Transfer Rumours The January '16 transfer rumour thread.

Top, top post, calm is needed - and the realisation of what the club has acheived . Unfortunately an Internet forum is a very good place to let off steam. I know I write things on here that I may read back later as OTT, I imagine a lot of people do the same.
On the other hand, the whole point of the forum is to discuss Southampton - and when we are doing badly it's natural to want to talk about it.
This is our worst run in what - six years? Understandable that people will not be that used to it!

 

Hallelujah! Someone talking sense. Thanks, Fats! We are SUPPORTERS - ergo we support the club through thick and thin. We've had an incredible journey over the last few years, but we all knew (surely?) that it couldn't continue and there would be a blip. NOW is the time to get behind the club and the players and support them, not bitch and moan because we're not top 6.
If you want to always be at the top, go support Celtic .....................

 

'PREM CLUBS WANT SAM'
Leeds manager Steve Evans – a guest on Sky Sports Today – says there are four or five Premier League clubs that want Sam Byram.
Byram's future has been a topic of much discussion this season and he is due to become a free agent in the summer, having turned down a new deal earlier in the campaign.
Evans said: “I can’t say whether he will or not. He’s made it clear he doesn’t want to extend his contract beyond the summer and there are four or five Premier League clubs who would like to get Sam. They are all good clubs. It has to be right first and foremost for Leeds and that young man. He’s got all the right attributes to play in the Premier League but it has to be right for all parties.”

Wonder if we're one.

 

I actually don't think we've shown "steady, slow improvement" since 2009. We improved rapidly until Pochettino left (or perhaps until the January before) but since then we may have gone up one league placing but it is hard to argue we have actually improved. The league last year was very poor - and we got one place better. The league this year is stronger and we have got many places worse. It is a vulgar simplification to say we are getting slowly better. We are not. You can't simply average out improvement over time and call it steady progress.

Yes, we are better than league 1. Great. But we will be back in the Championship within a few years if we keep improving in this particular steady, slow manner. I'm not whinging. I'm not doom and glooming - but I am also not going to put my head in the sand and ignore the MOST important factor. We have not looked like a good team this year, even when we won. There are only two performances I can remember where I was pleased with the way we played. That is not slow, steady progress. That is regression. We have decided to try to break even - but in this huge money industry, breaking even is going backwards.

Oh, and we're not breaking even, are we? We're making a profit on transfers and spending none of our prize money. That does not demonstrate ambition in any sense, and Koeman himself has alluded to that.

 

http://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/no-newcastle-bid-for-alexandre-lacazette_sto5049149/story.shtml

 

Trouble is Spaced that too many on here would follow blindly as self styled "fans". Surely as supporters we have a right to expect profits from sales to improve the squad - to demonstrate ambition? If there's no ambition the club deserves to see its fortunes fluctuate wildly.

 

I don't understand why we would keep Caulker when he is using up a valuable loan place. If we are unlikely to do much/any buying in the window then presumably loans are a best option as they were last January.

 

I don't mind all our massive profits from the league getting banked and used for wages, stadium upkeep, etc., but when we sell players for £20M and buy players for £5M that is not going to lead to improvement. It might, occassionally, fluke an improvement, but it will always average out as decline. This year we quite literally deCLYNEd at right back...

 

We'll never agree then, because you are making those assessments on one season. If we have another season like that, then you have grounds to make that assessment however to say we haven't made progress since 2009 is amazing.

"It is a vulgar simplification to say we are getting slowly better. We are not. You can't simply average out improvement over time and call it steady progress."

.... but it is ok to take a snapshot of half of one season and say we are regressing? I would suggest it is far more vulgar to take just half a season as you have, or 9 games as some fans are, to make a point. This is just you wanting to paint a dark picture. Two seasons in a row we have lost the bulk of our best players. Last season we coped wonderfully, this season we haven't coped as well. If we rebuild in the summer and have a good season next season, then does the picture look like we are steadily improving.

What is it you want the club to do then?
Can you understand the club's financial caution, having come from where we did?
Where do you expect us to be?
What mechanism are you using for measuring the quality of the league this season to last season, or more importantly the league last season to the season under Poch (as that is where the real comparison needs to be if you want to say we didn't improve last year)?

Anyone who genuinely expects continual improvement, is just not realistic, in my opinion.

 

I didn't take a snap shot of half a season, though, did I? I referred to two years of football. I don't think last year was progress. It was, at best, a leveling off. At worst, we were worse but the opposition hid that.

I don't believe the club's financial caution is financial caution at all. I believe it is a half-hearted approach to a full-blooded sport. You don't make progress by hoarding cash. If we can't afford to spend WHAT WE MAKE ON TRANSFERS (apologies for caps) then we are doomed.

I expect us to be playing well. I expect us to be investing. I expect us to have the players on board and striving for the same goal.

the most important measure is one that I doubt you can argue - the quality of play. It has been awful. I have had dozens of conversations with different fans and we all agree - it is not fun to watch us this year. I have seen at least half of every match and rarely has the football lived up to my expectations. It has been poor. We looked more convincing under Adkins.


Slow and steady progress is, by the definition of steady, a constant act of improving. I don't mind you disagreeing about how we deal with our inadequacies, but to even suggest we are still improving is lunacy.

 

That is so patronizing saintkeef. "self-styled" ??? Come on! All that us "self-styled fans" are doing is not expecting every season to be better or as good as the last, or expecting the club to be spending, spending, spending, whether it is out of transfer profits or not. We hope that it is as good, but don't expect/demand it.

As supporters, we have no right to expect anything at all. You choose to support or not. When we become a fans owned club, then we can have some rights.

We are having a not so good season. This may or may not be the start of a downward spiral. This may or may not be just a blip.

 

The slow and steady line can be a wavy one though can't it. Progress can be measured over a period of time.

Just for confirmation, which two years of football are you referring to? The 7th and 8th finish years? What mechanism/measure are you using for saying the league was poorer? Surely that's subjective. Convenient that the opposition let us... did they let us the year before too?

Why are we doomed for not spending what we make on transfers if the Board decided that we needed to use some of that to cover previous outlays? I haven't looked at the accounts, so I may need putting straight there. What I am saying is I don't expect them to spend that profit. The key thing is that they did still spend a lot of money. If those signings had all hit the ground running, then nobody would be moaning about spending levels. We could have spent twice that amount and it not worked out. Look at Newcastle and their 50M spend.


The quality of play doesn't seem to have been as good as last year, although it hasn't been as bad as some are making out. Your wording in your last sentence is very misleading. We are clearly not doing as well as last season, however my point is, that is a snap shot in time and if the club has a season that is not as good amongst 6 seasons then the overall picture can still be considered improvement... depending on what happens next time around. It is the expectation that we must always be as good or better without allowing for any down turn, that I object too and find totally unrealistic. I said this last year and it is happening.

Yours.

A lunatic.

 

So you can see evidence of continued improvement?

 

Sorry spaced, not getting at you, but I just don't understand what fans expected the club to do. We lost a very good RB because he had a year left on a contract and was offered a lot of money by a big club. We could have held on to him for one more year and let him go for nothing. That leads down a poor financial road. Are you saying that you expect the club to pay the wages to keep all the best players? If so, you support the wrong club and you'll always be disappointed. This applies to all the players who left.

The club make signings in the belief that the will do a good job, but no recruitment is guaranteed.

Maybe people would be happier if we were down a league and a bigger fish in a smaller pond?

 

I fear this is what is going to happen.

I don't disagree with selling Clyne at all. I was for it. I do now see that we made a poor signing as his replacement. However, what we did which was worse was fail to sign anyone who would improve the squad. We bulked it out but didn't improve it.

Also, if our wage structure is now too low to keep decent players, it needs to be looked at. Players will always push for a proportion of the money on offer. The money on offer is skyrocketing. Are our wages? Are other clubs' wages?

Look, I may be wrong. We may be having a blip (it doesn't actually feel like one, though, does it?). Only time will tell. If we have a resurgence and stay a top half team for a few years, I'll apologise for this ill-conceived attack on our transfer dealings. If we don't? I won't be pleased I was right.

 

From 2009 (as I have stated all along) yes. I look at what we have done since then to date and yes it is an improvement. To date this season asks questions, but we could look back at this season in three years time and see it as a small blip.

I have been saying for a very long time that the first blip would make fans scream. That is happening right now and my key point is that I don't think that is fair and is all down to fans impatience and expectation. It is crazy to expect continual improvement without some level of adjustment.

 

I don't think half a season of lost direction, poor football and a total loss of philosophy are a blip, really?

I would also argue that there are ways we are worse off than in 2009. The youth team, for example, is no longer supplying us with gems. The team spirit is not so vibrant. The sense that anything is possible is gone.

 

We are in catch 22 here. Our wages will always be lower than the big clubs. When we lose one of our best players to West Brom, Stoke, etc then things will be bad.

 

I think we have a blip every season. This one is probably a couple of weeks longer.

 

The fan's spirit is not quite so vibrant either , but I'll take 2015 over 2009 any day thanks. I loved the league one days, but I want us in the top flight.