Transfer Rumours JANUARY TRANSFER THREAD

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Serious question:

Why is his involvement in the club (activity) or a statement from him important? I work for a billion dollar, family owned business. The family have zero to do with the business. They leave their Board of Directors to run it and we hear literally nothing from the owners.

Is your feeling based on the fact he has no money to spend or invest further?
I feel we were told we were getting a new owner to take us to the next level and we did not get that. Do you feel he IS an effective and positive owner?
 
. See what I’ve just posted above.

I tried so hard to have a discussion with you without any angst or finger pointing. I have written everything very carefully this morning to you, yet still you fall back in the same old thing. I am not goading you and just wanted to discuss your points and the way in which it comes acros to me how you feel
About the current situation.

Clearly I can’t do it, so I will try my hardest to not post to you in future, as sad as that is.

Have a good day.

I don't believe I am reading this. I have been polite in every single comment. I never comment on you. Yet, you post this? I really don't know how to communicate any more clearly.

Did you not write those comments? Did I make them up?

The sad thing is we are not even in disagreement on any more than technicality and fine points - but I only want to see the bad and I twist everything against you...
 
I too was being polite and trying to explain that with those comments. You took it as me goading you. I wasn’t. I was trying so hard to go the other way.

Let’s leave this from here now. PM me if you want to discuss it further. Other than that, I won’t engage you.
 
I too was being polite and trying to explain that with those comments. You took it as me goading you. I wasn’t. I was trying so hard to go the other way.

Let’s leave this from here now. PM me if you want to discuss it further. Other than that, I won’t engage you.
Done
 
Totally agreed. Saints are living off the good will of one fantastic signing (Ralph). We have been told we can reinvest sales into the team but fail to actually sell the majority of our unwanted players. I think anyone cautious about the club's ability to bring in good players has a point. We all want to believe in Ralph's magic wand, but we will need a fairly (scrap that - extremely) impressive Summer to get our team anywhere near competitive for the top half of the league. We are still a club owned by someone with no money, with or without Ralph.

I also think we will stay up, but calling this a "good window" is really just wishful thinking. We got an excellent Ralph and a bum window.

I'm still staggered that it has gone wrong so quickly. I still believe we could have kept Koeman if the board had shown more ambition than they did, whether that was ever enough though is questionable of course. Even with Puel we were still successful although we may not have been pleasing to the eye to watch. Signing MP2 was just so misguided and spending a £20m on Carillo. How did that ever get sanctioned, beggars belief?

Now we have Ralph at the tiller rather than Atilla the Hun (see what I did there), he will steer us on a course 180 deg in the other direction up the table not down
 
Come on guys........let’s not fall out over differences of opinion!.........Trouble with written word is that often it can be misinterpreted. We are saints fans.......we are bound to disagree. Isn’t that what a football forum is all about? We do not need to fall out with each other because of misunderstandings. So come on guys relax........please!
 
What evidence do you have of his involvement? What has he said? Where is the public statement he promised over a year ago?

I totally agree we have made positive changes. You only need to read any of my posts above to see that I can see positive changes - but we are owned by a failing businessman with no access to decent money. In my opinion the board is scrabbling about to make the best of this bad situation - and doing us proud at that - but I see not one positive in his ownership. Currently, if I owned the club I would be able to do as much as he is. Sadly, I am not even exaggerating.

Well from that response I guess you do know him.
 
Come on guys........let’s not fall out over differences of opinion!.........Trouble with written word is that often it can be misinterpreted. We are saints fans.......we are bound to disagree. Isn’t that what a football forum is all about? We do not need to fall out with each other because of misunderstandings. So come on guys relax........please!

I dont see a problem Beddy,just disagreement.:emoticon-0148-yes:
 
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That turn of phrase got me thinking. Can you be ambitious but devoid of ambition? Can you have ambition but not be ambitious? Is it simply a tautology or does it enhance meaning? Can you have unambitious ambitions such as wanting to be relegated? Is ambition a positive concept. If being ambitious means you aspire to succeed does having ambitious ambitions mean you aspire to be aspiring the corollary of which must be you are nor aspiring now? Are we devoid of aspirations?

The definition of ambition in the Concise Oxford dictionary is - "a strong desire to do or achieve something". Doesn't really state whether something is positive or negative. Guess it depends on what your perspective is. The fact it says strong desire would suggest that you have to actually do something to achieve it.
 
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What evidence do you have of his involvement? What has he said? Where is the public statement he promised over a year ago?

I totally agree we have made positive changes. You only need to read any of my posts above to see that I can see positive changes - but we are owned by a failing businessman with no access to decent money. In my opinion the board is scrabbling about to make the best of this bad situation - and doing us proud at that - but I see not one positive in his ownership. Currently, if I owned the club I would be able to do as much as he is. Sadly, I am not even exaggerating.

But you would probably sacrifice all of your business interests and just concentrate on the Saints. He clearly isn't. Does he watch Saints on TV in China or even know the names of the first team players? Its a business he owns that happens to be 7000 miles away.
 
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Patience is the watchword here, something that Saints fans are not overly blessed with..:grin:
November 8th was when my attitude towards the club changed and it was clear that we were on a different path. Sacking Reed and Hunter was overdue but complete faith had been put in them to (mis)run the football operations without question. Replacing Hughes with Ralph was the next step and all the noises since have been about getting our Academy functioning properly and there being a real pathway for young players to the first team (something that i'm sure was in the club's thoughts when Staplewood was developed). For this to be achievable the squad that had become bloated with quite frankly underachieving buys on good wages and overlong contracts has to be trimmed and less wasteful. I have a strong feeling that if Ralph had asked for a specific player to add in January then he would probably got them but he wants to work with what he has already got and give them their opportunity before writing them off completely and he has the confidence in his own ability to negotiate the rest of the season successfully.
The Summer is when things might get a lot more interesting for us fans and i'm looking forward to next season with real optimism.
As for "ambition", i've always said that i'll be happy if we can return to being the team that plays fast, exciting football with a base of home produced players that can give the big six a bloody nose occasionally. Unbeaten in six matches (apart from on pens) with a draw at Chelsea a win at Leicester and home to Everton despite not having key players available shows me that we are not a bad squad now and I believe will keep improving in time.
I'm not saying that we don't need strengthening but fans of virtually every club will say that and we all want to challenge for the CL but we are currently 3pts from being about par for where I think our natural position is (13th place), somebody will now say that we are only 4pts from 18th but we actually were 18th at the start of December.
 
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