View attachment 931835Reporter - "Hi Rickie, How has the break been for you? and more importantly now that you are back, how have you found the beginning of the season?
Me - "Yeah everything's been really good.. we all had a nice long holiday, recharged the batteries, did what we needed to do and now we can all focus on the task at hand with full commitment, purpose and enthusiasm."
Reporter - "A lot was made in the media about Manchester City approaching you to become their new manager, can you shed any more light on this?"
Me - "I've never been one to conduct my business in public.. I don't think its fair on anybody if I go talking about it. All I will say is that I had several job offers over the summer and turned them all down, I am fully committed here at Southampton and very happy and I wont say anything more on it."
Reporter - "It has been a relatively quiet transfer window for the club, but you did see Lorenzo Insigne leave, does it worry you that the club cant keep hold of players of his calibre?"
Me - "I think we have shown that the club can keep hold of those types of player. There was large interest in Sadio Mane, in Charlie Austin, in Vic Wanyama, in Ryan Bertrand and in Cedric but we told all of those clubs that those players were not for sale. In the end every decision that the club makes needs to be a business decision. In the case of Lorenzo we got a substantial offer from Real Madrid, the player wanted to go and fulfil a childhood dream, they offered him huge wages and we had contingency plans in place for when he left. We were able to go out and buy Correa as a replacement, we bought in Vietto with some of the money and even after that pocketed a HUGE amount of profit. That to me is just good business sense. Yes it a shame that Lorenzo left but everything was done properly and he went about things in the right way and for that he leaves with our blessing."
Reporter - "Some people have said that you have failed to adequately replace him?"
Me - "Who? who has said that?"
Reporter - "It's been reported in the press"
Me - "Oh well it must be true then..."
Reporter - "Are you worried that the club seems unable to attract the BIG name players?"
Me - "That seems to me to be a ridiculous statement to make. We are in a position that we have worked towards for a long time. We have state of the art facilities, one of the best coaching rosters in the country and are playing in the biggest competitions in the world. Just because we are not trying to buy Ronaldo and Messi does not mean we are struggling. We like to put our faith in young players that have a point to prove and are willing to commit to the whole project we have here at Southampton, both on and off the pitch. We will make absolutely no apologies to anybody for the way we do our business and ultimately it will be the results on the pitch that do the talking."
Reporter - "It has also been reported that the club is once again the subject of a bid from a wealthy backer, is that something you know anything about or can comment on?"
Me - "It really isn't my place to comment on any of that."
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