Guan would know certain things but isn't always right. The guy (Billy) Guan mentions in his post is far my ITK.
Right, here's what was said (word-for-word) in that interview between myself and José Fonte, on the topic of Ronald Koeman. So we’ve touched on the manager there. But just how important has he been for Southampton? You were obviously at the club when Mauricio Pochettino left, and the fans are concerned that if you keep losing top players and top managers, how does the club continue to move forward? I think Ronald has done an amazing job. Like you said, we’ve lost some great players and he and the club were able to replace them with good players as well. What he’s done for us has been fantastic and we hope that he can sign his new contract and stay with us for the next few years. He’s made us believe. We’ve had the best finishes in the Premier League, so we’re really happy. He’s been able to deal with all that has been thrown at him, so great credit to him and his staff and the board. Obviously, we want to go to the next step and the next step is to keep hold of our best players and manage to add even more quality to the great squad that we already have. Do you think it would be a statement to the rest of football if Southampton could get Ronald Koeman to sign a new deal? I think it’s the first step. It’s the first step. If we are able to keep hold of our best assets, it’s a big statement to the Premier League and to the world of what we want to achieve. So, I hope we can do it this year.
Y'know what, i'm just going to bask in likelihood that we have improved every season with this Board and let the future take care of itself. The club is growing year on year as are the results, but I guess the old habits of Saints fans thinking "it's all going to blow up" still pervades. PS.. I have supported Saints for over 40 years and these are the good times people, enjoy them!
I know sometime these things can be misleading and not really represent what the various individuals ultimately want, but for want of an alternative less cliche phrase I really think the VVD extension is a very well timed "statement of intent" that we want everyone on board and no repeat mass exodus this summer. Also (and apologies if someone has said this already) surely in signing an extension Virgil is probably more ITK or at least has more of a sense of whether Ronald is staying around or not? Cynical view (not mine btw) might be that they're both eyeing up Barca end of next season!! As we already know Ron seems to be one of those managers that has a tendency to take his best players with him....
The role of the Academy is changing all the time - it has to as other clubs catch up / copy our approach, but is that really a problem? Don't get me wrong, the reputation of bringing the best youth players through the ranks is fantastic, but the "academy" playing field here is levelling, not nationally but globally. I don't think anyone would disagree that in many ways we used to rely on the youth stream as a cash-cow, but that in itself is less important in this regard now than it was 5 years ago, rightly or wrongly with the money in the game. Spreading the model and keeping affiliation is an attempt (and I hope it will be a successful one) to keep hold of this reputation so at least we have as good an opportunity as anyone else to pick off the talent that fits. But in future it might not come straight out of Staplewood...
that's more like it. He's bound to leave his newly promoted team who have a good owner backing them. Horse .... oops wrong thread
