But why would Gray be any different? Couldn't Clyne be compared to him? He still left us for Liverpool. Or Jay maybe? Had it not been for his injury, he no doubt would have left us for Spurs by now.
Cant see how it wont catch up with us before long.there is no other way tho because players that cost 20/30 mil are not gonna come here imo
Young hungry players. Clyne never kicked off after one season, J Rod has never kicked off as far as I know, unlike foreign mercenaries like Lovren and Mane?
And how much did Morgan cost us?, Adam, Clyne, Lovren, Chambers, etc?...not one of them over £10m, Vic and Sadio, just over £10m and they are now worth at least double. There's no reason that, with our record of improving players Clasie and Romeu, might be worth double in the future. We won't sign a £20 - £30m player because their wage demands would be too high for us. The only way of solving the high wage problem is to save money on transfer fees by producing a %age of academy players to the first team.
Well what is the model then - Leicester? Or are they a total anomaly ? Do we need a better mix of youth, experience, some hardened journeymen, and the odd wayward talent rather than getting in high potential youngish individuals who don't give a crap about us other then as a stepping stone?
Sorry, I didn't appreciate that you were focusing just on players who want away after one season. Seems a slightly strange way to look at things (one year? two years? three years? so what?), but hey, OK I'll go with it. But as far I can think, it is literally only Lovren who falls into that category. Toby wasn't one of ours. We wanted rid of Osvaldo. I'm not aware that Gaston has demanded a move away, and besides over three years on he's still here any way. As for Mane, 18 months on and he too is still here - and in likelihood you can add to that number, because I doubt we'll sell this month. Do we even know that he actively wants away? Yes it is commonly reported that Man Utd are strongly interested, but what can be done about that? Should we be limiting the quality of player we sign, just to ensure that there's no chance of a Man Utd being interested in them 12 months later?
I think if you listen to Koemans after match interviews, he isn't exactly blowing Mane love out of his arse? I'm not saying about the limit of players we sign, but maybe the club are to wrapped up in last seasons PR over the so called black box. Read goes on about the work they do on players back grounds etc, but both Mane and Lovren basically went on strike to get moves to us, so I guess kicking up a stink to get moves to Liverpool, Man Utd etc is nothing to them?
Agree with the first part but the second should read buy good championship players who can step up. Question is who and they would be overpriced.
I basically agree with Beefy. It's not exactly helping us this season by having sulky players around the club.
Nor did it pick up on a host of other players, plenty of clubs have good scouting systems I would suggest our black box has done little to shout about so far
That means standing still! Look at what has happened to Villa, Newcastle, Sunderland by standing still That is happening to us at a quicker rate.
Yes we are. Because even with Schneiderlin being a good pro, he was going to be very angry if we turned down a 25m transfer. And you just don't get the same intensity if players are unhappy, even if they try to put in a professional effort. In the meantime, Clasie had a great game today and in my mind looks rather promising. And he seems quite committed to Koeman and will give his all. And we got him at a cutrate price so he too. Romeu could also be good for us, and was also acquired at a good price. In the sense that neither player will likely ever be as good as Schneiderlin, we aren't better off. But that is like asking why we don't have Messi. It just isn't realistic. We did the right thing with Schneiderlin.
Lol. I meant that Reed is happy to take the plaudits and big up how well Southampton are doing when it is going well probably fully believing that we've cracked the magic code whereas Krueger takes a longer term view of things and diplomatically downplays the enthusiasm. Didn't mean Kruger is looking at long term himself just that what he thinks we are/should be doing is realistically much more longer term than the football side are thinking. Reed's continual self back patting (of the club and himself) will come back to haunt him eventually. HE will either be found out by us not progressing OR by progressing with nowhere near 50% homegrown. Very easy to lap up the praise in the good times. I think the board should just sit around the table be honest with each other, be realistic and tell the fans a realistic aim. Ditch the 'we can do everything on a budget, we'll be playing CL in 5 years with 50% of our team made from academy stars' line. Be honest to the fans because the expectations are already higher than is likely to be achieved...in my opinion of course.
Reed is a big talker who seems full of himself. He bothers me in a way that Kruger bothers others, I guess. It doesn't mean that he isn't good at his job, though. Or Krueger for that matter. This is all very silly, really. There was no one questioning the Black Box six months ago. Or KL. Or Reed. Now suddenly it is back to summer 2014 again. Club is cheap, no ambition, etc. It is especially strange on a day when Clasie and Martina both had excellent games and to my mid were by far the two best players on the pitch. It is awfully hard to run a football club. Sometimes mistakes are made. Sometimes things that were working suddenly stop working. You have to be constantly making adjustments, and there will be peaks and valleys.
This is my point Beefy. Looks like the same will happen with Gray. Ideal types of players for the Southampton Way, at very affordable transfer fees and wages.
Clyne was sold to Liverpool. He did not leave. He was not keen on signing a new contract for us, but that is a different situation. Clyne never specifically demanded to go, and I felt he played fairly hard the while he was here. He certainly never went on strike or threatened to do so. And if we'd kept him he probably would have played hard until the end, if for no other reason than he'd get a massive contract. You really can't look past 3 years for any player. But you hope they will at least last three, not like Mane who even if he stays will have done so kicking and screaming. That goes for foreign players, domestic, and even players from your own Academy. It didn't help us with Lallana, Walcott, Chamberlain, and Shaw.
