Southampton have today agreed a fee of £7m with Burnley for Jay Rodriguez. I'm not sure why Southampton think they need another striker, but being part of the EPL has given them the money to make offers for players like Rodriguez. Funny, I used to watch Jay Rodriguez play for Stirling Albion and never thought he'd be a £7m player one day.....
Apparently they were paying Billy Sharp last season more than anyone in the Norwich first team. They’ve had money since there buy out by Cortse/Libebherr and they will spend big this season. Funny enough I thought they would be looking for defenders first. I can only think Barnard will be on his way out now.
Libebherr was a life long Saints fan. He used to own (or his family company still own) half the craines in the docks in and around Southampton & loved the club. He also made a 5 year plan before his untimely death for his family to ensure saints are back in the prem, which they managed to do with a few years to spare.
Not to mention he had a personal wealth of 3 billion to throw at anything he wanted & Southampton was in a dire position. 15 mil for Southampton was a snap considering there new ground plus large fan base for a club in that position.
I think the signing of Jay Rod will be a good signing (if we do get him) even at £7m it's not too bad and I believe Adkins is making the right call by buying Jay Rod. Btw Cortese made the five year plan not Markus Liebherr .
gotcha Dont claim to be an expert on Saints but there fairly local to me & theres plenty of envious fans round here watching the way Saints have climbed back up the leagues. No more so than pompey of course Rods not a bad signing. Looks like he will fit in with you guys either deployed on the wing opposite lallana or up tops with Lambert. 7 mil isnt alot considering your promotion windfall and your backing as well but who have you got with prem experience? I know its not a necessity Norwich have shown that but I assume Adkins will try & blend the squad & I expect to see your back four strengthened. Lallana and Lambert are going to be in my dream team next year as my 'wildcards' as I expect them to be cheap for one season at least! Ps I hope kelvin Davis is given a shot in the sticks as on his day (as we all saw at Elland Road) hes a hell of a stopper.
Ridsdale anyone? You have to have the money in the first place to be able to do this, Simon. If we get that through a takeover then so be it But I'd also be happy if we had someone who had no money to pump in except what the club made, but who did not fritter it away on fanciful but costly ideas and court cases, and instead had prices that attracted fans in, built up a solid and reliable expectation, and put in place a long term footballing strategy so we became self-reliant.
Spot on Best of both worlds would be nice! An owner with the balls to gamble his/her/there money to get us up & then for us to be run with what the club make so we dont get back in the red as you never know whats round the corner!
I'm not even saying outside investment is a necessity, just a willingness to put the money earned from the club back into the team would be enough.
We've got a few prem experience players in the squad like Kelvin Davis,Cork,Fox,Richardson,Chaplow...not many but I think the one's that will take the prem by storm are Lallana and Lambert of course but also Schneiderlin and Guly aswell. I agree with you when you say that we need to strengthen our back four as I think it's weak.We need another CB and RB in order to do well next season. Should be a good season as our chairman doesn't want us to make up the numbers next season,he wants a top 10 finish...Should be interesting to see what happens at the club this summer regarding transfers.I'd take 17th place at the moment,but I think we'll finish mid table quite easily. I'm very grateful that we've got such a great chairman at the club who is taking us places,it's a shame that Leeds haven't got such a great leader at the club like we do,hopefully you'll find a decent chairman who is willing to invest in the club and take it forward...you're a premier league club in every sense except for the fact that you compete in the championship.
Cheers for the well wishes i look forward to going undercover again in the northam hopefully in the prem!
