Some Saints fans have been critical of the club after reports appeared in the media that they are willing to listen to offers for all three of their frontline strikers, but these stories are nothing but mischief making.

The story that appeared in the Daily Mail ver the weekend claiming that Saints are willing to sell Manolo Gabbiadini, Charlie Austin and Shane Long, provoked an angry response from sections of the Saints support, but there are several good reasons why they should be ignored.

First is the fact that it was the Daily Mail who published these revelations, at this time of year with a transfer window opening in just over a month's time, the media will always be full of stories, the Daily Mail is the most notorious for its innacurate and agenda led style of shock horror reporting and we all know how this paper has stirred things up over the past 3 years for Southampton Football Club. It is aimed purely at getting the Saints fans into a panic at a time when we have only just got a new majority shareholder, sublimely to make you think that he is going to asset strip.

Secondly is the fact that it is highly unlikely that this came from a source within Saints, football clubs are not going to tell the press that they are trying to sell players in this way and especially not their entire front line, for one thing it would alert clubs to the fact they are going to be looking for replacements, Saints would be keeping quiet and getting on with signing a replacement if they wanted to sell any of these three.

Thirdly is the fact that we would not be looking to completely revamp our attack, from this point of view, perhaps we might be considering selling one of this trio in order to bring in a fresh face, perhaps we are not sure which one yet, although it would be unlikely to be Gabbiadini.

So having looked at why this story has appeared and the innacuracy of it, ets consider whether it has any possible foundation.

The answer would be yes in that with so few goals being scored we would be foolish to not be looking for a striker in January and to do that we would need to sell, not only to raise money, but also to free up a space in the squad.

As have said we are highly unlikely to want to sell Gabbiadini, although unless we sign a playmaker who can play to his strengths, then he is perhaps the least suitable of the trio to play in a formation that is relying on wingers at the moment.

Shane Long however will be 31 in January, we have had four good seasons from him, but he is at an age where his career is entering its final stages, especially as he is reliant on a high energy game, in normal circumstances we would be looking to move him on and get some money for him and he himself would be looking for one final pay day.

I like Long as a player but the truth is he can't go on forever and our strategy is about moving players on at the right time.

Charlie Austin can't be happy with the game time he is getting under Pellegrino, his career has stalled in the last couple of years, mainly through a series of injuries, but now even with him being fit, he is clearly not in Pellegrino's plans, even though he is perhaps the best suited to the way we are set up at present.

At 28 he will feel that he needs to be at a club who will play him, he has gone from one of the most potent strikers in the Premier League to a forgotten man, unless there is a change of manager before January then I can see him going.

So the likelihood is that the club will be looking to offload at last one striker in January and bring in a fresh face, so we shouldn't be shocked at this news and neither should e be using it as a stick to beat our new Chinese owner with, the club is getting on with it's job quietly, Saints fans should not allow every mischief making story to inflame the situation.

Every season snce 2014 certain elements of the press have looked to cause trouble for Saints, sadly they have found a section of the fanbase who will fall for the trick and make the situation appear worse than it actually is.

Within St Mary's it is business as usual, yes things are not going well, but that is football, no clubs have great seasons year in year out, everyone has bad periods, no football club makes brash announcements about what they are going to do in terms of transfers etc, well not unless you are Chelsea or Manchester City and have unlimited cash.

Saints are a well run club who have punched, if not above their weight, certainly to its maximum over the past few seasons, the fact that this season we are not doing quite so well should not be made to turn into a crisis.

In conclusion, I am not trying to say that everything is rosy, clearly there are issues on the playing side that need to be resolved and need to be resolved quickly and that might mean a change of manager, but this is normal in football, it does not mean that the whole club is being badly run.

Perhaps Les Reed is not the right man for the job, but he has done a good one, not a perfect one, but certainly better than we could have expected five years ago on our return to the Premier League, he needs to now show he is the man to continue to take us forward.

Finally it is time to get behind the team and help it through this bad patch, on Sunday the team needs the supporters more than at any time in the past four years, I read people on social media saying this is not what they paid £600 for a season ticket for ! Well there are no guarantees in football, you buy your season ticket presumably because you are a supporter of the club through thick and thin, you buy it to support it, to enjoy the good times better because you have been there in the bad.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 10:36 - Nov 20 Yep - the Daily Smell is pure evil on many levels. This is obviously invented as most of their stories are. We do need radical surgery in January but it needs to supplement Gabby not replace him. I would sell Long, Austin and Redmond and bring in a Pelle type target man who can head goals and a Mane type attacking MF who is quick and scores goals. I think we need to persevere with Boufal. I accept that the income from the three sales will not fund what I want but the owner will have to decide what he wants. Continue on as we are and it could be the second division. I expect MP may well follow Pulis out of the door if we don't beat Everton and that might be a time for Les Reed to consider his position. It seems to me that his 'golden touch' (if it was ever more than luck) has gone now. Anyone that thought our attacking options were sufficient during the summer deserves the sack in my view. PS If the owner doesn't stump up then a VVD sale looks likely. PPS I loved the 'sublimely' typo.

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dirk_doone added 11:01 - Nov 20 Such a shame, because most Saints fans would love to see us sell Shane Long in January, even if we don't get anywhere near the 12 million we paid for him. He's been given a new contract which will keep him here until he's 33 and that's going to cost us a few million in wages. He's also taking the place of someone who might potentially score goals.
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steve73 added 11:17 - Nov 20 Four good seasons from Long?? I'd say one. People admire his workrate but what's the point of running around for 90 minutes like your shorts are on fire when there's so little end product? And no it's not due to being played out of position or not having the rub of the green. He's not very good. Needs moving to a club more on his level. Although the way things are going...

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saintmark1976 added 11:37 - Nov 20 Good post SanMarco. Why people waste their hard earned money buying the Daily Fail is one of life's great unanswered mysteries. It's target audience appears to be the "hard of thinking" and easily influenced. It's best used shredded as bedding for hamsters and I suggest Nick would be best advised simply to ignor it.
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SaintBrock added 13:42 - Nov 20 In point of fact Nick nobody on Saints web believe the story so your opening premise is wrong and inaccurate. Nobody trusts the Daily Wail, end of.
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BuyEastleighFC4aBtea added 13:47 - Nov 20 Hmmm... worry don't The Echo sales are slowly dropping in volume in my shop I offer return 11 or more copies out of 30 in total. That said many people buy it for other reasons then keeping to date with saint news! of course it is own by the daily Mail group....! If you didn't know that? I always felt Nick is a objective reporter.
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Jesus_02 added 14:52 - Nov 20 Common sense would suggest that we would consider offers for any of the front 3 as they are simply not delivering the goods. Even if the reson is that they havent been given the operutunity (Austin) why would keeping them improve that situation. I would love Austin and Gabbi to stay but they are next to useless as loan strikers, and that is how Les wants us to play, so what is the point.

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BoondockSaint added 15:17 - Nov 20 While I love calling out "fake news", this should really be called "old news". Les Reed has been wiling to listen to, and gleefully accept, any and all offers for any and all players over the last three years. You can't blame fans for having a breakdown every time these rumours are circulated (no matter what the source) because sadly, this is the pattern: Rumour-deal done-out the door within a week. Unless it's a rumour about the Saints signing any decent player or manager, then the subject or their agent immediately denies any interest in coming to the Saints. Yes, we should worry about "asset stripping", since that's what it has looked like for the last three years! Of course, signing Eric Black was more of a sign of "acid tripping" by Les....

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chasaint80 added 15:51 - Nov 20 I'd keep Long and Austin, they will be just the type of forwards we'll need in the Championship next season
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Jesus_02 added 15:51 - Nov 20 It seems a little off topic, but the paragraph may also be so. The comments about Les doing a good, but not perfect job and exceeding our expectations is purely your opinion Nick. 5 years ago we were lead to expected to be challenging the elite, we had a sense of purpose and of unity. Until Coretse and MP1 went our ambition was not questioned. At that point we had momentum and we hadn’t sold players (except Ox). When Cortese left we quickly returned to the selling club that everyone else (including you seemingly) expected us to become. To begin with Les did a fairly decent job of steadying the ship and to certain degree you could understand how the first mass exodus happened, but we still had some momentum, people (including new players) still felt that this was a one off, especially when we employed world football legend Ronald Koeman to drive the bus. We had taken a knock and the momentum had slowed but our position was still arguably ambitious. But then we sell again, and again. And now all was not well, with rumours that Les was less than happy with RKs lack of youth development where frequent. So, Koeman is courted and we don’t struggle too hard especially when we get 5m compensation. We sell some more, roll out the same old “we are not a selling club” stuff but get less for Wanyamma than we paid and employ a manager and assistant that have a track record of struggling and relegation but one that also comes with a commitment to youth development. Were has the momentum gone now? And at the point we appoint Claude Puel we are just hoping the black box has unearthed another MoPo1. But it hasn’t, its unearthed a manager that only really understands that the only way to progress in cups is to win (also you don’t get relegated from cups). We play that season (apart from the cup games) the most negative football I have seen at saints. Not as hopeless as Jan Poortvliet, but somehow more risk averse. Momentum is now gone, we have sold our attacking threat, we have midfielders scared about losing the ball, because we don’t defend as a team, and we have a wall of average players that our youth cannot break through. When Tadic, lost the ball on the edge of the box I thought about what would have happened if that was Lallana 4 years ago. The other midfielders would have pressured the ball and at worst would have made a foul outside the box. And even then if we had conceded we would have competed all the more. We lost that game because our plan A was not to concede. Tadic didn’t have options to release an early ball when he picked it up. As soon as he lost it we didn’t fight to win it back, we backed off and Liverpool the space and freedom to find whoever they wanted. When we scored our heads dropped (we had already lost. But, we blame Tadic for the mistake. We blame MP2 for not playing 2 up front when we don’t have a Centre Forward with the capability to hold the ball up….it’s like we have 3 halves of separate puzzles! The only person we have left to blame is Les. Your argument is like saying Captain Smith did a great job until the Titanic hit that iceberg.

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SanMarco added 17:43 - Nov 20 The Echo is part of the Mail group - I genuinely didn't know that. I am torn now as to whether I can keep reading it. Perhaps I can because I use it on the web where it is free and have found an adblock that works on it - even so........ Good post Jesus - not sure that Cortese staying would have made any difference though - the fair play rules didn't exactly allow 'fair play' for us.

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SaintPaulVW added 22:20 - Nov 20 Gabbi you would want to keep but the other 2? Austin looks a lot heavier and Shane Long is heading towards the yearly anniversary of his last goal.
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