Is Southampton a microcosm of UKPLC

Since the Thatcher years the UK Government has flogged off everything of value, the water boards, the gas board, the railways, the buses, the royal mail, they have even privatised the schools. There would appear to be a bit of a resistance now to this monetarism reflected in Brexit where so many asked to have their country back.

Southampton FC seem to be more than willing to sell anyone for money even against the wishes of the fans. The constant loss of our best players is depressing and is not the way to lift the fans. I often think the dissatisfaction reflected in the booing at recent games is as much about the loss of our best players as it was about the poor on field performance.

I am now waiting for the day saints sell St Marys and Staplewood and then rent it back as well as outsourcing all of its staff and services. We could even ask a successful club to supply a manager and coaching staff.

 

I take it you're not a Thatcherite then, Godders!

 

Everyone/everything has a price, thats just life and is highlighted by the surreal world of football
The power is firmly in the hands of the players and everything is based around money....those with it can do what they like whilst those without have to make do
I have come to accept that we will loose our best players every summer (hate it but accept it) but I do expect the club to use this money to replace those who leave with quality players and boost the squad.
My frustration comes when they don't like last summer where we sold most of our goals (Pelle & Mane) and hoped that injury prone Charlie, returning JRod and low scoring Shane Long could score the additional 25+ goals a season that disappeared out the door.
Added to that we sold Big Victor and didn't replace him so we were left with just one proper defensive midfielder
The to make things even worse, we feel out with Captain Fantastic and sold him at Xmas without replacing him

I/When we sell VVD and Bertrand lets hope Les uses the money to replace them with quality players....we need 1-2 CBs, 1xDCM, 1xACM and a striker and thats without loosing any other of the squad.

 

It's football at the top that is rotten, players hold all the power and are advised by bloodsucking agents who tell them to go for the most amount of money because they are on a %age.
I sometimes wish that we could wipe the slate clean and everyone starts with the same and the whole system becomes truly competitive but that will never happen and the chances of another "Leicester" happening in the next twenty years is miniscule IMO.

 

It may be true but it's hugely depressing. Everyone has their price, but what of their value.? What do they bring that is so important that all the money in the world won't find their price, simply because they are so valuable to the club.?
To take Godders analogy on, I would say that Thatcher's UK knows the price of everything and the value of very little indeed.

 

Old fashioned values like loyalty, integrity, service, community all still exist, and still have traction.

Not noticeably so in the Premier League though, it's true.

Not sure why I don't give up Saints and start watching Barnet tbh. Well, I do know why - it's because I can't. It's an addiction. Oh yeah, and Barnet are ****.

 

Our sales aren't caused by a rotten Premier League, a decline in moral society, the return of Twin Peaks to Netflix, or the blood moon.

They happen because this is our business model. It has benefits, and it has drawbacks, but our aim is to buy players who are available for less than their value and then flog them for sizable profit after a couple seasons. And all of this pearl-clutching is a bit silly given that everyone here, by now, knows that this is our business model.

 

It's not Southampton, it's football right now. But it's a more 'successful' product now than it's ever been, so don't expect it to change any time soon.

 

May be?

 

Don't we all have this as our personal business model? We buy houses and do them up and then hope to sell at a profit. Regarding the government selling everything off wasn't it Labour who came up with PFI, where hospitals and schools were rented from private companies to avoid it being seen as public construction projects?

 

New Labour.

 

Important distinction!

 

Exactly.

 

Yeah, you're almost certainly right. But when I go to football, I do not consider myself to be consuming a product. Nor am I having a match day experience, thanks. **** all that, basically.

Perhaps we might all be happier if every aspect of life was not based on a business model, & if every interraction was not a transaction?

I suspect that might have been the OP's point.

 

The one thing that's missing - and surely it is only a matter of time - is one of those obnoxious "Rate your experience" surveys.

On a scale of 1-5:

How fulfilling was the security pat down experience?

How polite was the burger van operative?

etc etc

 

I'll do one for Milan if you like, as it was one of the highlights of my season...

The pat down was, let's say, intimate. I think we shared a moment, the paramilitary steward and I. Bit unnerving, if I'm honest.

The burger from outside the San Siro rivals the one I had a Leicester for all round unappetising blandness and rip-off pricing. I expected better from Italian caterers, frankly. Antonio Carluccio would have been horrified.

 

New Labour as in sham Labour. Very rich people pretending to be on the side of ordinary people. Tony Blair has a lot to answer for, apart from getting very, very rich since he deserted a sinking ship. The present day Labour Party is still champagne socialists posing.

 

Except Corbyn, who has remained true to his principles since he entered Parliament in 1983, long before John Smith died and New Labour was conceived.

 

New Labour didn't come up with it, John Major did the first one but he only did one. New Labour decided to do it for everything.