Just had a peek at a Saints board. The impression seems to be that this has been in the pipeline for a while, and that Cortese wanted to give the new man a chance to spend in January. Adkins will land on his feet, but he might have to drop down to the CCC to get a job. It has to be disappointing as well that he doesn't get a chance to see through the work he started with some of the gifted young players he's given a chance. Principally Shaw and Ward-Prowse, but even the likes of Lallana, Ramirez, Cork, Yoshida, and Clyne are all under 25. There's a very good group of younger players there, some of whom will probably be picked off if they do end up going down.
LOL, earlier in the year I said no way would Adkins get the sack after leading them to two consecutive promotions. Terrible move by Southampton I think.
Man, I really like Southampton as a club and admire what Adkins has done. I may just be rooting for them to go down after this.
Very interesting. He should have a good chance with Etherington aging and not really doing the biz this season. Kightly isn't really very good and Pennant is M.I.A.
Also, I saw an interview with their new fella, Pochettino. He had to have a translator to give the interview They also said he got the elbow from his last job because of poor performances. Yeah, that looks like it'll work out OK for them
Both have been very poor in the tournament, watched 2 of each teams matches & they hardly played as team. Some Argie lads are even more individualistic than I thought first. Two players that impressed me are Derlis Gonzalez of Paraguay & Castillo from Chile, one is already signed by Benfica & the latter is, well quite a handful for defenders, fantastic movement and intelligence on & off the ball. Put simply this Sudamericano is a dream place for Portuguese duo to shop & agents paradise.
Now that Valdes is not renewing his contract, there are rumors about Barça preparing an offer for Courtois.
It's a shame Cech isn't like, 8 years older or something*. Then the timing with Courtois would be perfect. As is, we've got an excellent keeper for the foreseeable future and one of the best young keepers in Europe on the books as well. It'll be interesting to see what the club decides to do. I'm not sure Courtois would be interested in another 10 loan spells. I'd hate to see him at Barca, though. *I've seen oppo fans refer to Cech as 'aging'. I think that because he's been around so long, the perception of him is that he's much older than his 30 years.
Well Courtois' current contract runs until the Summer of 2016. So it'll be another two seasons before it becomes a real issue.
I think this is all a moot point until he either gets his loan spell in the Premiership or is moved into the squad. As good as DeGea looked in Spain, I think it is fair to be critical of him on several occasions since moving over and have some concerns with Courtois having a similar experience.
De Gea's issue since moving over has been mostly his occasional lack of presence in the box on crosses. Courtois starts over Mignolet in the national team because this is one of the areas where he is noticeably better than the Sunderland man.
still want to see how he does in England before he is given the gloves. I would love to proved wrong trust me- but we have seen quite a few of these keepers look less than confidence in dealing with the aerial battles in the Prem.