I’m reading that Morgan Schneiderlin has publicly expressed a desire to rejoin his former Southampton Boss at Spurs in preference to moving elsewhere; I’m also reading that he’s eulogised that same Boss, stating that Spurs have ‘a great future’ under him, that he ‘improved him very much’, that ‘he’s a great Coach’, and that reuniting with him (at Spurs) would be a better career move than moving elsewhere(ie Arse…).
I’m thinking that to make statements like these publicly, he has to know that a move to Spurs is fairly certain, as otherwise he would have ‘egg all over his face’ and close off any other exit options from Southampton. On the other hand, the general media have mixed reporting on a proposed transfer – we have progressed a deal with him, apparently doubling his salary (Telegraph), but The Times quote Koeman as saying ‘no bids for him.’ However, its important to realise that a ‘no bids’ statement means no formal bids have been submitted to the Board for consideration, but it would not preclude the conduct of, or indeed, the conclusion of negotiations on a bid yet to be submitted.
So, media hype is saying a deal is imminent, Schneiderlin’s comments say a deal is inevitable, but substantive reporting seems to be saying that only some progress has been made to date on completing a transfer. Here’s the real issue: every time I saw Southampton play last season, Schneiderlin was the box-to-box MF and Victor Wanyama was the holding MF; however, media reports have us thinking that Schneiderlin is the arrival for Sandro’s departure – an apparent like-for-like replacement. Far from it! So the real questions that arise are: who will replace Sandro in the holding role, should he depart, and will we be stockpiling box-to-box MFs under Poch with a roster of Schneiderlin, Dembele, Paulinho, Bentaleb, and possibly Holtby, if that’s the role that’s found for him. And, to cap it all, it seems that Schneiderlin is an even less prolific goalscorer than Dembele – which takes some doing – and raises a further question!
Written by RathgarSpur
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