ThorpG

The anger I feel currently shows I clearly have not washed my hands of Saints, but the worry is that as we now reach the 6th and 7th player sale, the anger turns to apathy. I have a season ticket, but if I had to renew this week rather than several weeks ago, am not sure what I would have done. All very well saying support Saints whatever (and for 20+ years I have), but this team has been asset stripped to a level never previously seen. I didn't enjoy spending several hundred quid watching out of their depth kids with a Dutch manager before, I am not sure I want to do it again.

What I cannot understand is why bother forking out serious £s for Pelle and Tadic? If we are flogging anyone at any price, it makes no sense. I don't think there is some grand plan / deal / sales type scenario here. I just think we have a board who have no idea what they doing. Amateur night...

Delighted with 17th? Glad the club is run by people with a touch more ambition than you... Current squad is better than most of the teams who finished below us last season, not sure what business they have done so far that is making you sure they will be stronger teams? Mid table squad now, if we can secure a new left back and centre back (which given money we have to spend and time left till next season, I am confident of), we will be mid table pushing for top half.

Over it already. Good player. Ex player. Thanks for the memories, Adam, shame you forgot to leave with a bit of class, but I guess you are paid for your football skills, not your diplomatic skills Now let's smash Liverpool on the first day. COYR!

So the whole site is illiterate is it? Except your measured, informed, articulate posts, I suppose...? Would be funny, except that I think you might actually believe the stuff you write... The reality is none of us know the exact numbers, as clubs rarely confirm amounts / contract arrangements to the public, so we are likely all wrong.

The defending is comical...

Now if we just had Carroll to bring on so we could stick it in the mixer...

Risky - for every Liebherr there is a Vincent Tan, a Randy Lerner, a Shahid Khan or a Tony Fernandes. I would rather the current board sorted out their PR (to dissuade other clubs from circling like vultures), quickly recruited a high calibre manager (in the next seven days) and ensured that they invest wisely in the squad.

Why? Who are you thinking of?

Well there are funds in the club insofar as player sales revenue and TV rights income aggregates to a pretty substantial figure. As to whether the funds are available - given the transfer activity of the last five years (we have clearly invested), it would seem reasonable to suggest funds are available. It is possible that Liebherr has decided to turn off the tap in terms of investment of course, but nothing more than a guess, whereas constant investment over five years has empirically happened. As for 'significant', your words not mine. I merely suggested that we would likely have more than £4m available, I am not suggesting we are suddenly going to spend a fortune.

Some do and some don't. I still think we should buy players in terms of being the right fit for the team and the club, rather than to send out a certain message to the club. Do you think otherwise?

Don't agree - you buy a player to fit into a team, a squad and a way of playing. Not to appease fan jitters. Lovren was not a marquee signing, but what a player. Davis was not a marquee player, but ideal for our team. Same for Clyne, Boruc, Rodriguez etc. etc. Osvaldo? Ramirez? Marquee players. Best part of £30m wasted (much as I would like Ramirez to prove otherwise).

The price is irrelevant (we sold him for four times what we paid after all), we will spend more than that on a new player, we have funds after all. Finding a player who can do the job Lambert does (score goals in the box, drop deep, set up goals, give an outlet to midfielders, keep the centre-backs honest, bang in set pieces etc. etc.) - tough ask. Which striker in the Premier League did a better all-round job last season? Not many...

It really wouldn't be your choice would it. Am guessing you would quite like a manager who has actually managed in a top division any time in recent history... .

Well said.

No hesitation - had a season ticket during the Dutch Duo era and when we were bottom of League One. Easy decision now compared to back then when you knew were going to be watching a lot of dross. Now - talented squad, good to watch, full stadium. Easy decision...

'If'. Big if, I would say. A bit simplistic saying nothing has changed since Lowe. We have the most lauded academy in British football and a buying power now we were never close to under Lowe. Under Lowe we were not set up for long term success (buying squad players not first team players, constrictive wage structure etc.). Am not convinced this is the case now, as exemplified by the amount of Saints players involved in the England U18s, U21s etc, which does point towards longer term success (although clearly does not guarantee it).

No sources, no ITK. I don't know nothing... I reckon some of these stories in the press might be BS though. Just a hunch, otherwise Shaw is going to be playing for about three clubs next year, which seems ambitious...

'No doubts'? How confident. Based on us finishing eighth, with a gap over the teams below us, and no changes yet to the squad or management? I guess other clubs like Newcastle, Aston Villa, Stoke, Swansea, Palace etc. are all going to mobilise their vast financial resources and overtake us, losing no players in the process and only strengthening, with none of the poor buys we tend to make. Impressive. I wonder why these clubs did not do that in the season just gone...?

Does this even matter? Are we worried that we won't have a kit to play in? Really...? Are we worried that the club will not have a kit to sell to fans, given their previous statements re: commercial opportunities. Really...? There will be a kit, it will divide opinion as usual, and too many of us will part with our hard earned cash to buy it... Like every other year for as long as we can remember...

I agree - I would rather Shaw stayed, but let's be honest, if we get the £30m for him, we have done great business. Yes he might be 'the new Bale' etc. etc. (I don't think that is true anyway), but you don't build your team around a left-back, I would far rather we held on to Lallana, Lovren and Schneiderlin - bigger impact on the overall team if we lose any of these players. As for timing of payments - I go to football to enjoy the game, not to worry about the company's cash flow phasing... I hardly think we are getting £30m up front, but over three years £30m is still a lot of revenue.

Under the Liebherrs, we have had consistent progress and the club is in a position most of us have rarely known in our Saints supporting career. Every summer people throw the toys out of the cot and proclaim imminent disaster. The noise and the club's achievement rarely seem to match. We could go into cataclysm this summer. We could sell all of our players. We could lose our manager. We could be sold. We could be financially unstable. Who knows. But none of it has happened yet and recent experience shows that it rarely does. At least wait for the disasters before losing it...

Be surprised if we bought no £8m players, given outflow of players, inflow of cash and rarity of Premier League players below £8m. If you are right it could be a season to forget...