I think we could probably survive next season with the current squad, maybe one addition needed. The desperation for transfers, imo, comes from those who think we'll be mounting some promotion push next season. Can't see that being on the cards myself, so i'm not expecting a busy summer.
Nigel started it..said we needed a couple of quality players. I see next season as consolidation..get team used to Championship football, see what we need to compete, and go for it in 2012/13
A couple would seem about right. A couple of reasonably priced picks from lower divisions or abroad wouldn't be bad also to add some competition. The team as it is is good enough to finish in mid-table, which wouldn't be a disaster, so no reason to be too hasty with transfers. The Liebherr's are rich, but they will have a budget as set out in Cortese's plans, so we don't want to spend more than we need to.
I suspect that all the money we are going to get was settled on us right at the beginning. Now, NC has to stick within this probably quite sizeable budget. The Liehberr's probably feel kindly towards us because of Markus, but at the end of the day it's a business to them. Nicola said we should break even in the Championship. We're still miles better off than all those clubs with vast debts.
Everyone starts in the same place so before the season everyone has an equal chance of promotion. This seasons priority will be to stay in the Championship This is only the 3rd year of the 5 year plan
Why would you not go for promotion? Every team aims to win every game, and every team aims to buy the best players they can afford. We may only have an outside chance of promotion but it's still the goal.
yer we should buy the players now and then try to go up this year and then if i doesnt work then go for it next year! We should give them a season to blend!
I don't buy the "if we go up it will be too early" stuff. We'll give it our best shot this year no doubt, which team doesn't aim to win every game? This amounts to the same as aiming to win the league. If we're chasing/in the top six by Xmas I can see some noticeable purchases in the Jan transfer window (depending on how active we are this summer) for a 2nd half of the season push. But I agree that our transfer policies this summer may be a little reserved as we can afford two seasons in the championship going by the 5 year plan.
Yeah, if you mean, 'go for promotion' by doing your best to win every week that is understandable. However, it could also mean to do what the skates did and go on a spending binge. I think we'll be trying to do the former (but so will every team) without really expecting promotion, as I still think survival would be a reasonable achievement next year, with anything else as a bonus. Doing the latter is tantamount to madness.
why delay success for a year? there is no logical reason for it. all you lot saying "oh its too early, lets consolidate for a year" are forgetting that we only have 3 years left of the 5 year plan. so not going for promotion this year would only leave 2 years. cutting it a bit fine. cortese is a serious man, if he says he wants us back in the premier league then that is what he will strive to achieve, sooner rather than later. it makes no logical or financial sense to be languishing in the championship any longer than we have to. you think cortese was happy that it took us 2 years to get out of league one? nah. i fully expect some big signings this summer. and seeing what norwich have done with far less resources than us will give cortese incentive to spend if he didnt have before. it is fully achievable to get successive promotions, all we need to do is a bit of squad tweaking and we're there. i seriously think that with the club being in such a state for so many years has left the majority of saints fans far too reserved in their optimism.
I certainly believe we will try for top 6, my only worry is that we do get promoted, and get ripped to shreds in the premiership. In other words it might be better to not spend massively, to stay in the championship, and buy players good enough for the premiership the season after to help us be ready for the premiership. Where the only aim would be survival. Lets see what Norwich and Swansea to an extent can do about staying up and how much they need to spend. If we are in with a real shout at January I would definitely want us to push on for promotion though.
