Fonte submits Official Transfer Request

[fatletiss]

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.

If they had, all those players may have left for free and we'd have had no money to replace them with the good talent that we mostly have.

 

[CBK]

Looking forward to Virgil being the next yesterday's hero (and I don't mean Ian McShane)

 

[Che’s Godlike Thighs]

Hey Black, sounds to me more more like that you've just fallen into line of all us fans who have made our own assumptions. I don't know and you don't know, which is why I've not slagged off player or club. Anyone doing so either knows stuff (then tell us) or is just making emotional assumptions.

I'm only carrying on the same attitude I had at the end of the summer. I am upset with the board for not showing more ambition. Otherwise I'm still very supportive. I'm well behind the manager and well behind every player.

I just get tired of fans hitting out at players who want to leave, as though it's a crime to desire playing for another club. Yeah I get annoyed as much as anyone else when they go, but at some point we have to ask why they are all leaving. Why aren't they happy at the club?

 

[fatletiss]

Yeah, I really respect your stance on it.

Godders summed it up perfectly for me in the other thread though. I loved having 'heroes' play for the club, it's a big part of football for me. I think that is why im going to less and less games. If the football was boring and we were losing, I can handle that. It's the fact that the players literally don't give a **** about the fans that makes me not want to spend my hard-earned.

So you have an issue with the players, not the club.

 

[fatletiss]

Well, as usual, mate, we fans are in the dark. One of the problems with the "it's just a business" talk is this. I am pretty loyal to my internet service provider; to my house insurer; to my energy supplier. I refuse to be swayed by siren cold calls to switch my allegiance if the service provider is doing a good job and I'm happy. But I'll be off like a shot if my broadband stops working. And I don't go around talking about my ISP etc. I also don't expect to be kept informed if there is a change in management or personnel.

I do talk about my allegiance to a football club that takes me a lot of time and money to support (a home game for me is a ten - twelve hour day) and being a "Saint" is a fundamental part of who I am. It's as significant as my political allegiance, and my personal values and beliefs (pathetic though it is to admit that, but as there are other equally insane people on here I think I am allowed to "come out" on here.)

Being a fan is a one way street. We scream ourselves hoarse for them, endure train delays and crap journeys for them, eat **** food and drink over-priced beer, suffer disappointments and occasionally - just every so often - enjoy moments of success. And they send us e-mails that tell us sod all. The official website is a work of happy clappy non-news of which the Chinese Communist Party would be proud.

And yet, and yet ... I'll be there on Sunday. I'll enjoy the buzz as the announcer tells us to welcome Southampton. Because I can't let go. I support the club. Partly it's an illogical allegiance to a home town in which I wouldn't live now if someone paid me. But mostly, as others have said, it was one of those "love-at-first-sight" moments when a shambolic Division 3 South ran out at The Dell and were seen by this impressionable young lad. Half the family were determined to drag me to Fratton to see a proper team, but this useless bloody team that couldn't win a game unless 7 of the opposition were sent off became the love of my life.

My allegiance is to Southampton FC. And I have to accept that this club, like all the others, is not going to expose its inner workings to me as a fan. Frustrating? Bloody right. Should I expect better? No, not really.

So Jose Fonte? Loved the guy. But now the sooner he is gone the better. I note the very wise FLT's comments about management. Yet there must come a point with anyone where you have to say that enough is enough. It's time they left. Saints seem to be at that point now, and whatever role SFC played, Jose hasn't covered himself with glory.

Excellent post, though slightly tainted by calling me wise

 

[fatletiss]

I'm only carrying on the same attitude I had at the end of the summer. I am upset with the board for not showing more ambition. Otherwise I'm still very supportive. I'm well behind the manager and we'll behind every player.

I just get tired of fans hitting out at players who want to leave, as though it's a crime to desire playing for another club. Yeah I get annoyed as much as anyone else when they go, but at some point we have to ask why they are all leaving. Why aren't they happy at the club?

I do get you Black. I just picked up on the fact you seemed to blame the club when I don't think any of us can really apportion blame with any knowledge (maybe one or two with contacts).

Bottom line is that nobody loves the club like the fans do.

 

[Osvaldorama]

So you have an issue with the players, not the club.

Yeah. I think the club is well run, obviously. Successive promotions, punching above our weight. How can anyone complain at that?

The clubs moneyball/business philosophy is slowly taking the romance out of following saints, but it has been bloody effective. I imagine it will just take a successful period on the pitch to cheer me back up as well

 

[Le Tissier's Laces]

It's why, if I have any attachment, it's to Maya.

 

[CBK]

You'd think as a group of fans, any player leaving Saints would be water off a ducks back to "us" now. We've had so many, some of them loved, some of them not. Some left too soon, some left too late. Some left as heroes, some left as villains.

Personally, I'm as attached to Saints players as I am to the little washing up sponges I have in my kitchen. They do a job, but at some point they are going to start smelling & go mouldy and I am going to have to throw them in the bin.

Ok, maybe not the best metaphor.

 

[Beef]

I'm only carrying on the same attitude I had at the end of the summer. I am upset with the board for not showing more ambition. Otherwise I'm still very supportive. I'm well behind the manager and well behind every player.

I just get tired of fans hitting out at players who want to leave, as though it's a crime to desire playing for another club. Yeah I get annoyed as much as anyone else when they go, but at some point we have to ask why they are all leaving. Why aren't they happy at the club?

We are a stepping stone club. Most of the players that left liked it here, but wanted to get paid more and be at bigger clubs. It's not about players not liking it here.

 

[St. Luigi Scrosoppi]

fatletiss said: ↑ "Godders, what is "Love in the time of Cholera" like?"

Fatletiss it is excellent like everything written by by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I can recommend The House Of The Spirits by Isabel Allende too. I couldn't put it down. (Yes she is Chilean)

 

[Osvaldorama]

We are a stepping stone club. Most of the players that left liked it here, but wanted to get paid more and be at bigger clubs. It's not about players not liking it here.

A stepping stone club, with some of the highest ticket prices out there, as well as the lowest spending on transfers of any PL club...

Have we signed anyone yet?

 

[Ronnie Hotdog (MLsfc)]

You'd think as a group of fans, any player leaving Saints would be water off a ducks back to "us" now. We've had so many, some of them loved, some of them not. Some left too soon, some left too late. Some left as heroes, some left as villains.

Personally, I'm as attached to Saints players as I am to the little washing up sponges I have in my kitchen. They do a job, but at some point they are going to start smelling & go mouldy and I am going to have to throw them in the bin.

Ok, maybe not the best metaphor.

Unless your sponges get really good at cleaning plates and choose to leave and wash up in next doors kitchen (which is bigger and even has an island unit!) then that metaphor doesn't work so well.

 

[fatletiss]

fatletiss said: ↑ "Godders, what is "Love in the time of Cholera" like?"

Fatletiss it is excellent like everything written by by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I can recommend The House Of The Spirits by Isabel Allende too. I couldn't put it down. (Yes she is Chilean)

I'll try it. You've not let me down yet. You suggested him and I took one in holifay and the villa had a second one there. One eas "Memories of my melancholy whores" and the other was "Chronicle of a Death Foretold"

Both excellent.

 

[CBK]

We are a stepping stone club.

Absolutely. Should be a plus point for when we delve into the transfer market as it's been proven that players can get a move to a bigger club from us (if they play well). If it means we get the most out of them for one or two seasons, then it's all good. I can't see our "business model" being anything else right now. It's probably more profitable than focusing on developing academy players.

 

[Beef]

A stepping stone club, with some of the highest ticket prices out there, as well as the lowest spending on transfers of any PL club... Lovely

Better to get use to it, then get down by it though. I had to stop caring about players going myself and now just enjoy it while we have them. It has made me far happier watching Saints.

 

[St. Luigi Scrosoppi]

Excellent post, though slightly tainted by calling me wise

The very lovely Mrs Godders always tells me that she is wise but I am otherwise.

 

[Cardiff_Saint]

The most annoying thing is that I would do the same in the players situation. There playing careers are short and they want to earn as much money as they can in that time. Not to mention win some medals. I would hope I would do it with more class than some though.

I think the days of one team players are over. The only teams that have a chance are the top teams but even for them it is getting rarer.

The only hope we have is that the player leaves under mutually beneficial circumstances after giving us some good years. So after playing for us for 2-3 years the player speaks to the manager, the manager discusses with the board, the manager tells the player if he can leave or if he'll have to wait for 6 months-1 year so we can find a replacement. The player listens and does as he's told. That's the way it should work, none of this forcing a move crap when they are under contract.

The most annoying players are the ones that force a move after 1 year. The player that annoyed me most was Chambers who could/should have given us some more years after coming though our academy, and would still have had plenty of time to play for a bigger club. But who knows perhaps he was told he had to go as it was such a good offer.

 

[Beef]

The most annoying thing is that I would do the same in the players situation. There playing careers are short and they want to earn as much money as they can in that time. Not to mention win some medals. I would hope I would do it with more class than some though.

I think the days of one team players are over. The only teams that have a chance are the top teams but even for them it is getting rarer.

The only hope we have is that the player leaves under mutually beneficial circumstances after giving us some good years. So after playing for us for 2-3 years the player speaks to the manager, the manager discusses with the board, the manager tells the player if he can leave or if he'll have to wait for 6 months-1 year so we can find a replacement. The player listens and does as he's told. That's the way it should work, none of this forcing a move crap when they are under contract.

The most annoying players are the ones that force a move after 1 year. The player that annoyed me most was Chambers who could/should have given us some more years after coming though our academy, and would still have had plenty of time to play for a bigger club. But who knows perhaps he was told he had to go as it was such a good offer.

Chambers forced through a move, he basically told the club he didn't want to play for us again.

 

[Osvaldorama]

Chambers forced through a move, he basically told the club he didn't want to play for us again.

Provably realised he had to cash in whilst he could, as he is a bit rubbish. Still can't believe how much we got for him, based on his performances since!