Transfer Rumours The 2015 Summer Transfer Window Thread

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fran-MLs little camera said:
At the moment our stadium isn't filled for every match...some of that may be due to poor take up by visiting fans, but part may be due to the inability to get tickets together, especially when combined with being televised. It's a shame because a larger stadium provides an opportunity to do ticket offers for youngsters (the next generation of fans). However, it would be incredibly expensive to enlarge SMS, especially when ticket sales are not as important to a club as they once were (with so much money coming from Sky and the EPL). I bow to the number crunchers who have more info than we do. Enlarging SMS is obviously a thing for the future.
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Agreed Fran. Clubs obviously make money from attendance receipts and Arsenal moved to give themselves increased capacity and Liverpool are looking to extend Anfield, Spuds the same as Arsenal. To make this work you need to have that fan-base that regularly over subscribes for tickets and, frankly, we do not have that. Not even sure when we would reach the size of support to command a 45-50,000 seater stadium (which, I would think, is the next stadium size).
 
Romsey_Saint said:
Sorry Pelletron, but see Clasie as a 'premium' player - not yet convinced that VVD is yet the finished article which Toby was. More 'work in progress' but with good potential. Overall, I do not believe we have substantially improved the squad over last season. (Note the underline before I get criticised for stating not improved). We seem to have backfilled the depth of the squad that was needed, but have slight concerns that the academy players will have fewer opportunities as consequence in the short term.
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I'm basing 'premium' on the quality of clubs who were also reportedly after him, all the way up to Man U. Fact is, we've done well to get VVD, and would have been some decent competition. Yes, he's not yet an international (though he will be via us) but he is bought as a staring CB. I'm disappointed in the fact that we've essentially only bought two starters it seems, given that Soares doesn't always appear to start.

But for me, I don't care so much about transfer ins now as about how on earth we sort out the long-running problem we have of being absolutely toothless upfront when a goal down. That's worth at least 30-40 points a season, probably more given this defence - based on going a goal down in about one game in three.
 
fran-MLs little camera said:
At the moment our stadium isn't filled for every match...some of that may be due to poor take up by visiting fans, but part may be due to the inability to get tickets together, especially when combined with being televised. It's a shame because a larger stadium provides an opportunity to do ticket offers for youngsters (the next generation of fans). However, it would be incredibly expensive to enlarge SMS, especially when ticket sales are not as important to a club as they once were (with so much money coming from Sky and the EPL). I bow to the number crunchers who have more info than we do. Enlarging SMS is obviously a thing for the future.
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I can't find last season's figures, but Saints are definitely one of the worst attended clubs in the Premier League in percentage terms. I'm afraid it has nothing to do with the size of the ground, as in recent years plenty of clubs with smaller stadia have had far higher percentage attendances: Swansea, Cardiff, Fulham, Norwich, West Brom, and Stoke being examples. The biggest problem may be the amount of segregation in the Northam stand, which is basically wasted space. We are only getting around 93% of the seats filled at the moment, which is way below the Premier League average of 95.6%. If we can get up to 97-98% for a couple of seasons then we would have a case for expansion, but at the moment the figures don't add up.
 
Good posts. I must have missed the meltdown stand-down. Here's a general response.

Firstly net spend isn't the important thing. Partly because that money goes to other clubs, so it stays "in football". We can make money one season, lose it the next. Salary goes directly out of the game forever, it tracks the inflation of TV money pretty much perfectly, and when clubs get into financial difficulty, that's where they've cocked up. Keeping on top of that is what keeps us secure, and the QPRs not.

We lost Morgan, Toby and Clyne and I don't think we had a hope of keeping any of them. Clasie and VVD were certainties to replace the first two. Cedric has played well against Vitesse but not at Newcastle. I think he will fit in there. Romeu I am very happy about and he adds something new, Caulker I rate highly and I think he will play a lot, Juanmi I hope he can perform and not have Tadic-like fitness problems. Stek seems like the best we could do in goal, he has performed well so far and I don't think a more experienced GK is a realistic signing and would cause us long term problems when FF comes back. Martina, haven't seen yet.

For first team player replacements I think we have done as well as we could hope. The only question is about Cedric at right back, but I think we will be ok there.

After VVD, I would sign a striker, if a good deal for a player that fits comes up. Disproportionate spending would be buying a mid-table PL player with a long contract left because we got worried. We bought Long last season for a lot of money, which I think was the wrong decision. It wasn't a transfer like any of the others we did, he never really fitted into our team, and it felt like we panicked and threw cash away. Long didn't have a massive impact on our final position, I wouldn't like us to do that again.

This is a big test for Ron but I think he will get it right. We went on terrible runs without winning last season but turned it around, and this one is no different.
 
And we mustn't forget that the training ground isn't even finished yet. Building projects need time and attention and would involve massive planning to avoid too much disruption during the season. I suspect the board feel quite faint at the mere idea.
 
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Just make sure we find out about done deals early enough to get a bet on before you pass them on...

Vin
 
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I think we all hope there is a few more surprises....Sadly Imo There will not be.....am a little bit frustrated with Saints at the moment. They are playing crap football and none (for me any way) of the new boys seem to have hit the ground running as they did pretty well last season. Has any one got the same feeling as me, that all the departures we have had over the last couple of windows are having an effect on moral?
 
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I'm probably going to miss the deadline shenanigans this year as I'm taking off from Heathrow at 3pm on 31st August for a nice 2 weeks away in Atlanta :)

No doubt I'll be on here as US TV won't have anything, so keep me informed :) :)
 
Beddytare said:
I think we all hope there is a few more surprises....Sadly Imo There will not be.....am a little bit frustrated with Saints at the moment. They are playing crap football and none (for me any way) of the new boys seem to have hit the ground running as they did pretty well last season. Has any one got the same feeling as me, that all the departures we have had over the last couple of windows are having an effect on moral?
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Not really imo. Everyone in the world (of football) knew that Schneiderlin was off, and we pretty much knew Clyne was too when he dragged his heels about a signing a new deal. We have yet to be able to put out our best starting 11 in 7 competitive games this season, and Koeman's trying to find the right balance. It was very odd to see how quickly the players gelled last season, even Koeman said so himself. With VVD in, Clasie and Bertrand (more importantly) back after the International break, we should be able to see what our fully fit XI can do.
 
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KingslandSaint said:
Not really imo. Everyone in the world (of football) knew that Schneiderlin was off, and we pretty much knew Clyne was too when he dragged his heels about a signing a new deal. We have yet to be able to put out our best starting 11 in 7 competitive games this season, and Koeman's trying to find the right balance. It was very odd to see how quickly the players gelled last season, even Koeman said so himself. With VVD in, Clasie and Bertrand (more importantly) back after the International break, we should be able to see what our fully fit XI can do.
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We're pretty unlikely to be able to put our full fit XI out for even half the games this season. Just hope that doesn't mean reverting to our new 'style' whenever we can't field out first choices.
 
Beddytare said:
I think we all hope there is a few more surprises....Sadly Imo There will not be.....am a little bit frustrated with Saints at the moment. They are playing crap football and none (for me any way) of the new boys seem to have hit the ground running as they did pretty well last season. Has any one got the same feeling as me, that all the departures we have had over the last couple of windows are having an effect on moral?
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Think you've firmly hit the nail on the head....pretty much sums it up.
Saints cannot keep selling their best players and buying cheaper replacements and in some cases not the same quality season after season and expect progression. It has to stop @ some point.but then again if they want to be a mediocre team just making up the numbers in the premier then that's fine,but one season it won't work and it will be straight back to the championship.
 
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