Les Reed, the Director of Football Development at Southampton FC, had plenty to say on a range of topics, including ins and outs, and other clubs sniffing around Southampton’s talent.
In his interview with Adam Blackmore (BBC Radio Solent) Reed begins with some interesting quotes about the club’s philosophy, processes and future.
“We’ve been labelled a feeder club. I think we are more of a showcase club. I think we do things well in terms of talent identification, recruitment, developing our own young players, and we’re pretty good at spotting talent at other clubs that maybe nobody else has seen or nobody else wants to take a chance on. “
“But then of course what we do is bring them out here at St. Mary’s and showcase them and everybody else is perhaps not so good at doing it, has a look over the fence and what they have is the resources and the finances.”
And I think it’s fair to say when they go, they go to big clubs and they go to big clubs for a lot of money.”
Whether or not this is a sneaky stab at Brendan Rodgers is up for debate.
Reed also revealed some of the facts behind the Toby Alderweireld transfer saga.
“We did everything we can possibly do to keep him. We had discussion about a long-term contract and all the indications were this was where his heart was and where he wanted to play.”
The confusion came with the option with Atletico. We exercised the option and believed they missed their chance to back out of it. All talk of a legal case was based on the belief that Toby wanted to be here.”
Reed enlightened Adam Blackmore of BBC Radio Solent, about the Schneiderlin transfer. United had made a bid about 2 weeks ago that was rejected.
Southampton set an asking price of what we assume was the actual transfer fee which United matched. Reed said he thought it was unlikely he would move before United went on their American tour but sure enough here is a picture of him and fellow new transfer Bastian Schweinsteiger and his new teammates:
Manchester United land in Seattle as Morgan Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Co look forward to pre-season… http://t.co/vfDW7ibYbo
— UtdStuff (@UtdStuff) July 13, 2015
Also touched on reports from preseason that Gaston Ramirez is refreshed and playing well. Reed makes it sound as if he will stay with the club this summer, but will have to compete for a starting spot.
Overall Reed seemed very positive and claimed that everything is in place for another successful summer. He was also very sure that the club has the ability to improve on last season even with players like Schneiderlin and Alderweireld leaving.
You can listen to the full interview here:
https://audioboom.com/boos/3363001-listen-to-bigadamsport-s-full-uncut-interview-with-saintsfc-director-of-football-les-reed
