Makis

Mirallas is a waste of time. Sounds like contingency planning. If there was a real overhaul players like Mirallas would not be part of next season's squad.

So how come you have time to chat shite in the net if you're that busy?

How about we assume most of those prices are just guesses by the journalists?

Why would they? The club has to offer every offer that meets the clause and it would be up to the player which club he chooses.

Well, he has played a lot in the Bundesliga and Eredivision as well. 127m/62g in Eredivision, 85/36 in Bundesliga.

That sounds really stupid. Imagine being on that sort of salary and one of your teammates f*ks up and your team looses -> no bonus -> really good for team morale? It would probably cause strife and bickering in the locker room. And what if the tactics are just all wrong and while you do win a good number of games they are low-scoring? Plus plenty of studies show that money really isn't that good a motivator for most people in the long run. They can work for a short while (like give a team incentives to finish a project early). Just how would it improve the team if players for instance started playing against the manager's plans to score more goals? Because that's the only one I can imagine how this sort of incentives could affect. If you want more goals, the tactics have to reflect that. Players want to score them, but if the incentives are wrong, players will shoot from wrong positions rather than passing to a teammate. Now winning is another matter, in games like the ones we have seen in the last few rounds incentives might have given a small boost. But again, basing that much of wages in bonuses causes all sorts of issues. Plus finally, clubs would love to do it like this. They try to minimize the base salaries but agents are having none of that. So what sort of players would you end up? Players who are happy with half the salary than what others have. I.e. you don't get the best possible players. I doubt just paying average players huge winning bonuses will turn them into top players.

Koeman was pictured with Sandro's agent.

Well, they actually do have those bonuses already. Plus many other kinds. http://www.planetfootball.com/in-depth/transfer-really-happens-contract-looks-secret-footballer/

His expected goals against stat isn't too bad.

The simple problem is that while in baseball you can quantify players very simply in football there is no simple set of stats. Baseball is more of an individual sport disguised as a team sport (batter vs pitcher) so there's really no teamwork aspects and such. Your teammates have very little effect on your batting or pitching. Numbers in football can help, for sure. They can both help find potential players and weed out some. There are so many potential players that scouting them all properly is just not feasible. Especially if you want to make bargain finds. For instance, you might want to sign a striker who can hold the ball up. There might be someone who doesn't have a very good goal scoring rate but the numbers relating to the role you think are good. So it might be worth looking at why his goal scoring record isn't that great. There might be a reason that can be rectified and you might find a bargain who fits your criteria perfectly.

We should definitely sign players solely based on stats. Actually watching them play is so old.

Davies looks more like a box-to-box midfielder. He's got the skillset so no point in forcing him to play deep.

There are lots of people who own just one or a few shares and are not going to sell them so even if Usmanov bought every available share minus Moshiri's he'd be nowhere near 50%.

McCarthy seems to be injured most of the time and I'm not too certain Besic has a future either. We shall see. Barry has really struggled there and Davies is not really a defensive mid.

He's not going to get the 51% unless Moshiri sells him a big chunk of his shares.

He wanted a cheap keeper he knew. Low risk.

Some kid from Newcastle youth team.

I think some people just can't fathom the fact that our squad is not as good as those teams so they come up with reasons why we don't win more matches. "It must be because we are not trying to win, damn that Koeman!"

Steve compared Koeman to Pochettino so it was only fair I pointed out it's not a very good comparison.

Oh, and while we are at it, Pochettino's results against that lot this season so far is: W: 3, D: 3, L: 3. So if Spurs win ManU they will better Koeman's results from last season by one point. I'd say Pochettino seems worse against those teams considering he has a much better squad than Koeman has had.

Did Southampton last season look like they were beaten before those matches?

Nope, just lacking in quality.

Oh, and last season Koeman's results against those teams was W: 4, D: 2, L: 4. Not bad at all. Soton 2 - 3 ManU Chelsea 1 - 3 Soton Liverpool 1 - 1 Soton ManCity 3 - 1 Soton Soton 4 - 0 Arsenal ManU 0 - 1 Soton Arsenal 0 - 0 Soton Soton 1 - 2 Chelsea Soton 3 - 2 Liverpool Soton 4 - 2 ManCity

Pochettino's results against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United for his first season (2014-2015): Spurs 0 - 3 Liverpool Arsenal 1 - 1 Spurs ManC 4 - 1 Spurs Chelsea 3 - 0 Spurs Spurs 0 - 0 ManU Spurs 5 - 3 Chelsea Spurs 2 - 1 Arsenal Liverpool 3 - 2 Spurs ManU 3 - 0 Spurs Spurs 0 - 1 ManC W: 2 D: 2 L 6 Everton results against the same teams this season: ManC 1 - 1 Everton Chelsea 5 - 0 Everton Everton 1 - 1 ManU Everton 2 - 1 Arsenal Everton 0 - 1 Liverpool Everton 4 - 0 ManC Liverpool 3 - 1 Everton ManU 1 - 1 Everton Everton 0 - 3 Chelsea W: 2 D: 3: L: 4 So Koeman's results are already better than Pochettino's with one game (Arsenal) in hand. You were saying?

Clough was arguable the best manager ever in the English League so if that's the yardstick I'd say Steve will be disappointed no matter who the Everton manager is. Blackburn bought the title and Leicester was the perfect storm. Perfect team for the right manager at the time plus pretty much every player playing the best season of their career. Well, Kante might improve on that but I doubt others won't. And those are the three examples from the past 30 years.