Reported in Echo today, Saints academy has earnt 40 million from sale of players over the years. Probably necessary as the academy must cost a lot to run. There is also the hidden value of having first team players that you don't have to pay for, even if for only a short time. With the world as it is, we'll probably be able to hold onto 'good' players but the stars will always get lured away. It doesn't just happen to us, look at Arsenal.
Most of that money seemed to disappear into Rupert Lowe's and other shareholder's pockets though - I wonder how much was actually reinvested back into the academy until recent times?
Interesting if its true about the amount. Hopefully more promising youngsters come through but stay this time. The only one that has stayed is Adam Lallana who is now better then Messi. If we do produce some more, keep them and they reach their potential WITH Saints then we could be in Europe in the next couple of years in a VERY healthy financial position. Anyone else think that if promising youngsters come through our system from now on, then we will tell them that if they sign a professional contract with Saints that they will have play out that contract, WHOEVER is interested in them? I think its a good idea.
Yeah but if they sign the contract then should be told to honour it. Otherwise why sign it in the first place? If they don't agree with the contract then release them.
Yeah but other clubs like Arsenal will not know he good because he not playing for Southampton and they would think that he isn't showing potential so they wouldn't sign him.
What's annoying is how happy Oxo and his Dad were to sign in August 2010 and then think it's nowhere near enough a few months later! I'm sure Alex is delighted to sign for a big club, but it's all been driven by his Dad. I knew that when I heard a 17-yr-old saying he would be better off at Arsenal because a serious injury could finish his career tomorrow. Yes, teenagers constantly worry about their financial future every time they step onto the pitch.
They think they're to big for the club when top four teams come in for them and think that the contract that they signed doesn't count for anything, well it does.
It also got us 12-15 (?) million..a tribunal would give us 250,000. If a player is good enough, get him under contract because you either get a good player or you get a decent return on your time and trouble.
I very much doubt even Chamberlain and his Dad thought that when he signed that Contract with Saints he'd have such a good season last year and attract so much attention from Prem clubs. I have no problem with them signing that contract as no one can see into the future. He could have signed it and been rubbish or got a serious injury. Well done to the club for putting him quickly onto a pro-contract. If we hadn't, we would have only got £1m tops for him via the FA compensation route.
the "richer club" buying all the talent is of course a two way street. When we bought Rickie, did many people give a thought for the fans of the club he left? Its a fact of life that very few players are 100% committed to their home town club that they would not jump at the chance to go to man U, Liverpool, barca, etc. We rely on our chairman to do the best deal possible, and looking at the headline numbers there is no doubt that "The Don" has financially pillaged Mr Wenger. So we move on and spend the money wisely.
Very good point, olddellboy. We were chuffed to have the means to purchase players we wanted. I suppose if it's done the right way and everyone comes out of the deal with something, then we have to accept that's life.
It's not much different now to what football has been like for 40+ years. The best players go to the biggest clubs. Always have, always will. I'm sure if you caught Le Tiss in a candid moment and asked him if Sir Alex had put a serious offer in for him when Matty was in his early twenties, I expect an honest Le Tiss would say he probably would have joined Man Utd. Matty was only hours away from signing for Spurs at one point too. oldDellboy has summed it up nicely. We didn't give a toss when we took Walcott from Swindon, or Best/McGoldrick from Notts County or Matt Mills from Oxford etc etc etc. From our point of view, it was the logical move for those players. Same as an Arsenal fan seeing Chamberlain go there is. I'm not even sure the methods via the media and agents are anymore underhand than they used to be. I've read several books by players in the 50's, 60's & 70's who had transfers done by what we would call now, dodgy means. Brian Clough openly admitted to turning up at the front door of players he wanted to sign and wouldn't leave until they had. Even our capture of Keegan could now be looked at as an unofficial approach. Lawrie rang him up on the pretence of wanting to buy a lampshade that could only be bought in Germany. Saints didn't speak to Hamburg about Keegan until after Lawrie & Channon had persuaded Keegan to come here.
