The one benefit of having a thin squad last year was that it presented a lot of oppurtunitys to academy players, hopefully with all these players coming in they don't find themselve too far down the pecking order! Not a moan, would just like to see 'the Southampton way' contined!
Honestly, on Saturday against the squad we had on the pitch I would have picked last seasons saints team to be stronger. But last years squad lost soft games to villa and west brom and west ham so who knows. With the two new signings plus Gardos I have to say we are stronger. Gk better, Defence as good with more depth, Midfield as good, attack stronger. Given that we weren't free scoring and had a bit or a loose cannon in front of the nets last season you would have to argue that we have come out of meltdown in a stronger position and should be able to give anyone a game. I can scarcely believe it but I take my hat off to the board and the owner of the club they have salvaged a very difficult situation and turned it to our advantage. Very well done.
At the end of last season, even before everyone left and the craziness happened, if you asked most of us what we needed it would have been-- An additional striker, GK depth, and CB depth. And it has to be said that those were actually ongoing issues. We've always been short in those areas, and it's never been addressed. But we did it finally this year, in the most difficult of circumstances where we not only had to plug those existing holes, but find replacements for all the people that left. I'm not saying that Krueger or the Board should be hailed as geniuses just yet, but they deserve at least a blank slate. Can't really see why Krueger should have to prove anything. Why were people concerned about him staying silent or disappearing, or him supposedly lying if it weren't for your worry that he wouldn't end up delivering? Well he did, so if you thought he was lying you were wrong, and if you were worried he was just sitting on his ass somewhere that appears not to be the case. The thing is, Cortese promised all sorts of seemingly implausible things and acted in all sorts of sketchy ways, but he delivered success. I mean seriously, the guy pretty much acted like the world's biggest egomaniac/asshole but he delivered the goods and that was the bottom line. I don't see why it should be different now.
I didn't doubt Katharina at all. I had some reservations about Kruger but they've just taken the stick and got on with the job. Kudos to all of them. I personally think that this season's first 11 is better than we would have had. I think we now have equal or better players in every position with the caveats: Would Shaw be fit and would he provide assists this season? I think Bertrand will. How much is Lambert going to decline this season? Will he be as good as Pelle come the end of this season? Cant argue with the improvement beyond the first 11 and we still have some hot prospects to come in as well.
In a funny old way the exodus seems to have actually helped Saints. Out went £97+M million of talent and in has come around £50+M plus a couple loans that will cost, should we take the option on them. The squad has a bit more depth, the age average must have stayed about the same, and the replacements so far have started to acquit themselves very well, even though they've only been together a fraction of the time the old team grew to know each other. And there's still pots of money left. Have the club actually been canny all the time and the majority of us missed it in the media glare..?
Steady on Second Stain. This is sounding like a conspiracy theory. It is one that I have pondered for a while.
The very best signing made this summer was Ron. I have warmed to him in a way I never did with Pochettino who was a bit of a one trick pony. My only worry is that if we have as good as or even better season this year than last will we just see a repeat of the whole process again next summer? Having said all of that Ron has lifted my depression and I am really looking forward to the Newcastle game.
This must be the first ever case of "asset stripping" where after the "stripping" the "asset" is actually stronger.
In all the dismay over players leaving I dont think we realised what a coup landing Ron was. He's got better man management than MP, better tactics and clearly can attract top players. On wards and upwards!
I agree, I feel Poch struggled to capture players and it was more Cortese last summer. Some of the players we've attracted this summer has pleasantly surprised me. I'm looking forward to our next game but I'm not going to get too optimistic.
We look good on paper, but we need to show on the pitch that we're as good or even better than last season. So judgement day for me is at the end of the season, not on 1st of september.
There is no way we can judge now if we've had a good transfer window or if we have a stronger squad now than we did last season. The only thing that is fact is we sold our 5 best players, yes we got top money and yes it appears we've bought some good players but apart from Long, Bertrand and Alderweirld they have never played in a decent league. So as for now i have no opinion on whether Ralph and Les have made us better or not and i don't see how any fan can judge the squad now. Lets get behind the team and just see where they take us if we can get top 10 then i'll say yeah Ralph, Les and Ron did good if not then as long as we don't get relegated we'll see what happens. My main concern is that with the early summer exodus it sent a message to the big boys saying for the right money you can have who you like so i can see us having to rebuild our squad every year!!!
The thing we can all agree on surely...Katharina means well by us. Some feared she was trying to get her money back...yes, she doesn't want to pour any more money in, but the Leihberrs have put in a massive amount already to get us to the EPL and initially support us there. Now is the time we need to be self-supporting. We sold some players including 3 from the Academy...so a lot of the money spent resulted from past investment (which was always the plan). We are in safe hands.
