My take on whats going on at Southampton fc. Its only my opinion so feel free to comment. We are all aware that in the winter Cortese had a major disagreement with the owners of Southampton over the future direction of the club. I believe cortese wanted to push the club forward towards champions league football but the board were not prepared financially to back it. Hence cortese departure. I also believe at that point Pochettino had no desire to sign a new contract and had already made his mind up to leave. He merely stayed on to keep his options open to which club would come in for him. He used southampton to a large degree. At that point the board should of given poch an ultimatum to sign a new deal or leave. Letting it drag on was a major error from the board. I also believe corteses made promises to players like lovren when signing them that they would be playing champions league football. Not only was that an absurd promise but he frankly had no right or authority to make it . He was making verbal cheques which could not be cashed. I also believe poch as early as march started to distaberlise the club which employed him by whispering to key senior players that perhaps they were better off else where you should be playing champions league football etc. All of these factors culminated in a period of uncertainty which has caused damage to the club and unsettled players. So where does the blame lye? Personally I dont blame the board. Any person that thought southampton could achieve year on year champions league football is off their rocker. We are not financed by oligarcs or wealthy royalty. To compete we would not only have to increase the stadium capacity but also increase wage structure, staff, world wide commercial sponsorship player quality etc. an investment of 300 to 400 million would not seem so ridiculous. I dont blame the owners for saying hold on a minute, lets walk before we can run . An company worth there salt will take a more measured view to investment and not invest willy nilly. I believe the board are still ambitious but want to take it one step at a time. Europa league football for 3 seasons then push on. I dont really blame the players. They rightly or wrongly believe they have an ability to play at a higher level than what saints can offer at present. While that may be true at present they are not prepared to hang about to see the club grow. I do however believe that some players have acted and are acting badly to secure their move. I blame the past hierarchy, too much power was given to one person. That person made ridiculous promises that he no right to make and when they didnt come true the whole house of cards came tumbling down. Pochetino helped in the downfall. In saying all this Im strangely confident about the future of saints. Ambition is still there (Koeman appointment, future investment), we perhaps just need to be more realistic about what we are aiming for in the short term. I for one will stick by Koeman come what may.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 15:19:47 +0000
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