Yearly Exodus...

I think there's a little more to it than simply a subtle watering down of ambition post-Cortese. The stated aim of regular European football doesn't seem to have diminished at all if you ask me. It's all that Krueger or Reed ever spout after all. The fact is that that very aim is something the club keeps in the forefront of their activities. As such, our biggest single handicap as a club is not the amount that we can afford to pay but the amount that we are allowed to pay under the farcical FFP rules. Our salary bill is something like the 17th lowest of the 20 clubs (give or take) and it has to be because of our relatively "small" turnover. It's well and good saying that we brought in >£120M in transfer fees so why not reinvest it all in new talent when in fact, if we did that we'd be hoofed straight out of UEFA competitions under the current rigged system.

 

Oh for the good old days, when lowly Blackburn Rovers could afford to buy the league. Of course, they did rather better with the players they lured away from Saints than Liverpool have so far managed.

 

There is plenty more then just training facilities that has to grow with the club tho isn't there? I am not blaming Cortese he simply had a different way of doing things. Like his only buy players for the that are better then the ones here idea, which left us with a crazy thin squad. As I have said before on here Cortese was great with the players, he treated them like kings. But by doing so he left other parts of Saints specially off the pitch areas lagging behind. He also wanted to control over everything which made it hard for people. KL takes a more back seat approach were she can look at the whole club rather then just one area, she also lets other people have a input which Cortese did not.

For your Cortese didn't want to spend loads of money, you only have to look what we are doing now. Yes we are still spending around the same as we spent under Cortese but we are offsetting it by selling players, under Cortese that didn't happen. I still thank him for being here as at the time we needed a guy like him. A guy that took no **** and basically stuck two fingers up at people that disagreed., but I am also glad he moved on.

 

If we don't let those players leave who want to play for a top 4 club in the champions league, we will very quickly haves bigger problem as there will be no opportunity for academy players to break through. Even Chelsea lose players.

For us - 5 last summer and 2 this summer represents progress.

 

But Cortese did sell players he got £15 millioin for the ox who had only ever played in league 1. I get what your saying but i believe that the the southampton of today are very similar to the southampton that Cortese built. For example when Ron and Les leave i believe we will have the exact same problems as when Cortese and Poch left. Just my view.

 

If you're implying that what I say is false, and that I would rather bask in the glorious satisfaction of "history" and "heritage", then I'm afraid you make an assumption based on your own value system and not mine. Plucky underdog trumps yearly winners every time.

Congrats on showing off the knowledge of the one "trendy" literary book you have read though.

 

I think you are confused by what I said in my post if not then I apologies. Players will still go every season not just when Ron goes, that is part of being a team like us. The way the club is being run now is we want the off pitch stuff(merchandise etc etc) to grow with the on pitch stuff, under Cortese that wasn't happening. Eventually KL will sell the club and move on and whoever buys us will have a very sound club on and off the pitch.

 

Ok so your saying that commercially KL has made us a bigger brand, i fully agree with that thats pretty much what Kruger was bought in to do and i assume he is doing it well although i would need to visit the states to see how well we are known out there. Its a bit unfair to say Cortese wasn't interested in that side of things i'm sure he was its just his time at the helm was dominated with getting us to the premier league and establishing that which i think you will agree he done very well. I'm sure it was is intention to build the southampton brand but not alot of point doing that untill the onfield side of the club is sorted and established.

I agree with you on players leaving every season but you have to agree that a massive part of the player exodus last season was losing Cortese and Poch they built a family and when the head left the weak followed, that will happen again when Ron leaves just maybe not on the same scale as out current squad were not part of the original journey.

 

Lovren and Lambert have been disasters, granted.

but imo Lallana (although massively overpriced) is definitely a useful addition - I expect him to have a good 2nd season if I'm honest, he showed glimpses of what he could do towards the end of last season. Plus last season was hit and miss injury wise, so on Lallana I'm looking forward to see how he applies himself this season. Especially linking up with Coutinho and now Firmino.

Clyne for me is a win, win situation. A good price (probably for both parties taking everything into consideration) he straight away takes Johnson's place. Johnson has basically been running down his 90-100k contract as he knew he wouldn't get anything near that elsewhere. For 3 seasons now he has been a total liability - to the point we were forced to play a back 5 (or 3 depending on which way you look at it). His attitude was so poor and he offered nothing to the team whatsoever. So Clyne is without doubt an upgrade. He's younger, better (both defensively and offensively), and will be on a smaller wage. I think Clyne will actually shine with the way we play. So like I said for me Clyne is a win, win.


So as it stands yeah we've paid over the odds, but I believe 2 of the 4 will be successful at Liverpool

 

Trust you to come in and lower the tone

Being a UTD you must be pleased with Schniderlin (as any team would). But I'd quite like your views on how Southampton absolutely shafted you with Shaw

 

Im sure he will come good, else we shall sell him to your lot

 

It seems like players that are your heartbeat to the team just get sold on - is there something behind the scenes that players don't like or are they moving purely for money?

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An interesting question.
I wonder how Suarez Gerrez & euro/sterling would answer?















Scrap that, Bodgers is obviously the problem.

 

Yep, I believe Wanyama will be gone end of this season if he plays as well as last one due to him coming here under Cortese. I just don't agree Cortese was good for the off field stuff.

 

On the other hand, our 'yearly exoduses' at least showd that, unlike most of the other teams, we have players top clubs want to buy.

 

we have players top clubs want to buy.
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And Liverpool

 

As an aside, I don;t believe Delph is putting his love for Villa aside for anything. He just wants to play football, so if anyone else but Man City and Chelsea came along, I reckon he'd be off in a shot. There's no loyalty, as it is of course self-interest. But I have no doubt he isn't doing it out of loyalty.

Same with JayRod, really. Said he stayed out of respect for the club looking after him during his injury. More likely out of respect for the fact no club would pay what we'd ask for a player who no one knows is going to be at the level he was previously, and he needed some form of security fast. If it was genuine respect for the club, why didn't he sign six months ago?

Not judging either of them, by the way. As you'd expect most ambitious players to behave while on their journey to get as high up the ladder as possible.

 

Probably been said already, but we are a club not big enough to compete with the top six clubs, yet at this point a cut above (in terms of organisation, structure, and yes - judging by this season - football). We have a roster of top four level players, yet we face the following problems:

- We can't pay wages that compete with clubs even as far down the table as Villa
- We can't achieve the success with those players as a result of a squad depth that stifles our chances when any of those players are injured or banned

So those players, whilst being way more than the sum of their parts when in our team, still face the option of being on salaries that are triple what we pay them, and being less er players in a bigger team.. So they will get picked off without fail by top four clubs every close season, and the only way we can prevent it (if indeed we want to - this is a business model that creates wealth and investment funds, remember - without of course the resulting lack of ambition of a Mike Ashley team, but with the knowledge that this is the best way for a club like ours to rise through the ranks: slowly).

Some positive are that:

- Hopefully we are in a better position to attract new decent players (as long as they can overlook a higher salary, a player with his head screwed on might see the opportunity to break into an international squad, get some good coaching) over similar-sized competitors - and there is an argument that this in itself is an effective and efficient filter to attracting the 'right kind' of player (and what better incentive to play out of his skin than a potential big money transfer in two years?)
- It narrows the amount of clubs that can poach our players, as it is only the big clubs above us who can snatch them - which also guarantees us more money to start the process again.

Agree that it may not always work as well as it did this season. And what hurts is when they show an interest in going to Spurs!