http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25045079# Good things from Shearer. I think Wenger had already noticed though! Nice to see us getting some credit for once. Makes me wonder though why more clubs aren't doing what we are doing?
Its great to see all these accolades coming our way. However, starting with the Lallana generation our willingness to play the kids was based on necessity, we didn't have the money to go and get established players (apart from Tommy Forecast of course). What pleases me the most is that we are still doing it even in the Premier League where it is much harder to give game time to a youngster because of the huge step-up from under 21 level. Well done us.
A good academy is self perpetuating...good youngsters will always want to come to the best academy. What is the good of being able to say you were at Chelsea's academy if you never got the chance to play for them. Ferguson said that to sign the best kids you had to win over the mother...sending Mauricio round should sort that out Interesting that a player returned from international duty expecting a rest and was given an ultimatum by MP. When Lallana went to the England camp, he remarked (with a smile) about hard the remaining players would have to work during the international break.
I can see wht its been difficult at Chelsea Spurs etc but why can't mid table teams like Sunderland, Stoke, Norwich etc produce more top class young players
Was just about to include this myself. One of the main points of this article is, was a change necessary, and was the treatment of Adkins justified..? Here's Matty's updated view: Even if we go on and win the Premier League this season, I still think he was treated disgustingly and I don't think the club came out of it particularly well. But we are now sat third in the league and you won't find a happier Southampton fan than me. At that point in time that was my opinion and I will stick by it, at this point in time Pochettino has done very, very well. We will never know if Adkins could have performed the same miracles at St Mary's Stadium, but there is no doubting that Pochettino, 41, has given Saints a new system against which Premier League teams are struggling to compete this season. From the perspective of the football fan and pundit there is no justification of sacking a manager unless he is doing particularly badly, perhaps taking the club towards relegation. In business, and/or achievement, it doesn't necessarily work that way. Sports individuals and teams change their personnel all the time, whether they are successful or not, witness Andy Murray changing to coach Ivan Lendl when he as doing ok, or England's cricket team when they were doing likewise. Pundits need to get a grip here, and certainly Matty does. This isn't a cosy village youth club he's an ex-member of. Adkins was doing ok in the PL, but Cortese could see that the trajectory of improvement was starting to level out. He knew he could do better, so by his standards, Adkins was starting to run out of steam, even though he was doing as best as he could. Under those circumstances you don't wait until failure takes place, you act. Don't expect Poch to get it any easier in the future. There's nobody who loves Matty more than than I, but I really think he needs to take a good long look at the club he once knew and himself. The club has changed its ambitions, perspective and has moved on. He hasn't.
and much as I still love Nigel he's hardly pulling up trees at Reading. 8 points off the top 3 with a third of the season gone.
To do well any manager (however good) has to have the right players. Nigel was given some great players at Saints (with all respect, compared to Scunthorpe). However, he has done well at his previous clubs, so expect him to come good. Would be interesting to see how Mauricio would have done at another club with the more normal mix of mature and young players.
I think you are being a little hard on Matty. I would say, reading that, that he has moved on. He's being very positive about everything current at Southampton. Lets not forget how most of us felt when Adkins was sacked. Just because we are doing well now and wouldn't want to go back, that doesn't alter how we felt at the time. Whatever spin you put on it, however successful we are, however much the decision to sack Adkins was justified, that doesn't alter the fact that he wasn't treated very well.
yeah I think Le Tiss is being quite hones. If you thought he was treated disgustingly then then of course that hasn't changed but you can be disgusted at that as well as feeling the decision was vindicated. TBH I probably feel a bit like that as I was shocked when it happened. The fact that it turned out to be a great decision can't change the fact that I was shocked at what happened at the time. My son still has a posteer of Adkins on his wall. lol
I agree, I was furious and thought it would backfire. Fait enough it seems to have worked so far though. Pochettino is a talented, talented man.
None of us actually know what was said and when. It didn't look good but clearly things had been going on behind the scenes for soime time.
I don't. I also don't think Matty has experienced the same working experience as can happen to anybody. What happened to Adkins happened to me twice in my working life. Once it worked it out for the company, and once it didn't for another. However, I can see why my respective bosses made their decisions. Other people [outsiders, neutrals, pundits, if you will] thought I was treated badly, and I thought so at the time, probably because everyone else thought so. Looking back it was the best thing for both parties. So no, I don't think I am being hard on Matty. I don't think he had all the information at hand before making an ill-considered judgement.
But isn't that the point? You thought you were being hard done by at the time. The fact that it maybe worked out for you and/or the company doesn't change that.
Pretty good article from The Ugly Inside. It states, Shearer was wrong. And it's right. He is wrong. The first youth star was Terry Paine. To illustrate, one event the article understandably leaves out as unnecessary is the 1957 FA Youth Cup match against ManU. Match of the Millennium book owners need turn to page 92 for a reminder. Anyway, for those who haven't got the book, have a read of this: http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footba.../shearer-is-wrong-its-sixty-years-not-thirty-
No. You're mixing up shock value with feeling badly treated. I was wrong and very quickly afterwards I knew it.
Sure, but we have the benifit of hindsight now & I'm sure we can agree that, in retrospect, what was done was certainly the right thing for Saints and could well pay off for Adkins yet too (even if we the massive financial pay-off in bonuses etc. he will have had for getting us to the Prem & the additional pay-off for buying out his contract isn't good enough).
10 days before NA was sacked I received 10,000 sandwich boxes that I had especially made for my business in the shape of a London bus with famous Brits faces in the windows, I had included Le Tiss and NA. Cost me 3000 pounds and was pissed at the time, but I'm over it now and the guy is still a legend
