23 Mar 2014 20:46:38
Little bit surprised and disappointed in some of the comments. Saints will not make Champions League football in the immediate future - let's say 10-20 years. Why raise expectations of the fans? Unrealistic expectations are the curse of modern football. To achieve CL, we need to dislodge Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal as well as Liverpool and Spurs. Shaw and Lallana will be sold in the summer but that isn't a drama. Shaw will likely be sold for something like £20 million over 5 years ( yes, he will. Don't whine about it. It's how transfers are done) but we have coped before with players sales like Bale and the Ox. Just need a little more stability with regards to owners and managers. Then continuity with top table finishes.

1.) 23 Mar 2014
Oh stop! An unlucky loss to Tottenham away from home and another pessimist emerges, just see how things go for the time being - a Europa league place next season could well be possible.

2.) 24 Mar 2014
We're obviously not going to make it this season. 8th looking like a best scenario.

As for future seasons. it's too early to tell. If we keep our best players and invest in the squad then we have every chance.

Equally if a few key players move on and we don't re-invest wisely then we will struggle to do any better than 8th.

We can't possibly speculate our future success beyond "we probably won't get relegated" and "we probably won't win it".

We have a BIG summer coming up. Time to see what KL's plans are, and if Pochettino is committed long term to this project.

3.) 24 Mar 2014
Oh and OP your '£20m over 5 years' for Shaw is well out.

Shaw valued much higher. 18 year old English player with regular prem starts at a top 8 club and an international cap, who is tied into a 5 year contract? With multiple clubs lacking a quality LB (United, Chelsea etc). There will be a monumental bidding war. Worth £30m if he goes this summer. And that's being conservative.

4.) 24 Mar 2014
Considering everyone wants Shaw he will go for a lot more than 20 million. Lallana will stay for at least another year as he loves the club, a website reporting he is to be offered another 5 year deal before the world cup and he wants to sign.

Saint IQ

5.) 24 Mar 2014
How on earth can the original nameless poster state that Saints won't make the Champions League in the immediate future when referring to the next 10 - 20 years?

What a preposterous statement!
Lets jump back 20 years and see how many of those big clubs were dominating football shall we? Newcastle and West Ham had just been promoted along with Swindon. Both Sheffield clubs along with Wimbledon, and Oldham.

Chelsea finished 14th, Man City finished 16th Arsenal finished 4th and United won the league. Tottenham and Everton finished 14th and 16th respectively, and Saints finished in 18th.

The football map has totally changed over the last 20 years. Hell, 10 years before that Man City and Chelsea weren't in the top division, the Premier League didn't exist, and the Mighty Saints finished in second place!

What has become clear to me is that Saints vision for the future is of a successful side which is challenging for a Champions League place. The one difference is that Saints will be trying to do that with predominantly home grown players.

That is something every Saints fan ought to be immensely proud of.

6.) 24 Mar 2014
I totally agree with St Christopher's post. Excellent evidence to back up his argument.

We Saints fans should be proud of our excellent youth system. In relation to Lallana, I don't think he will leave, went down to League one with Saints and continues to show loyalty (a rare quality in the modern game). As for Shaw, who knows it depends on the success of this Saints squad and how we fair in the market place during the summer, 3 or 4 more quality players (to replace those leaving) and the continuation of youth being introduced, I'd say we're moving in the right direction.
Best wishes to ALL Saints fans

7.) 24 Mar 2014
People saying Lallana will leave are missing a step massively. He's the club CAPTAIN. He's been with us since league one and both the clubs and he have stayed loyal, especially near the beginning with the health scares. He loves the club and wants to stay in Hampshire for his family, where he wants his child to grow up. Honestly, I think he could be here for his whole career.

Shaw will leave. That ones not a matter of if but a matter of when, the only exception to that would be if we got Champions league football. But the money we get for Shaw will be ridiculous.

People assuming Lallana will leave show just how little they know, like Liverpool fans thinking he'll go to them despite being a boyhood Everton fan. Mark my words, this time next year he'll still be here.

8.) 24 Mar 2014
If a car salesman tells you it's the nicest low mileage example he's ever seen and that he has someone coming to view it in 30 minutes so you should buy it now do you believe him?
Cortese was a very good used car salesman and he fooled a lot of people into believing the moon was made of cheese but he also climbed Mount Everest. Let's never forget that the bloke promised the earth and pretty much delivered a continent so can we just be pleased to be playing Liverpool, Arsenal, City, Chelsea etc next season and not worry too much about Bayern and Barca for the moment

9.) 24 Mar 2014
If you are referring to Cortese promising champions league, I don't think he ever PROMISED it, he said it was our ambition

10.) 25 Mar 2014
Ok Cortese didn't promise it, then why are so many posters on here debating when it will happen?
As said previously be happy with being in the top half if premiership.
Chances of us beating Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Spurs, Man Utd, Liverpool, even Everton and Newcastle are slim at the very best.
FA cup and the League cup are our only chance of silver and if the manager doesn't want Europa league that's that

11.) 25 Mar 2014
It's as Poch said, the end of five year plan is over, in the eyes of the club we are an established premier league outfit. Fans are divided on what's next though, mid-table obscurity or a push for Europe. I think this will be addressed soon enough by Krueger once he has had time to decide a course of action which sees the club both making financial gains and expanding the fan base. The clubs been making a good turnover in the last five years so I expect Krueger will attempt to double if not triple this in the next 5 years given his background in economics.

I personally think this summer Poch will be given free reign to buy the players he needs to add depth to the squad and make it stronger, however it will be with some financial restraint, they'll be more of a bargain search then paying over the odds and maybe more dealings with loaning players in.

12.) 25 Mar 2014
Hi didn't promise it but made it clear it was our amibition to achieve Champions League. To achieve this he played his part in improving all our facilities, youth setup and overall quality of the squad. We are building to become capable of achieving Champions League. I don't think any saints fan believes we are in a position to genuinly compete with the likes of City, Chelsea, etc, but the fact is, that we are moving in the right direction. To say we won't be near them in 10-20 years is very pesimistic, particulary seeing as we will most likely finish 8th in only our second season back in the premiership. We have the foundations of a very good squad, which with some wise investment, could quite easily challege the top 4 in the next few years, which if you add to our excellent facilities and financial stability, I would say puts us in a good position.

13.) 25 Mar 2014
I can understand some of the fans being boisterous regarding our future, and that in turn being regarded as madness by many fans. Saints, under Cortese's stewardship achieved the remarkable. let's face it, when we were in League one and he outlined the 5 year plan, with Saints being back in the Premier league and playing with 50% of homegrown players, most Saints fans questioned whether the chap was actually in touch with reality.

Cortese touched on playing in Europe challenging for the Premier league. Much of the optimism (some say overly so) of the fans has been based on the delivery of past promises, so it's a little harsh to be critical of fans that have the ultimate faith in Southampton FC.

Kruger has recently given a similar message to Cortese about the future of Saints - although details have been extremely vague. He spoke of increasing revenue streams to enable Saints to compete at a higher level, and mentioned a timescale of 3-4 years.

Originally I was skeptical about the direction Saints would take following, but it seems (from what I have heard) that the vision and ambition still remains.

Only time will tell whether the ambition is met, but in the meantime, believers need to be more patient, and skeptics ought to have a little more belief.

14.) 25 Mar 2014
25 Mar 2014 17:44:46
Krueger has made it clear that he would like to find new marketing opportunities for the Saints. I also thought it was clear that the USA was one market he would be looking for more penetration into. Well, I can tell you as a Saints fan in the US who has almost no opportunity to buy jerseys, gear, videos, books, or anything else Saints related, there are only two ways to position a Premier league team here. The first is to buy/hire American players (Fulham did this a few years ago and developed a small but fairly loyal US fan base). The second is to challenge for/play in the Champions League (this is how Chelsea and Man City have attracted US fans in recent years). What I am saying is: success is an integral part of marketing when it comes to a football club. The more success the club has, the more opportunities to generate money will develop. It would be ridiculous of Liebherr and Krueger to ignore that. In fact, I am sure they are well aware of it.

15.) 26 Mar 2014
Or we could play friendly games in Florida?
Honestly the number of posts on here by dreamers is amazing

16.) 26 Mar 2014
Sorry, but just playing friendlies in the US does not build a fanbase here, and it's very patronizing to American football fans (like me) to think that it would. The two routes I mentioned above really are the only ways that work.

17.) 26 Mar 2014
Having players perform well for England at the a certain cup in Brazil this summer should enhance our reputation and fan base overseas and in England don't you think? Many, many people will watch the world cup and fairly large percentage of them will support England (outside of the UK), mainly because of the players from big teams like Rooney and Gerrard