Southampton Banter Archive June 24 2014

24 Jun 2014 15:31:08
whats your input on this ed?
why do we keep being linked with forign players? isn't that the one problem with the english game? younger players aren't getting the chance at a higher level.

I can make a team of young players who are all able to play for england and are playing in lower leagues :

GK: DANIEL BENTLEY, 20, Southend
RB: SAM BYRAM, 20, Leeds
CB: LIAM MOORE, 20, Leicester
CB: JAMAAL LASCELLES, 20, forest
LB: BEN GIBSON, 20, Middlesborough
RM: MOSES ODUBAJO, 20, Leyton O
CM: ALEX MOWATT, 18 Leeds
CM: WILL HUGHES, 18, Derby
LM: LUKE FREEMAN, 21, Stevenage
FW: SCOTT HOGAN, 21, Rochdale
FW: CALLUM WILSON, 21, Coventry

i would certainly look at bentley of southend. hogan of rochdale, byram of leeds and hughes of derby.

we have one of the best youth structures around and koeman is the guy to develop them. let's not start doing a man city and signing established foreign players

24 Jun 2014 23:43:56
I agree that our youth set up is amazing. I agree that Koeman is going to push this and it should be seen as the backbone of our future.
However. We are going to be competing against some of the best teams in the world each and every season. You need proven ability to push forward and get goals.
I don't think there are many saints fans who would ever want to buy loyalty in am entire team but you do need to get a good set of players who can work with the inexperienced lot.
Its balancing act but we do need people who will get us goals, set them up and stop them and have the experience to hit the ground running.

25 Jun 2014 10:19:44
1. Sterling is a strong currency now-especially against the Euro.

2. Overseas players are generally less expensive anyway as many of the clubs have financial difficulties.

As long as signing a number of foreign players does not hinder our own youngsters coming through, I can't see the problem.

Cyberchris, we already have talented young players from our academy in those positions, particularly in RB and CM, so there would be no point in signing the likes of Hughes and Byram when we already have the likes of JWP/Reed/McQueen and Clyne/Chambers, we will always have young English players in our team through our academy and to improve we have to improve our first team which these players would do in the long term but maybe not the short term. I would love to sign English players to fill the positions we need but the problem is as their is such a small pool of good enough English players it's hard to do so. Anyway if we do sign anyway it'll be 2-3 quality additions not a whole new team like Man City have done and we will keep the young players coming through anyway, besides we need to get some big names in to try and keep our star players to show them we have ambitions of pushing up into Europe

Although saying that Caulker/Richards wouldn't be a bad option at CB, Ings could be good up top as would Rhodes and maybe Butland in goal? Contradicting myself I know, but these would be good signings, but wouldn't have same effect on our players wanting to leave as a big money deal which would really show ambition, but a mix would work well

24 Jun 2014 15:32:11
Just had an exciting Email!

Saints have held POSITIVE discussions with both Celtic & River over the possible transfers of Stefan de Vrij, Eder ALvarez Balanta.

Rk wants 2 defenders to play with Lovren in a 3 man defence with 2 wing backs. Matty Targett & Clyney.

Also, Memphis Depay still on the radar despite interest increasing from his WC displays

Wasn't expecting news today, more when I have it

WHAT MELTDOWN!

{Ed007's Note - Somebody's pulling your pudding or you're just making stuff up yourself, I'd say it's the latter. As a Celtic supporter I'd be really interested to know what Celtic said about Stefan de Vrij.}

Think you mean Van Dijk Rocket80 or you got de Vrij's club wrong either way would like either to sign, although we don't need 2 CB's (unless Lovren leaves).

24 Jun 2014 14:31:59
I a big step to keeping our star players will be showing ambition in our summer signings, a few big names would show them we mean business, not really rumour or link to a player but we need someone like maybe Pato up top or maybe Vela, someone up and coming like Inigo Martinez at CB which would be class or even more ambitious Mateo Mussachio, but this is the caliber of player we need to improve upon what we have and show our players that we can push on and challenge for Europe, good on Koeman for slapping a £40m price on Shaw, apparantly he doesn't like Van Gaal, so good on him!

{Ed007's Note - The manager won't have any say on the fees being asked for players.}

Ok, cheers ed, but is it possible that he told them to play hardball over the transfer without stating a fee?

{Ed007's Note - I wouldn't think so, Sam. Manager's don't really take much to do with any negotiations, incoming or outgoing. Koeman will have been made fully aware of any negotiations and where they were at before taking over, Shaw leaving (or staying) will be decided at boardroom level rather than at team management/coaching. You're spot on though that there is no love lost between Koeman and LvG.}

Ok fair enough, cheers Ed, good on the board for playing hard ball to keep him then!

24 Jun 2014 05:21:22
Would still like us to get Micah Richards. Not as a RB but back where he had is best season as CB.

I agree, would love Richards to sign