True - the black box probably has one of those sliderule contraptions like on Right Move and Zoopla, where you set your maximum budget, and along with position, age etc. it comes back with a filtered list.
Desirable destinations
- Thread starter Pelletron
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True - the black box probably has one of those sliderule contraptions like on Right Move and Zoopla, where you set your maximum budget, and along with position, age etc. it comes back with a filtered list.
Lots of good info there Pelletron, however there is nothing really saying we do lose out to other teams on a head to head, this is just your perception ( and it may be true, but nothing showing it yet). It is more that we may target players further down the chain (my interpretation of this anyway). I still don't see us as any less desirable and don't think we have lost out head to head against anyone else apart form the two I mentioned. I think this was the gist of your original post - I may be wrong.
And I think we are favourably located with nearness to both Heathrow and Gatwick airports, not mentioning Southampton and Bournemouth and also London itself should any player want a night out!! Lots of things in Saints favour. I suppose the only thing we lose out on is the history and tradition of winning things and regular European football. IMO after a certain level of income whether its 100,000 or 300,000 a week this ceases to be irrelevant. It is where the player and his agent perceive he will be happiest.
Probably not. Sevilla ahve Champions League football and a trophy winning pedigree. I'd have really liked Nzonzi to replace Morgan (not many people share the view, I know, but I really rate him!)
Sent off on his debut, though.
I was surprised he was Sevilla's record transfer fee, at £7m. What they've achieved is phenomenal if they've done it on fees below £7m per player. Gives hope to Saints, who have the infrastructure to turn cheaper players into high-level competitors.
They have a good scouting network in South America and don't go searching in the obvious hotbeds, Brazil and Argentina, but are likely to scour Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador. Perhaps we need to up our scouting in countries that are largely untapped for talent - Paraguay, Panama, North Africa, and of course London where we had a comprehensive system years ago managing to scoop up the likes of Steve Williams and the Wallace brothers.
Surely you don't think N'Zonzi would have come here instead of Sevilla?! Southampton's probably a highly desirable destination for young players across Europe, as they know 1-2 good seasons earns a huge money move elsewhere. So there is no way a player on top of his game and wanted by other clubs (especially of Sevilla's recent stature) would come here. Some of the clubs mentioned as being around our stature/ desirability have made in my opinion, much better signings than we have - which i would argue makes them more desirable destinations, especially for established first team quality such as Ayew, Cabaye, Wijnaldum, Mitrovic, Mbemba, Payet, Shaqiri, Affelay etc. If Southampton are looking for long term security and make the champions league they HAVE to compete for better players and stop selling at current yearly rates. At the moment what is being done, is not what is being drip fed out of the club!
RLSGM - you need to read Pelletron's OP, then the rest of the discussions in the thread. Then you'll find the answer to your opening line.
Classic forum faux pas. Read a post and respond to it without taking in the context of the post it replied to or the thread as a whole. I've done it myself and will do again
No, I just posed the question, as per the theme of the thread. Had no idea either way, though I'd imagine we could have got him if we wanted, if we'd offered higher wages, which I think seems the common theme of agreement - players go where the money is. While I admire our business acumen and buy low-sell high model, it's not good if we're buying sub-par players at low prices (not suggesting that we've done this on the whole this window, by the way, as they all have a lot more to show us first) as replacements; I also am not a fan of the way we sell up to three or four of our very best players each window - this creaming off the top won't get us anywhere imo. We're selling players that are good enough to guarantee we can't buy equal replacements - definitely not in every position. Schneiderlin was the keystone of that team - with all respect to Romeu, we need someone with that level of presence stepping straight in at the very least. Romeu has been decent, but he clearly has a lot to learn at this point, particularly how to not nullify yourself by getting early yellows in every game, and how to keep possession for yourself and thus within the team. My main gripe really is how we sell in bulk to rivals. Sell to eg. Sevilla, as Stoke did, for sure, please - but to furnish other teams in a small division with our best and most developed international players every single year doesn't to me suggest we have the slightest aspiration to finish in the top four. I think the strategy and objective are out of sync there. But I also understand that there is actually no one else to sell them to, especially for that kind of silly money. What do you see as the solution to that?
You mention gloomy threads....I actually think we've taken a massive setback very well. I am surprised at how well I've taken our Europa exit....I think because I was getting concerned about our performances in general. I think I would have taken it harder if we were flying...lots of 'might have beens' whereas I now realise that we have work to do.