Takeover fatigue

Following all the "inside information", rumour and speculation surrounding a potential takeover of the club has really taken its toll. All the talk was of Paul Allen sweeping in with his billions and lifting saints to the next level. But this all seemed to go cold, after a great deal of rumour about what went wrong (if anything). All seemed to have gone silent over the last week, until new rumours have surfaced suggesting something may happen next week. Not Allen, but someone who would may be at least as good for the club! But again this is "inside information" with no source named to back it up. Could all be more rubbish/optimism. Have to wait and see I guess.

In actual news Saints managed to complete the signing (eventually) of Marek Saganowski. The fee reported to be about £700k is an absolute bargain in he is half as good as he hinted at with his performances at the end of last season. He should be a real asset!! On a sadder note, Cranie and Best have left (out of contract) to Pompey and Coventry. Saints will get some compensation for them as they are under 24, this might be nearly £1m between the two. I will be sad to see Cranie leave as I thought he had provided good cover at the back, although didn't get as many chances as he probably deserved. Not to bothered to lose Best, whilst he was improving, he also seemed lazy (almost as bad as Rasiak) and was offside quite frequently.

It was also reported today that Chris Baird will probably be off to Sunderland for £3m. This will be a great shame as Chris had a fantastic season past, and was clearly the undisputed player of the season. But with the finances at Saints the way they are currently, £3m is a good price and hopefully Burley will get most of it to invest in 2 new centre backs and a midfielder. If we can sure up our defence and get a tough midfielder in, we could have a great season coming. I actually feel quite positive at the moment, takeover or not.

Behind the scenes, Glynn Snodin left as first team coach to rejoin Curbishly at West Ham, he was replaced yesterday by the returning Jason Dodd. He's southampton through and through and should bring back some fight and leadership back. Never know, if we don't some defenders in, he might get to make his 400th league appearance for Saints (currently on 399)!!

Upstairs and there are some battles going on in the boardroom. Brian Hunt stepped down as a director, but he was not replaced by another non-executive, but by Andy Oldknow the commercial director. His appointment upset the remaining non-execs who stormed out of the board meeting and have left the board completely split. The makeup of the board is now totally unrecognisable to that promised by the 'Football First' manifesto the new regime unveiled this time last year. I just hope that this doesn't mess up any new potential investors and that hopefully someone will come in soon and sweep away all the rubbish. It would be nice for Saints to have a stable, liked board for once.

Fingers crossed for next week!!

Looking back and to the future

Ok, so I've been lazy at updating, sorry. Now the apologies are out the way, the reflection and hoping can begin.

So Saints' excellent end to the season was so disappointingly ended by the worst footballing team in the championship!! A real pity that Derby made it to the premiership by beating the two most attractive footballing teams in the division, Saints and West Brom. Saints' problem this season was that we were too weak as a team. We didn't really have any tough players, haven't for years!

Despite the penalty shoot-out defeat to Derby I came away really proud of the team and the way they played. Now we have to take all the positives from this season and look to build on them. We have a young team and some great players. Bale has gone, which is a real shame (especially as its to Spurs), but good luck to him and we still produced some great performances without him last season (like the playoff 2nd leg). It doesn't look like we should lose too many more players (for non-financial reasons) in the summer. I hope Baird can be persuaded to stay and we can get young Best on a new contract.

I did say non-financial reasons though. The club obviously lose the parachute payments next season and will need some new financing or a major reduction in costs (bye-bye players). So if there is to be a takeover who might it be? Well, in the last few months there's been mention of a consortium fronted by Graeme Souness and a possible bid by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. No news has been coming out of the club recently, as it is in an offer period, and so cannot legally release information. I guess it is a case of wait and see, and HOPE!! New investment into the club would be fantastic. I don't want an Abramovich to come in and spend £300 million, but to secure the clubs future and develop the squad for a strong title push next year.

To succeed next year Saints need to bring in at least one big, strong centre back, a midfield bully and a creative spark. If we can keep Best, Rasiak, Jones and maybe even Saganowski (unlikely!) we have a pretty good strike force.

2007/08 'should' be a great year for Saints, new investment (hopefully), a real push for automatic promotion and watching Derby struggle miserably in the Premiership:)

Wolves 0 Southampton 6 !!!!!!!!!

I'm a believer again!! Whilst annoying to see what saints can do and think where we should be in the league, I again believe we can still make the playoffs. Saganowski got a majestic hat-trick, Surman finished brilliantly from a great ball by Wright and it was nice to see Leon Best finishing off a brilliantly worked move by Surman and Dyer. At the back the goalkeeping was brilliant, if he plays half as well against Luton, then hopefully Davis won't get a look in. Roll on Luton!!

Can't be bothered to describe much more when the video does it so much better. Watch and enjoy!!

Wolves 0 Southampton 6 !!!!!!!!!
Uploaded by ph11be

Loan season

It's been confirmed today that Saganowski is on trial, with the possibilty of a loan move being considered. Leon Best who has been shining during his loan period at league one side Yeovil, scoring 7 times in 9 starts, and there is a possibility of his loan being extended til the end of the season with Burley encouraged by his progress. Saints veteran keeper Kevin Miller has gone on loan to struggling torquay. On Balewatch today, the daily echo reported that apparently the bookmakers thought it more likely that Wycombe would beat Chelsea, than Bale starting next season with Saints. Sadly, this probably isn't far wrong!! Lets just hope we keep him til then at least.

The reserves returned to competitive action tonight for the first time in two months. The game marked the return to action of Nathan Dyer, who successfully came through 45 minutes, and gave useful run-outs to squad players (Bialkowski, Cranie, Makin, Lallana and Prutton). But it was two goals from the younger players which provided the saints second string with the 2-1 victory over Brighton. An early header fron Cedric Baseya and a fine individual goal from Jamie White. The win continued the reserves 100% season.