SOUTHAMPTON I’ve been impressed with Jordy Clasie and I like Cedric Soares at right back. Oriol Romeu has also come in and done well while Maarten Stekelenburg is a solid goalkeeper. I’ve seen flashes of Virgil van Dijk and he is an impressive defender. It shows the Dutch influence that the club is now able to tap into thanks to Ronald Koeman but what does his signing mean for Steven Caulker? You almost wonder if those two were brought in because of interest in Jose Fonte or Maya Yoshida. But sometimes that’s how Southampton have to operate because of the speed they are losing players. Outgoing transfers has been a big problem for Southampton in recent years but this summer they did well to limit the damage to Morgan Schneiderlin and Nathaniel Clyne – they did well to hang onto Sadio Mane and Victor Wanyama. It seems the spine is ripped out of their team every season and it’s hard to see that changing anytime soon. The club is almost becoming a place where players are nurtured but eventually plucked away. They could do with a player to pin the colours of the club to his chest and pin their hopes on. They need a Matt Le Tissier to stay at that club through thick and thin – somebody to build the club around. Martin Keown's view of our window inc. Virgil
I'm hoping to be impressed by Clasie, but he's barely played yet! Perhaps Keown can see into the future.
Keown's comments seem balanced to me.......The players we have let go have brought in decent money. However I don't think any one would disagree with the fact we cannot keep losing our best players season after season. In the end it will make a huge difference to our future success and prospects if we were to continue.
We'll be able to keep our players, as soon as we have a bad season & everyone starts shopping at Swansea.
It's a decent enough comment, but the bit about loaning Caulker because we're were afraid of losing Fonte or Yoshida is obviously bullshit.
To be fair, my daughter's house in Atlanta is almost as big as St Mary's, so a statue wouldn't go amiss
Exactly. He's not seen a second of our football this season. Caulker is Euro depth for a start, and defensive cover. I doubt he's even aware it's a loan signing, as that would answer his question about what will happen to Caulker if he's not getting game time. And I haven't even seen Clasie in a competitive match, so not sure when he's found time in his busy schedule to see a Saints friendly! What happens, by the way, when you tap into Dutch influence? What exactly does it mean?
Swansea fans - say goodbye to Shelvey! Just lucky Hodgson can't push him Liverpool's way He will need to join a top four club to guarantee regular England status - just so he's aware what that means, it will entail not starting regularly, possibly being a bench player all season, and a few sub appearances. But he'll be guaranteed an England game throughout.
Swansea have been pretty good and picking up rejects from the big sides and getting them to reach the potential they've promised. So Sigurdsson, Shelvey, Naughton etc are going to think twice about signing again for one of the big six. Hopefully in Bertrand and Romeu types we can build a nucleus of a team who would not jump at the first club to wave a few extra £ notes because they'll appreciate what we can offer as a club.
http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/40244/ Added this blog here because it is vaguely relevant as in concerns our CB situation and Fonte in particular. May be rubbish but suggests that Vlaar is joining us when fit (probably before Xmas), so we will have a surfeit of CBs. As we know, Fonte has changed agents, so presumably is looking for a change in his situation...presumably financially, but could also be looking for a move....though Ronald has said Fonte is a club man (likening him to Kelvin). Perhaps Fonte feels he may have to move as the club is understandably.planning for the future in his position.
And if done when we want, in the manner we want, I'd be delighted for Jose. We may have to ask the mods to mark the banner at the top of our forum with a black arm band for Fran.
I see very little wrong with Jose signing for this agent. He's 32 in December. He's such an athlete, I see him being able to maintain his standard for another 3-4 years, at least. In that time he may want to safeguard his earnings, or perhaps have one last really good deal, because he's never been a huge earner [relatively speaking, of course]. Also, I suspect he may want to have one last decent contract in Portugal. Saints signing CBs is probably more significant that we don't have good enough CBs coming through the ranks. Turnball should be knocking on the door, at least. He isn't. Stephens is closer, I believe and he isn't doing it either.
I still don't think we're signing Vlaar. We may have been looking before his injury for cover purposes, but then moved for Caulker instead.
