I get your point, however I read your first post first. That clearly indicated you blaming the club (our captain actually leaving, etc). I don't think anyone can blame one and not the other, which is why I'm not moaning about either.
According to a couple people with sterling reputations around here, Reed has apparently been pissing off academy players and their families by trying to push them to hire Les' son as their agent. And it's been going on for quite a while now.
Of all the posts written in the last five years, this one should be stickies and read over and over by fans who get unhappy when players leave or we don't spend millions.
Which tells me they may have picked up the wrong scarf when they chose their club or won't ever be happy until we are owned by a free spending mega billionaire. They won't be happy for a while and perhaps haven't the same inner emotional tie to a club that some fans have.
I think it's the inner emotional tie that is the problem for them! You say "when they chose their club" but this never happened for myself. As a young child I (forgive me) suported Man United. But after watching my first few saints games I kind of fell in love. It was never a choice to support saints, it just sort of happened. Even if I hated things at saints (very much the opposite) I couldn't stop supporting them if I tried because of that emotional tie I have with the club. I suspect this is why you hear fans complain week after week about the club being ran this way or that, wanting the manager out or putting down a decent player, but they keep renewing that season ticket!
I think you didn't quite get my message there. Most fans are like you and I. You fall in love with a team or a club. You don't choose them. It happens and then you realise you are in up to your neck and you love that club through all the **** and all the good (well the little bits of good). It's then too late, you're in deep and you haven't chosen them because they're going to win the league every other season. As you say, it just sort of happens. Anyone who has that emotional tie and is moaning over the same things (spending over the top money, selling players) either doesn't understand their emotional tie or doesn't really have it. That or they just were brought up getting everything they wanted so I'll blame the parents. There is not a single Saints fan out there of any age who fell in love with Saints for the glory. Even a fan of the last 7 years has hardly been brought up in trophy laden glory. So I suggest it's about lack of emotional control, expectation and understanding.
Southampton fans are a moany lot, but we have had more to moan about than other clubs this season. Selling your captain to a team one or two places above you in the league, in January is mental from a football perspective. We are the only club in England that would even consider it. You have to forgive some fans for thinking we are still run like other clubs really. Edit: I'm not saying that it's the wrong decision, just that we are the only club that would do it in the Premier League.
We need another CB, so far from ideal, but Puel says that the Fonte situation has been distracting for the team. That must have escalated with the official request, so would forcing Jose to stay be the answer. Might not do anything deliberately, but would Fonte be in the right frame of mind to finish the season. May be the best all round....Virgil would be a different kettle of fish.
Another point we must remember is how difficult this has been for Puel. He could have done with help from the team captain when coming to a new club and country...he didn't get that support from Fonte afforded to Adkins, Pochettino and Koeman.
Despite what the romantics think love is not eternal that is why there are divorce courts and divorce lawyers. If a woman you love starts to piss you off all the ****ing time then it is decree absolute time. I am falling out of love with the Saints and with football just as you might fall out of love with a woman. You just get tired of the same old, same old crap. I don't love the bricks and mortar of St Mary's Stadium nor do I love the managerial structure or the manager. I love the individuals who make up the team and the way they play the game. I admire Jose in particular and many others in the past like Channon and Davies who were my heroes along with Matty and Steve Williams and Killer but the team and players these days seems so transient that as soon as I get an allegiance to a player he is gone. It is like fostering children just as you start to get close to them they get taken back. It is no longer possible to really enjoy or admire a footballer or the team. VVD is a super player one of the best we have had in a long time but I feel no affiliation to him nor will I wont let it happen because I know that in six months he'll be gone. Some people may not mind that and that is their choice. I don't like it and that is mine and it is this that has eroded away my pleasure from and love for the game. I don't watch football on the TV anymore nor do I read the press. I only come on here and sadly these days it is to whinge and moan in the hope that the club philosophy may change.
The only way they are able to fill that stadium is to practically give the tickets away. Even then it's been half empty bt the final whistle. It's also, according to a few Hammers fans I have spoken to, a pretty rubbish place to watch football (slopes too shallow, too far from the action). That stadium, despite them getting it for a anip, could be the worst thing to ever happen to them.
and from minute one. Of course, we'll never know but it did seem as though things were not right with Jose from the minute he returned from the Euro's whereas all ok with Cedric.
Jeez Godders, couldn't have said it better. Me too, with the out of love, afraid to form any player allegiance (although I continue to do so but more at arms length), knowing anyone any good will soon be gone. I agree with the previous posters about us being a selling / stepping stone club but I think the board have to make more of, NO should have, made more of a stance & fight over a few of the wannabe leavers over the last few years. This Jose saga for me is just so sad.
The club did prevent Morgan, Wanyama and Mane from leaving when it didn't suit us....and have tried it with Jose (but have given up as unlike the other 3 he hasn't settled down). They left in the end, but after we had a season to prepare. Players leave other clubs as well.
