Easier said than done if their heads are being turned by a bigger club, only Vic and Sadio could've controlled their own behaviour today.
Or sulk and refuse to play like Mane has done before. Players have all the power at the end of the day. Managers/ teams can only do so much.
To be honest, it's all just speculation. For all we know mane may have just overslept, and being late was a genuine mistake. He is our best player by a country mile, we have to stand firm at all costs. Not only that, but it would set a terrible precedent to give in to sulking (which we never have before).
And yet the Everton fans want him out for not showing enough ambition Fans are often unrealistic and want contradicting things.
Ok so if Mane went for say 30m and Wanyama for 20m and we brought a few of the rumoured players in Imbula 18m , Townsend 14m and Austin 10m we;d make a profit of 8m and have a better side if indeed Imbula is any good as to be fair i have never seen him play. Atleast in Townsend/Austin you would get players hungry to play games and impress with euros coming up
The only good thing about that 3-0 mauling they gave us, was the two fingers it stuck up to those idiots who flew the Kenwright Out banner across St Marys. They don't know how good they've got it. Who have they lost in the last decade? Just Fellaini, Rodwell and Lescott? We lose that in one summer.
Are we bringing in the right character of player....lovren clyne mane Wanyama (without even mentoning a more obvious one) The famous black box might be missing a couple of filters
Arteta as well. And with Kenwright, it was never really lack of ambition: the finances of football simply outpaced him. He could afford to buy a football club in the early 90s, but couldn't afford to finance it in the aughts.
At which point we sell them for a profit so we don't have to worry about whether they care about the club. I get your point. I'm just saying it depends on the player. We knew Mane was going to be like this when we signed him. He never particularly cared about the club and he likely never will. So either you don't sign him in the first place, or you drop him like a hot potato once his purpose is served. Wanyama seems a little sketchy too because of his agent. I'm a little more inclined to stick with him as after all, this could just have been a nightmare game. But I don't know the details. If his head isn't in it, then maybe we have to let him go as well. There are players we should fight to keep. Clyne, Schneiderlin (though that became impossible), Toby... we need to find the money to keep players who will stay if we can reasonably match wage, and that means freeing ups cash at some point and also selling them on our goals. Our core is getting long in tooth and needs replacing with a new core of players that can hopefully get us to the promised land. So I agree with you to some extent. But Mane was, and is unreliable. Guys like that you sign for a couple of years and sell on so you can take the profits and get someone who is in it for the long haul. Or, if you are stickler for the one for all, all for one concept then don't sign them in the first place.
Agree with you. Players that are going to be big are always going to be the Mane type. Nothing to do with Mane personally. They are all like that. The ones that aren't are the ones where we are the best they are going to get. Same (we have found) with our youngsters. Those that are stars move on. Those that don't (these days) are at our level. The only way to keep any of those destined for stardom is to be one of those top clubs and to be one of those top clubs you have to keep your stars so it is catch22 and short of doing a Risdale and using silly wages to bridge the gap to get to be that club it is nigh on impossible so it is silly for Les and Co to continue to perpetuate the dream that is CL within 5 years or so and much more sensible to be like Kruger who I think is at odds with Les Reed and sees things much more realistically. Les Reed is in danger of becoming David Brent where when things work he is all over the buzz words, slogans and mantras talking up a philosophy where when things don't work out he has no answers.
These are all the reasons we should be going for players like Gray from Birmingham. They keep going on about the Southampton way? What is this? Bring in players like mane, lovren etc, who after 1 decent season start treating the club and the fans with total disrespect. I agree with the old guy at the recent forum, who said tell Man Utd 40-50 million for Mane and he's yours. The club have to put their foot down, or selling the best players year on year will / is becoming The Southampton Way. I would rather hungry young players who haven't got previous at other clubs
I'd say that the 'buzz words, slogans and mantras' applies at least as much to Krueger as to Reed, honestly. And I suspect that you're right about Krueger/Reed's visions being at odds; Reed is/was probably as much of a believer in Cortese's vision as the players. But I don't think that it's because Krueger has more realistic long-term aims though, because I doubt that either he or KL intend to be involved the club long-term.
I wouldn't sell either this window if they are being disrespectful and not trying. That is the wrong message to send out to the team and makes the management look weak. They can go when we are ready and an acceptable bid is made. If they continue with the wrong attitude some clubs will be put off them especially as neither are playing like top 4 players at the moment. Drop them and play some of the ones which want to play for us, maybe try a few youngsters. Their attitude (if they have one) may be what's wrong with the team. Our hopes of top 6 are over so unless we get dragged into the relegation battle we might as well try a few others.
So we sell our best players for £20m+ and replace each with two £10m players, are we better off? We effectively did that with Morgan - Clasie/Romeu.
