Is it all bad?

[ShottermillSaint]

First and most importantly im very sorry to read your news Baz, best wishes to you and your family

On to the more trivial world of football, as Baz says the warning signs were there
Last summer when Cortese threatened to leave, Pochettino was prepared to follow him out of the door, but when KL backed off we assumed all was well on the good ship Southampton
This summer at St Marys could see and unprecedented dismantling of a relatively successful team and the fallout leaves Koeman with an almost impossible job of moulding a competitive team for next season and whilst this serves as a warning for other provincial teams who dare to show some ambition do the powers that be really care? Richard Scudamore was quoted recently saying that an underperforming Man U was bad for the Premier League, probably because viewing figures in Asia are dropping off.
I grew up in an age when clubs like Saints, Ipswich and Forest had international players in their teams for a number of years and provided co

[BileysThere]

[quote="CostaBaz"]Without demeaning or trivialising a very serious and deadly disease, especially as my wife has only recently been diagnosed with it, SFC seems to be suffering from the footballing equivalent of cancer.

Cancer just needs one dead cell (Cortese) to mutate and you have the start of a tumour (Pochettino).
For months, like with cancer, you see signs that something isn't quite right but by the time you discover the cause of the problem, (Pochettino) it has already spread to other areas (Shaw/Lallana/Lovren/Schneiderlin).

At first you go through denial, then you go through acceptance, with the hope that the tumour may be benign. When the tumour is found to be malignant, you then hope corrective action can be taken, to reduce and remedy the problem (remission), but always have, in your mind, that the only cure could be to surgically remove it, before it can spread further and destroy the body (club).

At the moment, I believe the club is carrying

[Pentridge]

The same as everyone else has said Baz, stay strong mate.

[PonyFiddlerReturns]

[quote="pompeygun"]I thought Matt's post was spot on tbh & he is correct. Forget the rivalry, its a bit **** when you build something & suddenly its taken away. The money is fine, probably far more than they're worth (I come from the generation when no player was worth a million)but does it guarantee replacements of the same calibre.
If she's going to sell @ the end of this after then I suppose I'd be wondering where it would leave you. If you're still in the PL then you'll be absolutely fine, in the championship-well there's some right lunatics willing to take on clubs there( as well as in the PL).
Certain clubs have outgrown the PL & I wish they'd f off to a Euro Super League as they keep harping on about, but I doubt that would stop them raiding clubs.
Fiddly-why do you do it, if you are indeed a Warrant Officer then you must be the most childish one in the British Armed Forces, you should be ashamed.

Baz, thoughts with you & your wife Mate. Very sorry t

[OhWell]

[quote="CostaBaz"]Without demeaning or trivialising a very serious and deadly disease, especially as my wife has only recently been diagnosed with it, SFC seems to be suffering from the footballing equivalent of cancer.

Cancer just needs one dead cell (Cortese) to mutate and you have the start of a tumour (Pochettino).
For months, like with cancer, you see signs that something isn't quite right but by the time you discover the cause of the problem, (Pochettino) it has already spread to other areas (Shaw/Lallana/Lovren/Schneiderlin).

At first you go through denial, then you go through acceptance, with the hope that the tumour may be benign. When the tumour is found to be malignant, you then hope corrective action can be taken, to reduce and remedy the problem (remission), but always have, in your mind, that the only cure could be to surgically remove it, before it can spread further and destroy the body (club).

At the moment, I believe the club is carrying

[kernow]

Disagree with that. None of us know exactly what happened but I suspect Cortese was upset about being called to account and reined in. It wasn't his money that he was controlling and he didn't enjoy the same relationship with Katarina as with her father. That's probably why he resigned.

He may have had big aspirations but his actions were increasingly becoming more capricious and irrational. Classic dictatorial tendencies by a man for whom PR didn't appear a priority.

Who knows where we would have ended up had he been left unchecked. I suspect the massive debts incurred would have become astrononomical, toxic and ultimately terminal.

All my opinion of course.

[proclaimer]

As for mid table next year? If we were anything less than about 8th after 3 or 4 games next season with 'Poch's team' the media would be quick to jump on it and many might have gone in January anyway. At least this way it is a rebuilding job from the start and not mid season.

[Grannie64]

Disagree with that. None of us know exactly what happened but I suspect Cortese was upset about being called to account and reined in. It wasn't his money that he was controlling and he didn't enjoy the same relationship with Katarina as with her father. That's probably why he resigned.

He may have had big aspirations but his actions were increasingly becoming more capricious and irrational. Classic dictatorial tendencies by a man for whom PR didn't appear a priority.

Who knows where we would have ended up had he been left unchecked. I suspect the massive debts incurred would have become astronomical, toxic and ultimately terminal.

All my opinion of course.

Again thoughts with you and your family Baz.

Fully agree with Kernow here and do believe as stated earlier, the fact that Poch,Adam and Luke share the same Agents and possible that other players at the club may also be with the same Agency. It almost feels that something is b

[souths1]

Disagree with that. None of us know exactly what happened but I suspect Cortese was upset about being called to account and reined in. It wasn't his money that he was controlling and he didn't enjoy the same relationship with Katarina as with her father. That's probably why he resigned.

He may have had big aspirations but his actions were increasingly becoming more capricious and irrational. Classic dictatorial tendencies by a man for whom PR didn't appear a priority.

Who knows where we would have ended up had he been left unchecked. I suspect the massive debts incurred would have become astronomical, toxic and ultimately terminal.

All my opinion of course.

Again thoughts with you and your family Baz.

Fully agree with Kernow here and do believe as stated earlier, the fact that Poch,Adam and Luke share the same Agents and possible that other players at the club may also be with the s

[proclaimer]

So what was the alternative?

Players were already in the spotlight last season.
On top of that 3 were in the England team
Add to that many clubs need home grown players to meet fair play rules
We had others also on Intentional duty with various countries.
And a World Cup to give them a shop window.

It was inevitable that we would see this demand.

Players and agents aren't stupid so is it really a lack of ambition to cash in when agents seek Man Utd type wages that we can't afford?

Is it really in the best interest of the club to pay money we don't have? What happens then? Maybe we achieve something with a team we couldn't afford, but realistically we wouldn't have won it. History is littered with clubs who overspent and what happened to most of them?

And what about the future and our excellent academy? Does it really help if players stay and youngsters get blocked? What is better when we try to attract the next generation? Come to Saints we have excellent facilities but you'll