I think we've done pretty well out of the window, coming up from L1 I think we had a comfortable mid table side and with the additions we've made we're definite promotion contenders, whether that's through the playoffs or automatics we'll have to see. I think we've strengthened in every position we need to, I think we're only lacking a backup to Rickie as while we do have 4(ish) good strikers, they all seem to need a big man to play off of, so maybe that's where Beattie could step in? Maybe we have found Adkin's weakness though, Tactically spot on, brilliant with fitness and motivation, but maybe bringing in the big names is his weak point. To be fair to the guy this is probably the first time he's been given serious money to spend and he's a young manager so I'm sure he's still learning. I'm going to reserve judgement on Hooiveld, I think he'll either be amazing or an absolute flop, I'm hoping he's amazing!
The problem with a £6m striker at the moment, is that he would break or unbalance our wage structure...and it's too much for the players who've been quoted at that price. I doubt a premiership team would pay £6m for say, Maynard; even though he could cut it in the prem. So, I think we are possibly seeing the cultivation of inflated prices for proven goal getters specifically between clubs in the champ. You could agrue that £6M is a reasonable price as a +25 goal striker in a team that can afford them, as it's a near nailed on play-off at least...but I don't think this is NA/NC's style, or something they want to be part of. Rangers and Celtic challenging for Europe in the Premier league? Their current squads are championship quality (behind WH and Leicester), whilst Brum are still in Europe and these two bickering school bullies are oot...I couldn't see Spurs loosing to Malmo or Sion? The rest are lower championship and L1.
I suspect that Adkins would have brought someone else in, but he doesn't do the negotiating. It's not just Adkins not being a famous name, we all love Southampton but it is not regarded as a 'big' club. Annoyingly teams less successful than us are regarded as bigger clubs even when we were in the Premier League. We hope that this will change under the aegis of Nicola Cortese.
Dont forget n power league teams can only spend x amount of their revenue on wages,so if they are close to it then it aint worth pushing it,because players who we would be interested in will only up their demands knowing that we have money to spend. Think that some of them who came down for "chats" about a move with a nice long list of "wants". Fair play to NC he wont be pushed around,as for certain other players their "attitudes" wasnt what we want in Southampton football club In Nc we trust:
Actually yes this is true, I wonder how much of the transfer is decided by NA or NC or scouts. I'm sure NC deals with 90% of the price and wages etc but do you think Adkins has a say in that? It seems that NC has a much more active role in attracting players than a lot of other chairmen.
Someone surely has to guide him through the maze on valuations and the like. As having a none football background Cortese still has a lot to learn. It may be proving a bit of a stumbling block in some cases his lack of experience, in other cases it clearly isn't. It is plain it would seem he rarely makes the same mistake twice.......if at all.
David Connolly and Rickie Lambert are playing like £6m men at the moment and buying a Maynard or Jay Rod now could have thrown a serious spanner in the works as much as I rate them both. There is still the loan window if we need it and team spirit is of paramount importance. Cork is different class. De Ridder has a lot of quality and I think he willl be a valuable asset once he adapts to the English game. He can cross and has pace and skill. Fox has been there and done it, great left foot, good positional sense and will feature more as the season goes on. Jury's out on Hoolvolt until he plays, but its a loan and we don't have to commit if he isn't what we want. I'm happy with how the window has gone, 4 good additions and only 1 loss of note, which we got crazy money for.
Les Reed does that I think? Leicester are pushing up the value of big players so think they are more of an obstacle than NC's valuations. At least we can safely say we haven't seriously overpaid for anyone.
id dont care if we pay 50p for a player, you just gotta trust NC and NA, they aint dun bad have they?
We signed 3 permanent new players: jack Cork looks awesome and great business; Danny Fox according to posts on this forum was the best left back in this league last season; Steve De Ridder is someone nobodyhad heard off - we do now know he is lightning quick (I amongst others requested more pace to be signed). They seem pretty good to me. We signed a loan CB (there weren't many saying we didn't need one of those) - again, apart from someone's Scottish mate we don't really know alot about him, except he is a CB I did think we neededanother striker and it would seem we tried to get one in and the loan window is still open. We sold a 17/18 year old for £12-15m and we shipped out a rotten egg on loan. Conclusion: NA and NC did pretty much what we all wanted or needed - maybe not perfect, but looking back I would say that is pretty damn good!
