Can't fault committment to the club and the driving themes of sustainability, which can have many degrees of freedom, the focus on a core business and product philosophy and its continuity are what differentiate us as a club. Those themes are our competitive advantage and have permitted us to ride a sea of change over the last several years at the football manager / coach function; changes that would have whipsawed many clubs, seen funds spent without long term purpose and consistency, and created turmoil that would have been destructive at many other clubs. It hasn't always been as pretty, or as transparent, or as seemingly well organized as we would all like to think it should be but it has been powerfully effective and the club's trajectory has never waivered. As we are admired and respected by many in football in Britain and increasingly around the world, we are also the subject of envy and spite. It is never more readily apparent than with elements of the media and this is a disservice to the club and its supporters. It has manifested it itself increasingly and recently. We need to "manage" this as the faithful as much as does the club. Today's video has been done for a reason, it has been driven I think by external forces, not necessarily by internal need. The season will soon be with us. It is one to look forward to, another of consolidation while competing, of following our trajectory in an increasingly competitive environment against peers that have been at it at this level longer than us and yet still find it a challenge, for some a struggle. Competition is fierce on and off the field, and no doubt in terms of player acquisition and management it is guerrilla warfare out there to a degree that would probably shock us if we knew the truth. STID .... In the grand scheme of things we are extraordinarily fortunate as supporters. We may not be a big club, but we are a strong club, we are a unique club.
nobody is denying the philosophy of the way we do things at the club but you cant stay static while the club grows, we have to move at the same rate together. nobody is asking to spend like we see other clubs doing but stay within our budget and philosophy and as our success and bank balance grows then should the ability to compete for players of a higher price range. He talks about ten years ago when we had One million to play with and today £100 million and my argument is you can reach a point of buying cheaply that it becomes a hindrance to our season as these players are not of the calibre we require now...what is the point of buying the wrong players because they were cheap and putting yourself in danger of relegation when we have the money in the bank to pay slightly more for better players...Huw talks as if he is expecting us to have a bad season and he could be right and it begs the question why...we all agree with the clubs philosophy but you cant sustain our status without investing. what will be the point of extending the liberty if we get relegated...We are here now and we are in a fantastic position so dont ruin it thinking we can buy cheap all the time as it wont work now like it did in the lower leagues, we must not go overboard either but i would like us to compete for players in the £6-8 million bracket at this stage of our progress and not let them go to other clubs without a fight.....
I think this is fair comment Dai. There is a fine line between being prudent and managing risk well, and being frugal and too tentative.
Thing is Dai we got Michu for £2m , which is cheap as things stand right now, he's integrated in as has seen our club standing go higher. If we spent say £10m or £20m on a player, it doesn't mean that the player will be ten times better than Michu. The point I'm getting at is that we can only go on hindsight after we've bought the player, seen him play for the season then take stock on whether they were good for us. Take a look at Carroll at Liverpool for example, they blew a fortune on him but it didn't work. We don't have that kind of money to mess around with, we've got to do it our way as doing it any other way won't work for the club, we can't be irresponsible and we can't take risks, if it hinders our club a little so be it, but we will still have a club after. And by the way I don't believe the hindrance would have any major effect in any case.
I have said in a few posts now jager that the time is not right to start buying £10 million players. what im saying is we cant keep relying on buying cheap players and they are going to be a success. We are entering our third season now and have amassed a substantial amount of money over the years and we should now not let players who we have targeted to go to other clubs for £6-8 million because huw and the board don't want to pay the going rate for these better players....We are losing out on some good players that there is no reason why we should entering the third season....they will pay for themselves if we can get a fourth season under our belt....we are taking a big risk on going for unknown and cheaper players..We only got to look how we played last season to realize we need better quality in the side....
2 years ago we were happy to potentially become a parachute club and go back down but only to rise again, purely due to our sustainability and The Trust. We surpassed that but the mantra HAS to remain the same. In order to keep going forward, you have to learn from your past. The Trust has continued to surprise us by it's success ...why now decide to rip up the charter? We are able to buy £6/8 mill players if it suits us. I fully expect it to happen this summer also. A bit of patience is required..at least let the official window open first before pressing the panic buttons. STID. Keep the faith
Some very good points made by all! Swim - you have summed up my thoughts perfectly, but can also appreciate Dai's comments! Am prepared to 'wait and see' a little longer, but would be a little disappointed if we didn't 'push the boat out' to get the striker (at least) that we badly need. Our (reported) dealings thus far have been modest and I think we need to show some ambition in the transfer window, but am happy (at the minute) to trust the board to act in the best interests of SCFC!
Dai you have made some very valuable points here, and while we can get away with £3 or £4 Million pound players on the pitch in some positions, we cannot get away with it at the sharp end, and I'm talking the striker position, and Jenkins should realise this, and I'm sure he does, as we were prepared to buy Siggy at one point, and Borini, but I notice that if there is the slightest issue with our manager (Sousa/Laudrup) then the transfers simply stall, understandable I suppose, but why do these managers get frustrated, well it's simply down to the small corner shop mentality of Jenkins and Co, who need to start realising that they are in the biggest league in the world, and they need to now develop the vision, and investment in the squad to sustain the Premiership status, as it clearly pays, at £100 million a season, with that sort of income the club can grow year on year. PS: I will not make any judgements yet on the problems we have seen these last few weeks, until we sign the striker, then we shall see what Jenkins & co are made of, but you can't keep expecting to pick up players like Michu for £2 Million all the time. By the way some one give Jenkins some lessons in public speaking for goodness sake, he didn't half ramble on!...................
Spending money on large transfers doesn't automatically mean ambitious , and spending smaller sums a corner shop mentality Phil. I just think our club is cautious with the money and rightly so, we have all seen what rampant spending at clubs over the years has done. Now I know some will say it won't happen at our club etc, but take a look at Hull who came up the last time with little or no debt, by the time they got relegated and have just been promoted they have about £50m of it. So I'm glad Huw and Co are in charge, they keep our feet firmly on the ground, yes the club has money now, but we should keep our eyes firmly on the finances and don't spend money we don't need, and pay for players who are not a fit for us. Clubs like ours are the model for other clubs on sustainability .
Jager we are being far too cautious now that there is a great danger of not paying enough for the right striker. look what we did with Danny who is not good enough as a lone striker. once the window is shut then thats it we will have to hope and pray our strikers are good enough because if they score goals at the same rate as danny did then we are in trouble. We cant rely on michu as he is being kept quiet now the opposition knows all about him ...so we cant expect him to score the same amount of goals this season. The thing is we need two strikers not one and we wont get anyone decent for peanuts, £15 million for two strikers is not a lot today and we definitely need them if we want to stay in the premiership,....We need to spend £30 million approx on new players if we want to have a half decent season....
Dai There is no way on this earth the club will spend £30m on players, so we might as well get out of the expectation that we will. As I said previously on this subject, we are Swansea City, we are not a club that takes risks that could damage the fabric of the club. And we are not a club that follows what others do. If others want to spend that amount of money or more on players, that is up to them! But I don't beleive our club will ever spend that sum on a single transfer window, what did we spend last season? About £17m I think, all that funded through sales. I am happy if the club continues what its doing now, they may make a few mistakes here and there, but its nothing compared of taking unnecessary risks that could burden our club for decades again.
There is no way on this earth the club will spend £30m on players, Then don't expect much this season that's all i have got to say we will be far to weak....and its avoidable with the money we have amassed these last 3 years...
And how can you say that when we haven't sold any players, or none have as yet come in? We won't spend anywhere near that sum as there is no need too, I expect the club will spend less than £20m
We haven't spent the money we received for Allen, Sinclair, Rodgers + backroom staff and Graham. As I have said on another thread, we have made 30million 'ish' on player sales and Rodgers and co in the past 12 months, not to mention the 8 million we didn't pay out for the Siggy deal. If this money was used on new transfers, it would not harm the finances of the club. We must also take into account the money we had for getting promoted to the PL in the first place, and now the MASSIVE amount of money the club will receive as a result of the new tv financial package, not to mention the upcoming extra money from the Europa League, new sponsorship deals, and the league cup success. The best way to ensure our financial stability is by staying in the premiership, and for ML to take us to the next level in the league, then we have to spend some money, especially in the striker department, and unfortunately, they do not come cheap. I don't think we are as 'poor' in terms of finances as some say. Looking at some of the points I have just listed, I would say we are in a pretty strong situation.
Of course we've spent the money, or does over £30m a year on wages don't count? We are running in the black yes, but you could swear we are just banking the money and not doing anything. What about the almost £7m spent on the academy? What about the money being spent on the stadium upgrade? I suggest you read the accounts for the last financial year ending May 2012 http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/resources/Swansea City PROPER accounts 31 May 2012.pdf
Quite frankly it would be nothing short of criminal if we were relegated because we refused to spend what is required to compete successfully at this level. If we didn't have the money, I wouldn't carp about the situation but the plain fact is, WE DO. Sustainability is one thing but pig-headed stubborness is another. Only an idiot would fail to recognise that we have to buy in some quality - particularly with the huge demands that European football will make on our resources. So far, Huw has not acted like an idiot, quite the opposite in fact. I just hope that he isn't about to blot his copybook now.... being the richest club in the Championship has no appeal for me.
