This has probably been discussed before, but is Neil Ashton a (not very) secret Skate? Or was he rebuffed by one of the Saints management team/the board, so he finds any reason to talk down Saints (relative) success and financial security?
No......... don't think so...........Just another Journo that thinks a lot of himself who is good at exaggerating situations to suite his story.
It all makes sense BT, but obviously as a Championship team they would be in the team, as a struggling Prem team they would be in contention but as an aspiring top 6 club ??? We are bashing our heads against the glass ceiling and it is tough when you can't just buy who ever you want like the Glaobal Billionaire's formerly known as Manchester's local club. JWP appears to be more fancied at National than club level but central midfield is a tough place to be learning your trade in the Prem, no hiding place. If he had more pace we could play him wider to aid his development. But then I'm a big supporter of the get Reedy in campaign, but I don't see him being behind JWP and he gets a lot more game time. (Partly because noone else can take a corner or free kick)
The daily mail hate campaign against saints is nothing short of embarrassing but since some newspapers are there to entertain rather than inform, I don't have too much of a problem with it. As far as the academy is concerned, players like Shaw, Walcott and the Ox were fortunate to be able to break into our first team given the level we were playing at the time. They would never have walked into a Man U , Chelsea or Barcelona side at that time. Which is exactly why academy players find it a little harder to break into the first team now. They will still do it but their exposure in the early days must be carefully controlled and monitored.
Oh, I see. We're talking about two different things. I would not expect Koeman to not use his best starting XI, and you are right that Pochettino did as well. What I'm saying is that when MP was here, we generally did not loan out players or take players on loan. MP would put a couple youngsters on the bench, and try to get them 15 minutes here and there as late subs and/or in Cup matches. Remember how annoyed everyone was that MP would never take cup matches seriously? So someone like Turnbull I think would be with Saints, and MP would get him some minutes off the bench. Whereas under Koeman, he's being loaned out where he will get much more playing time, but at a lower level and not with the Saints. And I'm not saying Koeman's philosophy is wrong. Just different.
Also, doesn't the current slight lull in top-notch youth players coming through coincide with when we went into administration or thereabouts, so fewer people wanting to come and join the Saints academy? It will pick up again.
Ronald: *laughs* "No. There's no truth in that. Of course like everybody, if you work together you have discussions. But, we don't have any problem in that case and we're working well together. We have every day contact and still, we have the same opinion of how we like to do business in Southampton."
Tbf, real newspapers, like the Guardian, Observer, etc, invariably just talk about the real stuff, and generally, given the last 6 years, it has tended to be pretty good about Saints. They don't do witch hunts proclaiming it all to be in the public interest.
