Of course at this time of year you would expect to see a lot of rumour and counter rumour in the national media, but some sources are more keen to spread talk of discontent at St Mary's than others.
Most supporters may think that the frequent transfer linking of Saints players and even the manager with other Clubs is merely a product of our relative success this season, but clearly there is a little more to this than meets the eye and it seems that the Club feel this way as well as the Daily Echo.
Back in January when the then Chairman and CEO left his post there were a plethora of articles singing his praises whilst at the same time suggesting that Katharina Liebherr did not have either the clubs best interests at heart nor the business brain to run it.
These articles were usually from journalists in the national media who had been courted by our ex Chairman and seemed willing to continue to put out pro Cortese propoganda. Whether this was with the blessing of Cortese himself or just that they felt that he was truly a great man is unclear and is open to debate, what is strange though is that certain Journalists seem keen to continue to put out a certain view and that they miss no chance to suggest that at least half a dozen of our players wish to leave alongside the Manager himself, in the early days there would often be implied criticism of Katharina Liebherr and her abilities, although this has abated somewhat with her prudent appointments and re shaping of the club's board and corporate governance.
But the sniping in the press has continued and one man who was quick to peddle the pro Cortese line back in January was Neil Ashton of the Daily Mail, on the day that Cortese's departure was announced, Ashton wrote a piece headlined "Saints in Meltdown" in that he claimed that
"Pochettino was on the brink"
"Rickie Lambert could lead a player exodus"
"Katharina Liebherr to be non executive chairman and sell the club"
Clearly he was being briefed by someone and as we now know none of his predicted meltdown happened, indeed the club improved upon their position back then of 9th and are now virtually confirmed as finishing 8th gaining 21 points from the 14 games played since Cortese's departure an improvement on their points per game ratio under Cortese.
But for some members of the media this is not a sign of a Club where business has continued as usual and certain people have not stopped putting out frequent articles where its claimed that one player or another as well as the manager are unhappy and are about to leave.
Ashton again today 29th April has put out one such article, claiming that Adam Lallana is going to Liverpool and that Luke Shaw feels he will miss the boat if he doesn't join a big club now , add to that yet another Pochettino to Spurs story in the same article and you have to wonder if Ashton has some sort of agenda against Saints and if so why, he seems never to be content with one rumour when he can put out several.
Clearly this has been noted by the Daily Echo who in their coverage of the story said
"The same national newspaper reporter — in the same paper which last January was central in promoting Nicola Cortese’s side of his split from Saints, making derogatory comments about Katharina Liebherr in the process — maintains that Saints left back Luke Shaw will move to Manchester United this summer. "
You could also point to the Club's surprising statement on Friday by Les Reed as proof that the Club itself feels that certain media sources have an agenda against them, clearly Saints feel that some of the reports issued so far are not accurate and that being the case are being put out there to suit someone's agenda.
Internet message boards are speculating that it could be a former employee of the club briefing the media, certainly you can see why some would come to that conclusion, journalists such as Ashton were clearly seen to be putting out a certain message back in January and in the months before and seem to be continuing to be singing off the same hymnsheet, there is no real evidence for this, perhaps these journalists just have a grudge against Saints themselves or are putting out agent's rumours but it has to be said that under normal circumstances though, you would expect them to be pursuing stories that are of far more interest to the general public across the UK than Southampton Football Club.