22 Jul 2017 17:38:28
Glad ff has started where he left off. I know I know pre season bla bla bla .

1.) 22 Jul 2017
22 Jul 2017 18:32:35
Hi guys I am replying to Saint Steve 69. I will try to put a different perspective I think we all need to keep a balanced point of view. We paid Celtic £13m for vvd in 2014, he has been brilliant for us and now we are looking to sell him for 4-5 times more than we paid! That is incredible business in any industry let alone football. We need to be realistic we are not Man United 3 times Champion league winners or Liverpool 5 times Champion League, what we are is an incredibly well run club that punches well above our weight. Let's face it £20 m for Dejan Lovren was the biggest crime in the last decade! Lol. I think we need to accept that with a player like VVD we should recognise he is an asset to be capitalised on and those funds used to continue the excellent youth and player selection process. If you were VVD and you had the opportunity to play at a higher level and increase your earnings we wouldn't think twice. Look at Morgan Schneiderlein he behaved impeccably and gave us a year and went off to Manchester United with our blessings. We are the envy of the football world with this production line of producing talent and long may it continue. This enables us to consistently produce talent to either put into the first team or pursue a career in soccer. Interestingly Chelsea's youth has actually been making a significant positive contribution to their finances. We are Southampton unique, different and we would not support any other team.!
I am now in the USA and watched the home game against Man United and was alarmed at the empty seats, look at that from the Board's view one of the top games and rows of empty seats. Final rant can the new management get Le God in to teach our players how to take a penalty! Some of the efforts from not only us but Bournemouth AFC were apalling! There is absolutely no excuse and we squandered so many points through just lousy technique. Anyway all the best for the coming season and let's get behind the board, manager and team. SFC forever
Vintage Saint.

2.) 23 Jul 2017
23 Jul 2017 11:33:10
Saints can't compete with Man United or Liverpool BECAUSE anytime a club like Southampton look like they are going to break the monopoly that they have going they poach and scheme to break up teams that threaten them so it's about time we took a stand and stood up for ourselves.

3.) 23 Jul 2017
23 Jul 2017 15:12:41
Sfcforever
Good points,
But we recruit on a lower wage probably around the 50k mark with the promise we are one of the best stepping stone in the prem.
If they show themselves in a good light a (top) team will come and buy them paying around 200k a week lol.
So they think take a cut now to get where I want.
So if now we say no VVD as we rightly can then,
The black box aka ps4 says found a player beep beep beep,
Wot are we now going to do excuse me player do u fancie taking less money to play for us or do u want a team that pays the going rate.
Wot would u do
So in truth we need to pay the correct wages to recruit the right people
This is what Cortese realised but was stopped from doing hence the reason players and managers where happy to be here (the southampton way) and all that.
But this new model will only fully work if we are full time feeder club (prostitute) lol or if most smaller teams like us are offering the same but they ain't
So catch 22 but the ones in charge did this.

4.) 23 Jul 2017
23 Jul 2017 16:36:27
Would you rather us do a Leeds then, 87?

5.) 23 Jul 2017
23 Jul 2017 18:20:45
It doesn't matter what wages we pay if a player signs a contract he should honour it at those wages or why do we have contracts at all.

6.) 23 Jul 2017
23 Jul 2017 18:55:15
No Vick not at all mate.
And to be fair Pompey Leeds are quite a bit different to us just like the reason behind them was slightly different.
But to the point u can only really change the situation by changing what your doing or your just hopeing luck will help us out, or the situation changes for the better.
But at the end of the day it's going to head what ever way the ones in charge want it to .
And that is they want to try turn a profit every season.
I'm just not going to celebrate about it and start talking good about it.
This has happend for a few years now .
After cortese manager player saga happend, les got lucky with keoman .
He should have give himself a slap at how well it was working and backed the manager when he needed.
But is quite obvious how they like to handle managers and so on .
Basically this is what your going to have if not engineer a move else where,
So they do.
But just try put yourself in a managers situation
The team they supply you will affect your carrer.
And so on with the players.
But if when u do get to a final or a couple of places higher in the league at least make sure u have what is needed .
Then the players and manager may feel Mabey they can achieve something and feel they are getting the same as teams around them.
But until kath cashes in on a fat enough cheque she will only focus on making sure the business is making money not losing.

7.) 23 Jul 2017
23 Jul 2017 22:24:30
Southampton87 have you actaully seen our net transfer spend since our return to the prem? Our total players sold is very similar to what we have spent pretty much every year with often more players coming in meaning some of that will be spent on wages, but regardless of the finance which no one really knows the proper details of, we have been in the top 8 for the last 4 years! We have progressed year on year bar last year (although you could argue that a cup final is progress) . Last year Leicester, West Ham and Palace all spent big yet we still finished above them, would you rather us pay big money for overrated players on big wages? I just can't understand how you can knock how are club is run despite the fact our owner has taken us from the depths of league 1 to consistently making the top 8 in the premier league.

8.) 24 Jul 2017
24 Jul 2017 02:09:21
To be fair the likes of mayuka guly big jos and the rest of the fringies are never going to command a fee and in order to have better squad depth we had to spend more to replace them than what we earn from their sales. Not to mention we absolutely blew it on Osvaldo and Ramirez with getting nothing in return.

9.) 24 Jul 2017
24 Jul 2017 02:13:26
87 I admit the circumstances behind leeds and pompey are different but maybe there is a reason the club is operating within their means in order to sustain security in the long run. We made virgil our highest ever paid player which proves that the board isn't afraid to push the envelope a bit when necessary.

10.) 24 Jul 2017
24 Jul 2017 10:43:09
87 you chat utter nonsense. You talk as though we haven't spent a penny on a single player, yet sam makes the very good point that we have sold AND BOUGHT at similar levels of money. add to that increase in wages for new players, improved contracts for current players, mega money spent on training facilities that cortese went well overboard on AND losing out on pretty hefty money for more cortese signings such as osvaldo, ramirez and more (vegarrd forren anyone? )
You're trying to claim that Leeds and pompey are different situation to shoot down that argument but how are they? They are examples of clubs spending well above their means to get short term success (the exact type of "ambition" you're hoping for) and then wheels coming off a couple of years later, being in massive debt, selling players, stadiums, everything and dropping down to the lower leagues. You're so short sighted, all because you want us signing players for 40 million quid, when you've already admitted that prices are inflated! You talk nonsense! Give your brain a rest. You really haven't got a clue what you're on about.

11.) 24 Jul 2017
24 Jul 2017 10:47:42
You have a major personal vendetta against kat leibherr, all because you think she should be throwing money about left right and centre. Let's say she did? Let's say she spunked loads of money on bang average players for 20-30 mill, and then had a couple of half decent seasons until it turned out we're in major debt, we have to sell all our players, we get relegated and we fall through leagues. who are you going to blame then? I would rather have a club that is well run, innovative, and actually exists for when I'm 60, that I can take my kids to see, my grandkids to see, instead of one that was badly run, and goes bust by the time I'm 40 just because some impatient, ignorant fans want to spend millions of pounds to GAMBLE on "ambition". Go and support man city.

12.) 24 Jul 2017
24 Jul 2017 14:18:24
Milky for someone who gases about talkin crap lol Daniel
U do a lot yourself
When we sell a player we sell for 25 and buy a replacement .
We our players want more money we sell them then recruit some one who takes less.
When a manager wants backing we do nothing but sell the team.
St Sam and milky think before writeing
Gabbi was only payed for because les knew if he didn't we would not have picked up them couple of points that kept us 8th and not 16th.
The football since poch left has not only changed but gone downhill last season was appalling, terrible football.
Then when u think of players sale to the players bought there is room to move there alone not to mention the new TV revenue and new kit and shirt sponsors .
You don't need to get into debt by building a team just make it a place players think they can achieve something and match what the teams around u look to pay .

13.) 24 Jul 2017
24 Jul 2017 19:01:31
You've just proved my point and haven't really read a word, clearly showing that you have no understanding of how or what the club is doing.

Yes, we sell a player and then we replace them with someone of equal quality for less money and less wage.

You just said "Gabbi was only payed for because les knew if he didn't we would not have picked up them couple of points that kept us 8th and not 16th. " Is that not a good move from the board to recognise that what we had wasn't working and therefore going out and breaking our transfer record to sign someone to make a difference? .

"You don't need to get into debt by building a team" - which is exactly the point I'm making. You don't need to go out and spend money for the sake of it.

Again you've said this "match what the teams around u look to pay" who are the other teams we need to match exactly? . Stoke have just sold there best player. how much have they spent?
West ham have bought a ridiculous amount of players over the last few years. where have they finished? .
Yeah everyone have spent almost 100mill on players. they've also just sold lukaku for 75mill so they haven't really spent that much in total have they?

Lastly, can you list all these players that you think we should be buying and paying well over the odds for that would actually improve our team? I'd really like to know who you have in mind. Yeah, ake went to bournemouth for almost twice the amount we paid for van dijk 2 years ago. That's because they have lost a few defenders. their squad depth is also nowhere near the quality of ours.

Yes, TV revenue went up. Yes we have a new shirt sponsor (7million a year I believe? So that just paid for bednarek)

But our wages have increased, both in terms of playing staff and behind the scenes, and you can't solely rely on TV money. You have to be self sufficient. That means spending responsibly. which we are. with our squad we should have finished higher last year, but the football we played was poor. the board acted by replacing the manager. again, a good move by the board.

87 you won't be happy until we buy buy buy recklessly, and then you'll be the first to blame the board when it all goes tits up and we're skint, back in league 1.

Don't know who Daniel is by the way, pretty sure you're a Richard though lol.

14.) 26 Jul 2017
26 Jul 2017 20:29:28
You haven't read my post either. it's stupid talking about finance as we'll never really know the clubs situation. But your basing everything on the turnover per season through transfer fees and tv deals alone, not taking into account the amount of debt the club was in during the Cortese era, through overspending in transfer windows and investing in the clubs infrastructure etc.

This is the first window where we have appeared to stand firm over all our players which may indicate that we may be in a position where we no longer have to sell. But in a way you are right in what your saying to a degree, as Kath is looking to sell her majority share holder as she believes the way to take us to the next level would involve a large cash injection to break that glass ceiling.

So who knows maybe then we would be able to match what other clubs can pay, I just hope we continue to spend and build as wisely as we have been doing and not sign overrated big names as some clubs seem too.