Is the Saints transfer policy working?

On the basis of the Summer & January transfer window activity, are Saints planning their dealings well and bringing in good players... or are they being reactive and leaving Puel with a weaker squad of available fit players overall?

 

Judging them solely on last summer and the last month (which is probably a little unfair) I don't see how you can say we've done well.

 

If Manolo proves to be a good player then I'd say bang in the middle,what has pissed me off is being told there's no way he'll be leaving until/without we have an adequate replacement.We've had plenty of time, all the "nice" reasons written on this site are just lame excuses.
Maybe a freebie will be brought in? My guess is fat chance.
Black box= tosh more like black bin liner.

 

Why would we base our overall transfer policy on the past 6 months? Purely on the last 6 months yes the squad is weaker, but the past 4 or 5 years we've had excellent recruitment, overall we just didn't get it right in the summer and not this January (although we signed some good players).

 

Are Saints fans going to break into a fit of whinging and hand wringing every time we get a bad result?

1) Yes, we are a bunch of spineless wobblers.
2) No, we recognise that this is football, and progress on the field and off it is never easy
3) somewhere inbetween.

 

For a team of our size....the club has been magnificent. The players we sell go for good money to clubs higher up the pecking order....doesn't smack of buying rubbish players to me. Yes, there have been players that haven't worked out...but, if you look at this transfer window, other clubs have been clearing out players that arrived a few seasons ago to fanfares, so not just us. This season has been the poorest....the club believed Austin (supported by Long and Jay) would last the season...probably an error based on the injury histories of both him and Jay. They expected to have Fonte for the season...that caught all of us by surprise. They have failed to replace him, but obviously believed that he was better out of the club and they would sign Tasci....so bad mark there.

The problem is that we have ambitions to be a regular top six side, but lack the funds.....the bank loans show that. This means we have to pay good wages to our players, but cannot afford to stockpile them against a cold wind. Teams like Chelsea and ManU can afford to buy players and hardly use them, but we can't. We have to accept that unless we get a huge cash injection, all our transfer windows are going to be like this....we will always have a team that can't afford too many injuries.

 

As you have said to base it solely on the previous two windows I have said it has not been effective.
However over a longer period of say 4 years I'd say we have pretty much got it as close to perfect as you cold hope for. This has been a frustrating season transfer wise and mistakes have certainly been made. Hopefully this will be rectified in the summer.

 

And we sniff out and buy players that others teams just look at....then want to buy when they are proven in the EPL. Annoying but to quote our mission statement....that is who we are. A team that invests in youth (further exemplified by our training schemes in the US and the big summer youth tournament) supplemented with careful identification of targets....and we will stay this way until we are rolling in cash. And if we are bankrolled, we will be like a lot of other teams and will have lost a little of what makes us distinctive....some will like that and some won't.

 

The club has its own way of dealing with transfers, we have a history of buying small and selling big which i have no problem with. The last 2 windows however have seen the squad significantly weakened which i am sure that no one at the club is happy with. I am pretty sure that we have been using the black box for well over 2 years so we should be due a free upgrade by now as it is obviously starting to show some malfunctions. #lesgettocarphonewarehousesharpish

 

Yes, and that is a strategy that has really worked for us. But these past two windows we just haven't brought in enough players in certain areas. I'm not asking for £20m+ players in every position, but to have a well balanced squad with even reasonable depth would be nice.

In the summer it was clear we need a striker and a CB - we signed neither.

In January it was, surprisingly, still clear that we need a striker and even more so a CB - we signed a forward player but no CB.

That is ignoring the fact that for some reason we have 6 CM's, none of which can link play well and contribute going forwards. That is a mistake also. We don't need 6 of them, we should have 4/5 and then a player who helps link attack and defence.

People are quite right to be p*issed off at the board for leaving Puel with extremely limited resources across the pitch. However, many people will blame Puel for the bad results we have had and will no doubt continue to have, which is a real shame as he has done very well with what he has had.

 

Perhaps we were forced to try and get a CB on the cheap after having to pay more for Gabbiadini/pay him more wages. Pure speculation, but money isn't elastic.

 

Part of our problem as I have often said is that we let the core of our team go each and every year. We never seem to be able to strengthen nearly always just to replace. I understand we do well financially from these dealings but if we are to progress to the next level as has been suggested I E a top 6 place then this has to be where we start. If other teams can put there foot down and say no why the hell can't we?
I don't know why Fonte wanted to go, ok he had to put in a transfer request to eventually leave. I am not sure he was able to go to where he originally thought he might go but at least Saints decided when he should go and not someone else. In my view Saints need more of this stubbornness and get back the control. Also it sends a message to the other players too.
Signing players on longer contracts help and I'm glad the new fella will not be able to up sticks so easily always assuming he is as saints hope our saviour.
A pity though he has only just been brought in....he should have been here during the summer!!!! (That was just for you Fats)

 

By not judging them solely on last summer and the last month. Which would be the fair way of asking the op question.

 

Up until recently I would have said yes. But the past few windows have been a bit of a disappointment, not going to flip out over it. But I also hope more investment is seen soon.

 

What concerns me is that our buying power is greater than ever, but our reach is still that of the team that just entered the Premier League.

Appreciate all other Prem clubs have more money due to TV, but still feels like we lag behind clubs like Stoke in both wages & perhaps, "ambition".

I'm not sure how it actually works when we target a player, but I would hope the manager is involved in there somewhere. I could be wrong, but doesn't feel that Puel is that demanding of Les Reed & his mystery black box men. So in that regard, the lack of activity in this window (and the slowness to realise we needed a striker in August) is down to Puel.... unless he has NO input to Reed. (but then again, that would be the most worrying thing of all?)

 

Definitely signs that we were hoping to get through this season on the relative cheap....when we thought we'd be outlaying cash because of the Europa. But Gabbiadini isn't cheap...shame we didn't have him (or similar) in the summer.

 

I expect it was more a case of Puel knowing what he was getting into. He was brought in knowing that we wanted to use the ex-Academy lads. This is the system our club runs....pretty sure that the manager is listened to, but the real control is in Les Reed's hands. This is actually getting more common in other clubs as well...the managers manage, but the team isn't their personal fiefdom.

 

From what I am told our manager ( whoever it is at the time) and the board sit down and discuss what positions etc they think we need to improve.

The black box team then give the board of players they feel will work in our team. The board then sit down and discuss who to go for.

This happens 99% time, but obviously some players will be bought in thst the manager has wanted.

 

If the only player the manager wanted was a reserve goalkeeper... I'm kinda concerned.

 

For me, the club have done enough decent recruitment over the years to let them "have a blip" if you like.

Now, if it's the same this time next year, then that might change, but for me, overall, yes the transfer policy works.