Reward for failure is all too common these days and is certainly the way I look at parachute payments.
The nice thing about bankers is that they are very sensible with money. They would never do anything stupid which would irreparably harm a nation's finances or cause an international economic crisis. We can therefore rest assured that dear old Nicola had our finances in perfect order.
Yes I am getting worried...before I get abused let me explain my reasoning: 1 Player left already from last years squad - Lambert, Lallana, Shaw, Lovren, Puncheon & Guly 2 Players looking like they may go - Dani O, JRod and Snidders 3 Needed four quality additions to last years squad to maintain/push on in EPL From experience only about 50% of new additions excel or make the grade....do the maths guys. It is beginning to look a little worrying especially with the slow pace at which Saints appear to work on transfers compared with many of our competitors Dont bury your heads in the sand we have an issue that needs sorting quickly
I think we just have to hope that there are announcements fairly soon. Its difficult to keep anything quiet though so it will be a shock if we sign some-one without any leaks or rumours. Apart from Ron its gone very quiet. Too quiet.
I'm relaxed but only because there is absolutely nothing whatsoever that I can do about the situation we find ourselves in. I learnt a long time ago not to worry about things that I cannot influence. It doesn't stop you caring of course and I must say that the likely increase in departures is starting to make the situation look like a bit of an exodus. Pundits called it but we fans, backed by statements from Ralph and Reed, did not accept that it was going to happen because we "are not a selling club" any more. Well, I'd hate to see what our squad would like like if we were a selling club. The only positive to be found is in the fees we are commanding due both the quality of our players and our sound financial footing. That said, it is beginning to look like we'll need to buy a whole new team (numerically rather than literally) and I cannot recall a time where that has gone well for a club. I would like to be proved wrong though so (please!) feel free to cite examples.
Beefy...I am not usually a negative person and don't think my comments were negative, just realistic looking at our situation Other than a bank balance to dream of there is very little to get excited about when you look at the whole situation especially with our beloved leaders seeming to have gone very quiet since they were all over the media talking absolute rubbish about what happens next as its been proven to be rubbish
Blackburn were accused of buying the title when Shearer and Sutton were there. Not sure how many they brought in.
Spurs attempts last season to bulk buy then integrate a third of a squad tends to be cited as a failure. But actually, having been forced to sell their one genuinely world class player, they still managed to finish 6th despite also sacking two managers. So if we get buying, we can do ok.
If it is any consolation, Saints are not the only club to being pillaged by predators seeking the best assets. In Spain, Athletico Madrid has lost three players to Chelsea alone (OK Courtois only being a loan player), Borussia Dortmund constantly have their best assets bought by Bayern, and also lose other jewels as well. And finally, Ajax have always been plundered. So we are in good company folks. Don't despair!! If these clubs can survive, we can!!
Neither Blackburn in the 90s nor Spurs last season had sold 4 or 5 of their first team. Barring relegation or financial meltdown I can't think of another club that has ever done that.
I think that the "gelling takes time" argument can be over-stated. It's more about buying the right players who play our style. All the remaining players are well drilled and that includes the youth. I would be more concerned if we had not got a quality manager or if we now buy journeyman replacements. No sign of that so far. Not quite "squeaky bum time" yet.
Why should our owners/ leaders be in the spotlight all the time? They aren't Redknapp that tells the press everything he is up to. They try and get it done quietly behind the scenes. Which I prefer far more.
I think there are probably quite a few examples of teams at the top of the table spending lavishly. However, they are almost always adding to an existing squad of quality players. Selling and replacing the spine of your team in the space of one close season is a different matter entirely. No doubt I'll stop worrying when our attack, spearheaded by Pelle becomes one of the most prolific in the division, our defence, marshalled by Roncrete becomes one of the most frugal and our midfield, graced by the "signing of the season" Tadic wins plaudits from all quarters. There. That's a positive way of looking at it! I feel better already.
No they just demoted them to the bench. They had Flowers, Shearer, Le Saux, Sutton from Norwich, Henning Berg, Colin Hendry, David Batty, Stuart Ripley, Tim Sherwood, Paul Warhurst, Kevin Gallacher who were all bought in 1992 and 1993. So they did basically change their whole first team over that 18 month spell. They may not have sold 4 or 5 of their core squad but they demoted them all to the bench bar a couple. Difference was that Dalglish was still a great manager at that time and the players he bought in were all complementary to each other as well as being pretty good. Times change and that scenario is unlikely to ever happen again, but no-one can say with any honesty they didn't buy the league. Most of their first team that ended as PL champions were not at the club 2 years earlier.
Well as things stand there isn't a lot to be positive about. 3 first team players who've performed well for us have gone, a 4th seems to be on his way and there's a question mark over a 5th. That's pretty much unprecedented. There's no point worrying too much yet because we don't have to play a competitive game for a while so we have a fair amount of time to bring people in but really the only question now is how big a step back we're going to take this season.
