Should Saints change their buying policy?

There is no doubt that over the years Saints have done reasonably well with their buying policy of buying relatively cheap and selling at a profit.
Is it time though that Saints should start going up market a bit with their new buys?
Over the last few years Saints have bought a lot of players which have turned out average to mediocre in some cases. With a few exceptions of course and a few academy lads bringing in a handsome profit. Most of the replacement players and players to strengthen have all been to a certain extent unused to the rigours of the premier league and therefore a gamble as to whether they can really make the grade.
Saints have often stated that they want to move to the next level. What Im really asking is, to achieve that do you not think Saints need to buy players of a already higher grade.
I accept that Saints have broken our purchase records to bring in players to strengthen the team, but is that really enough?
My opinion is if Saints really want to move forward we need to bring in players who can hit the deck running in other words maybe a grade or two above our normal purchase level.
Next season for instance todays 15/18 mil player is likely to be 20/22mil. Maybe Saints need to move to the next level perhaps say 27/35mil. Would you not agree this might help Saints to make their next move to the next level a lot easier?
What do you think?

 

Yes. The market is moving. The price of our assets is increasing and so is the value of our targets...

 

I'm not sure the recruitment policy has been bad really. It maybe a combination of things. The players, the coach selections, the style of play, the scouting, .. anything.

Chalobah cost £5-7m and looks just the sort of player we need. You also need to consider that it is not just about the fee, but wages too and if there is a player who will cost £30-50m, are they players likely to want to move to Saints?

If I had to hang my hat on one thing, I'd favour it's coach recruitment. Look at our last four selections:

Pochettino - no real track record, yet turned out excellent
Koeman - lots of questions on his track record outside of Netherlands when he signed, turned out excellent
Puel - some track record in Champions League and French League. Turned out a miss
Pellegrino - no real track record (one good season with unfashionable club) ....

So far, the recruitment has been 2 out of 3 good and one pending. Recruitment can be bit or miss and this might be the issue. Just a thought.

 

I'd also add that the "mediocrity" may be down to how we coach a player. Juanmi seems to be thriving again in Spain. I realise he wanted to go back and didn't settle, but it makes you wonder "what if"...

 

Would we have been any worse if we'd stuck with Puel? I think our team on paper has good players...so I hoped a more adventurous and inspiring manager would produce an improvement. So far we seem to have got Puel with better table manners. Perhaps Claude would have been better in his second season rather than starting again.

 

Should we change our buying policy? That depends on whether the new owners want to start throwing money about.

Will we be looking to spend £40 mill on an Oxlaide-Chamberlain, for instance? I'd say yes, spend the money, but a) it ain't my money, and b) the real cost is not so much the transfer fee as the wages an established PL player would expect to earn. If he wanted to come at any price, that is.

So as well as asking, "should Saints change their buying policy?", you also have to ask, "should we change our wages policy?" I suspect the answer will be, "don't hold your breath".

 

Yes definitely. When you look at the club's outside the top 6, WBA, Leicester, Stoke etc, they all seem to be spending big money, on players, AND wages!
I think we can all see, we are crying out for a player to link up with Gabbi, yet we failed to bring in one. Steven Davis is a great pro, but not the answer. Perhaps we didn't land our targets, because the wages where to high. I really think saints need to move with the times, and keep ahead of the aforementioned teams, and challenge the top 6.

 

Personally think we would have more luck buying 2 players for 20m rather than 1 player for 40m considering our size and ability to attract players. look at our recent history on record signings.

 

I don't think that we ought to be targeting established Premier League players. 15-25m a player buying from abroad still gets you quite a bit of player; we just cannot fixate on a single target, particularly one that might be hard to acquire, unless we're willing to pay extra to get said player if we encounter resistance.

IMO, we also need to be more willing to move on average players. We did start to do so this year, moving on Jay and loaning out Clasie, but we don't need an addition here or there...we need a squad refresh.

 

Our wage bill last season was the 8th/9th highest in the league. There isn't that much more we can do to that unless we improve the commercial side even more, which has been going strong in recent seasons. Wages aren't going to be a problem for attracting a higher caliber of players because those players wouldn't want to play for us in the first place.

 

It is ok to say let's change with the times, but let's just make sure we do it within our means.

 

and any policy has to conform to FFP regs so this is a difficult balancing act

We all have to buy more Saints Stuff and I have to say I'm not good in this department and never will be

Been there, done that, didn't buy the t-shirt - thats me

 

The next level? We're not going to the next level. Since the Premiership started Man U, Man C, Chelsea and Arsenal have won 23 out of 25 Premierships. Blackburn and Leicester have fluked one each. Spurs or Liverpool have a chance to break into the big 4. Everton will be forever 7th. We've been amazing to finish 6/7/8th. Whatever we've been doing is right and we need to keep doing it. Continuing by beating Crystal Palace would be nice!

 

No we don't, our buying policy is fine. I was impressed with two Watford players yesterday, Chalobah and Richarliason, and them two combined cost less than Boufal did. So good deals are there to be made, it's our selection process has not been up to scratch recently.

 

I really hope that Everton are going to show why that strategy might not be as good as it seems. Or just go on KUMB.

 

I have been thinking this for ages.

Les Reed is holding us back. We need someone with more ambition and tries for transfers that get us excited. I'm thinking Gold and Sullivan would be good.

Then we need a manager who can spend. Redknapp would be good.

We can then buy players of the quality of Sissoko for 30m.

Glad that's off my chest. When can we start.

 

How about following the Watford example and having ties with clubs in other countries. I know Watford is unique as the owner also owns or has a finger in the pie of Udinese and Malaga. Thus, strengthening the club's scouting network 3 times. Wonder who scouted Richarliason for Watford?

 

Our policy isn't bad at all, as pointed - look at West Ham's car crash of a transfer policy. I think we do need to be a little more ruthless with our business if we're going to push on for European football. Forster needs to go this summer (ideally January) unless he seriously sorts himself out, he's a liability and has been for a while. Redmond isn't good enough and doesn't offer enough to be a regular starter for us. Tadic has been **** for too long and needs to be shipped out, if anyone will take him. Long and Austin both need to go, though I'd keep Long over Austin at this point. Never thought I'd say that, but Austin is looking more and more like a Sunday league player every time I see him.

 

Our policy is the right player at the right price, if we found someone for £20m/£25m who was perfect and willing to join, I believe we would go for it. You can chuck that sort of money around easily on players who have played in the prem, but there are deals.

My view is we will play it the same as last season and sign Vietto in january like we did with Gabbi.

 

To be fair, we're one attacking player light of being a seriously good team. As we have no idea which of our targets we missed out on it's a little unreasonable to assume that this was down to us not being prepared to dig deep. In the current market our first team squad is worth way more than Gao just paid for his 80% stake yet we paid, relatively speaking, beans for it. I should say our recruitment policy has been the cornerstone of our success since Markus (RIP) rescued us from the brink.