THAT Rickie Lambert Interview

Sure. Much like we bought into Hammond, Sharp and Guly. It's just that the club has moved onwards and upwards from those three, and Nigel.

 

Oh do **** off Daily Mirror - http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/rickie-lambert-slams-southampton-owners-4069418

 

can't blame the mirror for that. the quote is faithful.

when adkins went and none of the players (that i noticed) had a good word for him i worried about their mentality. I hope this is just a demonstration that they were all spoilt and not of any genuine lack of ambition.

 

I liked Nigel because you can tolerate anything when a manager is successful...which he was. Therefore, I found him amusing. I was upset when he left because I felt he deserved a bit longer...a case of wanting him to be successful after all he'd done. And as it turned out, the enjoyment of the Poch era was scarcely worth the subsequent problems. Nigel direct to Koeman would have been better...although it is possible that MP helped some players develop and he certainly raised the price of some of our players.

As for Rickie's comments, the reason we blame some players rather than the board and owner is because you are the past and they are still here. Their subsequent actions (appointing Koeman and giving him money to spend) certainly don't indicate a lack of ambition.

 

It's beyond me how one third of a GCSE coursework essay (which is what the entire article amounts to) can even be considered worthy of publication. It's so bad it's painful.

 

I suppose the factual error there is that Lambert, Lallana and Shaw made their exits or at least their moves to the exit before Pochettino.

Lovren is the one who could arguably claim that pochettino leaving influenced his decision.

 

If the quotes are true, Lambert is playing the ambition card as well tho. You can't really blame the Mirror for that.

 

Yep, but players don't like admitting they just wanted a move.

 

I don't think Lambert necessarily wanted a move. It seems clear from his reactions to all these questions that he has genuine affection for the club and the fans. I'm glad he said something. It's how I would expect any player who actually cares to behave.

Anyway, it seems to me kind of obvious what happened. The players were being treated a certain way and promised certain things by Cortese. Probably bonuses and new contracts, but I think also a certain playing lifestyle of private jets and first class hotels and just generally all the crazy stuff Cortese insisted on, being the nut that he is.

It became clear to the players at some point that it wasn't going to continue. The board suddenly starts being evasive when questions are asked. The ultra-soft two ply TP in the training room is replaced with that thin, rough paper you get in cheap bathrooms. Stuff like that.

I think the players would have been happy to stay had the club matched other teams' offers. But most of us wouldn't stay in a job for half the salary, with an employer who seems to have abruptly changed to cost-cutting philosophy across the board. They don't feel the board has kept their word, or respects their contributions. In addition to the massive wage difference. They would be worried about KL's intentions just the same way many of us were, only for them their career is on the line.

So I get why they all wanted to leave. It's all in how you handle it. Lambert I think, due to his age and experiences playing at for-real cheap, crappy sides has a better perspective on it. Also being both smart and classy knew how to handle the situation. I don't think he would have opened his mouth and left himself open to criticism if he genuinely didn't care. But I don't think he's going to blast the club or the owners because of who he his and his affection for the club.

I don't really have a side on this. I think Cortese basically had to go. I think that Lallana and Lovren handled themselves horribly. Schneiderlin, I don't blame for his reaction so long as he buckles down now. But I also think the board made some huge mistakes in how they handled things. I'm just hopeful this was a one-time thing and now players and management are on the same page again.

 

I'm sorry, but that isn't true. When he was sacked, we were in the top of the bottom half, clear of the relegation places, and on a run of just 2 defeats in 12 games. Sure, maybe Pochettino is a better manager than Nigel, but that doesn't mean Nigel isn't a good one, or indeed that he isn't capable on managing in the PL. It all depends on people's expectations I suppose. We were a newly promoted club, and that was thanks to Nigel, and the first season was always going to be a battle for safety. With Nigel in charge, we were winning that battle. No doubt.

 

As for Rickie's comments, I wouldn't read too much into them. The press might, but he was hardly going to say that it was right for the fans to be giving the likes of Lovren or Lallana stick is he? He is a good guy Rickie, but he also a fellow professional footballer, and a teammate of those guys. They wanted out, they did everything they could to get out, and they got out. I'm glad that now we can focus on the good players we have in the team, and those who actually are happy to play for Saints, Ronald, and the fans.

 

Agreed, he wasn't the best tactically or in the transfer market, but he got us playing well as a team and created team spirit. We wouldn't have gone down with him in charge as he wouldn't have installed a new (albeit better) system which we weren't used to which took an effect on us in the last couple of months. Dare I say it, but I'm warming to Koeman as much as I did to Adkins.

 

I found the comments disappointing. He doesn't need to kiss the wounds of Lallana and Lovren. To me, he displays a horrible misunderstanding of ambition. We want our club to do the best it can. That is a fan's ambition - but it is ambition tempered with loyalty. As he is loyal to Liverpool, we are loyal to Saints. Did the board abandon the club in pursuit of ambition? No (of you could argue, yes, he did...). The players abandoned us and they abandoned OUR ambition for SFC. That is the only ambition I care about. How could a leaving player ever expect fans to sympathise with them over those who have stayed? When Saints were in League 1 we, as fans, maintained ambitions for the team. We didn't leave.

Ambition has become a watchword for laziness. Players want success by joining the best team - not by becoming the best team. That is the saddest element of football today.

 

Pochettino did both of those better. We played far better under him, and the team spirit was clearly stronger when him leaving made the team collapse.

 

Yeah, coming back from 2-0 down at Stamford Bridge really showed he was out of his depth.

 

That is illogical. Stronger team spirit survives adversity. The team spirit was tighter, sure, but much more reliant on a single figure. This makes it weaker, overall... IMO. The team spirit was stronger when Adkins left because the players were able to move on and accept the change.

 

In the long run, of course we played better and had a better system, but we struggled to learn it well at first and it had an effect on fatigue.

 

They were still very reliant on a single figure when Adkins was in charge and it sure wasn't Adkins.

 

Well when players clearly preferred Pochettino to Adkins, I think it's daft to speculate that Adkins was a better leader for whatever reason. As Tom points out, it's pretty clear they were reliant on Cortese more than Adkins, so being reliant on both Cortese and Pochettino is at least reliant on more than one person. The only thing Nigel was better at than Pochettino was cringeworthy interviews.

I don't know how true that is. There was a poll very soon after the managerial change that showed most people on here (and I mean, 99%) thought Pochettino was a superior manager.

 

I maintain that strong team spirit survives adversity. Therefore we cannot call it team spirit but rather a form of hero worship. Quite nauseating really.