Aka acknowledgement that his injury screwed his options completely, and he'd better sign or risk dropping down a division!
Cynical. He may not have had many options and it was a sensible move for him, but I prefer to believe that Jay is the nice guy he appears to be.
http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/...lieves-his-team-has-a-crucial-role-to-play-in Koeman has spoken to a Dutch paper and confirmed roughly what we've been told... that the board have shown him the plan for the next 5 years and he is yet to make up his mind.
Sometimes the truth hurts. Believe that he is any different to any football player by all means, though! Extremely easy thing for Jay to say under the circumstances. THE easiest thing to say, infact. Doesn't make me dislike him at all, as long as he plays for Saints.
I want Saints to make sure Ralph doesn't decide he needs a new challenge either, in the foreseeable future. Been a real breath of fresh air has Mr Krueger.
Ralph said the following to the Press Association: "Next year? I'm really, really confident he will still be manager. "Beyond that, those are the conversations we're having now and they're really good. I like where we're at. We're in a whole different place than where we were a few years ago. "It's a much more mature time for Southampton. For me if I was manager here I would be really excited about being here and the conversations we're having seem really good. "The way we are is we want everyone to be sure they can grow in their role at the club. That begins with our most important (person) - Ronald and his role - and as long as that matches, it's great. We feel good about that right now."
I noticed that during Ronald's press conference he said there were no talks about his contract. I'm sure he was was being absolutely truthful there, rather than just avoiding the question. You can have talks about the future and the manager's involvement in it without talking about the financial benefits to the manager. I've almost zero doubt Ron will be here next season, mainly 'cause he says he will, and I'm pretty optimistic he'll be here for a few more years too. And Erwin and Co.
I have hopes that Ron will seriously consider a contract extension (obviously with better terms), but until he does, we can't be certain. Things happen that he may not envisage, but I'm happy that we are in with a good shot at keeping him.
I seem to remember Ron saying that when he met our management team the first time, the discussion was entirely about football philosophy, not about contracts. Someone may remember where he said it but I recall Ron seeming fairly impressed by that. If that's the kind of conversation we're having again then it would fill me with hope. Vin
Oh I so want to believe this but I remember that MP had agreed with the board to discuss a new contract at the end of the season. The trouble is that money talks and it's difficult to turn down one of the glamour clubs. i am expecting him to go after next season so I won't be disappointed. The one hope I have is that he does seem to honour his contracts. Some managers would sign a new deal and simply treat it as a financial complication involving more cost when they moved.
The best I can force is a one year extension to his existing contract rather than a new 2-3 year. This way he keeps his options well and truly open in case one of the Glory Clubs comes up for grabs
As said, they said the same things about MP, but I think Ron is more honourable than Mauricio. Remember he tried to wheedle out of paying us our compensation. I don't think he will sign another long contract as he will want to keep his options open, so my best hope is a one year extension. He will gain by then having 2 years on an increased salary.
Stop the presses....it is not raining in Southern Ireland. Those are words that rarely appear in the same sentence.
