Not the Man U. City or Chelseas (sure this is just a blip). Their spending power is of the scale. But Ston have progressed dramatically last few seasons. Stoke have improved overall. West Ham to a certain extent and now Lesta. Meanwhile Safc. Mags. Villa and West brom have become stagnant. It cant be a money issue. Management? Obviously Ston have done well through their selling.
they are set up properly mate. Built from the bottom. Southampton have to have been the best run club in England over the last 20 years, jsut look at the youth program. Walcott , chamberlain etc etc, whilst we have had Colback and henderson Scouting program is ridiculous as well . In other good news West ham have BSA to thank for current position the back 5 is immense and unchanged since this time last year.
No doubting Ston have been a recent sucess story and mainly down to their academy. But Stoke have progressed. Swansea also although they maybe back on a decline. Then we have Lesta. Is this season all down to pure luck? Look at some of the players the safc have. Also the mags even villa.
It's not a science and there's a certain amount of luck involved. The skill is in trying to minimise the bad luck and make the most of the good luck. As a fan of a club who have been all over the place in the last decade performance wise I'm pretty sure our management and owners just cross their fingers and hope.
Swings and roundabouts, they're on a high at the minute down in Leicester... they're on to a good thing, but when Vardy wants to 'play Champions League football' (More wages) they'll have a huge job replacing him, with a top striker, because they're Leicester and top strikers don't go to Leicester, so they need to find another diamond in the rough. Southampton have it great, because they have a conveyor belt of top talent coming through their academy, that's a long term vision for you. Palace are another side, riding high at the minute but it could come crashing down at any moment, with a bad run of injuries, it might not, they might carry on for years without that problem.
Its a mixture of planning and good luck, but wthout the planning your lucked. Or summat, guess we know where we stand atm.
Stoke have spent no more than us over the last few years, if as much. But it was the way they spent it. Pulis got a defence that could keep them up - a basic requirement - and then spent the same on two players (Crouch and somebody else) as we spent on eight or ten players. Every year since, they've been adding a couple with extra quality while we've been adding six or more with the same money. Result? - Last season, I think they were ninth while we were in the same old place. Stoke spent money while we wasted it on loads of relegated players. I think Leicester's owners said they would spend £180m to get them into the top six when they came up.
Hull, Wigan, Blackpool were all supposed to be 'a breath of fresh air' and how things should be done. All the clubs you've mentioned will go back down in time.
10 years ago those clubs will have looked at the likes of Newcastle and asked the same question. Circle of life mate, it's mostly luck and will turn round itself in time.
Soton's scouting system must be among the best in the world considering what they have brought through. Never down to manager as they changed him every couple of seasons. Stoke could have been down to stability through Pulis but it was done gradually with little demand from supporters for better players and owners who had little money. Sheer good housekeeping in both cases..
Speaking of academy setup and the like. Our U21's just beat Atletico Bilbao 2-1 at the SOL to finish top of their Euro group unbeaten. Man City W, Borussia Monchengladbach (no idea) D, Altletico W. And they beat them without Watmore and Pickford (away with England) and Gooch and Agnew (injured). Aren't we top of the U21 Premier League? Our U21's are amazing. Watmore and Pickford starting to break through and I am quite sure Gooch will be knocking by next season. The big thing is staying in the Premier League to attract the best teens as we have been doing. If coming to Sunderland means topping the U21 league with amazing facilities and playing in Europe and also having a better chance of making the first team (because they are crap), our youth setup will, eventually make us competitive.
Yep, just checked.... Top of the U21 premier league with 19pts and a +12gd. Spurs are second with 14pts and +5gd (which is also the second best goal difference in the league).
Agree with this, it's all about having a (long term) plan and sticking to it. We're doing unbelievably well all things considered where we stand amongst 'bigger' clubs. When I look at teams like you & Newcastle the thing that comes into my mind is you don't have a long term plan, you just flounder through season-to-season with no real idea in place of how you're going to progress. Just stay up and keep that TV money coming in. Same with the way you appoint your managers, for a while you seemed to want managers who played possession football like Gus etc. but now you've gone to Sam (understandbly given your position) which is a completely different style. We have a style of play we want at the club and when we appoint a manager he has to fit that style plus also be keen on youth development so there's no just picking a name from the normal merry go round of managers, it's all in place. The club already have an idea of who we will approach if (when) Ron doesn't sign a new contract. I do feel sorry for the fans of NE clubs cos you have so much potential but it's not being realised. If you look at a wage table ( the last one I can find is for 13/14) We had the 5th lowest in the league (£55.2m), whilst you (£69.5m) and Newcastle (£78.3m) were 9th & 7th respectively. Some of you must look at that and think "well if lil ol' Southampton can do it on that sort of budget then why the **** can't we?" Whereas I look at it as if we can be within touching distance of top 6 with one of the lowest wage bills in the country then what could we achieve if we could afford to spend what you do?
