RIP Southampton

feel sorry for the fans

Has there been any other team that's been stripped this badly? (other than portsmouth)

Lol Pochettino went away becuase he was told that none of the players will be stopped if they wanted to leave. That's why he nearly left mid season last year too.

Gil wrote:

B-Mac wrote:Pochettino genius for leaving

Most of these players are leaving because he *bleep* off

say what you want about Spurs, at least Levy has ambition

he's planning on building Spurs a new larger ground, is trying to get them to be a constant top 4 contender....what is so wrong about that statement?

BBC Sport ‏@BBCSport 11m
Southampton midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin and forward Jay Rodriguez are close to joining Tottenham. More soon. #saintsfc #thfc

Gil pls respond

It's a shame sugar daddy clubs like Man City and Chelsea have destroyed Southampton.

No one has destroyed Southampton but themselves. If they showed a bit of backbone they could have easily kept some of these players.

They had no interest in doing that though and if anything they are trying to sell.

Absolutely disgusting.

They should have clicked the reject button when someone made a bid.

This is really getting funny now   

Tottenham have a stacked squad already, though, they must be looking to offload a couple of players if Schneiderlin and Rodriguez join them.

These lot are done for.

I wonder what odds could you get for their relegation.

Can't remember the last time I've seen an exodus of players leave a team like this. I'm talking important players.

RED wrote:These lot are done for.

I wonder what odds could you get for their relegation.

Can't remember the last time I've seen an exodus of players leave a team like this. I'm talking important players.

Juventus or Parma when they got relegated to Serie B

Let's not compare this Southampton side to Parma and Juve back then

The praise is hyperbolic for a team that finished 8th.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Let's not compare this Southampton side to Parma and Juve back then

The praise is hyperbolic for a team that finished 8th.

Oh just make comparison in term of numbers; also 8th for club of Southampton status is not too far off from 1st place winner of Juventus. As for Southampton, Le Tessier probably shaking his head in the pub somewhere.

I suppose that's true, for Southampton it is a great achievement.

Art Morte wrote:

TalkingReckless wrote:I remember Portsmouth selling Crouch, Kranjcar, Distin, Begovic, glen Johnson, Williamson, Younes Kaboul in one season

But that was after they had gotten relegated from the PL, which makes it far more understandable.

In massive massive debt too. Weren't they about to go into administration at that stage? Why we got Johnson for so cheap. He "cost" 17.5m, but we only really paid 10, as Ports owed us 7 or something for Crouch iirc

Natalie Portman wrote:BBC Sport ‏@BBCSport 11m
Southampton midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin and forward Jay Rodriguez are close to joining Tottenham. More soon. #saintsfc #thfc

.

Schneiderlin is the only player that won't look "lost" at a top club. Luckily he just joined Spurs. Would of been scared if he joined, I don't know, someone like Arsenal.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I suppose that's true, for Southampton it is a great achievement.

It's not really, it's about what that squad should be doing.

When we finished 5th that was a great achievement. This is achieving standard expected of you.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:No one has destroyed Southampton but themselves. If they showed a bit of backbone they could have easily kept some of these players.

They had no interest in doing that though and if anything they are trying to sell.

Absolutely disgusting.

Shaw and Lovren were fantastic business, they should frankly be laughing all the way to the bank on those deals, particularly Lovren.

Lallana, the club captain, threatened to never play again. No small club can afford to stand their ground and bench a player who could otherwise generate significant revenue and their hand was essentially forced. Nothing can justify such disgusting behaviour from a supposed leader and long standing member of the team.

Nonetheless, this has been an issue of management to an extent. Even Adkins' original sacking was odd, though Pocchettino did an excellent job in his stead. To lose both Cortese and Pocch was always going to spell disaster for the squad, however one must also remember that whilst we can be critical of the 'ambition' shown by club managements, if a team like Southampton wants to retain their players in order to regularly qualify for Europe, then they have to start increasing wages to reflect this and to ward off competition from the big clubs who are preying on them. The only way Soton could have stopped this exodus would have been to match the wages offered to these players by the likes of United and Arsenal, which is essentially the quick road to financial disaster.

Losing Chambers is unfortunate, whilst losing Lambert is disappointing but no one is blaming him for leaving for his childhood club and one last paycheck. Holding on to the rest is now a priority, but frankly the impacts of Lovren and Shaw on Southampton on the pitch this past season can be done for a fraction of the fees they left for. If Soton lose no one else, make two or three smart purchases then let the next wave of youth players into the team then they'll comfortably survive.

BREAKING NEWS:
Southampton have announced they will host Blackpool this weekend in a 5 a side friendly!

  

Mara HAHHAHHAHAHAHHAAHH

Selling half the squad + manager. Still 2nd in the table with more goals scored than City and less goals conceded than anyone else. GL.

dostoevsky wrote:Holding on to the rest is now a priority, but frankly the impacts of Lovren and Shaw on Southampton on the pitch this past season can be done for a fraction of the fees they left for. If Soton lose no one else, make two or three smart purchases then let the next wave of youth players into the team then they'll comfortably survive.

Called it

To be fair, a lot of people after the opening the day and seeing their team against Liverpool knew that team was never going to finish bottom half matter about relegation.

Since then they have strengthened, they'll obviously drop off at some point by top half should happen again.

inb4 we put in a 20m+ bid for Jay Rodriguez :/

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:To be fair, a lot of people after the opening the day and seeing their team against Liverpool knew that team was never going to finish bottom half matter about relegation.

Since then they have strengthened, they'll obviously drop off at some point by top half should happen again.

More importantly, with ex Barcelonista Koeman at helm, avid admirer of the high father Cruyff school of thought, they wouldn't do worse than Espanyol relegation coach Pochettino. This was clear since day 1 of course.

Red Alert wrote:inb4 we put in a 20m+ bid for Jay Rodriguez :/

You would be so lucky. I actually rate Jay