Imagine

[OddRiverOakWizards]

Imagine all the players staying at Southampton and building on the team that we had two years ago. Would this squad have been able to break the top four, we will never know, which is a shame, but I can speculate with the quality we may have had a chance.

GK: Forster
RB: Clyne/Chambers
LB: Shaw/Bertrand
CB: Fonte
CB: Alderweireld/Lovren
DM: Schneiderlin
DM: Wanyama/Davis/Cork
AML: Lallana/Tadic
AMC: Mane
AMR: Rodriguez
ST: Lambert

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope someday top players will join us and the Saints will be number one.

 

[Saints Fan4Life]

I think it was definetly top 5 potential. Huge shame, but **** those who've left imo.

 

[fran-MLs little camera]

Do have to point out that we are not the only team that loses players....other teams do who probably are weaker than us in the first place.

 

[RedandWhiteManofKent]

Break the top 4, add Guly to that list we would have won the champions league.

Good question mate, that's some squad. It's great testament to the academy and recruitment. Football being football though players have moved on and I'm excited to see the next chapter in our history.

If some of those who left last year and had poor seasons had poor seasons with us, we might not have reached 7th

 

[saintlyhero]

Mane, Tadic, Bertrand & Forster cost over £40m. We would never have been able to afford these players without selling

 

[Tintin]

Rodriguez played most of his games on the left wing in the 15 goal season. It's no doubt his best position. I expect to see him used as a left winger this season.

-----------------Pelle
-Rodriguez--Mane--Lallana
-----Schneiderlin-Wanyama
-Bertrand-Alderweireld-Fonte(c)-Clyne
---------------Forster

Pelle's only had one season. Lambert's 33 now, I wouldn't play him over Pelle at the moment. We still aren't in bad shape for this season. I'm confident we'll finish top 10.

 

[ChilcoSaint]

Do have to point out that we are not the only team that loses players....other teams do who probably are weaker than us in the first place.

Not necessarily Fran. Liverpool lost Suarez last summer and Sterling this.

 

[Tokyo-Saint]

We'd finish above Liverpool, at least. I don't suppose they could even field a full team.

 

[Saints_Alive]

Any thread that starts with a reference to John Lennon deserves a like in my opinion.

It's an interesting question, but as saintlyhero pointed out, would we really have bought Mane, Tadic, Pelle etc if the old guard had stayed?, probably not, but there's no harm in hypothesising for a bit of fun. I still believe that there will be more academy players breaking through in the next five years, which will bring the wage bill down and make and hopefully we will be able to hold them to long contracts as they develop in the first team.

 

[Missing Lambo]

An old jock I knew said to me once, when I was doing an "if only" thing,

"Son if your aunty had balls she'd be your uncle"

Profound or what?!

 

[fatletiss]

An old jock I knew said to me once, when I was doing an "if only" thing,

"Son if your aunty had balls she'd be your uncle"

Profound or what?!

Ifs and buts and pots and pans

 

[hotbovril]

An old jock I knew said to me once, when I was doing an "if only" thing,

"Son if your aunty had balls she'd be your uncle"

Profound or what?!

There's another fabulous Scottish colloquialism that sums up our current position rather nicely too; "You can only piss with the cock you've got".

 

[hotbovril]

I saw this yesterday too. It takes your idea to an extreme but is interesting nonetheless.
http://www.squawka.com/news/how-sou...ve-looked-today-without-big-name-sales/330132

 

[fatletiss]

There's another fabulous Scottish colloquialism that sums up our current position rather nicely too; "You can only piss with the cock you've got".

Spuds seemed to think differently to that

 

[hotbovril]

Spuds seemed to think differently to that

After all this time I never noticed that Daniel Levy was an anagram of penis envy.