Now I do not believe that any* (fingers crossed, legs crossed, arms crossed, toes crossed etc etc) of this will happen but let's just say that our worst fears are realised and: Poch toddles off to Spurs Shaw goes to Chelsea/Man Utd/Man City for >£30M Lallana goes to Liverpool for >£20M Schneiderlin goes to Arsenal for >£15M Chambers goes to Arsenal for >£10M KL states that funds from player sales are to be reinvested into the playing staff We're left with a squad that's torn to pieces and no manager but you've got £75M plus the £30M that was already earmarked for this year (a guess I know but what isn't on here at the moment) so what do you do? Who do you trust with the kitty and who should they spend it on to stop us all from having early coronaries? * well maybe Lallana off to a top four outfit isn't totally unrealistic
Christ HB why dont you sell Vic as well. Truth is if any or all happen we will all still support Saints. We will rebuild and move on. We wioll still have the core of a side with Lovren Vic and Rickie.
All hypothetical, but I suppose that is what a forum is for. I would like a manager who plays good football, is ambitious, and will give young players a chance. A manager with a successful CV, in terms of winning things, would be ideal, but a manager in the same mould as Mauricio would be great. De Boer at Ajax would be a good fit on paper, but I wouldn't be sure that he would want to come. On the player side, it would be obvious that we would have to replace all of those positions, as our squad isn't strong enough to draft in bench players. Furthermore, those 4 players, especially Shaw, Lallana and Schneiderlin, are vital to our way of playing. So 2 new full backs would be needed, another quality midfielder who is comfortable on the ball, and another creative player. A striker must be a priority this summer anyway. Jay Rod is out until at least October, and it leaves us really with only Rickie and young Sam. Some more mobility up top is certainly needed. Other than that, perhaps a new GK, but it is difficult to convince a quality keeper to play as a No.2, whether that be Boruc or a new signing, and possibly a new CB. We would need to spend serious money if we sell those players though. We would have a very average team.
If we sell all of those players we'll never be able to attract anyone better. We'd sign loads of journeymen and hover around mid-table for a couple of years before being relegated. Liebherr would sell to an asset-stripping consortium, we'd lose the stadium, the training ground and most of the players. Administration beckons. But it's not really very likely is it?
I've just been reading sooooo much hypothetical stuff being touted as factual that I thought I'd do a truly hypothetical thread Lamb I'd give AVB the £100M to spend and an eight year deal. He seems to have done well in the transfer market so far.....
If; Poch goes to Spurs; I'd put a bet on him being sacked before Christmas. In fact I'll probably put that bet on whichever poor doomed sod gets the Spurs job. Shaw goes for £30 mill +; £30 mill? for a left back? Really? Ok then. Adam goes to Liverpool for £20 mill; This is the worst case option of the lot, everyone loses. He's worth far more than that, and he's gone to a team who'll never win the league (they had their chance and blew it imo). If those other things happen, I'll run naked round St Marys with a lighted newspaper stuffed up my arse, shouting "play up p*mpey".
As a successful businesswoman in her own right, and the daughter of an even more successful businessman, and a part of the globally-renowned Liebherr business family, I think we need to have some faith in Katharina's knowledge of how to make a business profitable in the long term. She will know that to get the best return on an investment, you don't go selling off your prize assets at the earliest opportunity. She will know that the money she and her father have already put in is only safe while the club continues to grow and develop. Any large-scale stripping of the assets will get back some of the investment but leave her with a lame duck enterprise which, apart from the infrastructure, be worth no more than what Markus paid for it. To get to the stage where regular profits are coming in the club can't stand still or go backwards, but it has to continue to grow in a sustainable manner. That doesn't rule out selling one or two star players, but if she has any feeling for the fans she won't let even that happen!
Not that I want to put a downer on things, but is she? I'm sure she's well-advised, but I haven't seen anything to suggest she knows anything more about business than she does about football.
Yeah, I think calling her a successful business woman is a bit misled. She inherited her father's enterprise with a sound infrastructure already in place, and even then I'm pretty sure things haven't exactly been going great. There was a story a year or so ago about how they were making a whole load of staff redundant, and asset stripping junior companies.
Oscar Garcia will be our new manager. We won't be able to replace Lallana on that budget so a good cup run is the best we can hope for.
Even though I know you put > to say above but I would've raised those prices substantially. We are never going to sell Schneiderlin for any less than £20 and Lallana is probably going to be £25 at the minimum. Even so If we made £90m+Osvaldo so say £100m we wouldn't be able to spend all that on replacements (like for like) I would suggest that the contracts we have those players on would not attract anything near what we want so we would have to raise replacement's wages by a long way to get a like for like replacement. No player of Lallana or Schneiderlin's quality is going to come to Saints for a £50k contract. We are going to have to pay much much more if we want quality. So if we get say £100m + the £30m you suggest we may only be spending £80m on transfer fees because we would be paying the other £50m on extra wages /agents fees etc.
