I don't believe that we are close to breaking the bank. St Mary's is nearly full capacity for every game. We make £ millions net with our transfers. I believe we can afford some more. Everton seem to manage and Their crowds are not a lot larger and they have players that other teams want, but don't seem to have to sell.
I thought our finances showed that we are breaking the bank so to speak? Our debt is slowly increasing and KL has put more into the club for which we will have to return it or her turn that into equity as well.
I also think we make it easy for teams to sign our players a. We take the risk and bring the player to the EPL and if they make it with us they will probably be a good bet in another EPL side. b. Our salaries are lower so teams probably feel they will get a favourable response from the player and their agent. Until we really try to hang onto our better players I believe we will go downhill as we don't seem to be developing the prospects that we used to
Actually our attendances as a percentage of capacity are the 5th worst in the Premier League this season. Average is 94.3% of capacity, better than only Villa, Sunderland, Newcastle and West Brom. Everton at 95.2% average nearly 8,000 more than us. There is also the commercial income to take into account: sponsorship and so on. I believe until we get a much better deal than the current one with Veho we would struggle to increase our wage bill very much without running into problems with FFP.
Then we will stay in this rather annoying cycle. If you aren't concerned or bothered that's fine. Me, I don't think I can take travelling from Derby for the meagre fare they are serving up at the moment
We have exactly zero to fear from FFP. Roving bands of cannibalistic barbershop quartets are more of a threat to us than FFP right now.
I never said I wasn't bothered, I'm just aware of the facts of life as far as football economics are concerned. And as we've been discussing on another thread, the club are trying to increase the commercial revenue, for example the rumoured sponsorship deal with Under Armour, as well as the new Academy in Baltimore. These things all take time though. Hats off to you for travelling all that way, by the way.
I've kept off here for a little bit for the risk of being a bit too samey but I've watched all the games nonetheless. For what it's worth, I think we have several problems adding together ATM. Its no secret that I'm not a Wanyama fan and that continues. I think last season Spider-Man made him look good, what was left for him after Morgan had gone searching and destroying he did well, but as has been mentioned, we're missing out French enforcer. Morgan had the ability to disrupt and create at will, whereas Vic seems to disrupt our play as much as our opponents. Too much sideways, too many easy balls and his ability to give away silly fouls is increasing. Whilst Romeu is equally capable in the yellow card department, he seems more focussed and consistent. Our fine line balancing act with squad depth isn't working. Clasie isn't up to scratch yet, JWP needs to go on loan to work out his strengths and how he actually should be bossing things. If I hear another commentator say how technically gifted he is, I'll scream...!! Juanmi doesn't seem up to it yet either-if ever....? Although I know he has his haters, Davis runs his socks off usually and will play wherever and when're required. I actually thought he looked better as Vic went off. We're missing presence in goal, Stek hasn't done anything wrong, but could be righter. Presence and command will breed confidence into the back 4 and that will allow VVD to surge forward and for Fontè to remain. We're still missing a Plan B when our frontline option of Pellè being bothered doesn't work. As a team, we lack directed pace, hoofing it go Pellè all the time won't work if he's having one of his little flicks days and there's no one to scare people with pace for the knockdowns. Just watched the midfielder Kantè for Leicester, pace to burn and not afraid to be direct. I miss seeing that. We don't need wholesale change, but need to play smarter. If it ain't working-lets not sacrifice playing ugly and scrappy to get a goal where we seem to want to keep it pretty. It'd be nice to see a couple of bold loan moves like Joel Campbell or the boy Odegaard.... Let's make a stately of intent for once. While I prefer the club approach since Nicola, sometimes things are a bit too clean cut.
I agree with most of that although surprising it may be to some, Pelle has reduced his silly flicks and TBH has a tough job to do much when he is both being manhandled in front of referees that left their specs at home and that he is having balls hit up to him with his back to goal. I'm not his biggest fan but it isn't all his fault at the moment. Must be quite frustrating for him.
Very disappointed with the result today and performance, having said that just thankful I am not a villa fan. I thought their support was pretty good today considering the tripe their team is churning out. They were really poor and the time wasting for the whole of the second half was terrible. The time it took them to take corners, goal kicks and the number of so called injuries, I was surprised there was only 5mins added time. Very negative. For a team who has not been relegated from the premier league I would be worried. I am not worried about saints, I think we are a bit too use to success and see this result as a failure. We shouldn't. As for our fans today, booing at half time was poor but the vocal support of oh when the saints, seemed to spur the team on for the equalizer, but the with the scores finely balanced, needing a winner and with 5 mins to go with another 5 mins added time the stadium empties........doh.
Ashby, this statement is true, although I don't think the club don't try to hang on to our better players. Do you have a suggestion as to how they should try harder?
There are probably a few issues and one of those in my opinion, is the lack of a midfielder who drives at opponents. Mane does it a little but we don't have anyone else that does it lots. Davis tried a couple of times yesterday but that is not his normal game. Another issue for me is how little we take a full back on. I'd love to see the stats as I bet when we do, we often score. Yesterday, as with Liverpool, we started doing it and then seemed to have massive spells when we didn't. Overall though, isolating yesterday's game, we created enough chances to win several games. They didn't go in which is frustrating, so for me yesterday was about us being frustrating not bad.
Kidnap them and wait for Stockholm Syndrome to set in? Half a dozen sheep dogs and a large holding pen at Staplewood? Come on, FLT, use your imagination. Yesterday confirmed what we've known for a while. Some players are irreplaceable (ca va, Morgan?) and there's no point pretending otherwise. Having said that, I hope the first 20 minutes doesn't become a pattern. Quite how we managed to miss so many chances still baffles me. As an honest Villa fan said to me on the train ride home "It should have been 8-1". Obviously the challenge for Koeman is to keep adapting team tactics to match the players available, and the fact that he's grumbling about spending would seem to indicate that a) some of the current squad ain't up to it and/or b) he's getting a bit pissed off with the whole process. And as for the game, it was one of those that in the end we were relieved not to lose. As the game wore on we seemed to be edgy, like a team that had just lost 6-1 at home! We'll be OK, but like our friend from Derby, we've come to expect progress and it doesn't look as if this is going to be delivered anytime soon. But then as my Villa mate said last night, he'd settle for mid-table mediocrity. In the past we fans have been accused of not sharing the club's ambitions. At the moment I wonder whether the fans' ambitions are greater than the club's. With teams like Leeds in mind, perhaps we need to be careful what we wish for.
Anyone in the Itchen stand think the saints fan in the hat shouldn't have got wound up by the villa fans? The stewards warned him time and again not to react but no....then he got thrown out and they started on his mrs and she started reacting to.........
I don't know where the xmas spirit was yesterday, I saw a few moments of aggro looking from kingsland north over to the Northam, one at half time when some blokes and woman involved. Having said that and not living in Southampton, I thought the atmosphere in town was great.
Villa fans were goading him and he reacted by giving the bird.....which then resulted into more winding up and he then wanted to get over the fence at them.......I think drink may have been a factor. He should have concentrated on watching the game and ignored them. If a fan is ejected, is he/she then banned?
