and their appearances and performances.
I don't think any Saints fan needs a lesson in reality. We've dealt with it all our lives...how many of us really thought the good times would carry on rolling. But we certainly thought it would last a bit longer.
Was going to say for older fans thats the case, but then some mates of mine seem a bit deluded at the moment too. So I think a great deal of Saints fans DO need a reality check. They swallowed all the Cortese bullshit as much as some of our players did (on the surface, I don't think for a minute they & their agents really did)
I agree , it is quite understandable to sell the occasional player , but it's the amount we are letting go in one period that concerns me .
You're not wrong there Joe. That was the only thing that really took the edge of a nice article for me! In a sense he is right. He highlights some key things: When the big clubs come calling, ultimately we are a selling club. We have brought in a fantastic manager, so there is cause for celebration there. We have spent highly on transfers in recent years, and I can see us continue to do so. Yes, this is currently a pretty awful predicament we find ourselves in. I'm not going to go as far as saying we'll become stronger from this, but ultimately I think we'll be fine.
Yes, forgot the recent fans. They'll have to develop the backbone that you need to support Saints...will help them in general life as well
I don't necessarily believe it. If this is so much the natural order of things then tell me when it has happened before. We all know that the best players will end up at the top clubs but that is not what has happened to us. This is something unprecedented, at least, I've never seen it and I don't hear anyone else saying it will be fine because it happened to so and so and they were better for it. Every year a team finishes 5,6.7 in the league. Everton and spurs have better players than we had but look at their situation. We haven't sold our players cheap, they've gone for stupid money, money that could have bought spurs or Everton players but they haven't. They've bought ours, not one or two of them but half the team and more to come I feel. I don't believe for a second that Korean knew he was in for this, I think his tweet today says it all and I wouldn't be surprised if his appointment goes tits up before we kick a ball in anger. Hanlons razor says never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity but at some point the stupid becomes too much to fathom and personally I now doubt that players are the reason for all of this.
I may have suggested Koeman leaving when I was in the pit of despair, but I don't really believe that. He is manager of an EPL side and there are only 20 of those, he has a large pot of money (which is mysteriously hard to spend) and no one will blame him at all if he fails. He is in a win-win situation. He seems a confident man and I'm sure he thinks he is up to the challenge.
Absolutely. One or two plus lambert, okay. A 19yr old off with potential and just 20 odd games under his belt? Why sell him when we just made 80mill in sales? It' stinks.
Yeah, I Agree it seems unlikely but honestly, this whole collapse is so unlikely. I'm past freaking out about this but I am fascinated by it.
I wouldn't really but he specifically included Everton in his list of teams that would do the same thing. Barkley has probably had top four interest this season too.
In my opinion, you still don't quite get it, CBK. Whilst Cortese was here it wasn't bulls**t. I know hope and belief is not something you have a lot of time for, but it carries a lot of people a long way in sport. All competitive sport is based on ambition, belief and hope otherwise we might as well donate the various trophies to the biggest and richest teams on the first football day in August. All this kicking a bit of leather around on some grass is obviously a complete waste of time.
Depends how you view it. I posted earlier something like this: what if the board and Koeman have decided to completely rebuild? What if they have said any player who asks for a move will be sold if we get a good fee? I'm not too adverse to that idea. Yes, it's a risk. But at least it's a plan. It also gives the new manager a chance to build his own team. So in short they didn't HAVE to sell them, but chose to and with all what has happened over the past few weeks, il ok with that. Of course it would have been great to have had the same squad as last year plus 3 or 4 good additions, but that isn't happening now. I'm beginning to get excited (with some intrepidation) for this new era. NC and NP have gone, long live the new king... Whoever that maybe as long as he is wearing our badge.
Well, only 5 teams have won the Premier League title in 22 years so that is basically true TSS! But I do agree with you that you have to have hope that the status quo can be overturned, that goes for life in general as well as in sport. I still believe that Southampton are capable of getting into the top 4 in a few years, however deluded that makes me sound.
