My point is not that we should be signing those kinds of players, but that if Poch is gonna make wild claims like us getting into the Champions League by 2015, then those are the players we should be signing. I do believe it costs us more often than not to wait it out though, either way I just think the champions league claims were stupid and make us look like a joke in the long run, the only way anybody would believe something like that is if we sign at least four world class players, so we might as well just be happy with Europa League at best in the short term, but personally I would just be happy to avoid relegation again next season.
Put it this way, when Boruc made the Champions League claims, I thought it was just a player trying to show his ambition. When Poch said it however, I sent the link to my mates knowing it would give them a laugh. All it has achieved is giving our rivals firepower for a bit of banter, and you can kid yourself all you like but signing world class players is the only way to get into the tight-knit mini-league that is the Champions League, that is exactly what Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Man United have done, and each one of these teams have spent stupid money. So long story short, Poch shouldn't have made claims like that if Cortese was never willing to spend stupid money in the first place. I never thought it was a possibility, but now he said it, it just gives fans of other clubs more reason to mock us.
This is just a bit of a general rant by the way I'm not having a go at anyone (except for Poch's comment I suppose), sorry if it looks that way.
Falcao is arguably the best centre-forward on the planet, Neymar is probably the hottest young property around, those aren't players you sign to get in to the Champions League those are players you sign to win the Champions League. You're missing a step buddy.
Saints are missing a lot more than a step, even with a huge investment it would take a few seasons, and a lot of luck, to get into the Champions League. Buying up and coming youngsters from the Championship isn't gonna cut it. It doesn't matter though, my issue is with the suggestion we could achieve that kind of success by 2015, not that we haven't signed the players we need, because lets face it we wont be.
You're actually disappointed we didn't sign Falcao and Neymar? Mannnn, I know some people say Saints fans can never be happy but that's ridiculous.
I wish I never mentioned them. I'm not dissapointed we haven't signed them, just that our manager would make such a ridiculous claim as getting us into the champions league by 2015, ergo giving all the other fans of premier league clubs plenty more reasons to laugh at us. Would be nice to sign anyone really, but it would be nice to not wait so long to sign someone, especially if we want to do more than avoid relegation next season. The waiting game was acceptable in the Football League, its more of a problem in the Prem.
I think that you misunderstand the purpose of setting that goal. It's not that Cortese will resign in disgrace and Pochettino will be fired and forced to live in exile if we fail to make Champions League; it's that the aim when making decisions is not to settle for merely being in the pack, but to strive to acquire players who will take us as far as we can go. And yes, if by some miracle we make it that far, it will be by signing young up-and-coming players...not necessarily from the Championship, but from wherever we can find them. This may come as a shock, but there's a current Champions League team which has done the same thing. Does Arsenal have infinitely more money and prestige? Certainly; it's why they're in it, and we're setting it as an aspirational goal. But for the teams that don't have wage budgets in the nine digits, the only way to get there is to attract players who are either underrated (think Newcastle's rather cheaply-assembled squad last year that nearly crashed the party) or are younger talents who haven't been poached by the teams at the top of the food chain (think the Everton squad in '04/'05 that did crash the party).
Yeah but players that can get us building towards Europe (top 6/7, not top 4) aren't all going. Falcao and Neymar did, but it'll be many years until we can even begin to dream about them.
2015 isn't a deadline. No one with multiple brain cells will be kicking up a fuss in two years' time because we were promised Champions League football and haven't got it yet. Are some people's memories so short that they are already starting to advocate the Portsmouth method of European qualification? This club isn't the play thing of some tycoon who has promised us fans our day in the sun. We want to build from the foundations and keep the club sustainable in the long term, eventually establishing it permanently as a Europe-quality side. If that's happened by 2015 then great. If not, we'll wait a bit longer. There are 19 other clubs in this division who all want the same thing, and they can't all have it.
To be fair to random Sam I think he has probably just worded things feet poorly and taken some statements literally. Fundamentally his point, I think, is that you need to sign some very good players if you want to challenge for champions league in a year of two. Where you guys have correctly tried to steer him is that we are progressing towards a higher level. Signing players that improve our squad; having a manager that gets the best from our players; running the business as financially sound as possible; enticing bigger sponsorship ... all things that are moving in that direction. I don't think he is as daft as that first post reads. He just didn't explain it well.
Unless he has repeated the comment, I think some have missed the fact that Mauricio was joking....it was lost in translation. He was told that Boruc said Champions League in two years and MP laughed and said, 'Why not next year.' It was a joke for flying fishes sake! He did say on arrival that Cortese wanted Europe in a couple of years...meaning the Europa League (which would be a good achievement in itself).
Fran, you know it, I know it, but it's too late now .... they take just the quote and not the context and off they run.
It was the same when Nicola was asked about a vast extension to SMS shortly after he arrived. He said (with a smile) I might consider it when we have been in the Champions League for a couple of years...so many took this as an absolute promise. Irony has been lost on this side of the Pond as well.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/9269293.stm I think that this interview explains in most detail the long term strategy and goals that Nicola Cortese has set out. Play the long interview at the bottom of the page starting on 18.00 minutes and watch him enthuse about the development side of the club and his desire to emulate the "Barcelona" model.
Poorly worded is correct, I have taken statements literally though, I was more concerned with our public image. I think at the time that I had made the original comments as well, I saw so many articles about big players going to whoever is willing to spend bucket loads that I kind of panicked. I'm not panicking though, like I said I would be happy to avoid relegation, but I would like to see a big statement made (in terms of spending) early on this transfer window to show we mean business, reading comments and predictions from non-saints fans generally have us hovering above the relegation zone again next season, and thats only because Palace, Hull and Stoke seem to take up everyone's predicted relegation spots.
Could have done with this video being redistributed during the week prior to playing Stoke when every paper out there was suggesting Cortese would leave. I like Cortese but I think its a shame if he is friends with Berlusconi, who I view as one of the worst former leaders in the western world.
