Bit far that mate I reckon lol. Few players clearly good enough but will need some good signings to compete. And no I don't mean Afobe by that.
Southampton need to buck their ideas up or they are in trouble next season. Can see all the promoted teams doing better than them
Wouldn't surprise me if they go down. Their board has no ambition and seemingly sells a key player at the first opportunity. If they had a board that had some balls and stood firm by keeping hold of some of the players they've let go in previous seasons, they'd likely be challenging for a Europa spot at the least.
We were the only team that Wolves couldn't beat. We smashed them 3-0 at the Stadium Of Light. ****ing ****e
You know this Summer is our first under a new owner right? Also we qualified for Europe back to back after selling players
Didn't know you had a new owner but doubt much will change, also doesn't take away the fact you lot could've been a real good side had you shown more ambition. Looking at your side now and there's only one or two good players, better hope the new owner invests a fair bit, was it their decision to keep Hughes as well or was that done under the previous board?
I'm pretty happy with the ambition our board has shown. Broken into the top four monopoly, state of the art training centre, brand new stadium around the corner and a squad to be relatively proud of... The lack of trophies has been disappointing but we've probably made the best progress out of any side in the Prem outside of the clubs who've needed sugar daddy's to propel them to new heights.
We put our foot down last summer and refused to sell Van Dijk Head. His sulking stank the place out and poisoned the dressing room. There is no doubt we have paid a high price for consistently selling all our best players, but it's often a no-win for smaller clubs. We currently have the same board under the new owner - employing Hughes then promptly offering him a new contract is something they've finally got right imo.
But you sold him 6 months later and left yourselves bare at the back. Southampton aren't a small club though. Granted you're not as big as others in the division but you're far too big of a club to be flirting with relegation and constantly selling key player after key player. This is why I said about your board lacking ambition. If harder stances were taken and a bit more ambition in the market was shown, you lot could've easily changed "the big 6" to a "big 7".
We were pretty much forced into selling him, that's my point. Though I agree that may be in part because we set the wrong precedent in previous seasons. And any club outside the top 6 can find themselves competing in Europe one season and flirting with relegation the next imo. If Leicester lose Vardy and Mahrez, relegation could happen to them, and I think most of their fans know that. West Ham, Saints, Newcastle, Everton - none of those clubs are immune to the dangers of losing key players, making the wrong managerial appointment, starting a season badly and losing a string of games they expect to win...then suddenly you're looking down not up.
I see what you're saying and do kind of agree in principal but reverting back to my point RE ambition, if the boards of the clubs you've mentioned looked upwards instead of worrying about the possible negatives then there's a good chance they can make some form of progression. I think the moment a board starts worrying about potential negatives it's likely to end up being the catalyst to those exact worries they feared as they make decisions based on fear instead of ambition. A club like Southampton shouldn't be fearing relegation, they should be looking to progress and potentially gatecrash European spots on a regular basis but I don't think your board are looking that far forward. Hiring someone like Hughes is just too much of a safe bet, he's got no track record of taking sides to another level, he's been good at keeping poorer sides competitive but is that really what Southampton are after? I could be wrong and Hughes turns out to be a blinding appointment but I just think you'll struggle again, squad ain't strong enough (granted, plenty of time to improve it if the board pulls their finger out) and the manager doesn't seem to be the type to take you forward based on his history.
Oh don't get me wrong, I'd love to see the club be more ambitious. And I do wonder what might have happened had Cortese been given a free hand by the previous owners, to run the club as he saw fit; after all, it wasn't my money he would have been gambling with - though I have seen the club go bust, and wouldn't want to go through that again. I'm quite optimistic about Hughes because he has reconnected the club, the players and the fans, and shown leadership qualties which I think are just as important as tactics/playing style etc. His record elsewhere is a bit hit and miss, but so was Koeman's before he came to us, and that worked out pretty well. You're right about the squad, it isn't good enough, but a couple of decent signings and a youngster or two stepping up (Josh Sims?) could change all that.
I agree about Hughes and didn't want to appoint him, my prediction is it will be a couple of boring mid table nothing seasons before it goes tits up and he is sacked. The quality in our squad isn't too different from most of the others outside the top 6, we have a couple of holes like most sides do but it was just managed poorly last year which is why we were so close to going down. As for the selling players bit, there is basically **** all a club can do in my view. Almost every player we sold had 2 years or less left on their contracts and as soon as a bigger club came sniffing they said they weren't going to sign a new deal. It was either lose them for free or get as big a fee as possible and reinvest. We have re invested the majority of the money made from transfers. "Ambition" just means money in football, we can't afford to offer multiple players 100k+ per week like Liverpool can so we have literally nothing to offer a player if a bigger team want them. We can say **** like "oh we are signing so and so" or "well give us a year or 2 with this team and we will be ****ing good" but that won't convince anyone as football changes so quickly. If Liverpool want someone that transfer window they might not want them the next one, the player might lose form, get injured, Liverpool might sign someone else. When the opportunity to move is there then you take it as it might never come again. When we did actually get a player to sign an extension to their first contract, a 5 year extension at that, he just went on a huge sulk 6 months later when we didn't let him leave. The clubs can't win.
