Southampton Banter Archive May 20 2014

20 May 2014 23:02:22
Hi everyone
I want to ask you all a question that has been bugging me for a few weeks.

Do you think that since Katherine Liebherr has taken control of our club and gave Cortese the boot that we have gone downhill somewhat?

I believe that Coetese was the epitome of what Marcus wanted at our club to push us forward and achieve unbelievable things.
Marcus wanted us to play CL football at some stage and trusted Cortese to bring that along within 10 years.

I would have liked Cortese to still be in charge at the top, because we would now not be. Worrying about allof our players and manager wanting to leave.
Am I right or wrong?

Do you think Katherine and a hockey boss have our clubs best interest at heart?

We've just finished our best season ever in the Prem. Where did we go downhill? Without J-rod getting injured I think we would have been further up the ladder. The only negativity is clubs trying to buy our players. Its early days for the new boardroom. I remember a lot of fans screaming for Cortese's head when Adkins was sacked and this little known manager called Poch turned up. Have faith. all will be good. It'll be a long summer for us Saints fans with our players being linked away but as someone else said unless we have a fire sale then I can't see a problem. We are likely to lose one or two but then if the price is right why not, its good business and helps hit the FFP rules. Every top team in the prem have some of their players linked away (Suarez, Rooney, Toure etc).

I don't think they do have the clubs interests at heart at all it is certainly worrying

Poster 1x1:
Do you not think it was Cortese who had all the vision, not Marcus?
Cortese sold the idea and did all the work. Marcus funded the dream, and will always be a Saints legend for what he has done for our club.
Saints have gone from being a £14m club to £140m, so this 'investment' is worth looking after. I can't see a sensible successful business family allowing the 'product' to lose £100m by letting it fall apart. Just my opinions!

I can't see how anyone can say anything about the current regime.

When Cortese came in, and started talking about having 50% of our team having come from Academy, and challenging in the Premier Division, most people thought he was nuts! Didn't he know we were in Division One? Madness!

We'll have to wait and see what happens with regards to the Kruger regime. Personally I feel that if Cortese was around now, he would have told most of the clubs hovering over our players and managers to bugger off.

The problem seems to be that on the back of our successful season, we have attracted loads of attention, and the general football world has decided to test the resolve of the incumbent leadership.

Only time will tell as to whether our club is in good hands. The good thing about this situation though is that we'll soon see whether our squad is to be retained, and therefore the dream is still alive.

I'll keep this one short and sweet for once. We've had half a season. There is simply a lack of useful data available to assess whether or not they have made a positive or negative impact to this point. This will be the new boards first real transfer window. Their actions in these next two or three months will show us the shape of things to come and answer your question.

I agree with St Christopher.

We can't judge them too much yet.

Cortese got too big for his boots. I agree he was fantastic in some ways and we would not be too concerned about transfers under him. However he did also waste a lot of money and ruffle a lot of feathers with his own staff as well as other clubs. Expecting FULL control of someone else's multimillion pound business and spitting his dummy out is not the fault of KL. I suspect he had other ideas anyway - he's not stupid.

When KL assumed control the media would have us all panicking about a 'meltdown'. I thought she and the staff did very well to get through the Winter fully unscathed and with all our players.

Krueger seems good. KL has been going to games and seems to be enjoying it. Things could be very good, despite the media and plastic clubs who are desperate to unhinge us.

This summer will tell the story for probably the next 10 years. Will we spend? Will we retain our stars, or at least try our utmost? Will MP walk and if he tries, will we let him?

I suspect we will keep a very strong team and any sales will be top dollar which will be reinvested. I expect Shaw and Lallana may be off after the WC. MP staying is 50/50 for me.

I am optimistic now though.

COYR!

I generally agree with the above posts - it's too early to take a view. I would expect Shaw to go and Lallana to stay, but dependent upon Poch staying too - and that's the critical decision.

As much as Cortese did for the club, he was an autocrat and arguably a visionary, however he refused to be reigned in by KL and left. I can completely understand her concern that she couldn't have an arrogant (and probably a bit of a bully) CEO telling her how to spend her inheritance. If I were her, I would have replaced Cortese with someone more approachable yet very competent.

Let's see how the next few weeks pan out before getting angry and depressed!;)

You forget that Krueger won both men's and womens winter olympics for the Canadian's so is clearly an ambitious man who will want us to be right at the top and he's come across well in interviews, not sure how much he knows about football but he seems to recognise the Southampton way and wants to progress in that way

Totally agree St Sam. Remember Cortese was an investment banker before he joined Saints. If you've got ambition and leadership qualities it stands you in good stead.

20 May 2014 16:49:17
I have heard Shaw will be sold for 27 million + add ons and possibly a 25% sell on fee within the next week. This sale will be followed shortly by Poch signing a new 3 year deal. He has been promised 30 million to spend on transfers plus any money made from player sales (so he will have 57million to play with).

Sad as it might seem if Shaw going means Poch stays then i'm happy with this.

I'm not averse to Shaw leaving for the right price, but I thought the 27-mil bid had been turned down. A 25% sell-on clause isn't likely to add much, as ManU want Shaw as the permanent replacement for Evra (so he won't be sold on--at least not until he's well past his prime).

27 million + add ons for England/League appearances etc.

20 May 2014 12:44:08
We know that Poch likes to do things his way, without bowing to media or such, so does anyone else think that he is just not concerned with all the gossip? He has made it clear recently that he still has one year left on his contract and maybe he sees no rush in signing an extension at this moment in time.

20 May 2014 10:33:04
Why the hell would the board sack Jason Dodd and Paul Williams, it's not as if our academy is doing badly, in a time we all just want stability and they go and sack to long serving coaches and former players, and for "not spending enough time with the under 16's" is that a joke? Clearly not done to badly as we now have Shaw, JWP, Chambers, Gallagher and Reed being regular named in match day squads and that would've p**sed them all off to, I've already read the Shaw reacted angrily to the their sacking, if we want to keep our players this summer this is not the way to go about it

Typical 'I don't know anything about the situation so I'm going to rant about how the board are completely wrong and should be burnt at the stake' post

Without knowing the reasons behind it, how can anyone deduce that the board were "wrong" to terminate their contracts?

It's sad - Dodd has been a Saints stalwart for decades. But that doesn't mean he couldn't have committed a sackable offence, or failed to meet certain pre-agreed performance targets. Or whatever (just speculating).

World keeps turning.

The rumour is founded on a twitter comment by Shaw saying he was sad to see them go. He didn't say "I hate the club, I think they're evil!" or anything along those lines. It's the papers over reacting in order to create a story as per usual. Don't read too much into it.

The fact these two have been sacked rather than 'released', together with the 'legal' aspects suggests that this is a disciplinary or breach-of-contract type of issue, not performance related.

Oh so you think it's a good decision to get rid of members of staff that have coached and helped bring through the like's of Lallana, Shaw and all the players I've already mentioned, it's not that I know nothing about it, it was said that they weren't spending enough time with under 16's and that they had an unhealthy relationship with Martin Hunter. And that's all Luke said on twitter, god knows what he said privately when he first heard the news and unless it was a serrious sackable offence I think it is the wrong decision, as we desperately need stability with all the speculation and don't need to be unbsettling our youth players by sacking two key figures in our academy staff and annoying our young players who have come from our academy as they would've known them for a long time.

It could be a good decision, yes. Especially if the rumours of them leaking things are true

To say they're responsible for bringing them through is wrong, it's mainly down to the scouting team (they also weren't employed as coaches until Lallana was 21) we produced fantastic players before they were in charge and we'll more than likely continue to produce more now they're gone.

You've heard one persons reaction, maybe Shaw is the only person that felt that way? Anyway, weren't a lot of the first team upset over Adkins being sacked? Look at them now, getting rid of Dodd and Williams could be the best thing to happen

People are too quick to blame this board for everything

It could be a good decision true, I wasn't happy when Adkins got the sack and look at us now, I expect us to continue producing young talent, and didn't say responsible I said they were important in the development in the players I mentioned, your right the player were probably upset by the loss of Adkins too and it's a good point. I just think the timing is poor as now we really need stability admist all of the speculation and am sad to see a former captain go in Jason Dodd and a former player in Paul Williams and for Shaw it's another reason to leave isn't it? Not saying he'll leave because of it, but if he's unsure and is as annoyed as people said then it's tipping him in the wrong direction, so yes it may be a good decision in the long term, but in my opinion is poor timing as it has only fueled speculation that Luke will leave

They have nothing to do with bringing through Lallana. They were here from 2009 and 2011 respectively

20 May 2014 09:35:13
Ed, why was my post yesterday afternoon about 2 staff, potentially doddsy, getting the sack not put up?

Are we not allowed to post actual rumours?

{Ed002's Note - It was.}