Over the past couple of years Tottenham Hotspur have had a reputation in football for their unsettling tactics, but their antics in that time have paled into insignificance after the events of yesterday.

Spurs have received major criticism in the past few years for the way they approach trying to get a player or manager, Saints had experience of this first hand with firsty the way Mauricio Pochettino was poached from his job at St Mary's and then the way firstly Morgan Schneiderlin was unsettled and then last summer Victor Wanyama and Saints were far from being the only victims of these bullying tactics.

However the madness of yesterday and the way that Everton tried to publicly lure Ronald Koeman, made Spurs look like angels.

Of course I am not naive enough to believe that club's don't talk to players & managers agents behind the back of their current clubs, that is the way football works and has done virtually since it began, but Thursday 2nd June will perhaps go down in history as the date that the rule book was torn up completely rather than quietly ignored.

The day started quietly enough until a tweet from a journalist in the Netherlands started a media frenzy, initially the stories were leaked to the press presuambly by Everton or somone close to them that Everton would be launching a final bid for Roanld Koeman and they were prepared to break the bank to do so both in terms of managers salary but also in the transfer kitty at his disposal, a figure that seemed to increase with each new story that went out.

But then came the tweet from Holland that this was almost a done deal and that Koeman's agent was already on is way to Merseyside to conclude the negotiations, quickly this story esculated with each media outlet trying to get a headline that would persuade readers to click on their webpage.

Soon it wasn't just Koeman's agent going but Koeman himself and the figures kept getting bigger and bigger.

This was a very pubic display and o be blunt it can only have been orchestrated by Everton.

So why would they do so, the simple answer is probably that they have already been rebuffed by Koeman and were making a final and desperate attempt to show him what he would be missing and trying to lure him into changing his mind.

But why such a fuss, after all surely it would be better to conduct all negotiations in private and then make a formal approach to Southampton, this would be the normal way.

The fact that this did not happen suggests that Everton were far from being able to even conduct these negotiations, it was a simple case of one last attempt to try and get Koeman and his agent to be interested. To be blunt, if Koeman was that near to joining Everton then they would not have needed to have this media frenzy, indeed completely the opposite, they would have been trying to avoid it.

It could also have been a case of Koeman's own agent trying to stir Saints into offering his client a little more, if that is the truth then I would suggest that it might work !

Whether it will be successful or not is yet to be seen.

The media however seem to think it will be and went big on it, although it should be noted that the more serious sports media outlets ignored it completely.

Everton are not coming out of this in a good light, in the past they have had a very good reputation in football as a club who do things the right way, Bill Kenwright their Chairman
was in the old school mode and they prided themselves on their reputation as the people's club and not like their near neighbours across Stanley Park.

The arrival of Iranian businessman Farhad Moshiri seems to have changed all this, he does not seem to be a man who plays by the old rules and like many billionaire owners of football clubs before him seems to think that rules do not apply to him, he has paid his money so he will do what he wants.

Men like this have big egos, they want to be seen to be major players, how much of this is Moshiri just trying to show to the Everton fans that he is the real deal.

In the next few days we will see whether this blatant unsettling of Koeman has had any effect, he has always stated that he will not break his Saints contract and will at least see the deal through, hopefully that still remains the case.

But if it should not be then Southampton Football Club will march on, it has always been the case that Ronald Koeman has made no secret of his desire to manage a truly big club or at International level, we knew he would not stay for ever, his resolve is now being tested though, from a footballing point of view he has done a great job at Saints, one more good season and he would be firmly in the spotlight for a big job.

But going to Everton is almost back to square one, yes he has a lot of money but he will need every penny, it is a far bigger rebuilding job than Saints was, it will take time and the chances are that even with all this money the sixth Saints achieved this season is the best that Everton could hope for given the club's they are trying to compete with.

That being the case Koeman has everything to lose at Everton and not much to gain in terms of reputation.

Photo: Action Images

perazi added 07:25 - Jun 4 There's no way back for Ron now - trust is broken; he's played his hand; thanks for the two seasons. Would have been madness for Saints to try and compete with Everton's mad money offer.
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SanMarco added 11:09 - Jun 4 Good morning TeamCortese. You eloquently express what will be one of the main two narratives of the Koeman departure, and you indeed allude to what will be a main theme of the counter-narrative, i.e. greed and dishonour. Of course we mere mortals never discuss these things with anything like full knowledge of exactly what has gone on but I would tentatively ask two questions: 1. Do we know that the Saints pitch to Koeman WAS "lacking in ambition"? Who should define "ambition" for us? 2. Do we trust Les and his team in future negotiations? The likes of MoPo and now Koeman seem to be able to run rings round him. OK, you might reasonably expect "I am staying at Southampton" and " I will see out my contract" as straightforward statements but that's not the world you work in Les.

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saintinexile added 12:01 - Jun 4 'perhaps Les did too and was complacent. If so he has to go. ' 'Lastly, if Ronald does leave, there needs to be a change of ownership.' Don't want to see him go but what will be will be. Comments like these two make me really, really glad that football fans don't run clubs........
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PezzaSaint added 12:21 - Jun 4 Looks like he is going. We simply can't compete with the financial terms being proposed and can't get anywhere near! Don't think any blame can be laid at the board's door, we just have to face facts, we have an owner who isn't prepared to put the level of cash in that the new Everton owner is. It's her choice at the end of the day and she obviously doesn't have the same level of 'ambition' for the club as the average Saints supporter. A lot of non Saints supporters I know feel sorry for us and what we've had to put up with in selling a lot of top players over the last couple of years and I'm afraid that we're now going to have another summer of fun and games?!!!

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SanMarco added 12:35 - Jun 4 Hi saintinexile I think I said the first of those - I have not been a Les Reed out person in the past but re point 2 in my more recent post above I am beginning to feel that we may need a bit more steel in the negotiating department. Of course he has other roles at the club so perhaps I would amend 'has to go' to 'has to be relieved of negotiating role'. People seem to be finding us a 'soft touch'. Perhaps I am wrong and his hands are tied (as Pezza suggests). if so then we have little choice but to accept it in my view.

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DPeps added 13:09 - Jun 4 There's never a dull moment supporting the Saints is there?
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pintsizedsaint added 13:10 - Jun 4 According to the Guardian, Everton have asked permission from Saints to speak. Koeman is interested but it is linked to the clear non-agreement of the club's strategy. I do think Koeman would prefer to stay. I agree with the post above: Koeman needs more backing and it's clear Saints are sticking to the prudent financial model. Personally I would like both parties to find a common ground here. I really admire our clubs sound approach but I also think it's not keeping pace with the competitiveness of the EPL. We need a little bit of flex. Interestingly, the telegraph piece indicated that Saints are willing to flex but on their terms. Realistically we only have RK for one more year - but it would be a crucial year of consolidation rather than further change. We cannot expect a third season of high performance if we continue to see flux in the close season. Surely Saints FC can see that.

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TeamCortese added 14:23 - Jun 4 SanMarco: None of us here will ever know what's going on behind the scenes. For all we know Roko has an illegitimate child in Merseyside and has decided to move for that reason! ;) But I think most people who support football clubs want it to be successful and one indicator of success is bettering the club's league position from the previous season or winning cup competitions. Ronald Koeman and his team have worked very hard to turn things around since Mopo's departure. Why would he scrap all that hard work and start again with club in a lower position and lower calibre of players? It doesn't make sense. The only reason he would do that is because he's convince he cannot higher Southampton's league position next season or maintain it based off discussions with the board. The Everton owner hasn't had as much time to establish a relationship with Roko yet he's already managed to convince Roko to undertake negotiations with him. That speaks volumes of what Ronald thinks of the board. Let's not forget he's worked with the Southampton board for just under 2 yrs. You don't act so disrespectfully unless you don't share the same vision anymore.

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DPeps added 14:23 - Jun 4 Pint size, I agree. The problem is that things are already out in public. As a club we don't like to negotiate in public and, from the club's point of view, to agree to RK's demands now might put us in a weaker position when dealing with players and future managers. If all this shows us anything it's that we need to be more savvy and cutthroat in our dealings with other clubs. It's all well and good to have principles about not tapping up players and doing all your business behind closed doors but we ultimately end up getting shafted!

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SanMarco added 16:33 - Jun 4 TeamCortese says "You don't act so disrespectfully unless you don't share the same vision anymore". This is not about 'visions' or even 'ambition' - An honourable man wouldn't act disrespectfully at all. Six weeks ago he quite straightforwardly assured that he was staying. Now he is going - yes that is disrespectful to every last one of us that believed in him. I hope the 'blame the board' faction are not going to be in the majority on this. The simple truth is that a man many thought was honourable has seen pound signs elsewhere and walked out on us. This is worse than MoPo, Hoddle or Strachan - none of them assured us they were staying. I hope the Barca job becomes available 10 minutes after the 'Lying Dutchman' signs for his thirty (or 150 million) pieces of silver.

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saintmark1976 added 17:37 - Jun 4 For goodness sake lay off of the man. He has had to rebuild a side two close seasons running.On both occasions he has produced more than could have been reasonably expected. The man appears to have what it takes to be a top class manager and we can not give him what he wants. Why then question his integrity in wanting away.What would any of us do in his position?
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