One player doesn't make a team, but Southampton have agreed a fee and are agreeing terms for Gaston Ramirez!! That just proves the financial clout they have behind them.
well having praised the saints for the way their club is being run these days, i may now have to back track!! i refuse to believe they can afford this deal purely from gate receipts etc
You would think clubs would learn from there mistakes, obviousley Soton and West Ham wont. Fortunetly we have owners that have
God help them should they be relegated...they will be the biggest laughing stock...you spend upwards of £20m and you still couldn`t stay up?
How can they sustain this on attendances not much bigger than ours. They've gone into Administration before, you'd think they'd have learned (although I'm aware they have different owners now) and you only have to look at the carnage down the road.
We can sustain this because we have billionaire owners, 5th richest in England. He's costing us 12 million and is on 30kpw Which is marginally more than our top earners (Lambert and Lallana) who are on 26kpw. If he has one good season the very worst thing that could happen is his value will double the best is that we will have a stunning young player on our hands. No hard feelings I respect your club immensely I just wish people would at least google our owners before jumping to conclusions.
Until the owners feck off or get bored or decide to no longer plough money into the club. The point that was being made is the club is not self sustaining.
We very much are, the owners are dedicated to the project (hence spending their own money) we have a 32,000 seater stadium a massive fan base and a cracking youth academy which is very much self sustaining. I tried to address your points with some class you could have afforded me the same liberty.
we all know about saints owners. to be fair, if he's not on big wages (i assumed he would be on £45k a week +) then its more logical and not so risky. the fee is massive but its the wages getting out of hand that brings a football club to its knees. saints have, so far, been run very responsibly by the current owners. this was a bolt out of the blue though and i think its understandable that fans of other clubs will look at this deal and wonder whether its a change in philosophy
No you're missing the point what is the point in having owners if they don't put in money? Jesus christ, just because your club goes about transfers in a different way doesn't mean that any club who has money from BILLIONAIRE owners can't spend it. We aren't expecting them to go anytime soon and if they do we are a very attractive preposition for buyers debtless, decent stadium, good fan base and cracking youth academy.
Fair enough! That's all I wanted a nice proper post that I can respond to without repeating myself yeah it's 30k a week I think the main draw is us promising him he'd be a "key player" mixed with his wages trebling (10k to 30k). I think it's a real statement of intent but I can see why others who perhaps don't know the club as much as a saints fan would see it as a risk. (on the brightside if we go down you guys could nick him off us ) EDIT: Probably doesn't help that he's been quoted saying "they offered me so much money" <Laugh> but I spose if you triple someones wages, no matter how low it was in the first place, it's impressive.
he's a fabulous player, albeit based on the few times i've watched him. bit surprised to see him go to saints, regardless of first team football! i predicted saints for top half and to surprise a few this season, so this signing will only enhance that prediction. £30k a week is still a lot but it is comparable to our own clubs wage structure, or at least what it will be at once our ground is expanded to 35k, so its not that peculiar. the fee is big though and although i don't personally think its a risk, many will feel it is.
I don't disagree with a word you've said and of course the owners should put in money and spend in and develop the club in the way you describe. I was only suggesting that self sustaining means the survivial and balancing the books on income generated, NOT all forms of revenue. hardly a contentious point?
Italain press say about 2mn Euros a year, or about £30k a week. Close to the same as our other to earners - rumours put Lambert & Lallana between on £28k a week anyway. We've also off-loaded other players so our overall wage bill won't be huge*. It's a record fee, but I doubt it will break our wage structure. This is upfront investment, so yes a short term "loss" but our chairman is determined to make us live within our means over the longer term. There are also early plans to expand St. Mary's so we can generate more in gate recipts. Obviously, big Maquee signings like this will pull more people in if they can help keep us up and push on to mid-table upwards. Our recent spending is like a Mortgage, not wonga.com *With this I suspect we'll off-load more; for example, I doubt Puncheon and\or de Ridder will stay.
i like the way saints have gone about their business this summer. this came as a bit of a shock but they are not risking their clubs future by buying him. rather their way than the baffling purchases of qpr and west ham who seem to throw a dart at a list of players and see what they come up with
I`m more than happy with our £15k wage limit, it should be highly respected that we acheive so much, given this relatively meagre incentive. Point is that come the end of the season, Norwich will be debt free and Saints will be loaded with more debt (rich owner or not, it`s still the same case). Now which side of the fence would you like to sit? Especially this season, doesn`t matter whether you finish 17th or 12th, survival is the key...stop kidding yourselves that you will get into Europe within a few years, maybe the Europa League is a distant possibility, but Champions League absolutely zero chance.
