As the manager is only part of the transfer committee, surely Les will be pushing hard to add to the squad as it looks very lightweight to me and lacking goalshttp://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/146...er_Fonte_deal/
Here you go, all we need now is a video of Les Reed saying he expects Jose to sign a spanking new deal soon and we will know......he's definitely off.
Clearly that's been leaked by the club as the rumours reach a critical head of steam....
I must admit I'm not entirely on course with 'assessing the squad in the heat of the Premier League battle', three 5-0 defeats just before the transfer deadline isn't going to help much![]()
I think the squad looks short of 2 or 3 players to most of us, except Puell according to The Echo. Makes me laugh that whoever gives this info to The Echo, is putting it on the lap of Puell.As the manager is only part of the transfer committee, surely Les will be pushing hard to add to the squad as it looks very lightweight to me and lacking goals
Thankyou. Yep agree.we still need more players. If it stays as it is we are just a couple of injurys from a real strugglehttp://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/146...er_Fonte_deal/
Here you go, all we need now is a video of Les Reed saying he expects Jose to sign a spanking new deal soon and we will know......he's definitely off.
Clearly that's been leaked by the club as the rumours reach a critical head of steam....
I must admit I'm not entirely on course with 'assessing the squad in the heat of the Premier League battle', three 5-0 defeats just before the transfer deadline isn't going to help much![]()
I'm at a loss to explain why our captain and staunchest advocate would want to give it all up for a few final games at a club where he will be meaningless.
7) we have banked an awful lot of money. We didn't need to spend it really. But now we do. So we have loads of it. And we can afford to buy a truly top class CB. Who here thinks we will?
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/146...er_Fonte_deal/
Here you go, all we need now is a video of Les Reed saying he expects Jose to sign a spanking new deal soon and we will know......he's definitely off.
Clearly that's been leaked by the club as the rumours reach a critical head of steam....
I must admit I'm not entirely on course with 'assessing the squad in the heat of the Premier League battle', three 5-0 defeats just before the transfer deadline isn't going to help much![]()
Not sure if it's just me but that link doesn't take me to the Fonte story. This one does though:
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/14683938.Saints_optimism_over_Fonte_deal/?ref=mr&lp=1
You have to see that in context, though - it just means we can ask more for one of them when one of the big boys comes in for eg. VVD one year into his six year contract. Saints don't hold players to contracts - that is a fact. Its better than no contract, but in the greater scheme, it doesn't do much more.
Come FLT What has changed in the last 8 weeks? A big club has shown interest in him that is what has happened. That has never happened before and while Cardiffs and Hull are the ones interested then he can quite clearly dismiss transfer rumours. There's a big difference.
I believe we will win something, and so do you. But a player who believes he has five years to achieve something is less likely to. In some ways, Leicester winning the PL has made it less likely for the rest of us, as its awoken the sleeping giants. So we are unlikely to be able to keep high performers from the top end of the pitch beyond two years. That doesn't mean I don't believe in it, though. Leicester did it in two years, of course (I know it seems like one, but it was really two).
We are talking Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham......Whether Saints fans like it or not these are all much much bigger clubs than us AND much more likely to win trophies than Saints and yes they do pay more however like I said in my last post I find it laughable that people think that Fonte who has been a top performer in 4 PL seasons running and showed he is a great leader of a defence which was then confirmed by his performances in a national team that played a stifling defensive game and WON the European championships would be thought of as backup. He would be first choice.
I don't have any gripes if Fonte wants the move. I would be disappointed but all the negativity and vitriol on here is ridiculous. Jose owes us Loyalty? For what? Giving him the opportunity to play at the highest level? Did we offer him that or did he help provide that by joining us? Even Stevens there IMO. Without players like Fonte we wouldn't be where we are now so all this about him owing us is way off the mark. The guy dropped a division to play for us. What did we do for him personally? I mean something he didn't have a hand in? Ahh yes we gave him better contracts...........and what does that mean? We paid him what most other clubs of our size/league finish are paying players of his calibre.
So yes I will be disappointed......very disappointed but I won't be that ranting about moving for money if he chooses to move and play for the world's biggest club rather than us and I won't be blaming some perceived culture at the club either. The club are punching well above their weight and are virtually powerless to stop this sort of thing happening. If a player gets the chance to play for one of the world's biggest clubs with more chance of silverware (and that includes Spurs and Liverpool unfortunately) then there is not a lot we can do.
I said it before all this spin about refusing to sell Schneiderlin and forcing him to stay. It is very easy to put that spin on things when the only offer that comes in is £10m. If it had been a higher bid in the region of Man Us then it would have been very hard to explain away to the player and Schneiderlin would probably have had a stinker of a season. Same with Wanyama. What was the bid that came in for him the season before he left?
If one of our players goes to a smaller club than us or even a club only slightly bigger like West Ham because the wages offered are higher then yes it is all about the money but in this instance like all the others Fonte will be moving to a bigger club that has more chance of success and he will be very much a first choice player however short term that plan is. You don't go from where he was last season (and the prior 3) with us to coming into a national side during a tournament and drastically improving their defence to not good enough to play for Man Utd. He will be their first choice this season if they buy him.
I think they do buy into our ambition but at the time we sign them we are their "best suitors." Much as we like to make fun of Liverpool they are much more likely to string a title winning season together even if it is a one off than we are and when they or Man U or Tottenham or Arsenal come calling a player will want the move to the bigger club. It isn't not believing our ambition but realistically our ambition will be much longer term to achieve than the big clubs. For the foreseeable future they are all in a much better position to achieve those ambitions in a shorter timeframe than us.
I think people need to get some perspective here. We have ambitions and we are proving that we can improve year on year but just as Leicester have suffered (and we have already said on here they'll struggle to be top 6 this year) their players (and Vardy may still move who knows) are jumping at the better opportunity as they see it. Yes they will earn more money but at the end of the day they are moving to clubs that have a better chance than us of success. Doesn't mean those clubs will finish ahead of us because this is sport but on paper they do have the better chance and we confound the "paper" by beating others that should be higher up.
How many players have demanded moves from Chelsea because of their season last? Answer is none because they know that despite Chelsea's performance last season they still (on paper) have a better chance than teams like Southampton.
IMO, this is a false dichotomy. Obviously, Fonte has made things difficult and is being a bit of a jerk. At the same time, players do this. It's the Board's job handle it. If they aren't prepared to find solutions to players being greedy, they re in the wrong job.
For me I don't care who is morally at fault. Just want it handled to the best advantage of the club. It's not easy because yes, players are greedy and we don't have as much money as others. But the board aren't helpless either.
It was known that Fonte was playing in Euro. And that a good Euro would increase his value. So maybe we should have acted quicker. It's also possible that he believes if he's as important to the club as we say, then why did everyone else get their extensions done first? Maybe the extension we are offering him now is one that he would have happily signed instantly when the season ended, but we offered him a smaller one first and then he saw what others are getting, and now he feels like he's only begrudgingly getting a deal and not fully appreciated. Maybe really, it does come down to the fact that while he would have turned down Everton he feels a bond of trust was broken because he wasn't notified.
And in most if not all of those cases, I would feel like Fonte is being a bit unreasonable. But it is what it is, and the fact is (if any of the above are true) that the board could have prevented this.
Personally, I'm not that attached to guys and have already taken a licking on that other thread for my "every player has a price, play hardball and let them go if they want" attitude. So I'm not particularly annoyed or disillusioned by the Fonte situation.
But that doesn't mean that fair questions can't be asked about whether the board could have handled things differently. And to me, by and large most of the questions being asked have been fair, despite my disagreement with them.
He hasn't gone yet then? Or did I miss something?

No nothing missed. Just some dickhead taking up all the pages trying to defend the club for no apparent reason...![]()
Whoever he is, he's on a hiding to nothing there!