CHAPEL END CHARLIE

A simple question for those disagreeing with Alpine and St Marco on Administration : What are we going to do in 12 months time if/when the bank demand another £5m or £10m to keep us afloat after a further years losses ? No Saints fan wants to see our club in Administration but short of a successful takeover bid or promotion back to the Premier League it's just inevitable at some stage . Rupert's cost cutting campaign should keep us going this season but it will only reduce not eliminate the significant monthly losses SLH is generating and will continue to generate for the foreseeable future . As a business SLH makes no financial sense outside of the Premier League . The limited income from our much reduced match attendance and (crucially) the loss of the Sky TV money has destroyed the business model SLH is founded upon . Put simply we have too much debt , not enough income and no realistic prospect of reaching the 'break-even' point let alone making a decent return on investment . All these factors add up to inevitable Administration at some stage IMO . We might as well just get used to the idea and look forward to building a new club out of the ashes of SLH . Unfortunatly we'll almost certainly have to build that new club in League One I'm afraid .

It's total sh1te but what can we do about it ? The bank are demanding their money back and we're caught between a rock and a hard place . The Failure to achieve decent transfer fees for Rasiak , Skacel , Saganowski ...etc is screwing this club to the wall . Don't understand why we're interested in this Pulis lad , he's 24 yet has made no impact on the game whatsoever . We need replacement quality defenders ( CB or FB ) not more questionable midfielders surly :confused:

But it's not just a question of numbers is it ? You could have 20 Centre Backs at the club but if none of them were any good your defence would still be rubbish . There are question marks over all the players you mention : Lancashire - untried and frequently injured , could be great could be rubbish who knows ? Perry - can do a job but at 35 well past his prime Wotton - do we really want a journeyman midfielder playing at the heart of the defence ? Svensson - great when fit but risky to rely upon every game Thomas - I like him but many on here don't , is he for sell as well ? Racine - at 16 he's one for the future , not today surly It's probably a waste of time arguing about it , Andrew Davies will leave and we'll just have to make the best of a bad job . But make no mistake the squad will be significantly the weaker for his departure .

Yet more confirmation of this Davies to Stoke rumour : http://www.setantasports.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/08/17/Premier-League-Pulis-on-Davies/?facets/great-britain-locale/sport-space/football/

How do you assess what a player is worth ? it all just a matter of market forces and footballing opinion at the end of the day . In my opinion Andrew Davies is a much better footballer than our previous player of the season ( Chris Baird ) - and we got over £3m for him .

"That's catch-22 Yossarian"

This strikes me as true . Neither Skacel or Euell seem wanted (or affordable anyway) at the club but you can't really blame them for sitting on their contracts in the absence of a better offer - we all have to look after our own interests at the end of the day. I suspect that Skacel will leave soon , but we may have to virtually give away a £750k player and just take a loss on the deal . The failure to achieve a decent income from the players that have left this summer has forced us into disposing of players we'd much rather keep (Davies / Surman ?) this can only have a damaging effect on an already desperately 'thin' squad . I just can't wait for midnight August 31st and get this awful business over with , at least then we will know where we stand .

My Personal ratings on Saints v Birmingham Kelvin Davis 5.5 - Not hugely busy but won't be particularly happy with his performance tonight Lloyd James 7 - Struggled somewhat against a very useful Owusu-Abeye but kept at it and is certainly no worse than last seasons RB's Micheal Svensson 6.5 - Not quite the commanding performance I was looking for , I don't think he's fully fit Chris Perry 7 - Good headed goal and a sound game , but maybe at fault for the equaliser ? Andrew Surman 6.5 - No problem defensively but never much of a threat going forward , not really in the game at times Morgan Schneiderlin 8 MOTM - Outstanding display , pacy , always looking to get forward , he could be the star of this team Simon Gillett 7.5 - Great effort , nearly as good as Schneiderlin , faded a little 2nd half Lee Holmes 7 - Hard worker and quite effective in the 1st half . Far better than we should expect for a free transfer Adam Lallana 7.5 - Classy little player , beautiful touch , seems to have baulked up over the summer and will only get better with games David McGoldrick 6.5 - Much better than last season but still needs to enforce himself on the game more , at least the equal to BWP Stern John 6 - The games all about taking your chances and SJ didn't today , but still an automatic starter for me . good hold up player Substitutions : Jake Thompson 6 - Quick attacking winger but he needs to improve on his crossing IMO . A bright prospect for the future Summery : For those who weren't there we really were all over BCFC like a cheap suite in the first half and could/should had have the game won after 30 minutes . It's a terrible old cliche but it's still true ' you must take your chances when you're on top' we didn't and ultimately we paid the price - yet again ! :mad: This young team is full of promise , raw talent and hard work , we play an attractive passing game that can be a pleasure to watch at times , but the learning curve in front of this new team is very steep and we need to get some points on the board , obviously the sooner the better . As the second half progressed the team started to fade particularly with Stern substituted , we desperately needed some fresh attacking players in the mix but for some unexplained reason two very obvious candidates (Dyer & BWP) were missing from the bench :confused: - the manager must take responsibility for this inexplicable (and possibly fatal) omission .

Agreed . The club and its creditors must be massively disappointed with the transfer income generated this summer . I'm pretty sure three months ago we would have hoped/expected to receive useful fees for players such as Rasiak , Viafara , Skacel ... etc but in reality all we've had so far is : Peter Crouch 'sell on' payment - £600k Cedric Baseya development fee - £? (well under £500k I guess) Youssef Safri transfer fee - reported as £400k but unconfirmed at this time Undisclosed loan payments for Rasiak , Saganowski and Poke Early settlement payment for G Bale - £2.5m with the other £2.5m written off ? That lot may add up to something like £5m and we've probably knocked £100k p/w off the wage bill , but if the bank demanded a £7/8m cash injection then you can see why Andrew Davies may be for sell . All said a pretty sorry state of affairs .

It would be fun to see Racine and Perry play together , a 16 year old kid and a 36 year old veteran , averaged out they'd both be in their prime

Couldn't agree more Andy , but as 45% of Saintsweb users consider us a promotion or at least top half of the table club presumably the loss of one more player won't make that much difference and we'll be fine :confused:

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Rupert's strategic plan is to transform SFC/SLH into low cost base business surviving in L1 or the CCC by selling a young player or three every season at a substantial profit . Southampton Football Club will in effect become a glorified Crewe Alexanda . This plan of course relys on the club unearthing a new Bale , Walcott or Kenwyne every year - and the best of British luck with that I hear you say . I will leave Saintsweb users to make their own minds up as to whether they consider this a good or bad idea . All just my opinion - please don't ask for documentary evidence !

I see no confirmation as to whether he will be able to play against us or not in the Saints v Watford game next October .

It would seem that SJ is very much in Poortvleit's plans for Saturday - good job too IMO . http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/display.var.2426032.0.john_looking_to_fire_saints_against_his_old_club.php

Rasiak leaving would probably be the least surprising development of the summer - we just can't afford him I'm sorry to say . With Saganowski and Rasiak gone (if true) it should go without saying that Stern John must now stay unless replaced by a proven CCC quality striker . David McGoldrick has made a very promising start to the season but IMO we cannot prudently rely on him or BWP to score enough goals to keep us up this season .

It's a bit rich MW & RL asking the fans to get behind the team and support the club and then not bothering to turn up themselves - a pretty poor show IMO .

It's all very well saying sell him and replace with a better player , but what happens if we sell him and don't sign a replacement ? - as is extremely likely IMO . Isn't this football club running enough risks already without adding to the list . :confused: While we're on the subject I don't agree that he's such a bad player in the first place .

I reckon we were interested in another free transfer but when someone started mentioning £300k we suddenly decided he was rubbish after all .

We should put out a strong side IMO as at this stage of the season a good result is more important than resting players (Svensson aside). A win could be beneficial for this young side and help build some confidence ahead of an important home match next Saturday . Would love to see young Joseph 'fish' Mills given a run out , as there seems to be a good deal of raw talent in him .

So do I , it shows we were good enough to stay up last season -but only just .

Yep , all perfectly fair comment . The squad's been pared down to the bone and we're on a knife-edge between (maybe) having a competitive team or being desperately short if we have too many out simultaneously . Yes I know we have no money and we have to live within our means...etc but that doesn't change the footballing facts of life - you need at least two decent players for each position . We're relying on luck to get us through this season , and lets face it SFC's never been a lucky club has it ?

Traffic on this site does seem to be down compared to TSF's very healthy levels , give it time it'll recover I hope . I can't believe 1.37p a day's going to put many off , where else can you get hours of entertainment every day for that kind of money ?

Micheal Svennson is quite literally in a different class to most of the players in this division . Our survival prospects this season may well depend on 'killer' staying fit - that should be a matter of some concern for any Saints fan .

Dave Merrington on Radio Solent : " Micheal Svennson has been magnificent today "

I made my best guesstimate of wages saved on the players released and came up with a very similar number to yours (£80k per week) - this must mean we're both right , or possibly not !