Daily Mail reporter Neil Ashton is a man with a mission when it comes to Southampton Football Club and he is once again up to his old tricks.

When former Chairman Nicola Cortese left Southampton Football Club, Neil Ashton at the Daily mail was amongst the first to leap to his defence, claiming that without Cortese Saints were about to go into self destruct mode and insinuating that Katharina Liebherr was only interested in selling the club.

The departure of Pochettino had Ashton salivating at the lips and it seemed that he had the copyright on the word meltdown as he gleefully predicted the departure of each and every one of the Saints first team squad.

Just what Ashton's agenda was anyone could guess, certainly he had been close to Cortese after being invited to see the club at close hand in the summer of 2013, but his loyalty seemed to know no bounds as it seemed to Saints fans at every turn their was a headline from Ashton telling them how the club was about to implode.

Saints fans havent heard too much of Ashton since the end of the transfer window, partly because even he couldn't suggest that Saints would be given dispensation to sell players outside of the window, but mainly because of f our great start to the season he was forced to shut up, but you just knew he wouldn't go away.

Now he is back and breaking the news that Daniel Levy and Spurs will be looking to bring in Saints head of player recruitment Paul Mitchell.

Hinting at insider knowledge that suggests that he is either being briefed by Pochettino or his ex employer, he tells the reader how much Pochettino trusts Mitchell's judgement and how Levy is now determined to revamp the structure at White Hart Lane that even the most fervent Spurs fan admits is over manned and ineffective.

Whether Mitchell would want to go is another matter, of course Spurs will offer him a lot of money but the disarray at Spurs is well known in football and other rumours suggest that the Spurs hierarchy are concerned about Levy's management at the club first and foremost.

That being the case Levy will be keen to tray and publicly be seen to be doing something drastic and for his part the under fire Pochettino will want to try and be seen as part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Mitchell himself is undoubtedly an asset to Saints and one that they would not want to lose, he is a big part of Saints success and has been since joining in January 2012 however he is part of a big jigsaw rather than the only piece and from that point of view is replacable, but up until this summer our transfer dealings were patchy although in fairness this could be down to the meddling of our former Chairman and Mitchell will know that at Spurs Levy calls the shots with Spurs fans blaming him for wasting a great deal of money, at Saints Mitchell has a great chance at a club that is well along the road in its development, where at Spurs he will go to one in disarray, by the time he worked his notice at Saints he could find that the man who employed him and indeed his ex Saints colleague might have already have left the club.

So once again enter Neil Ashton to try and spin the rumours against Southampton Football Club, ironically Spurs fans are just as cynical of Ashton as we Saints supporters and they are taking anything written by him with a pinch of salt

During the summer Ashton managed to panic many Saints supporters, but the majority now see through what he was writing and question his agenda, so much so that many question his integrity as a journalist and see him as little more than a puppet for Cortese rightly or wrongly that is their perception, I would not dare to suggest that Ashton is receiving anything other than a pat on the back from his editor for his cutting edge journalism that brings Saints fans stories that they would not otherwise hear, however I bet that most football Chairman wish they had a man like Ashton who has shown such loyalty to someone not even in a job at the moment.

Photo: Action Images

WestSussexSaint added 19:16 - Nov 11 Why doesn't Levy just put an offer in for the whole club as he seems so in love with replicating it in North London. As for Ashton he doesn't deserve a perfectly good insult.
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pintsizedsaint added 19:22 - Nov 11 Wow! Check out the news today. You've got this tripe from Neil Ashton. The Mirror are saying Koeman is leaving for Dutch national squad and Athletico Madrid are keeping Toby A. Sounds like the hacks are ready to swipe at Saints again!
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WestSussexSaint added 20:06 - Nov 11 It amazes me how effective the cortese PR machine is these days as when he was at the club there was a virtual media blackout.
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ChristchurchSaint added 20:13 - Nov 11 Re pintsized: We all know that RoKo has declined the Dutch job, and I would hope that Toby will push as hard as he can to sign permanently. Re Mr Ashton: I think we all know his "love" (or hate!) for Saints. Hopefully Paul Mitchell would decline Mr Levy's kind offer ( unless he is also a mercenary who wants the money and has no credibilty), and as Nick says, there is a fair chance that his ex colleague (Judas) will not be at Spurs come January anyway. Sadly if Paul Mitchell wants to go, then there is not a lot that we can do, but hopefully he is a man of integrity.

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Blue added 20:19 - Nov 11 I wouldn't worry about what this 'journalist' says, he takes a swipe at a lot of clubs, whichever is flavour of the month, he has often slagged us off (Manchester City). Keep up the good work, you are impressing a lot of people.
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Consigliere added 20:48 - Nov 11 I really don't know why anyone buys the Daily Hatemail or pays any attention to anything they say, especially in the sports section. We have more reliable friends in the Telegraph and (recently and more grudgingly) the Grauniad. Just ignore the gutter- rag - its all they deserve.
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swatzy added 20:52 - Nov 11 Surely it must be dawning on people that being at Southampton makes you better. I feel this is through a combination of facilities, common targets, Sports science,coaching, scouting, decent organisation, self-reliance. Clubs like Saints, Stoke and Swansea have to be run in this way. Clubs like Manu, Liverpool, Spurs throw money at a problem and expect it will just go away. Perhaps Saints made Lovren etc look twice as good as they really were because of this foundation. I'd be surprised if any of the rumour targets will be very desperate to leave. For all the stirring of Ashton et al.

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pintsizedsaint added 21:28 - Nov 11 It's strange that a number of articles claiming some element of Saints will be stripped all come out on the same day.. Clearly Saints are disturbing the peace! Morgan has been shooting his mouth off again too - quoted in l'equippe as saying he wants to play for a big club. He just does not learn and has a big problem with his diplomacy. Fans won't give him much more leeway

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TorontoSaint added 22:13 - Nov 11 The latest quote from Morgan is somewhat disturbing so let's hope it's a translation issue. If still wants to play for a 'big club' and does not want to rise to the top the hard way with a true team then sell him and get someone else. This season has been amazing and anyone on our squad who is using Saints as a 'stepping stone' will show their colors and be off for a shed load of $$.

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ItchenNorth added 22:24 - Nov 11 Simple answer; don't buy, read or waste time writing articles about The Daily Mail or Mike Ashton !
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SaintDownUnder added 22:58 - Nov 11 Does anybody actually read the Daily Mail? I only ever see it being read by the elderly, unintentional racist type. A fitting audience for this sort of tripe...... I think the lesson learned over the summer is to have faith in the club and its structures, we have decent foundations that will support irrespective of whether key people move on. Paul is going a fantastic job for us and long may that continue, however if he wants to move on and face a new challenge then we wish him well and go again. Personally I reckon this is a 'there's not much going on' story with very little substance, which is typical of Ashton and the mail. We march on.

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nomorerumours added 23:46 - Nov 11 You can tell there's an international break as the media are getting desperate for stories and have jumped on the rumour mill in a big way. Several of the stories have an element of truth in them and depending which report you read, there are opposite spins on them. I have just spent the last 2 hours studying many of them and there have been 5 different topics today. Nichk has covered when of them – here are the other 4: 1. RonKo: Although this was an old story, it has resurfaced today with the Dutch team coach threatening to resign if his team doesn’t beat Latvia on Sunday. They say that RonKo is top of the list to take over. This is, of course, complete rubbish. RonKo went out of his way last month to make his position 100% clear. He is not available and will, at the very least, see his 3 year contract out with Saints. It is ludicrous to suggest otherwise. 2. Morgan: Yes, he has said that he still wanted to play at a bigger club. He has also said that he will definitely be seeing the season out with Saints and seeing how it goes. If Saints qualify for the CL, there is a very high probability that Morg will stay with us. What is a “big” club anyway? We can offer him a better financial deal although I do not believe that money is the main driving factor here. He wants success and to play at the highest level for club and his country. He may be poached by a European club like Real Madrid but his value must be over £40m by now. I am not at all concerned. 3. JayRod: Some reports state that Levy/Spuds are preparing a £20m bid for him in January – either a cash deal or with various fringe players included – ie: totally crap terms! Others have said that Saints are offering him a new 5 year contract. We had all this nonsense in the summer. I will be amazed if JayRod goes in January. We need him – he needs to prove that he can regain both full match fitness and his top form. I would expect that he is keen to play for us again and must be grateful the support from our medical team. We are in control – no worries with this one. 4. Toby: Most reports, including Toby’s own statement today, show that he is keen to make his loan deal a permanent move to Saints and his has never been happier than he is right now. Several reports have said that we are keen to arrange this and have been in talks with Athletico Madrid over the £6.8m buy option in the contract. One report states that the parent club has the right to buy out this option and pay us £1.2m compensation. If that is true (and it may well be so as there was always a great deal of ambiguity at the end of August and in early September over the terms) then Toby could force a move or we could sweeten the deal or both. Whether Athletico want him back for themselves or because they feel his value has doubled since Toby joined us and they want to get a lot more for him is uncertain. I believe that Toby (and Ryan) will be with us for several years at least. Overall, who knows what to believe. We know that over 90% of these stories are pure fabrication. What we do know is that we have money in the bank and are enjoying a fantastic start to the season. The players are really happy – why would any of them want to leave? On the contrary, we should find it much easier to acquire new players from now on.

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BaselSaint added 11:58 - Nov 12 Ashton is a poisonous little twerp and I had a real go at him during the summer as did a lot of other people; however I think as we gain a higher profile due to our success we will need to desensitise ourselves somehow because if we continue on this incredible journey the malevolent and retarded scribblings of Ashton will be nothing compared with other comments and articles that we will see. It will go with the territory.

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ThereIn76 added 13:37 - Nov 12 If Spiderman does leave next summer, it needs to be (a) for shed loads and (b) for one of the truly big clubs - a Real Madrid or a Bayern Munich. Not Arsenal and definitely not Spurs. I've not seen the interview in the original French but I suspect the interviewer was trying to give Paris St Germain hope that Spider will join them. However if we finish in the top four he'll probably stay, so keep the faith.

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SaintStu7 added 14:47 - Nov 12 These press stories appear as in the summer when we have been doing well on the pitch. We should take this as a compliment as to how we are progressing as a club. Yes they can appear unsettling but as 'nomorerumours' summarises well they are pretty pathetic and seek only to fill column inches about a club that everyone is talking about. We can sit proud and enjoy these stories for what they are, people wanting to be a little part of our club! In relation to Spiderman, there is nothing new there other than he is happy at Saints and may consider moving in the summer if things change. This is unfortunately the case for all our players in the current state of modern football. I think the key is to not too get attached to individual players and have faith in the structure and tradition of the club which is clearly currently in safe hands.....long my it last!

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BoondockSaint added 15:44 - Nov 12 I doubt anyone would leave a stable club with a stable owner for any club, not just Spurs, with a looney owner and revolting players (in both senses of the word). National team managers rarely last more than two years before they are fired-usually because the prima donna players don't play well together ( prime example is Holland!). Next time you see Ashton on TV, see if you can see Cortese's lips moving....and check out where his hand is!

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