Well there you go. And if you had spent the Ramirez money on a proven left back, centre back and solid midfielder you would be sitting further up the table IMO.
But are prepared to give Gaston time to prove his worth, because we had such fun signing him Ah, happy days.
Fair enough. I am just disputing the poster that implied we already had a squad full of premier league players and that all we had to do was add a midfielder and a striker. The fact is we did not and we made massive changes in the summer but only spent a similar amount to you.
The thing is that players of Ramirez's class don't come along very often, so I can see why he was pursued the way he was. As for whether his signing compromised us getting more defenders, I don't think there is any evidence for that. If we'd been able to nail down the Buttner deal, plus one or two others, we would have done. The Ramirez money wasn't the reason we didn't get them. The only possible link might have been that the effort spent on chasing Ramirez might have been a distraction!
I had a similar discussion on another thread on here a few weeks ago. You spent around 30m in the summer I believe? I would be surprised if you would have been willing to spend a lot more than that in a single window? If it is indeed true that you put all your time and effort into the Ramirez signing at the expense of strengthening your back 4, then that is pretty poor. Carrol and Jarvis were pursued by Gold and Sullivan all summer long, but not at the detriment of other important signings in areas we were lacking.
I said at the beginning of the season it'll be West Ham > Saints > Reading and I stick to it. Good for West Ham and Nolan too (good for my fantasy team)
Actually I didn't say you had a "team", "I said premier league players". That alone stood you in good stead for this season, before the additions. Of the additions, the point I make is that Diame and Carroll are proving to be the best... to be honest, I did forget Benayoun, who is also good for you. The others to me are ok, not fantastic signings. I still think we may have been different with one good CB signing (allegedly missed out on deadline day). We had one new player to the club with previous (not current) premier league experience and Cork with 11 games in the Premier League. The core you had in your team was always going to stand you up fairly well. I still believe that we are trying to do things right. A couple of signings haven't quite been right yet, but whether we stay or drop, we must continue with that progrssion.
You finished last season a point above us. We had a team of similar quality to yours. Probably slightly weaker by the time we had released several players (Green, Faye, Collins, Faubert, Diop, Baldock, Maynard etc. I doubt very much that what we were left with would have stood much chance in any fixture in the top flight. We bought very, very well and that is the main difference.
Indeed with greater success too, don't let them get to you, just go with the flow, but don't abuse our manager, it's a very touchy subject at the moment, some of our more negative posters want him out too, best to concentrate on your own good fortune and let us sort our problems out as best as we can.
I'm not sure you see my point. Yes, I agree you have bought well, but you can not deny that starting with a few/several who played in he prem is better than starting with none or one.
Q: Are you sure you don't want some of what we're having? A: Of course we do. More than anything. I don't want to get into the pros and cons of hoofball. If you're winning games, no problem. I'd take some boring football for a while if we got some wins out of it.
No you didn't, Southampton had a net spend of over £30 million which was the 7th highest in European football this summer.
I see what you are saying. But when the window opened, you probably had as many players of premiership quality as us. But yes I accept we had more with prem experience. Most of those were signed whilst we were in the fizzy though. There was nothing stopping you signing the likes of McCartney, O'brien, Taylor etc aswell.
I think, Trixter, that you are largely trying to duck the main point: you badly underachieved last season and we dramatically overperformed. We were the league one team, you were the premier outfit. In the Championship, we somehow did better. However, you were always the side that had the "premier class". The one expected to succeed. We were not. We still have many players from League 1. You have primarily premier league players. I do not dispute you have the better side at the moment. But you seem to think it is a coup de grace that you have achieved it. It would have been rather shocking if you had not. Also, for some bizarre reason (probably just being a trendy London club) you are credited as a "big club" or at least the coolest medium sized club with all your Eastenders actors supporters. This helps bring in established players we struggle to get... And people will see in time that Gaston Ramirez was a great signing.
