We need to come out of this with more players than we started with...otherwise what is the point. We all know we were a bit light last season. The problem is that every player we lose could play in the EPL....on average, a few players we buy will fail. Grabbing a figure from the air, I think a third of our purchases haven't worked out...though that may have been aggravated by promotions.
We have a few youngsters that can step up. No way will we be able to buy enough back up this transfer window.
That Beefy is my main concern......it will take at least 3 transfer windows in my view. That to replace and get the right back ups not to mention the other ones that leave in the meantime!!
The positive for me is that I don't believe anyone is acting with malice...I think circumstances have carried them along...each sale probably made some sense on a purely financial level, but they couldn't stop the boulder rolling once it started. Players and agents saw weakness where before they had to deal with Nicola...and even he sold Oxo because the price was right. Therefore, I do believe them when they say the money will be reinvested, but, just as it was hard to keep players here, it is hard to get them to join us. We could just have any player, but we trying to get in good ones to replace the absconders...not easy if you are also trying to control wage levels.
At the end of the day it all depends on what the ambition of the club now is. If it is to survive in the PL and not much else, then getting together a squad in a few weeks capable of that (considering our current squad, and the squads of other teams) shouldn't be that difficult. If it is to build on last season and try and move forward then it is going to be far more difficult, basically impossible imo. We could sign a load of players who are great, but for them all to hit the ground running and guide us to another 8th place finish is extremely unlikely and this season will be more about consolidation, and then resume the plan of European football next year. As for Koeman, I do not understand this argument of "he wouldn't have come here if there wasn't ambition" or "he is a great manager". He is a failed manager at every club he has been at outside of the Netherlands. He would jump at the chance to work at any PL club to try and prove that he is a good manager and not just a great player turned average manager. If you think about it from his perspective, he is on a win/win. Do well and all the media/non Saints fans are like "wow what a great manager Koeman is getting a club like Saints so high in the league/far in the cups" and if he does terribly they will just blame all the player sales and say it was an impossible job thanks to the board. I am not saying for one minute that I hope or think he will fail, as you can never tell with managers. I am just saying that I do not see it as a valid argument that Koeman is a top manager or that him coming here is a massive sign of ambition.
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/00053301/SOUTHAMPTON-FOOTBALL-CLUB-LIMITED Says here to June 2013 there is a minus figure of £56m???
I think to an outsider or the majority of the inept media, asset stripping would seem like the obvious answer. But, with the bids and links to players that we have, us fans can rest assured that's not the case. A lot of the players seem like they have told the board they want out, which makes it hard for the club to keep our best players. However, it's disappointing that they seem to be willing to let any player who wants out to go. Need to show some steel with players like Chambers and Schneiderlin.
Very unwise to read too much into company accounts without knowing anything about accountancy (or fiddling as it is known). Now if I was 56m in the red!
We mad a 5.3m pound loss as of 2013 according to a guy on Saintsweb that always buys the finance results. Obviously we haven't had last seasons yet.
It is a good read., If it is that we have aquired a bit of debt due to overspending then it's only wise we get fees to close the gap.
It's a well crafted piece which goes against what every other journalist has said about us. I think it's the volume of sales that is worrying, each one taken in isolation is fantastic business.
Agreed. It shows assets at £18m yet selling a small proportion of this has raised in excess of £60m in sales so assets clearly undervalued.
The whole asset stripping and sale thing doesn't work for me for a number of reasons. - Koeman's appointment - Continued investment in updating the stadium - Continued investment in the training facilities - We're not listing every senior player - Every player that does leave is going to a bigger club - The pissy non-statement when Lallana left
Another slight indication for me is the fact guys we expected would or might leave (Hooiveld, Mayuka, Osvaldo etc) haven't gone yet. You could easily get some decent cash for Osvaldo in particular and nobody would think twice about it.
We've kept the players that no one would pay serious money for...at least they fill a hole on the pitch. Their wages will probably be a bit high as well. As for Osvaldo, we have to find someone that will pay enough and that he would consider playing for...probably go out on loan.
Do we really want to keep the likes of Osvaldo though? Although I accept we are thin on the ground for strikers. Wouldn't that just be a bit desperate?
