Well in and out isn't consistent is it? What is it 4/8? Might sound pedantic but unfortunately it's just as likely that you drop off and struggle to get back amongst them that it is that you'll maintain it and become a real force. Would you have considered us a top 8 club this year cos we finished there 4 years on the bounce?
You tell me how you see your club progressing. Once you put the bullshit aside of rival fans and take a look at your club. If you finished 8th 4 years in a row then obviously there was a platform for you to work on. You didn't though. Qualifying for it 4 times out of 8 is a vast improvement on never qualifying for it. Just like being consistent qualifiers then becoming a Europa league club is an obvious decline. If its not a decline then the fans of such clubs would be happy as we stand,yeah? You see them crying down the road? I do too.
Admittedly it is more difficult because of money in the game, but then again the sides down the bottom are also getting more money. The problem I can see from your team Southampton, is not that your selling your best players every year, it's that that money doesn't seem to be reinvested back into the team. Everytime you get an over inflated fee for a player, as let's face it you can always make the top sides spend more than a players worth. VVD a prime example. Your owners to me seem like they are just pocketing the majority of the money. The club even made public that they where in a strong position financially, and didn't need to sell, so you'd expect to see Southampton making waves in the transfer market, but instead your owners have just pocketed the cash, and refused to pay fees and wages, that are knowhere near what they've just received. You've been doing this for season after season, not reinvesting the money you've received and that's why you have gone from pushing the top sides, to a side looking like they are going down. Spurs are proof that it isn't impossible to get amongst the established names. It was never a top 6 back in the 00s it was always the top 4. Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. City have managed to muscle in from the outside investment, but Spurs have done it the hard way. I would now say they are probably in a stronger position than Arsenal going forward, and on a similar level to Liverpool. When Spurs received big fees for their players, like the Berbatov and Gareth Bale money, look how they reacted. They went out and reinvested the lot. This is a big reason why they are where they are now. So for me it's not a problem the smaller clubs losing their best players to the bigger clubs, the problem is the greedy owners not spending the money they receive. Southampton are not the only club doing this, i just singled you out as its your team, and you've received more than most from the top clubs for your best players, and you should not be in anywhere near the position your in now.
This transfer window aside we have reinvested virtually all the money back into wages and players. When we sold everyone in 2014 we received about £100m, we spent about £60-70m on players and increased wages. Due to the size of the club if we sell a player for a large fee we won't be able to replace them with someone for a similar price as they won't be interested in coming. So we buy cheaper replacements, hoping to identify potential (like we did with Mane and Van Dijk). If we spent all the money we received on players our squad would be massive as it would be sell a player for £40 mil, replace with 3 £15m players. Where we have ****ed up is giving long and bigger contracts to the other players in the squad who were in the teams that did well in the last few years, but who aren't wanted by the top teams (Forster, Davis and Long spring to mind). They are all on £50k+ a week now which nobody else would give them so are happy to stay, which is holding us back. I have no problem with them doing that as loyalty is a 2 way street, but it was ******ed by the club to offer them deals like that in the first place. The other thing tied to that is the wage difference between our top earner and smallest earner in the first team must be very small compared to other clubs. Our top earner is reportedly on £80k and I'd be surprised if any of the lowest earners were on much less than £40k so we have a large wage budget, but being taken up by no superstars and mainly just average PL players.
I'll just copy you, randomly placed lines of dots everywhere and a few emoji's and a little serving of diarrhoea, tapered off at the end with a huge sissyboy meltdown.
Posted at12:15 BREAKINGOzil signs new deal please log in to view this image David Ornstein BBC Sport Mesut Ozil has ended months of speculation over his future by signing a new three-and-a-half-year contract to remain at Arsenal until the summer of 2021. The 29-year-old playmaker becomes the highest-paid player in the club’s history - earning around £350,000 per week before tax - in a deal completed this morning. Ozil would have been a free agent at the end of the season and was able to speak to foreign clubs from 1 January, but Arsenal tied him to fresh terms after lengthy negotiations. An agreement was finally reached last weekend and the Germany international put pen to paper at Arsenal’s London Colney training ground earlier today. It will potentially see Ozil’s career with the Gunners extend to eight years, having joined from Real Madrid in 2013 for a then club record £42.4m, and take him to the age of 32. The 2014 World Cup winner has registered 36 goals in 182 appearances and is statistically among the most prolific creators of scoring opportunities in European football.
outrageous lol. 350k a week, i wonder how much they are paying auba to move to you? Arsenal splashing the cash
don't be jel mate. Its not as if they didn't strengthen themselves. It makes perfect sense, they have to strengthen us to strengthen themselves
If we can get David Luiz out of them in this deal, then it significantly strengthens us with Luiz, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang and a new contract for Ozil.
