So - What's Been Going On Then?

Some People Who Want to Be Here

So, while the World Cup has been going on, what’s been happening at Saints?  All quiet, nothing much... yeah, right!

I went into the World Cup with massive anticipation.  This was because 3 of our players were in the England squad and we also had players with Croatia, Uruguay, France and Japan.  Before it had all started, Rickie Lambert had left for Liverpool and Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and Dejan Lovren had all been linked to quitting the club.  The anticipation of the World Cup and the extra bonus of so many Saints players being involved had been killed stone dead.  Cheers lads.

While the shitstorm of player departures was brewing from over Brazil way, Saints announced that we were getting bright new shiny floodlights and a bright new shiny manager in Ronald Koeman.  Those old enough to remember will picture him playing in midfield or at centre back for the Dutch national team in the 80s and 90s and scoring lots of goals from open play and dead balls.  I remember him most for the ‘Do I Not Like That’ game with Graham Taylor in the England hotseat where Koeman famously dragged down David Platt when he was last man and wasn’t red carded and 10 minutes later he flipped a free kick over the static David Seaman to confirm England not qualifying for USA ’94.  I hated him... but really should have hated the referee.  His record as a player is staggering and littered with trophies and international caps.  His managerial record is a bit more mixed but he’s managed all of the 3 big Dutch clubs and had experience in Italy and Spain as well as playing under some of the very best managers ever so it couldn’t be better really.  He’s got a much better pedigree than the last manger we had here so that’s a start.  He’s a massive name so will instantly command the respect of the players – if they can be bothered to actually talk to him before they decide to leave.  His first interview was conducted in near perfect English and he vowed that he was going to school to improve it before he joined us – compare and contrast! Hopefully he will be nothing like our last Dutch manager Jan Poortvliet, who talked in a language that no one understood.

We got a 2^nd Koeman as part of the deal with elder brother Erwin joining as assistant manager along with fitness coach Jan Kuitenberg.  They all seem genuinely pleased to be here which sounds like a minimum requirement but it’s nice to know that some people still believe in Southampton FC.

Our players at the World Cup have on the whole not done a lot.  Adam Lallana was left out of the starting XI for the games that mattered in a last minute change as Roy Hodgson succumbed to media pressure to play Sterling and his own conservative desire to play Welbeck ahead of a player who can use both feet and create.  He eventually played as a sub in the first two and started the dead rubber against Costa Rica in which he goat hauled off after an hour.  Shaw just played the Costa Rica match which turned out to be their last acts as Saints players – more on that later.  Dejan Lovren played all 3 games for Croatia in which he gave away a controversial penalty against Brazil, kept a clean sheet against Cameroon who may or may not have been on the take and then was part of a defence that shipped 3 goals in 10 minutes against Mexico as Croatia were knocked out.  Gaston Ramirez came on as a sub for Uruguay against Italy, set up a goal with a corner straight onto Diego Godin’s head and got himself in lots of pictures trying to get Chiellini to cover his shoulder up after Suarez had bitten it.   In their 2^nd Round game against Colombia, he came on as sub to try and save the game and just floated a couple of free kicks straight to the keeper. Maya Yoshida played every game for a very ordinary Japan side and his final act was to be done like a kipper and left on his arse as James Rodriguez beat him and chipped the keeper for the 4^th Colombian goal in a 4-1 defeat for Samurai Blue.  Though he’s only played in a dead rubber game, Morgan Schneiderlin, was very good in it and his France team got further than any of the others so he could come back and have bragging rights in the changing room – well he could if any of the others were still there.

Here’s the rub… as I write, 3 of our original 7 World Cup players have left the club, 2 are strongly rumoured to be going, 1 is being touted about by his agent and 1 has not been in the news at all. 

Luke Shaw has left the building for approximately £30 million and signed for Manchester United and Louis Van Gaal.  He conducted himself in the right way and said nothing to anyone about a move until after he was home from the World Cup.  The only thing he’s done wrong really is to not speak to Ronald Koeman before he went to United but it’s hard to be angry with him really.  Personally I think this is a good deal all round – we gets loads of cash, United get a player who will be their left back for 10 years plus and Shaw gets a massive stage to play on and a huge amount of cash.  Whilst it would probably be better for his career to stay at Saints for another two years – this doesn’t happen these days.  It does make me laugh when United fans come out and say he isn’t worth it because last time I checked, it’s whoever owns the asset that sets the price and the buyer decides to pay it or not.  Paul Scholes says we’re killing English football by charging too much – oh really!  Much better to be a club that doesn’t develop its young English players and just buys in foreign kids.  Saints were good in their praise of Shaw in much the same way as they were for Lambert.  Sorry to see you go but all the best.  Next we have Adam Lallana, team captain.

Clattenburg Calls It Correctly

After the end of our first season back in the Premier League, Adam Lallana signed a 5 year deal and the quote he made was about finishing his career at Saints and not being able to imagine anything else.  He’d had a ropey old season in the Prem, scoring just 3 goals and repeatedly being substituted.  Nigel Adkins had made him captain and despite the repeated substitutions, Mauricio Pochettino kept him in that role.  Last season he was on fire and everything went well, scoring and creating goals and an England call up and being catapulted into the England starting XI as we clamoured for footballers who had skill and could use both feet.  We didn’t think so at the time but it obviously turned him into Billy Bigtime and it appears he soon forgot his words on signing his contract and soon forget how much the club had supported him.  The first person who noticed the change was of course Mark Clattenburg and I unreservedly apologise for any bile I spat his way after the Everton away game.  He’s still a shit referee but his comment of “you’ve changed since you got called up by England” was spot on.  Lallana obviously knows it as well which is why he got the hump.  It was reported at the time that the club complained and not Lallana – does anyone believe that now?  I can imagine him throwing his toys out and demanding the club did something on his behalf.

Fast forward to the last game of the season and the end of season lap of honour and obligatory badge kissing and then it appears that as soon as he got off the pitch he demanded to move to Liverpool who had obviously been tapping him up like they did with Lambert.  He stopped short of handing in a written transfer request though of course as you invalidate various payments if you do that.  Roy Hodgson had already stated that he wanted no club transfer business going on during the World Cup but there was Adam out in Brazil, signing a Liverpool shirt for a fan and getting caught on camera saying he hoped he would be joining.  I hope he got dropped because of this but I think it was more down to Hodgson not having a clue, rather than any strong management, to blame for that.

Les Reed made noises that he thought reconciliation could be reached upon Lallana’s return from the World Cup but then the stories emerged that Adam had said he’d never play for us again – basically going on strike.  No reconciliation and off he went to Liverpool with a terse 2 line statement on the Saints website which may as well have said “good riddance”.

The shocking PR continued on his debut Liverpool press conference where he said he dreamt of playing for Liverpool last season (when he was Saints captain) and then there was a hamfisted attempt at damage limitation in the form of a full page advert in The Echo from a PR company just made things worse.  One big picture of Adam and a few words which looked like they were straight off a cheap greeting card from Clinton's Cards. Like Pochettino, he doesn’t care about what he left behind but unlike Pochettino, I think he’ll regret it later. There are ways of doing things and he did it wrong and he’s going to get slaughtered when he comes down to St Mary’s the disrespectful little twat.  If I could pick one player for Big Vic to steamroller over next season... it would be Billy Bigtime who has totally soured his legacy with a majority of Saints fans.  I could speculate on how well he’ll do for Liverpool and his England prospects as a result of the move but I can’t really be bothered.

Dejan Lovren apparently handed in a transfer request at the end of the season with the story being that he wants Champions League Football.  He had this at Lyon before he joined us and we’re not the kind of club you join if Champions League football is your thing.  Again there are rumours of him going on strike to get his move and rumours that we’ve turned down a £20 million bid from.... surprise surprise, Liverpool.  For me this is interesting because it said to me that Cortese was promising Champions League football within a certain timeframe which he was going to fund with money that wasn’t his and it also says that Lovren was stupid enough to believe it... or maybe it was because no one else wanted him at the time and he kept getting sent off for Lyon who thought he was a liability.  There’s more to play out on this one so watch this space.  His tweet to Luke Shaw which said ‘congratulations on your move’ rather than ‘sorry that you’re leaving us’.  To me, this was a bit of an indicator as to his state of mind, moreso than any speculation via the media.  He’d certainly be tougher to replace than the others.

Morgan Schneiderlin, after his one World Cup appearance for France, gave an interview in which he said that the Saints ‘directors know my intentions’.  This could mean anything but it’s probably bad news.  He’s a class act but it’s a strong area for Saints so I see players like Harrison Reed and James Ward-Prowse stepping up rather than a need to buy big to replace him if he goes.  We also have Big Vic and Corky in that part of the field.  As I write, Morgan is not back from the World Cup so again, there’s more to play out with this one.  Arsenal are hovering, like they always are.

Gaston Ramirez is as usual being linked with every Italian club under the sun and I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes but with if he stays, with Lallana and to a lesser extent Lambert gone, he has the opportunity to step up and be the main man.  The main fulcrum of the attack, the main man on set pieces.  Time to see if you’re good enough and got the right attitude Gaston...

Meanwhile, Maya Yoshida will I’m sure still be with us next season, reprising his role as reserve centre back though Koeman has favoured playing with 3 centre backs before so he may get to play more.  Also, Koeman will know Maya from his Eredivisie days.  Maya isn’t high profile enough to attract bids that we can’t turn down and I can’t imagine him demanding a move anyhow as he seems, unlike the others to be an intelligent honourable sort of guy.

There has inevitably been some flak directed at Katharina Liebherr for not sharing Cortese’s commitment from people who forget whose money it is that bankrolls the club.  Would Lallana, Shaw and Lambert still be at Saints if Cortese was still here? Of course not.  Would we have got any more money for them? No.  Maybe Lallana’s “I get my own way or I’m throwing my toys out of the pram” attitude was a legacy of the former Chairman.

So, Day 1 of training arrived and the Koeman Brothers and Kuitenberg welcomed Sammy lee and Dave Watson (the ex-Barnsley keeper) to the staff.  All the non-World Cup players were there aside from Dani Osvaldo who was ‘ill’, presumed bullshit and Artur Boruc who was getting married.

There are rumours of incoming players like Pelle, Kangolo, Tadic and Van Dijk and it’s just been confirmed that we are going back to red and white stripes for next season.  Happy days.  Despite the unrest and players behaving like dicks, there is still a lot to look forward to, even if Morgan and Dejan are gone in the next few weeks.

For Adam Lallana:

We are Southampton, we don’t care about you.