Always puzzled by this talk of a summer exodus. The players are under contracts...they can't hand in a month's notice.
I'd like to know what Katharina Liebherr has done to make you people doubt her so much. And I want to see actual reasons, not just vague waffling bullshit about how she's not Cortese.
If the players were that concerned about winning Cups, why did they play like ****? Rodriguez, Shaw, Lallana, Schneiderlin, and JWP all played in that game. Those are the players most likely to leave for higher competition. If they don't feel like the talent is there, they are essentially saying that they themselves stink. "I'm terrible and can't even beat Sunderland reserves, I feel like I need to go to Chelsea/Man City." It makes no sense. I doubt that any of the players are that delusional that they blame the loss on anything other than their own lousy play. They will feel (rightly so) that had they played to their best the team was perfectly capable of winning that game and perhaps even the whole thing. The only one player who might have a right to feel let down by the team is Jack Cork, since he didn't play. Then again, he's definitely the best player in the premiership and I'm sure the big clubs will be offering 25m+ for the guy and then we'll be stuck with Wanyama and get relegated.
I agree....she has given us no reason to doubt her. We have had support in the intervening period since her father died...even if the money was already there, she has not made any attempt to sell us. She has just decided that she would like some input into a multi-million pound business she owns. She has even shivered through a couple of home games (and managed to smile). Papers have been full of rumours about our being for sale, but we all know how they put 2 and 2 together. Nothing is forever, but Katharina deserves the benefit of the doubt.
We'll see. I just don't have the confidence anymore, tell you what...If 2 out of Shaw, Lallana, Schneiderlin don't go in the Summer I'll give £20 to the Saints Foundation.
She hasn't done anything, which is exactly the reason I am not yet entirely convinced of where she's going to take the club. So far she has had no opportunity for action, she's just come in, made a few crowd-pleasing statements, watched a few of the games, and cleaned up some of Cortese's less public-pleasing messes, and that's what any sane (or well advised) person would do having just become Chairman in the middle of a season. I've nothing against her, and I'm not saying she's just been lying to us, but I'll wait 'til she's actually started taking action before I'm convinced she's actually going to take the club in the right direction.
If you are going to compare Boruc to Davis based on distribution you could be on something of a sticky wicket! If Boruc has an obvious weakness that is it. Also, I don't get that there is nothing to play for for the remainder of the season. To me, given how much better we all feel after a win, every game is to play for. Right now I desperately want to beat West Ham. Then after that to show the world how good we are by beating Liverpool. There are 36 points yet to play for. So much could yet happen. I take the opposite view. I would be very disappointed if we turned to the kids for the rest of the season which really then would dribble out and achieve nothing. Don't forget that we have players fighting for World Cup places as well who wouldn't be best pleased.
Speaking of upstairs business, do we still think John Williams will be the CEO? The rumours were coming from fairly solid sources until the PGMO chairmanship thing came to light, then Rogers got the job on an openly temporary basis. Basically what I'm saying is it all fits for a summer appointment.
I'm afraid to say I too am with the doubters on what the summer holds. I generally am pretty pessimistic/cynical on my outlook for Saints so hopefully this is just me being my usual cheery self. For me the main things are: - We don't know exactly the reason(s) behind Cortese's departure, could be that KL wanted a bigger say in the running of the club and he threw his toys out of the pram, could be that she has decided she wants to stop investing the sorts of money needed if we want to move to the levels that Cortese wanted. The summer will give a good indication of her ambitions. - Pochettino only has a year left on his deal, and he may feel that it is the right time to move on if the investment is not continued. - If the investment isn't continued, then it may be that the likes of Shaw/Morgan/Lovren also think now is the time to leave and get their moves to bigger clubs on the back of good seasons. The fact that KL has come out and said certain crowd pleasing comments doesn't change my outlook at all. Cortese was a massively popular figure with the fans so she is going to say everything she can to get them back on side as quickly as possible. As I mentioned this is hopefully me just being pessimistic, but until the summer all we can do is speculate on what may happen.
I agree, all the top players want to go to wigan and swansea. If sunderland win against city i would imagine augero and kompany will be cosying up to Poyet and agling for summer moves!
Think you might be underestimating Pochettino a bit. He's a fairly loyal guy. He worked with a worse team, worse owners, and worse fiscal constraints at Espanyol and never left. He seems to genuinely enjoy developing youth players; that's not the mentality of a guy who plans to only stay 1-2 years at a club or wants instant results. Not too worried about investment unless KL sells. A lot of the infrastructure MP is interested in-- facilities, academy, good youth talent, etc. have already been invested in heavily and does not require the same amount of spending going forward. And it was also KL who funded all of that. You can look outside the football world as well, Liebherr typically focuses on high-end of the market not junky stuff.
If KL was selling the club, she wouldn't need to get the fans on side. Wouldn't make the slightest difference to the value of an asset. She would want Mauricio to stay, but then he was hardly likely to walk out on his contract anyway. She corrected a few of Nicola's stranger actions...probably when suggested by staff members and because she is a reasonable human being.
As well as the 1.5m difference for finishing 7th instead of 9th there is the true cost from exiting the Fa cup at this stage. It's approximately 114.00. That's the three home games that tomw19 will no longer be going to the season.
It would be interesting how much winning the cup would mean to the club money wise, with the remaining games and a trip to Wembley. Even if we had carried on in the cup and lost to City or Arse in the final, they would give us the place in Europe like with Wigan. So how much are all those cup games and European games worth to the club? I would hazard a guess at more than the 2 million for finishing 7th instead of 9th
Given our fanbase and stadia we belong in the second tier of the Premiership which includes and all the teams below us except Villa, Newcastle, Sunderland and West Ham who all have considerably larger followings. Where we are in the league is amazing! To break into the top 7 would be astonishing. Take out the top 7 and we are alongside not only the rest of the Premiership but clubs like Leicester, Forest, Derby, Brighton, Reading, Wolves, the Sheffield sides, Ipswich and Leeds in terms of fanbase, stadia size, ambition, infrastructure (probably ahead in terms of youth development) That is the reality. If the stadium were to be expanded matched by higher attendances, and trophies started to come in then we could elevate ourselves to the top table. At present it isn't going to happen.
