Sell Schniederlin for 25m and get Clasie in for 7m Sell Clyne for 12m and get Soares in for 5m Shrewd shrewd business. Juanmi looks a decent value buy as well while everyone else is spending stupid money.
And with our knack of making good players into very good ones, we should make a handsome profit if they decide to move on at a later date.... Bayern Munich fan by any chance?
No we have been doing smart business for years and are a profitable club. Unfortunately the guys that run it treat it too much like a business.
Ah ok, I always thought the transfer market would have gained you a profit and the attendances would keep you from trouble even without a big TV deal. My friend knows Charlie Mulgrew fairly well and he told me last summer that some of the higher earners were told they could leave. Upon acceptable transfer fee of course
Celtic have always been very tightly run financially, the joke was the transfer kitty was kept in a biscuit tin, nowadays it seems a rather lavish receptacle. Selling VVD could result in a decent striker coming in for the CL campaign, and the purchase of another Van Dijklike bargain....shrewd business
Man U bought Depay, Schwienstiger and Schneiderlin for £50m. Man City bought Raheem Sterling. Great job City!
The thing is, it doesn't really matter to City - £50m is like 50p to them. All it means is they get the player they want, without fail, every time. I know which deal I'd prefer to be on the end of, of course.
Shrewd business is all very well - but only if we eventually spend the money. If we compare the money we have received from transfers with our outlay in the past 2 years (+Tv rights etc...) , there is a considerable sum not being spent. Where is it going? I'd be happy if it was put into infrastructure or other long term projects, or even wages so we could retain our best players... But it is certainly not going straight back into transfers.... Where is all this money going? Kat seems to be making a tidy profit off Saints (and I guess is well within her rights to...). A profitable club is all very well - but wouldn't a football mad saints' fan who is an oil tycoon be better? Someone who is prepared to take a loss for the success of the club? Or is this not the dream anymore because of FFP?
You are one of the best run clubs in england, perhaps in the world rising from League 1 to almost getting champ football in 5 years and your saying this? I'm not sure an oil tycoon flooding money into the club could've done better personally.
I think you're right and don't want to sound ungrateful. But in an era of elite English football clubs and their owners spending ridiculous amounts of money and consistently running at a loss, seems hard to compete with only a sensible backer. Then again - could be worse.
It only gets you so far. In League One we spent lots of money for the level that other teams could not match. To our credit, we did spend it well and earn promotion, but other clubs did not even have the resources to try. In Championship we again did well, but the sums were so slight as to not even trouble big clubs. Once we had players that were actually good enough to attract the interest of big clubs , they just bought than all. I mean, yes it is good business for us but in the overall scheme of things into is peanuts. No one thinks Sterling is worth that much, but ManCity won't even feel it. And Liverpool will splunk the money on something stupid no doubt. But that is the thing. If Sterling is worth 45m, how much should Schneiderlin be worth? Yeah it is great when when you buy players for half as much as other teams. But you don't make any inroads when two years later you sell them for half of what teams get. I may be biased, but I would call our dealings last summer something close to genius. On the other hand I would classify Man U and Liverpool's moves as hilariously awful. They still beat us. PL is a farce. All the European Leagues are. I would love for there to be some sort of revolution, and if anyone could possibly pull it off I believe it is us. But will it actually happen? I'm cynical. Sadly, our best hope is that KL has the resources to outspend a ton of teams should she wish to, rather than that our front office is fantastic. Still all about money.
Wow. Thank goodness there's a Leeds fan to to show some gratitude for what our owner and management are doing. I am a little stunned by Saint muppets post. I am not sure if it's a joke, a wind up, ignorant or just plain daft. Let's just spend, spend, spend. Bring back some of the previous Board and Chairmen and head towards financial oblivion as soon as we can.
That's a nice post and from a fan of a club who fully understands the perils of throwing money at a team without a sustainable plan.
Question to me is where COULD the money go. We cannot outspend the big clubs, and realistically players will choose them over us unless we spend considerably more than them, in effect ridiculously overpaying beyond an already ridiculous overpay. Sure we could pull a QPR and spunk it all on transfers and wages, but it doesn't get us anywhere. We aren't getting better quality players, just spending more. To me, Clasie is a good example. Obviously we don't know if he will be a bust or not. But on paper, looking generally at class/category, can we attract a better player than that right now? My feeling is no. So while we could spend 15, 20m I think we got what appears to be a relative steal for half of that. Even if the money were going straight into KL's pocket I wouldn't begrudge her pocketing 8m instead of wasting it on an Osvaldo-like transfer or whatever. Spend smart, put the money in the bank or on infrastructure and gradually grow and maybe one day we'll have the funds to hang with the big clubs. Probably not, but it's the best chance we have.
Its all about the long run and being sustainable, most of the English clubs are not sustainable business models, they just have bags of money behind them and the safety net of huge TV money. As you have seen with Rangers up here, even big clubs can go under if not run properly, and just look at Anzhi and Malaga to see how a Man City situation can quickly turn into a mess. Southampton are doing well, probably above expectation, and they are doing it while turning a profit and putting quality players on the pitch, dont think you can ask for any more than that. Eventually it will all collapse and when it does yous will be in a better position than most. Celtic, historically and fan base wise, are a bigger club than about 98% of English clubs and we can only dream of spending 5m on one player. But it makes it better when we get those big results in the Champions League because we are doing it from a massively disadvantaged position.
