Lambert, Lallana and Lovren were the three panomime villains in Saints summer of discontent, but are they the ones to blame, after all without the input of one man they would still be Saints players.

The manner and way in which Brendon Rodgers persued Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren last summer left a sour taste in the mouth and it was very easy to use the term "Hypocrite" when bringing up the Liverpool manager's name, after all was this the same Brendon Rodger's who spent the bulk of the summer of 2013 whinging about the way that certain clubs and Arsenal in particular were attempting to prise away his then star asset Luis Suarez, lots of talk about underhand dealing and get out clauses.

So Rodger's credibility in Southampton went down drastically in the summer of 2014 when he himself appeared to be doing just what he had supposedly so despised only a year earlier.

Rodgers reputation in May 2014 was at its highest stock, he had the respect of most in football in that he had fostered a team spirit at Anfield that drove them forward and almost captured their first League title in nearly 25 years, he appeared to be the image of a manager working without the reputation and ego of his contemporaries at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, The Emirates or the Etihad, here was a man of the people who would build a squad and improve it not buy in the top players, Ok the last part was probably because he didnt have the resources to do so.

But in the summer of 2014 it all changed and so did Brendon Rodgers, perhaps he didnt change, perhaps he had been like this all along he just never had the chance to show it, but to those outside of Anfield Rodgers appeared to have forgotten what made him his good reputation and he now thought he was Billy Big Boots and he had a new arrogance about him not seen before.

Therefore Brendon suddenly liked to throw his weight and money around and who were little Southampton to stand in his way, he wanted Lambert, Lallana and Lovren and why should he not conduct his transfer overtones through the media, he had decried that very practice a year ago with Suarez but it now suited him.

As mentioned in another article Dejan Lovren is a certain type of person, that is not to brand him a Johnny Foreigner etc, there are plenty of those who are not English who are honourable men just as there are many who are who are not, but Lovren aside the behavior of Liverpool and Rodgers in the media was terrible, seemingly making threats that deals would be called off it not done before the World Cup etc and refusing to let the players move in their own good time.

Saints fans wanted to see Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana appear in a World Cup with the name Southampton FC attached to them, they did get that in the case of Lallana but not Lambert and that left a sour taste in the mouth and it was Rodgers at the core of that.

These deals did not have to be done before the World Cup and Im convinced that Lallana in particular suffered, a nailed on certainty for a starting place in the England starting lineup at the end of the season, by the time the tournament arrived he was a bit part player, I feel most of that was because he had blatantly flouted Roy Hodgson's demand that England payers leave transfer talk at home till after the World Cup once they joined up with the squad, Lallana clearly didnt do that seeminlgy offering to have a medical in Miami etc.

Now Adam Lallana always struck me as an honourable lad despite what Mark Clattenberg claimed, someone was stirring him up and it wasn't Saints demanding that he leave immediately.

Football is a tough game, a dirty game, but there are still those that behave like men, from the way our players were enticed and bullied into leaving Saints at Liverpool's timescale and not their or Saints suggests that Brendon Rodgers is not one of them.

Therefore it gave Saints supporters much pleasure to see his squad in such disaray in the first half of the season leading to rumours of his sacking, Liverpool have revived, but that is in spite of Rodgers not because of him, Liverpool have some good players but they are not the team they were in terms of spirit, the treatment of Steven Gerrard shows that, he allegedly fell out with Rodgers last summer and Raheem Sterling wont sign a new deal, sadly for Brendon in the case of Sterling he is finding out what its like to be held for ransom lol.

So although Lambert, Lallana and Lovren have to shoulder various degrees of blame for the debacle back in the summer, after all they are all adults and can say no, the real villain of this story is Brendon Rodgers a man who behaved like a spoilt child in a sweet shop needing to spend all his pocket money in one go and NOW.

But let's not give poor Brendon stick on Sunday after all he is also the man who gave us £50 million and enabled us to make our football club bigger and stronger, we should thank him for that and at the same time thank our lucky stars that it is Ronald Koeman who was spending it and not Brendon Himself, I dont think there is a Saints fan in the land who would swap Koeman for Rodgers and that is perhaps where this story has a happy ending at least for Saints fans.

Photo: Action Images

A1079 added 12:28 - Feb 19 The only thing that matters is whether we get 3 points and cement a position or they do and they and others close in on us. Everything else is peripheral and pure theatre. If we don't concentrate on the main objective then we will come out of it having lost. As much as we all had a bad feeling about some of the events at close season, too much emphasis is being placed on what is now history. I hope that Lambert and Lallana get an acceptable reception. I am sure the latter has learnt from the experience, he probably wishes he had handled it differently, but can any of us say, we have never made mistakes. Lovren I am less patient with as his whole approach appeared somewhat mercenary, but as it has happened, we have not really missed him. Lets just hope, win, lose or draw, that we come out of it knowing we did our best on the pitch and gave 100% support off it.

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LostBoys added 12:35 - Feb 19 Brenda is not all he appears. Apart from the Liverpool programme portraying him as a family man when in fact he had left his wife, I was at the Majeski stadium on business when as Reading manager he refused to sign a little boy's autograph book and left the boy and his mother in tears after presumably telling them to go forth. It was a different story when the boy's rather large father appeared and Brenda exited very quickly. I understand that when you are having a meeting with your coaches albeit in a public place signing autographs is a chore but a little lad in his Reading kit? Brenda left Reading shortly after that. In terms of Lallana I think everyone knows what went on and trying to airbrush history now on a PR exercise will not wash. I do not begrudge Lallana leaving at all but it is the way he did it that irks and will not be forgotten.

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BoondockSaint added 13:24 - Feb 19 It would be nice if Saints supporters all wore Brenda masks made from the picture he has of himself in his own house. I disagree that it was "team spirit" that got them so far up the table last year-it was the Cannibal's goal scoring, and to give the devil his due, his tireless work rate. If you think Brenda is a "Mastermind" check this out:
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ericofarabia added 14:00 - Feb 19 Ha Ha ....loving the Mastermind clip. Good one of Redkrap as well!!. Brenda is right up there in my hate list. WAC. I hope none of the 3 play, but Lala land looks a cert. SRL a 5 min cameo and probably set up a goal. Lovren probably staying up in Livrtpool with his head, not even on the bench. Please let us win convincingly and rather than giving the bird to any of our ex's, serenade Brenda with Brenda Brenda what's the score and a cheeky sacked in the morning ;-)

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LongtimeSaint added 14:29 - Feb 19 A bit of balance here. Sure, I was worried in the Summer, as we all were, before being relieved and delighted at the way the season has gone so far. However, how do you think fans of Feyenoord feel, after we have taken both their Manager and their top-scorer, and admit to having tried to buy another of their players in January? Let's face it - we hate it when our players leave, but love it when we sign new ones. Remember that careers are short, albeit very well paid, at this level, and most of us would move to a better-paid job if we had the chance. We talk about 'Clubs', but we aren't members - we are customers.

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BaselSaint added 15:44 - Feb 19 I often post messages on the Liverpool Echo site asking for them to send more money. Some of them take it in good humour....
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Hugh_Jarce added 19:13 - Feb 19 No issues with moving on to "further your career" but there are ways and means of doing that. Lovren's behaviour was disgraceful and Lallana wasn't much better from all accounts including his own. Teenager Shaw handled it better than both and no issues at all with SRL. Just hope we get 3 points
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Consigliere added 20:01 - Feb 19 I think that you are all being very mean to these boys. The problem is that grass really does appear to be greener from the other side of the fence. This is due to the angle of refraction of the light as seen from the point of view of the distant observer, and is represented by the equation of a=s2/b x g where "a" is the luminescence of the distant patch of grass, "s"(squared) is the same factor from the position of the observer , "b" is the distance in metres from the point of the observer to the fence and "g" is the angle of observation. The problem is that the angle of observation becomes increasingly acute the nearer the observer gets to the fence and as soon as he crosses the line, the grass is revealed to be either the same colour as it was where he came, or is actually brown. Which is what happened to our three exiles. Someone really should have explained this all to them beforehand.

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theholsaints added 22:12 - Feb 19 I can only name Le God, scholes, giggs, nev, terry, Gerrard and the other scouser as one club players...let's admit we all love a new job and payrise...the pool paid us £48 million for those 3 players...for 2, their England chances have faded big time, we will take their champions league spot and lovren can find his head stuck firmly up his own arse!!
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