Forever Changing

With the upcoming sales of Morgan and Clyne, it has made me realise that as saints fans, we need to get used to the fact that our team will be forever changing, more than others.
I looked at the starting line up of our first game back in the premiership against Man City. Out of our starting line up I think a max of 3 will possibly start against Newcastle in August, whilst Man City could have a possible 8/9 start their season. Is it the price of success on our part? And how long can we go on selling year on year until it finally blows up in our face? Or is it a great master plan by the club?
Starting Line Up vs Man City August 2012:
1: Davis 2: Clyne 3: Hooiveld 4: FONTE 5: Fox 6: Schneiderlin 7: WARD-PROWSE 8: Llalana 9: Guly
10: Puncheon 11: RODRIGUEZ

 

I suspect the club would like a more settled team as well, but are doing the best with the cards they have been dealt. I am confident that we will start the season with a good side (as we did last year), but how long can we keep this up is a very good question.

 

Not exactly a huge loss for us that Davis (probably)/ Hooiveld/ Fox/ Guly/ Puncheon won't be starting for us in August.

 

Agreed, but if you look against Liverpool 1st game last season, we will have a max of 5/6 starting this season, granted Forster is injured. Just worries me that at the moment we are pulling rabbits out of the hat like Mane etc, but what happens when the Rabbits run out? Most things in life need a bit of consistency even football. Ha ha

 

We must keep looking at Atletico Madrid. I believe they have reached a position now where they are, perhaps, improving the rotation of players. They still have some plucked from above, but it is getting fewer each year. They have rebuilt several times recently and still progressed

 

I still have nightmares about Danny Fox

 

rabbits don't run out, they breed like rabbits...

 

Not a huge Loss, but based on his last 6 months, I'd have been quite happy if Punch was starting for us.

 

On a serious note, it would be of far greater concern if we didn't know precisely how much work goes on in the background to both nurture existing talent and also unearth more. This is demonstrably a club policy as they are fully aware of the constraints our relative size places on us.

On a lighthearted note, that name needs to be used for a book/album!

 

I think the main thing for the change (this year and last) is Cortese promised way too much to soon. So players are jumping ship to bigger club (more money too obviiously).

 

I suspect that we're doing what Olympique Lyonnaise did when they went from provincial club to European powerhouse.

Their philosophy was "If someone's overvalued, sell him. If someone's undervalued, buy him. Don't make emotional attachments to players. Never buy anyone under 20 or over 28"

They did that for several years and ended up with great finances and a terrific team. It takes time but it gets there. I've posted before and I'll post it again; we're following that policy, as far as I can see. So we just need to stop worrying about it - it's planned. Will we keep finding underrated players? I think yes. And we make so much from a good purchase and sale (Lovren) that we can afford the odd duffer (Mayuka).

Vin

 

It's similar to the 'Moneyball' mentality developed by the Oakland As!

 

It is. I can recommend the book. Soccernomics covers OL in more detail as well.

I would also, blindly and without reservation, recommend anything else written by Michael Lewis (who wrote Moneyball). His book "Flash boys" is about an obscure subsection of the financial world and reads better than most thrillers.

Vin

 

The key difference between Lyon/At Madrid comparisons is that unfortunately we are based in England. Ligue 1 and La Liga do not have such an established set of CL and European clubs as the Premier League does. La Liga only has Barca and Real (with 3rd and 4th place changing pretty often), and Ligue 1, until recently, had pretty much none with a host of teams qualifying for the CL.

It will be much harder for us to break the top 4/6 even if we are successful with the "moneyball" approach

 

Sounds right up my street, cheers for the recommendations Vin!

 

I think we can continue and thrive like athletico Madrid Improving each season.

Not one single player is bigger than our club and we can't compete financially.

I would like us how ever to stock pile more young talent like the top clubs. We would just do it better and offer the young players more opportunities to play.

 

Was going to say that there were loads of our players from the previous season on that pitch v Liverpool.
But then I remembered Adam was injured and Lambert didn't start.

 

What was managerial and Director stability/turnaround like at OL?

 

It is very annoying. I don't feel anywhere near the same connection with any current players as I did with the league one crew. Lallana and lambert were absolute heroes to me. (Obviously captain fantastic is still here and is my only current hero!)

New players will achieve cult status, it will just take time.

 

13 managers in 28 years. One owner in 28 years. He's (according to Wikimadeupia) much criticised for running it as a business.

Vin