This whole situation with Forren is strange. I agree with you. The arguments to say he was signed for the following season do not add up. Partly I think he was signed to try and detract from the sacking of Adkins at the time, but if that was the intention, it failed miserably. I have no knowledge of Forren. I do not know whether he is good, whether he has potential, whether the management are disappointed with him or what the reasons are, but Forren appears to have shown incredible restraint and dignity. It would be nice if there was some explanation, though no doubt, the club probably think, what has it got to do with us. I have to admit, I am increasingly disillusioned with our transfer policy.

Effectively we will have wrapped him in mothballs for 9 months when the season starts

Agree with you A1079, our transfer policy is erratic and does not show much over the last couple of seasons in the way of strategy, forethought, prioritisation or consistency. Some good signings, some quite average and some downright poor.

Some contributors to this site have engaged in rampant wishful thinking about Forren when all the evidence has suggested that Pochettino has no time for him (as things stand) as Nick has consistently pointed out. I have no faith in Cortese (presumably misadvised by Reed) in this respect, players that we will end up with are highly unpredictable and may be of varying quality and relevance!

Hey Nic you forgot to a summary of the season on the management, I would particularly like a
view on the mysterious Les Reed!

Who can give a view on Reed, our transfer policy has been patchy to be kind, although many will say its been successful because we finished 14th and weren't relegated, I don't subscribe to that view we could just have easily have been relegated as we could have finished 10th

SaintNick: Where were Saints in the league when he was employed, that might help you give a view?

If you take that view then you have to proclaim Rupert lowe as the greatest Chairman in Saints history, he lead us to survival in the premier league, built us a stadium, took us to the cup final and then Europe.

But as that shows, its not about where you finished the previous season, its about keeping your eye on the ball and continuing to develop the squad

I can understand signing someone, playing him, then finding out he wasn't as good as we had hoped. But to sign a player, then just not play him at all, is just plain bad management - man management and money management.

I agree Whatsforpud. It is a bit like me recruiting someone to do a job and then paying them to stay at home because I don't think they are competent enough. I know football is a completely different animal and does not follow any norms of business or monetary sense, and whilst I do not profess to have an understanding of how one identifies a good player etc, and they may argue it is not any of our business, it is reasonable as a paying customer, especially when they raise the prices, to ask the question, is our money being used wisely? We have made a few good purchases and I accept we cannot get it right all the time and things don't always work as planned, but when there seems no logic to a situation or no clear explanation and when you see us chasing "marquee" signings that do not materialise or worse still, don't fit in with the team or join with other agendas, it raises the question of our competency in our transfer policy - there are more questions than answers.

SaintNick: You're right. And every year since May 2010 it has got better.

I think you'll find Forren will be 1st choice next to Lovren this season.
He was signed with this coming season in mind. I think they would've only played him last season if we were really struggling at the back or if we were safe with games to spare. Neither of those two things happened so he didn't play.
Hooiveld and Yoshida did well for a while under Poche so there was no need to throw Forren in there.
I think Molde only made a cheeky loan offer to see what the situation was.
Forren is highly rated and certainly better than Hooiveld, Yoshida and Fonte.

Im sorry but I don't buy that, I hope your right, but I don't think that was the case, if it was we took a massive gamble as up to January we were leaking goals left right and centre and the central defensive positions were a weak link, we needed to bring someone in there I don't think anyone would argue with that, to bring someone in who we weren't going to play was just not an option it could easily have cost us our Premier league position

Well the defence had improved hugely under Adkins when Cork and Shaw came into the team. We only conceded 12 goals in 12 league games under Adkins once those two players came in, and that included conceding 3 at Stoke. We conceded 28 goals in the first 10 league games, so there's no arguing that the defence had improved massively by the time Poche arrived. Therefore, it wasn't such an urgent issue for him to strengthen in that area.
Yes, the centre of defence was our weakest area, and the January '13 transfer window was an opportunity to strengthen that area with immediate effect but Poche was happy with the options available to him. Forren wasn't his signing, and by the time Forren was available for selection Poche had Yoshida and Hooiveld doing well and playing for their Premiership careers in defence.
Yes there is a chance that Forren will be a write off. That Poche doesn't rate him. But I think he'll be given his chance in the 1st team this season.
You'll be able to tell from pre-season. If Forren plays in the key friendlies, especially next to Lovren, then you can assume that'll be our 1st choice pairing. Another indicator will be if the likes of Fonte move on. He's 29 and probably at his peak, he'll want to be playing reguarly and if he thinks he's below the likes of Forren in the pecking order then he'll probably want to move on, or the club will move him on. If Fonte or Hooiveld leave this summer then its further indication that Forren is considered ahead of them.

"If you take that view then you have to proclaim Rupert lowe as the greatest Chairman in Saints history, he lead us to survival in the premier league, built us a stadium, took us to the cup final and then Europe".

And there was a logic to the transfer policy. Mind you there was a new manager every year. Hang on, how many managers have we had in the last three years?

Maybe old Rupert wasn't so bad after all.