The only thing wrong is that Nicola and Poch left and the players mistook both of those people for Southampton....mistakenly believing that is all the club is about. Yes, Kreuger was an amateur mistake...we needed a more charismatic football guy brought in, but I think they were leaving before he even arrived. Mauricio was the enemy we (or rather NC) invited into our midst. Should have stuck with Adkins...may not have had so much excitement, but we'd be in a better position than we are now. I have faith in Koeman, but he has been dealt a terrible hand...money is okay, but team building takes time.
I like how you keep blaming the current board and aren't open to change your views when people say what has been going on(Poch etc). Yet have a dig at people for not agreeing with what you say. If it turns out that the board are dicks(and players leave to lower clubs) I will admit I was wrong etc. But to me at this time they are just very naive in a very crazy situation.
Beefy, if Poch did sway the players towards the exit, he's not the only one who did it. They were all tight-knit; they'll all have convinced each other and themselves, but only because they were all on the same page with being frustrated with the situation at the club. That's the catalyst. They all turned up to training every day for six months after Cortese left, and they'll all have been singing the same tune. It's not just a case of the manager telling them they should leave and them all listening.
How can Saints be a bad place to be? The players do not deal with the board on an everyday basis...they are pampered and cosseted...they get well paid to train at good facilities doing something they enjoy with a bunch of mates...most are leaving having scarcely met our new coaching team. They are leaving because the one who polished their egos has left and enough money has been offered. Just a bunch of greedy children.
Maybe they all loved Guly more than anything else in the world and him not being offered a new contract was the final straw.
I agree with that....sounds plausible. Doesn't mean they are right, but that is what can happen...poison spreads. A good manager who cared about our club could have dealt with it...a manager on the move wouldn't.
This is why you don't build a football club solely around one man, who holds all the power. Now we rebuild. Let's not repeat it.
It must be terrible if players only want to go to bigger clubs, get paid a shed load more money and European football but aren't willing to go to clubs of a similar size to us. FWIW I think it's more likely most of the players who have left only signed for or stayed at saints for as long as they did because on NC and MP.
You're going to get called a bedwetter, but to be honest I agree. We are going to need a staggering end to the transfer window to stand a chance, I just don't see it happening. The only way we are going to be able to attract the kind of players we need to a club that rightly or wrongly are now being viewed as a laughing stock, would be to pay over the odds in transfers and/or wages. The initial offer we put in for Forster seems to suggest that we won't do that.
