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.