Saints are 'increasingly hopeful' on Victor Wanyama signing a new deal at St. Mary's

We're talking about a football club here, not a bazaar. You can't build a team if you see every individual component as constantly on sale to the highest bidder.

 

Look he is off to Chelsea with Ron so get used to it FFS.

 

I agree....how unsettling for players if they think we will listen to every offer. Other players could never be sure that the team mate they had got a rapport with wouldn't be moved on in the next window. Players wouldn't regard us as a serious team, but as a transit camp.

The longer contracts we give at the moment suggests we want stability.

 

That strategy worked rather well for Olympique Lyonnais who moved from regional also-ran to Champions League with this as one of their mainstays. They publicly stated that they would sell any player for whom they received an offer in excess of their internal valuation and that they would buy only buy players they considered undervalued. (They also never bought anyone under 20 or over 29 as under 20 was too risky and could lose money while over 29 meant always losing money.)

They did rather well out of it and over time converted a small starting pot into a big player fund.

Vin

 

The biggest criticism to recent champions Chelsea and City is that their squads became stagnant after winning the league and they didn't re-invest or freshen it up.

Teams are constantly moving and involving and 2 or 3 changes a year is healthy.

 

Losing Clyne, Schneiderlin and Alderweireld wasn't that healthy for us last summer was it?

 

Ha, well of course losing your better players is not a recipe for success, but seeing a team change season on season is not a bad thing in itself.

 

Although it could be fun if we really committed. Could repurpose the scoreboard to feature a stock ticker for each player, and we might convince eBay to sponsor our kit with the "Buy It Now" button.

Halttimes at home could feature a silent auction, and goals could be announced with "goal scored by number 7, Shane Long, yours today for only £10m!"

 

Lyon didn't sell there top players to clubs in their league though (edit: like we obviously do for obvious reasons). They invested money from cash rich leagues into their team which made them big fish in a financially weak league (edit: unlike the richest league in the world), this enabled them to regularly qualify for the CL and access that cash cow.

 

This is true, but where do you sell your players if you're in the big rich league. Selling outside that league won't get you a big return unless you are selling an exceptional player to Barca, Madrid, etc

 

Quite, that's why it wouldn't work for us at all.

 

There are six teams we can currently sell players to for bigger money that we buy them (4 + Liverpool and Spurs). As we move onwards with the process, that could well drop to four teams. Once it's dropped to three, I'll agree the game's changed, however, it's because we've become a regular in the top four. At that point I think the process would have succeeded so we'd need new plans.

I repeat that I think the timescale for this progression is fifteen years or so (though I've been saying it for a year so I might have to start saying fourteen years or so)

Vin

 

So all we need to do is sell our players to a richer lea.... Oh.

Or move to a poorer league. We could relocate to eastern Europe? Wed be in the CL in no time

 

It's a process that works best when the club is in control and making the decisions. In football as in so many other areas of life, the more money you have the more control you have over your own destiny and that of others.

I find that rather depressing. Or I would do if I didn't secretly believe that even those who think they are inccontrol, really aren't. There is an unseen hand directing the affairs of men, and just recently it's been rather kind to Saints.

I'd still like to keep all the players Ron wants to keep, for at least another season after this one though.

 

There was I thinking it wouldn't work, but you've convinced me.

 

We're on a great run at the moment. What do you think the squad needs to challenge top 4 next season?
Simply time to gel and improve or do we need to strengthen?

 

I think time to gel. Our aquistions from last summer have taken time but are starting to come good, Clasie in particular. TThis is a decent squad starting to take shape, I really hope itddoesn't get broken up again but I suppose some departures may be inevitable.

 

Hope Man Utd and Liverpool continue their sparkling form. Squad wise Payet type would do nicely.

 

Arguably our three best players.

 

I think that our first eleven is weaker than last year, Schneiderlin and Alderweireld could fit into almost any side, but we are improving our squad slowly.