Sound thinking. I would however add this caveat. In recent years it is the present management regime that has moved season ticket renewal dates to May. Effectively I am buying 2 tickets, a not inconsiderable percentage of my pension without knowing which players or style I am likely to see. It's always been an act of faith to some extent, but the pace of change added to the earlier renewal date provides a vacuum that is filled with threads like this.
That would be a left field appointment. I'd like that. It would also add Feyernoord to Celtic on the list, where we have Liverpool on ours
It's an interesting option... when United played Ajax the other day, they were focussing in the strengths of the Ajax team and the way they set up the past players/coaches chairmen, coaches, etc. I think there's a lot of what they do that we already do. I'm guessing Feyenoord do the same/similar, I don't watch enough to know in any detail. I think some people may think we've had our fingers burnt with the Dutch option though.
I understand your view and the impact/commitment of buying two season tickets, leaving me with a feeling of empathy to you. However, with all due respect, the club will (and in my view, must) decide on the best course of action for the club's immediate future, in a considered and professional manner. It's been two weeks. People may have planned to have a one or two week break (they are entitled to that) before returning and getting stuck in fully to the next three months. Is that so wrong? You are looking at this from a personal point of view (and that's understandable) rather than taking a step back and putting yourself in the club's shoes. How did you feel upon renewal with Koeman, the season Poch left? What was the renewal date? How did you know how he'd play?
He's not my choice. However...... How funny would it be for him to out do Mourinho and that other lying bloke at Everton * just to confirm. No thanks *
I was pleased with the signing of Koeman....but that had nothing to do with him as a manager. I was depressed after the loss of Poch and some players....Koeman was a name. It filled me with hope that we had landed someone well known in football....it said to me that we were seen as a top club.
Fair dinkum Fats but, It is after all an just an opinion, what is common sense to one, is not the same for another. Not saying you are wrong, but others have another opinion. As for believing a board's stated ambition as being Naive, sorry I can't agree, to me someone who has ambition would not continually sell their best tried and tested players. Bringing in untried players continually as replacements does not shout ambition to me. It just shouts "Hanging on". Thats just my common sense opinion for what its worth..........
Totally respect your opinion. Unemotionally and using common sense, selling your top players season after season is not sustainable unless you consistently, unerringly replace them with more top players. Shopping in the 10-15m pound price range you are never going to be able to do that. You will get hits and misses and even the hits will likely take two or more seasons to really hit stride. So when you have no great players left to sell you are left with a squad full of potential but no real quality. That to me is gambling. I absolutely agree that the club has been run very safely from a financial point of view and hope that it will continue to be. I have no problem with our shopping for 10-15m pound players, we have done very well. I simply feel that the number of sales over the last few years has been far, far too many and it has gutted the team.
Our history shows that we mainly sell players to the top clubs....we have no problem seeing off other EPL sides. Those top clubs not only offer us top money that enable us to run the club and buy in players, but also offer wages that we cannot compete with. The club isn't unambitious, but they are pragmatic....something fans should learn from. There is a tipping point for negotiations and that is not only the money involved (and what it can pay for), but also how much the players want the move. I'm not talking about players throwing their dummy out of the pram, but a reasonable human being sitting in Les's office (with his advisors) negotiating a move he wants in a short lived career. Does it help us to be seen as an unreasonable club? Would that encourage promising players to come here? We have delayed the inevitable when it's wrong for the club and those players have settled down for one more season. In other words, the health of the team moved the tipping point. I think it is progress when we only sell players to top clubs....in other words, we are not a small club anymore....no one leaves us when we don't want them to in order to join WBA, Stoke, and (with dishonourable exceptions) West Ham or Everton. This season our main losses could be few...Bertrand and Virgil. Interestingly it was this season that we looked less exciting. So we look less good and we lose fewer players....perhaps that's the answer.
Would be quite unlikely that someone ITK at Saint Etienne would be ITK at Saints, and be aware of Tuchel's decisions too.
Totally agree we do mainly sell to the top clubs and they pay top money for the players...............but we have enough income not to do that so the board tells us...do they not? In addition we still have enough to buy the odd 15 million player to strengthen. It is not helping our cause to sell our best players to other teams so that they progress and we stand still is all I'm saying. I agree we are not always going to get into Europe but we should be able to give it a bloody good try. We are certainly not going to get the best managers and keep them by continually undermining them as has proved.
It's an incredibly tough position to be in on both the manager and player front.... rocks and hard places all over the shop. We finally appointed a "good" coach, the "right" coach after discounting other more high profile ones and I suspect many, like me, breathed a sigh of relief that finally we had a manager who's name wouldn't be mentioned every time a job came up. Ultimately, I wouldn't say that the experiment failed, but it hasn't worked well for a number of reasons (boards failure to financially back him plus injuries, etc) Now we are back going for a shorter term approach, if it is TT, we are again a stepping stone club. On the player front, they have the power clearly and whilst I appreciate we only sell to top sides (largely), despite "only selling for footballing reasons", the money we get doesn't make me feel much better about losing our best players-having said that, I don't know what the answer is other than us getting a little bit nasty when sticking to our guns. Ralph saying a few weeks ago that VVD wasn't for sale, was nice to hear but I suspect not many believe it. He's the soft and cuddly face of the club, and whilst he could sell ice to eskimos, I long for him to lose his rag and call out the journos from rags like the Mirror when they publish stories like they did last night. I know VVD is going to leave, I know he'll develop into a great player, but having him pimped in every sports section despite being under a contract annoys me a tad. The takeover, if it ever happens may help, may not... the plans to develop different areas of SMS are obviously part of the bigger picture, the extra Chinese money will probably help fund wages of slightly better players-again, all part of the long term plan. Rocks and hard places a plenty, I still think it's ok for fans to ask questions, debate and compare but the annual short period of aimless drifting frustrates me and I'm sure a few other fans too. I get that people will just tell me to relax and chill out, and they may have a pretty damn good point, but I just find myself wanting that little bit more sometimes. I don't want instant success, I don't want us to offer crazy money, I just want us not to try and break the glass ceiling with one of Uncles Les's pink fluffy slippers.
Do we know if Puel is leaving? Is this purely speculation, I do find it quite funny with whom we are linked with when firstly Puel has not been let go and secondly Van Gaal is now being linked,do we really think that Saints would consider spending that sort of money on a manager of his magnitude
I can't argue with your last sentence. Just think about my point. I'm just saying I don't understand why some fans "seem" to moan about this when the club have stated this is how we do it. To date, nobody can argue that it has been "successful" as the club is now a top half club and possibly a little more than that, with finishes of 8th, 7th, 6th and 8th. This is progress and all I am saying (again and again) is thy have been successful so far with their business model. Next season may bring Europe, a Cup Final, a Cup win.... back to continued "success".... it may be three seasons of 10th, 15th and 13th. Then I'd say it isn't working. Fans take a one season snap shot. No, I'm wrong, they take anything from a one game to a two month snap shot. In each of the last seasons, you can find posts where the club have been bemoaned at, yet their record speaks for itself. To date.
Hey Beddy, we know each other, so hopefully you know I'm not being rude, but maybe I just understand what the club are trying to achieve (or the method) and you don't (or don't accept it). Nothing wrong with that. I say this because the same conversations happen every year. Every year.
That's fair Harry, but just for a giggle and slightly tongue in cheek, here is my translation of your post: "I understand all the difficulties and obstacles in the clubs was and I don't expect them to go mad with the money for instant success, but I do want that and I want it now" Only having a little jest, but it sort of sounds like that. My suggestion to you on some of the hints you wrote about... do a Vin and ignore the forum and all gossip media until August. Come back when it's done and then it can't frustrate you.
