As everybody is aware, Southampton Football club is just into the fourth year of a five year business plan, as set out by the new owners in the summer of 2009. The club has achieved the goal of reaching the Premier League and now the target must be to remain there although only Nicola Cortese knows which position he will be happy with after sanctioning the spending of £30 million pounds on transfers this summer. The players that were brought in covered all areas of the team with 2 keepers 2 defenders 2 midfielders and 2 forwards, of course we could have bought a complete new team but in my opinion that would've meant losing the continuity of back to back promotions and the team spirit and understanding that has been carefully nurtured by Nigel Adkins and his staff. Everyone will have an opinion on who they think will "cut it" in this league but ultimately that is what NA is paid to do and if he feels that certain players deserve the opportunity to show what they can do then fans should respect that at least until we have settled into the new season. Nigel Adkins has often spoke about the need of having the right characters in the dressing room and he obviously feels that the existing players can do a job for us and have the ability to win games at the top level. It is way too early to be pushing the panic button yet and there is the winter transfer window if further quality is needed. To some fans, whoever we bought in the summer it was never enough but new additions will continually be added within the budget that is allowed along with the academy products given a chance, it is an ongoing project and fans should just be a bit patient as the results will come. We have a young, exciting squad, whose best years are ahead and will grow together to become a real force in the English game. Nicola Cortese and Nigel Adkins have the same vision for the future, I urge fans to not lose faith too early and back this young team to the hilt onto future success. COYS!
Nice, balanced post. I think the vast majority on this particular forum are not wrist slitters or bi-polar merchants, but even so, the emotion of a match day can mean some people get too high or too low, and we know we shouldn't be doing that. As far as the transfers are concerned, although I don't think Saints will be breaking their own particular bank, I do think that Ramirez, for example, is just the start of new team of quality that will sweep through the squad in the years to come. In a season or two, the argument about whether Fonte is better than Hooiveld, or who should partner who; or should we have brought in a competitive back up for Fox, etc... will be gone because they'll probably be at different clubs. And it'll be the same for other team members unless they become significantly better at what they do, because the Chairman isn't going to wait. He won't advocate scatter gun spending, but I doubt if he'll be patient while slightly inferior players decide whether they want to be at Saints and step up their game to be competitive or go elsewhere for an easier time. I won't lose faith in Saints because I have absolute faith in Cortese to do the right thing at the right time.
Nice to see someone not pressing the panic button! think its all too easy to forget just how we got to the situation we find ourselves in, when really if we take a step back and think about it we're spending within our means (the most important thing is that we have a club to support, whatever league we end up in), we play the best football I've seen Saints play in my lifetime and we have ambitions. It may turn out that we went up too quickly (as you say five year plan, not three) but losing against the two best English teams and one bad result against a rejuvenated Wigan where we weren't completely dire does not mean we should panic. Even if we don't survive in the PL, and thats a big if seeing how we've performed up to now, we'll be in a hell of a position to try to come back. And anyway, just 2 years ago we were scraping a draw away to Stockport..
In the five year plan if we stay up this year (year 3) and then stay up in year 4 but then relegated has the five year plan been a success or a failure?
The idea, as in any business is to have year on year growth (success), so no doubt it will be viewed by Nicola Cortese as a failure although we would be be in a higher league than 2009 and considerably richer (squad and parachute payments)
My comment was a little tongue in cheek because most businesses as you put it would develop a new three or five year plan each year based around what has actually happened in the last year. So NC's view of 2016 would be different now to what it was a year ago due to the unexpected success of last year.
This window of evolution is a mixed bag , we bought incorrectly and loaned out before we got in , got a great player (Davis) and a promising right back , should of gone for two quality premiership centre backs , left back and another keeper and broke the bank if need be . Ramirez looks great , Mayuka I know nothing about but seemed lightweight from Sunday briefly looking at him and I hope and pray to God Yoshida is like Jack Charlton , Bobby Moore , Terry Butcher and Tony Adams rolled into one . Time will tell and everyone knows my opinion on it .
You can't judge if we brought incorrectly yet, its far too early to tell. For what its worth I think Fox has had a poor first 3 games of the season but you don't know if he's going to step it up over the next few games, some people seem to think players don't have the ability to improve. If 10 matches in we are still struggling with the same problems then I would say we are in a position to judge if we are brought correctly or not. Are you dismissing Mayuka after 20 minutes against Man United in which we were entirely on the back foot?
Changing the whole defense, yet you'd be the first to have a go if they didn't gel... And that "breaking the bank" statement makes me so glad you are not our chairman.
When we got promoted to PL, I bet Nicola drew up another 5-yr plan. Doubt it included relegation, but, as a good business man, he would have prepared for that eventuality as well. The transfers may not have been everything we needed, but still looks good. Patience is required...too early to panic. I will panic when Cortese does.
Hear hear. When Nigel finds his horse is missing he should pack his bags. But I can't see this happening. Cortese will always be playing a longer game than the average Chairman. If Cortese panics then he will, in Michael Corleone's words, "disappoint me""!
I think peoples perception of Cortese of being a heartless business man doesn't tie in with the re-signing of Butterfield and Barnard and the willingness to give everyone an opportunity to prove themselves regardless of what they have done in the past. And there could be no greater example of this than Jason Puncheon, despite slagging off the chairman publicly he was forgiven and has turned into a real asset
I think Cortese has the right idea about not commenting too readily with the press. It will get twisted. He's educated and foreign...meat and drink to The Sun and Star. If he's positive, he will be castigated as deluded or arrogant. If he even sounds slightly negative, they'll have Adkins for the axe, Saints for relegation, and the Leihberrs pulling out. We all know from being on this forum how things you say will come back and haunt you.
You have very clearly not been listening to Nicola and you have a mindset formed from experiences of the past. Nicola has said we will not be relegated while he is running the club. You had better believe him.
