Southampton
Pochettino
Mauricio and his staff were settled and more than happy to stay. Sure, he's got ambitions but he'd grown close the players and was enjoying his work. The subsequent power shift threw that all up in the air and he was talked round from resigning in January, a lot of it was out of loyalty to the players. We've seen a lot of stuff on here about him being shifty and disloyal - he wasn't. He seeked assurances about the following season and was rebutted, like Lallana and the other players. Reed and Krueger maintained they were in control but weren't. Pochettino decided after considerable time waiting to talk about the new season and the strategy for it to look elsewhere.
By the time Spurs had shown an interest, our board then panicked and offered him a MEGA deal to stay and all the funds from the sales of any players. He told them where to go - he was willing to accept 1-2 departures but he got no guarantees that there wasn't going to be any more. He wanted to decide his playing squad and with him staying, we would have been in a much more persuasive position. Additionally to this, Pochettino had already put a lot of work in and identified players that he'd have liked to have been brought in for the following campaign but was told there was no guarantee on what budget he'd get and whether we'd pay the money for them.
For him, the "project" was dead. No assurances were forthcoming when he asked and by the time the board realised he was in the sights of Spurs, his mind was already made up - and with that, so was many of the other players minds too.
Irrespective, MP and his family continue to live in Southampton and are due to move into a new place in OV.
Koeman
RoKo was aware of the Lambert, Lallana and Shaw sales but had no intention of losing any more players. He was promised a significant amount of money to rebuild the team in his style but did not sign up for a mass exodus. It'll be interesting to see how he reacts. So far, he's kept a dignified silence but I wouldn't be too surprised if the rumours of his grumbles behind the scenes are true.
RoKo was identified as the correct choice after his work with a young team on a shoestring budget a Feyenoord and seemed a perfect fit. That said, he didn't sign up for this. At the moment, he's likely receiving a lot of fluff talk from the powers that be about reinvestment. He should be very, very suspicious right now.
Irrespective of this, the Prem's a good place for him to be "seen" and I'm sure he'll make the most of his opportunity if given a fair crack of the whip. He didn't sign up for this though, that's for sure.
Cork & Fonte
In May, there were new contracts on the table for both players (still Pochettino in charge). However, these offers were withdrawn after the rumoured instruction that all the players were for sale.
Training Ground
We were always going to continue with the finishing of the training ground; the work there was never going to be halted. It's seen as an asset in any potential future sale and with the sales of Chambers, Shaw and Lallana from the very place those players were developed could be viewed as prestigious and potentially noteworthy to anyone interested in buying the club.
Summary
So where does that leave us after all this? With a threadbare squad of kids, unwanted players and established pro's with just 2 weeks or so until the Premier League season starts. I did mention a few months back of a domino effect and if you trawl my posts, you'll see that I had often spoke of this (albeit cryptically, much to many of you's annoyance).
Expect one possibly two players in this week in attempt to placate the well-placed hysteria surrounding the club but also expect more to follow too. We're pinning our hopes on some new acquisitions, a quick-gelling period and untested and quite frankly, ill-prepared and clearly not-ready youth team players who will be hastily thrown into Premier League football before they're even ready.
The problem is, with the clear lack of ambition with the sales has put a lot of players off and with the obviously huge intake of cash, it's also driven up the price of a lot of our targets as well. We've got bids in for a lot of players but we're nowhere near the valuation of many of the players because other clubs know we've got cash to burn. It's left us in a very difficult situation and it'll be quite remarkable if we finish mid-table this year, let alone anywhere higher. There's a lot of p1ssed off people right now, many of them staff and players who share YOUR frustrations. The stripes, the fan-friendly letters... it's all fluff. Is there a vision? Is there a strategy? No, not any more. We'd be lucky to tread water and that's what Les and co are hoping we do.
Much of this was avoidable, there was absolutely no need for a domino effect. Sure, we were always going to be victims of our own success but if we'd played things out differently with MP, AL et al then things could have been so so different.
That's it for now, I'll write more later.
Originally Posted by stevegrant
There are bits in all of it, really.
Section by section:
Cortese's departure - multiple reasons (some of which can't be specified as I'd get in all sorts of ****), although it's fairly well known that he put up resistance to ANY control of spending from KL. A suicide mission if ever there was one.
Finances - correct with the exception of NC not leaking stuff to the press. He was all over both the Mail (Neil Ashton) and BBC (Ben Smith).
Possible sale of club - it's feasible, but the method makes no sense. If there are no buyers at whatever asking price has been set, you either drop the asking price or make the product MORE attractive for the price, not less! Selling the top players arguably drops the value of the club by more than the fees received because of the perception that the club has momentum in the wrong direction.
Lallana - feasible, but it's almost the complete opposite of what I'd heard, with the exception of the Man United stuff. He'd wanted out for months, Clattenburg was essentially right - having been away on international duty in November, he believed he'd "made it" and deserved to be at a club that elevated him to the same status as the England regulars. He wasn't entirely thrilled with being subbed off relatively early every game either.
Players - NC had lined up a deal with West Ham to sell Rickie Lambert for £7m in January. That deal was hastily pulled as soon as NC walked. Overall lack of communication - certainly true, but for most players, what "communication" are they expecting from the board? Daily briefings with an update of how many shirts with their name on have been sold? Over the summer, players are rightly left to enjoy their own time and not be pestered by club employees (I'd be pretty ****ed off if my boss was phoning me with updates while I was on holiday - the clue's in the name). The only ones who should have expected to have heard something are those who would expect new contract offers in the pipeline - Fonte and Cork being the two prime examples - but I don't see what the fuss was about over Fonte supposedly having received his in writing. I'd want any contract offer I was going to sign in writing before committing to anything.
The noise from Alan Cork on Twitter suggests Cork hasn't received an offer at all, let alone an offer that was then withdrawn. I can't say I was ever particularly surprised by that towards the end of last season, it always appeared to me as though Pochettino was never quite convinced with JC, and as he had long since decided he was leaving, why would he care about putting it to the board himself?
Pochettino - he'd decided he was off around Christmas. As mental as it sounds, NC was going to sack him in December around the time we had that bad run of injuries and results which tempered our great start to the season. He was talked out of it by a number of senior players, but MP felt he didn't have the trust of NC any longer, so decided he was off, and as the rest of the season wore on, made it very clear what his plan was to many of the players, despite NC's departure in the meantime. He basically advised them all to move on as they may not get another opportunity, so naturally they all got onto their agents and now we have the carnage we see before us today. MP was offered a new deal, and it had been on the table for 2-3 months before he went to Spurs - coincidentally it was offering exactly the same salary as he is now earning at White Hart Lane.
Koeman - from people who know him, he will not tolerate players who don't want to play for him. If anyone doesn't want to play for him, they can do one, and he'll bring in replacements who DO want to do so. Given his track record and status in the game, we shouldn't be short of players come the start of the season.
Summary - clearly the business has been done the wrong way around, replacements should have been signed before the others were let go, and that falls on the board to carry the can, and KL will have to accept that we'll be spending more for most of our signings than we anticipated as a result.
Some of that may turn out to be inaccurate, but those are the corrections to your War and Peace effort as I see them.
wow!!!
- 3 weeks later...
Opinions Changed?
If only the youth talent spotter was the chief scout for first-team recruitment. Ward-Prowse's tek ain't your average English ballers.
Then they sign Shane no goals Long for 12m... Get a bid of 10m for Townsend rejected from their rivals, then got a 10m option for the Chelsea left-back yute who's name currently completely escapes me.
I think they are such a strange club, thought it throughout the weekend.
Pelle looks decent tho.
- 2
Bertrand is solid i have always thought he was decent from when he was getting rotated with cole
Tadic will be a nice flip. Probably move to Tottenham 2015/16 for 30million
If only the youth talent spotter was the chief scout for first-team recruitment. Ward-Prowse's tek ain't your average English ballers.
Then they sign Shane no goals Long for 12m... Get a bid of 10m for Townsend rejected from their rivals, then got a 10m option for the Chelsea left-back yute who's name currently completely escapes me.
I think they are such a strange club, thought it throughout the weekend.
Pelle looks decent tho.
LOL CHEEKY
Tadic will be a nice flip. Probably move to Tottenham 2015/16 for 30million
the irony
lmao
wp
mad would be quoting and reacting to your shit........
swift neg is all you deserve, but even then you cant resist a reason to post another gay gif.
- 2
- 2 months later...
Bump
- Popular Post
Terrible to see them being dismantled like this, the platform was there for them to kick on and challenge for the CL places.
Must be heartbreaking for their fans.
What team is he talking about here ?
- 15
LMAO
pmsl
Fackkkkk
Fackkkkk
Fackkkkk
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Mame Biram Diouf
Its a shame
If its true that Jay Rod and Morgan aren't the last, who else is even left of any real value
Fonte wouldnt fetch much
Assets almost all liquidated now
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The Infamous
wow thats peak
yeah that Corteses guy worked wonders for them
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