I can see us having a slow start while Poch works out his best team and the players adjust fully to his methods, though Sherwood got results with this group of players at short notice so maybe we can hit the ground running, we shall see.
I know that I said Palace will be the surprise package, but I see us being the biggest surprise, one way or the other.
As I suspected when starting this thread, the voting spread (so far) is pretty even, with a quarter feeling more optimistic over others: Chomping at the Bit 3.57% Very Excited 14.29% Quietly Confident 14.29% Optimistic 28.57% Neither/Unsure 14.29% Muted/Unconvinced 17.86% Dreading It 0% Extremely Pessimistic 3.57% Other⦠(please comment) 3.57% I guess most of us aren't really sure what to expect. Getting off to an away win on Saturday could be a massive boost of confidence and get us off to a flyer. A loss could be a bit of a minor setback. I think this is why voting has been so spread. Seems odd to think that one game could be so influential and set the tone for the early stages of our season but I think this game against West Ham might just do that.
We can't lose a 4th game on the trot to West Ham. I think the game has more significance to fans than you'd normally expect. There could be a lot of negativity if we lose. They'll start being our bogey team soon.
Hold onto your hats. After West Ham, which does loom unusually large for an opener, we've got Harry and friends, which may be a must win if we have any dreams of top four, followed by Liverpool, which is a must-not-get-mullered. I will be extremely patient. I won't call for Poch to be sacked unless and until we go behind against West Ham, fail to beat QPR, or go two goals down against Liverpool.
I've just contributed 2.94% to the poll! hope that's ok? You'll find me under 'Dreading It' I came on her looking for the poll on 'Which blunt instrument should be used to bludgeon the greedy poaching godson to death with?" But it's not been put up yet. Cheers.
Poach was Poch'd. The godson wanted a short cut to glory so he looked around the playground and saw that little Saints were doing well and strutted over with his wonga (god-dads wonga) waved it in Judas' face and hey presto you're on your way. No work needed just flash the cash. Glory beckons......
...or, having been the fall guy at Espanyol when the club's board sanctioned the sales of several players and the subsequent poor form that followed, he had no desire to repeat the process at Southampton.
I think, to be fair, HBIC has a point. Yes, we nicked him from you. But in all honesty, given what's going on at your club, I don't think he would have needed a lot of persuading!
I was under the impression that Pochettino resigned from his position at Southampton because of the change in hands of the ownership of the club. He did exactly what he said he'd do if Nicola Cortese left. You sound a little bitter about it though, Sa1nts.
Apart from a few low key signings (although Davies was a more significant one), Pochettino has been asked to go again with more or less the same squad, which was much maligned at times last season. That includes a reportedly disgruntled and/or disinterested Vertonghen, other defenders like Naughton, Rose, Dawson & Chirches who all seemed surplus to requirements, expensive flops Lamela & Soldado and one or two others who played in fits and starts. I think most Spurs fans expected a revamping of the squad and players being brought in who were the manager's preferred choices. Instead, Pochettino is being asked to cajole/manage/motivate AVB's squad into upping their game. No repeat of the humiliation by City and Liverpool or the uninspiring 1-0 wins which characterised much of last season. Can he do that? LVG has similiarly been asked to reinvigorate a Curate's egg of a squad at Utd, but he does at least have an acknowledgement from the board that £150M+ might have to be spent improving it too. If I were a Spurs fan, it would be a vote for holding my breath and hoping for the best.
To be blunt, nobody was expecting an expensive revamp: they were expecting Poch would come in and get the squad playing like they should have last season if they had a manager that encouraged attacking play or had any idea what the hell he was doing, while addressing problem areas in the team such as left back (with Ben Davies coming in), a lack of solidity in defence (with Eric Dier coming in, and possibly Mateo Musaccio), and our squad having too many players in certain positions that limited their potential playing time (which is why Jake Livermore, Gylfie Sigurdsson and Iago Falque have left)
I'm pretty sure Shaw, Lallana and Lambert were earmarked for sale, in fact Koeman confirmed it in an interview with Sky. http://www.thescore.com/epl/news/536087 To take a balanced view Sa1nts - yes one could argue that Pochettino could have stayed and attempted a rebuild. You could, if you wanted, see it as a bit odd that he has moved to Spurs, as we have sold many stars in the last few years. I guess the difference is that we sold one big star a year unwillingly, whereas the spine of your team looked like it was going in one fell swoop. But then again his past experiences in management, as highlighted by the other posters, may have swayed him against staying as soon as it was clear that his key players were to be sold. Of course money and the reputation of Spurs probably helped as well, just as the money and reputation of Man Utd, the Real Madrid, and the England helped to pull away the likes of Berbatov, Modric, Bale and Redknapp, all to our detriment. Southampton fans are probably sick of hearing it by now but thats modern football, and it kind of sucks for everyone who isn't at the absolute top of the pyramid. Us included an awful lot of the time :/
