Redslo

The most useful information on this thread.

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my writing. I did not mean that West Ham currently has equally competent management when compared to us and, therefore, has significant advantages over us. I meant that if they hired equally competent management and gave them time to work, they would have significant advantages. Already they have a turnover about 10 million pounds more than ours. Even if they do not sell out their new stadium, they will sell more tickets than they do now and that will increase their financial edge. If they use it effectively, they will be a problem for us (and Swansea and Everton).

We can only loan them one player at a time under premier league rules, but it would make sense to loan them a young player if we had one that was good enough for them but wouldn't get playing time for us. If we didn't charge them for the loan, we could make the player recallable I believe. To be fair, the same could all be said about us (except for the name calling, we don't call ourselves those names). We got promoted by paying massive salaries based upon a rich foreigner bankrolling us. I am not clear now that is the Portsmouth model--at least not now where Portsmouth does not have and claims not to want a rich benefactor. All three of these local clubs had financial problems in the recent past by spending money they didn't have. I do not see why we can be excused but the others are morally bankrupt.

Their preseason friendly at Portsmouth? Their games against us will be the most important games of the season for their fans. Will they be alphabetized by AFC rather than Bou? England could do worse. And repeatedly has. Does this mean scotty=Irene? We all know how much Liverpool respects us? Unless their academy progresses to category one, I don't think it will matter? What rank is their academy btw. My two minutes of intensive googling failed to find the answer.

But they have clearly shown that they will sell him if we do pay through the roof. We are not going to sell Long for a loss especially if we are in the Europa League. I am not convinced that Elia or Djuricic got enough of a chance to prove themselves in games, but I assume that they are not starting because they have failed to prove themselves in training so I will trust the club's judgment on signing them permanently. The Davises are almost certainly staying. Steve signed a new contract and will be a better squad player than anyone we can get for a reasonable price to replace him. We do have to hope that younger players progress and take away his playing time (or that he learns to shoot). I have no comment on Mayuka or Gazzaniga. I am sure they appreciate the thought. He could work as the official liaison with SI. Don't underestimate West Ham's future. They have that cheap new government built stadium coming on line and they are far better known world wide. With equally competent management they have significant advantages over us. Or read less.

Maybe, but both Burnley and Leicester have taken a more rational and realistic view of manager changes this year. Maybe a new trend is starting.

But they have clearly shown that they will sell him if we do pay through the roof. We are not going to sell Long for a loss especially if we are in the Europa League. I am not convinced that Elia or Djuricic got enough of a chance to prove themselves in games, but I assume that they are not starting because they have failed to prove themselves in training so I will trust the club's judgment on signing them permanently. The Davises are almost certainly staying. Steve signed a new contract and will be a better squad player than anyone we can get for a reasonable price to replace him. We do have to hope that younger players progress and take away his playing time (or that he learns to shoot). I have no comment on Mayuka or Gazzaniga. I am sure they appreciate the thought. He could work as the official liaison with SI. Don't underestimate West Ham's future. They have that cheap new government built stadium coming on line and they are far better known world wide. With equally competent management they have significant advantages over us.

My list of what ifs that would have put us in the Champions League is completely different--except for "e" of course.

I just posted "I Make Predictions (midweek)" http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/ http://redsloscf.blogspot.co.uk/

Why not dream about winning the Europa League and thereby qualifying for the champions league.

sorry. I am still missing the humor.

Wouldn't it make sense to schedule a preseason friendly with them?

Agree and disagree. The goal is to improve our place in the hierarchy over time. That we seem to be doing. The new TV contract will help as there will soon be only a handful of non-English clubs that can out big us. But regular European Football with a outside shot at the Champions League from time to time will be necessary to move forward any further. And, in a nutshell, that is the progress we have made this year. Now, it is time to sustain and build on it. And what would be the point of everything then? Are we striving to be Newcastle now? Even the fans of Newcastle want more than that. Sometimes humor is so hard to detect here. It really confuses me when Bearsy makes a serious comment.

Now that Wanyama has effectively called him a liar, I would think he should be free to release the tape, unless it was illegally recorded of course. Interesting point. Nothing in the article is libelous except (if false) the claim that Wanyama made the statements and their inherent unprofessionalism. Is that enough? It wouldn't be in the USA (where I am a lawyer) but I can't guess about England. I don't understand why anyone would need more than one account unless they want to say things that they are too embarrassed to have attributed to their real (or primary) identity. I think it best to simply avoid saying such things. Agree. Maybe I should list all my World of Warcraft character names in the interests of full disclosure. And you expect us to believe that you never log in as "BruceWayne" or "Alfred." Do you think we are stupid? I am wondering what other names Bearsy posts under. That is nonsensical. Villa's chance of the winning the FA Cups is under 50% and we can still qualify for Europe even if they do. If I had to estimate I would say that our chance of making Europe is about 1% for the Champions League and 74% for Europa. Maybe there are two different people with the user name of Wanyama One did the tweeting and the other one gave the interview.

Handing in a transfer request is actually very respectful. It tells the club that you do not expect to receiving your loyalty bonuses even when you get the transfer you wanted. Lallana and others last year were not that respectful to us.

I just posted "I Make Predictions (Round 34)"

It probably is given that wages last season are correlated to wages this season. Not the most accurate measure, of course, but still not meaningless.

Except that Spurs won't have Champions League football either so that wouldn't make any sense. Plus haven't we been reading the Chelsea and United are interested too?

If Aston Villa wins the FA Cup, they enter in the group phase and 6th place goes into the 3rd qualifying round.

I agree with you except about Gardos and Long. I think it is too soon to tell about Gardos and Long did a good, but not great job, for what was expected. I think Elia and Djuricic were signed in case we needed depth for a cup run or injuries. Remember also that Mane was disappearing for a month when Elia came in. I actually don't think either of them has been given enough of a chance but if we qualify for Europe we ought to be able to do better.

Should we all guess? I think you are Les Reed's younger brother.

I am thinking that three Europa League home games in the group phase should fill a few seats. Even more if we advanced beyond that. Given that you can't know exactly how the season is going to turn out when you have to make these kinds of choices, my answer is yes prioritize the league over cups until you are certain there is nothing significant left to play for in the league. England needs its clubs to do well in Europe next year. So Aston Villa in Europe is a bad idea. Remember that we have the money to compete on salary with all but 10 or 15 other clubs. Starting in 2016, it will be even better. Players already move from Celtic to us even though they give up a shot at the Champions League. We will be able to compete even more effectively for good players if we can at least offer Europa League play. Exactly.

Surely a thread analyzing the hypothetical real estate investments of a former player we don't like because he wasn't very good for us is about as pointless as things can get. (No one need try to prove me wrong by striving for even more pointlessness.)

Agree. Agree. Agree. Agree. I really wonder what the point of this is for some people. Success this year is bad because it might make next year harder. Success for other clubs is bad because some players on the other club used to play for us. Do the math. Eight (or more) English clubs are going to qualify for Europe each year and we can only be one of them. We are just going to have to accept that some of our rivals will have success.

Spurs are more likely to want him. Chelsea is more likely to sign him if they both want him. Making their odds the same is perfectly reasonable given that the purpose of the odds is to encourage people to bet unsuccessfully. According to FM 2015 final database, Spurs top earners weekly salaries in thousands of pounds: Soldado 105 Adebayor 100 Lloris 95 Lamela 80 Eriksen 65 Paulhino 65 Holtby 60 Lennon 55 Walker 55 Kane 50 Capoue 50 Dembele 50 Chadli 45 Fazio 45 Vorm 40 Townsend 38.5 I think I have gone down the list far enough. I posted Southampton's weekly salaries according to FM 2015 final database on my blog and there is no point to retyping them here: http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/2015/02/southampton-weekly-salaries-update.html Our top 5 earners make c combined 175 less a week and that includes Alderweireld's salary. It would be 198 if you only included the ones under contract to us.