I don't think its as simple as some on here saying 'Kruger has to walk if Schneiderlin is sold'. However I don't think Schneiderlin will be going anywhere UNLESS we get a very good quality replacement in plus a few other signings. I would think if Clasie were to be signed this window then Schneiderlin could well get his move BUT at or close to the price Sains want and not the £15-£20m that the red tops think Arsenal / Tottenham value him at. So I think we will now do our business for the window and Schneiderlin if he does go will be the last business we do after we have sorted ourselves out first. I don't think Rodriguez will be going anywhere unless someone does go crazy and offer £20m for an injured player with 2 years left, again it wil be after we've concluded our incomings.
I've been banging on about this. We have paid heavily for the brief spell with MP. All the team bought into his style, looked better as a group than some of them may be, were courted by money and fame, put their tiny heads together and gave no thought to the club because the manager they admired didn't. His brief spell here could have been worth it if he had left leaving behind a group of improved players, but he didn't. The group became poisoned...each one convincing the other that their behaviour was acceptable. Did anyone of them even give a thought to us...doubt it...they bought into the morality of their leader. Lallana should have set an example...after all, he is Mr Southampton. Lovren was the one the board should have stood up to. But better late than never.
Btw...I have great sympathy for the board inheriting an unprecedented situation. A group of unsettled players who were promised or believed they were promised a move by Nicola...just sign a new contract so Saints get a good price....would he have honoured it? We'll never know. The board could have said no, but decided to extract some poison and give the new manager serious money to 'play with'. They took over from a Chairman who had achieved so much...always a hard act to follow...after all they can't get us 2 promotions can they?....stabilisation is just not sexy. Get a few players in and the fans can concentrate on getting behind Koeman.
If they were all pushing for moves last year then it can surely only be seen as a good thing that we got another year out of them. If they'd been sold back then I'm sure that would have been Cortese's fault too. The fact is if they want to leave they're eventually going to leave.
Is this a plan from the board to show the fans what the players are like if we get in the way of them leaving? Let them go, hopefully Spurs will now come back with a bigger offer. If Jay goes, I hope he loses his yard of pace.
If he'd stuck around, I wouldn't blame Cortese. Or if he genuinely expected support from KL and she left him out to dry. But if he promised them moves at the end of the season, then ducked out to leave it as someone else's problem and then had the nerve to do an interview claiming he would have kept all the players... well that's just craven and dickish in the extreme, isn't it?
I'd guess it wasn't a case of "ducking out" more a case of him believing he was the only decision maker and assuming he could so what he wanted before Kat stepped in and suggested otherwise. He may have gone back in his word to them; remember his 'controlling' nature, but we will never know this now.
My running theory on all this is that the board knew what players could potentially cause trouble if they were denied a move so they split those guys up by their worth, replace-ability and their part in the structure of the team and sold some of those players. While Morgan is clearly pissed at the situation he is (publicly at least) rather isolated in his view and can be managed. However if he had say lovren and lallana still in the team and fuming about being denied transfers that could've spread into a genuine upheaval by a solid group players that would've affected everyone. Just my thoughts on why we drew the line now.
I think Morgan is our heart beat and our most important player on the pitch. Lallana was exceptional last season and Rickie on his game is great, however for core strength and overall importance, Morgan edged that whether he had a spectacular season or not. This may be part of why we drew the line now. (That and Spuds) a part may also have been Arsenal refusing to pay £27-30m
I still think one of the biggest problems is our failure to get timely replacements for the players that left. If we had got quality players in and at reasonable prices, I'm sure most of us would have been 'happy'. If not happy, then at least understanding that there is some sort of coherent strategy. What we must not do is panic. There is now a lot of pressure to get players in. We must not compromise on quality.
So, those saying we'd have been better off under Cortese, would we have been really, if he did promise moves away?
I am sure none would have gone if RK (with the exception of Ricky) hadn't thought he could replace them with similar or better. Ok Lovren may have been a difficult one perhaps. For now he has kept the engine room until he has an alternative in perhaps as I cannot see spider here for the long term.
I do genuinely feel sorry for Morgan, been our best player the past two seasons and was told he could leave to be rejected. But he is a Southampton player on a high wedge... so should still be professional and stay off social media. I hope koeman can turn him around, he still has friends here to! I'm hopeful he will give us one more season and then sell him when our team can do just fine next year by just having to replace him and not the core.
You never know, he might even find he doesn't want to leave after one season under Koeman. We might be doing rather well.
Yes, that is dickish if that's actually what he did, but where's the evidence that that's what he did? It's a pretty big accusation considering there's nothing to base it on. If he told them he could leave this summer it was because he didn't want to lose them last summer, and that's an extra year of top class players gained in my book. Yes he was just postponing a problem, but what would you do? You're not going to keep a wantaway player until he retires. It's funny because the way I see the situation, people are essentially making up their own stories about how Cortese f**ed us over, and then anyone who thinks that's not cool is licking his arse. Show me some decent evidence before you start making accusations of super-villainy. It's completely out of order (not directed at you in particular, FLT, but everyone who does this).
Just noticed that VCBet have us at 17/2 to win at Liverpool. That's way over the odds. No Suarez or Lallana for them.
