Fair point you have made here; I have always been fixated on high league position but take your point why bother if we are a selling club and concentrate on being secure mid-table and have a cup run for the fun of it.
Im not a fan of the other forum but I don't see many on either site who would fall in your definition of glory hunters. I think the majority of fans are realistic enough to know the odds of us doing a Leicester and winning the league are pretty long. We do however relish the prospect of European football and realistically our best chance of that is by winning a cup (unless we can replicate last years top six finish and rely on others able to win the cups). I think there is a difference to saying we must win silverware and acknowledging that one major trophy (plus JPT) in the clubs history is a below par record I've never seen the club in such a good state in 50 years. Let's make it count.
Odd how it's become accepted that he completely changed the team and played a bunch of no-hopers. Squad for the previous game (Hull away) Starters: Boruc, Chambers, Shaw, Schneiderlin, Fonte, Yoshida, Lallana, Cork, Lambert, S Davis, Rodriguez Subs: K Davis, Clyne, Wanyama, Ward-Prowse, Do Prado, Hooiveld, Isgrove Squad for Sunderland: Changes in red Starters: K Davis, Clyne, Hooiveld, Yoshida, Shaw, Wanyama, S Davis, Ward-Prowse, Lallana, Do Prado, Lambert Substitutes: Gazzaniga, Chambers, Fonte, Cork, Schneiderlin, McQueen, Rodriguez Yes, he rotated the bench a bit but only two changes to the overall squad. Yet ask a Saints fan and the collective memory is that Poch fielded the Under-12 team. Vin
Sorry but that's a lazy cliché. Everyone gets rid of players. So do we. IIRC, everyone who left this year had two or fewer years left on their contracts which, to some extent makes forcing a sale a slam dunk. We've extended a bundle of contracts this year so we can hold on to players. (By all means pump out the other cliché that we've only done it to increase their sale value but I guess we'll see next summer). Vin
One of the overiding memories of that Sunderland match was taking Lallana off (our best player that day) for an untried Sam McQueen whilst we were chasing a goal.
Pelle was being given an astounding amount of stick last year during our losing run and we only picked up when Koeman was forced to drop him for Shane Long. Mane had a sulk that lasted a third of the season and that was widely mentioned on here. Wanyama played about three games between his suspensions and was derided for his attitude. Then the moment they leave, they morph into our best players ever. VVD, Ryan, Dusan, Fraser, Charlie, Steve D, Jordy, Oriol and JWP might not agree with you that our "best performing players" were sold. Vin
I should have clarified, as you're clearly in an argumentative mood tonight. None, including us. We have NOT sold our "best performing players every summer over the last few years" Vin
Fairly recently Spurs lost Bale then Modric. Arsenal lost Fabregas, Nasri and Van Persie. Liverpool lost Suarez. Happens to everyone.
We have certainly sold a greater percentage of our higher performing players than others, though. If we do it again this summer then the long contracts are meaningless. If we don't then everyone can stop moaning.
These are individuals! If it was just us selling Lallana a few years back your point would hold true...
Of all the players we've sold, Lallana is about the only one to come good since leaving us. Mane looks like being the 2nd. So the point holds.
Yeah, but that happened at '82. So we had plenty of time until then to win it. 10 minutes of McQueen vs Lallana with at that point most of our best attackers in the game most likely didn't make a difference. I have always liked that Pochettino would look for opportunities to play the youth.
This is why I am starting to like 606 more and more. Saintsweb has become 14 yr olds with no memory of the tough years or keyboard warriors Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk
I'll reserve judgement on Mané until he's played a full season for Liverpool. He had an immense barren spell for us and may do the same again. Not saying he will but let's see. Vin
