Toby signs for Spurs - official.

That's a fair enough post PNP. The only thing that confuses me, is that I've seen a LOT of Spurs posters saying that a large part of Toby's decision would have been to do with the "world class facilities" at Spurs. Now I have no reason to doubt that you have those, but have you looked at Staplewood recently?

 

If ever a thread needed re-naming it's this one! The discussion about the did Saints cock up is tedious. But the general view of fans about what it says about the club and its ambition remain valid whatever the ins and outs of Toby's move.

Could this thread be re-titled "What Toby's decision tells us about the status of SFC"?

 

That there are at least six clubs who will pay bigger salaries than us. That's why Toby chose Spurs and why all the others who have left recently went. There's nothing else that matters more to players than dosh.

 

The silver lining here is that we as a club - assuming the quality control is there, and I believe it is, though we will probably need to wait until the closing days of the window to get who we really want, and let the domino effect as the big clubs ship in and out act as the clearing mechanism - cannot be second-guessed or easily tactically sussed, as we will have half a new team each season.

 

#saintsfc agreed fee with A Madrid for Alderweireld says Les Reed but he got a phone call Monday night saying the player was choosing Spurs

 

Already posted in the interview thread. But I guess it ends this thread well.

 

That makes sense to me, there is nothing left to discuss on here..

 

Well, one thing perhaps. Did we actually get the £1.5M buy out agreement fee back?

 

Les Reed explains, at length, what happened with Toby - to the Daily Echo: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/13407601.Alderweireld_transfer__The_Full_Story/?ref=mac

 

“The choice was do we pursue this legal argument which could tie it up for months and get FIFA involved and so on, or do we bite the bullet and go into the open market and make a bid that is acceptable to Atletico? “That was the decision we made (to make an offer)"

And yet when I suggested we should do exactly this what the club ultimately did, Beefy said there's no point in talking with me if this is what I think, and DTLW basically accused me of lacking the morals that the club possessed.

 

*doffs cap*

Fair enough, can't argue with that - it's come from Les himself.

 

Turns out that that was a deposit...I would be amazed if we didn't get a deposit back.

 

Opinions be opinions. Reed decided to do all he could to get Toby which is fair play. As said below I wouldn't have done it. So despite some posters accusing him not of doing enough to keep Toby without having a clue what was going on he did. Alderweireld choosing Spurs instead of us is fine. I still see it as AM are dodgy as **** tho.

 

I still wouldn't have done it, though. Not for any ethical reason but because I didn't think it was the best business decision. Where Alderweireld went in the end wasn't up to Atletico.

If rumors are true, we outbid Tottenham by 3m and now it appears we got Atletico to agree... and we still didn't get Alderweireld. If Alderweireld wanted to be here, we could have thrown a bit on top of our buyout fee just to smooth things over and get him here earlier. But I wouldn't bid against Tottenham, because there was no point.

If Alderweireld won't sign with them, who cares how much they offer? And if Alderwiereld won't sign with us, who cares how much we offer?

But anyway, it's all over now. We move on.

 

Wrong thread.

 

"As for a managerial merry-go-round, Nigel Adkins says hi."

----

So does Hugo, he'd give you a wave only his hands hurting.

±notkarma

 

That's actually a blessing, though - as Man U were potentially after him, and is unlikely they'd take him now if he can't get a preseason, or may be out for the start of the season. Vorm will get a decent pre-season now and a chance to prove himself, so will probably be on fire.

 

Vorm is quite decent, though Ddoris is exceptional and was pretty much the main reason you finished an impressive 4 points ahead of us. That and having the highest goalscoring Englishman for the season up front. We didn't have the highest goalscoring Englishman on account of the previous season's highest scoring Englishman being out for the whole of last season. This also helped in your amazing 4 point cushion. Unfortunately it would appear that our first choice goalkeeper will be missing the whole of the forthcoming season, so if you get back Ddoris pronto and don't lose your leading goalscorer for the whole of this season then that incredible 4 point cushion surely is in the bag! Fantastic! Cheers......

 

This resurrection makes me sad.

 

Don't worry, Toby isn't the messiah. He's just a very naughty boy.