Redslo

It would be if there was a history of British people being discriminated against and that term being used as a derogatory term. Is there? I do not know for certain. I know that Brit is not used that way in the United States. A lot depends on context, but non-Jewish Tottenham fans can't turn a derogatory term for Jews into something ok--just like Washington Redskin fans are fighting a losing battle defending that team nickname. But it is not all political correctness run wild. For example, no one is attacking British coaches for referring to their players as "boys" even though in the United States a white person who refers to an African American male teenager or adult as "boy" would definitely be being racist.

I know that Football Manager is not the real world, but when I get Southampton to this point in my FM saves, I usually try to buy up several tops prospects, not one big player. This always seems to work out well. Of course, identifying future world class players is easier in FM than in real life, but if the real life people at Southampton FC think they can do it, it would be a good idea. It would have been nice, for example, to pay Celtic money for Wanyama (900K pounds) or Red Bull Salzburg money for Mana (4 Million pounds). Of course, there is the question of whether they could have gotten work permits back then.

I foolishly played around with stuff related to this instead of going to bed and posted this on my blog: "Ten Games, Twenty-Two Points: What does it mean?" http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/ http://redsloscf.blogspot.co.uk/

I just posted this. "Ten Games, Twenty-Two Points: What does it mean?"

Aside from the fact that what you said is not true, my point is that racism is legal in the US for whites.

Excellent point.

I have just posted a new article entitled “Racism in English Football and the Rooney Rule (Part 2).” Surprisingly, at least to me, I finished my discussion of this issue in just two parts. Of course, I had to leave something out—like my tribute to Bill Walsh. Oh, well. Maybe I can fit that in elsewhere. http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/ http://redsloscf.blogspot.co.uk/

The word actually is offensive, even bigoted. However, I don't think it fits the definition of racist--at least it doesn't in the United States. Where, I should point out, racism is legal.

The real problem with the initial premise of this thread is that it fails any kind of reasonable cost benefit analysis. Making the champions league should be worth at least 32 million pounds in UEFA tv money to Southampton in 2015-2016. It could be worth more depending on how well we do once we qualify, but it could be worth a whole lot less if we come in fourth and lose in the playoff. There would be additional matchday revenue. If we pretend that is 30,000 tickets times three games times 50 pounds (I am not claiming this is right--it is just simple and quick and good enough for my purposes) that would be a total of 4.5 million pounds. Let's just say that if we put it all together we could count on receiving 40 million pounds. There are expenses that would be incurred as well, but I cannot reliably calculate them since I don't know who our opponents would be (and I couldn't calculate them very reliably even if I did). On the other hand, the might be increased sponsorship possibilities. The question is should we buy a single world class player in January I order to make the Champions League. This hypothetical player would cost 30 million pounds and have to be paid at least 100K pounds per week. We might be able to recoup some of that in a year by selling him if we do not qualify for the champions league again, but we will have his salary to pay for a year and a half so that is total cash out of pocket of more than 37.5 million pounds. In other words, if buying this player guaranteed us that we would qualify for the champions league and failing to buy him ensured that we would not, it would be just slightly better than a break even proposition. Since there are no such guarantees, it is just a bad idea.

If we are going to sign someone to play for us for a star's wages this January it should be Morgan Schneiderlin.

I don't claim to be an expert on goalkeeper distribution, but Forster appears to consistently kick the ball a greater distance than did Boruc and he is less likely to kick it directly out of bounds. But that is just my impression, I haven't watched game films and counted every kick.

Now that we know more about the set up he put in place here there should be no surprise that none of the big Italian clubs want him. They would have to agree to create a consistent long term plan and follow it for many years spending a significant amount of money on things that do not bring plainly visible immediate returns. The Southampton way may very well be something that can only be achieved by a smaller club newly bought by a rich guy willing to put money in probably without worrying about Financial Fair Play compliance. In England this might very well mean it could only happen with a League One team.

That is pretty old fashion. I judge the team by what percentage of people who judge the team by watching them think they are doing well. That is a good modern type of statistic.

I think the difference is that if you were to ask the owners or chairmen of each BPL team who they would hire if their manager dropped dead tomorrow most of them would not know. I believe that, right now, Les Reed could answer that question--although he won't do so publically, of course.

So you are worried that when Koeman leaves we will replace him with someone better? Oh, the horrors.

I was wondering if I can get some feedback on my most recent post--the one about racism. The only feedback I have received is on this thread on the Ugly Inside forum and I am wondering if their consensus that I am completely wrong about racism being a problem is the general consensus of Southampton fans and, if so, what am I missing or, in the alternative, what are other Southampton fans missing. http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/forum/126804/black-managers..../#43 Part two of the article was going to focus on the Rooney Rule itself but if the existence of racism is really an issue maybe I should address that again. Or maybe I should give up on the subject completely--which would be discouraging and not fun. Oh well. Any non-obscene feedback would be welcome.

I think Manchester City are trying to do something like this. The problem is that it takes a substantial financial commitment and a lot of patience. So long as decisions are made by owners and managers it is tough to start something like this. A new manager will realize that he will see no benefit from these type of changes and so will not support them. An owner will see no benefit for many years, and will have to deal with new manager after new manager coming in and wanting to redirect the resources to something more helpful in the short term. We really were lucky in who bought us (well, I wasn't lucky I became a fan after Markus Leibherr bought the club). As Les Reed said in his recent speech: "We deliberately five years ago made a different decision. This was based on our owner who had taken the club out of administration, Markus Liebherr. He bought the club because he loved football. He had an affinity with Southampton through the docks, through his business. He loved community—big on community. He loved watching good football. So the philosophy was based on come redevelop a team that will get into the premier league. Play in the top of the premier league with 50% of our players developed through our academy. Can we get a team that can do that and be exciting for the fans so the fans enjoy coming and want to be there every week to see good football? That was where it started from and then was so what is the strategy to put that together." That was a long term plan that needed money and patience to work out. In some sense, the jury is still out on the plan because we do not know if any of the youngsters brought in since then are going to make it. We have reason to be optimistic, but there are no certainties--yet another reason why other teams cannot or will not do this. As a side issue, the 50% figure will likely end up being too optimistic because our good young players will be bought away from us too frequently for the club to reach that level of participation and stay there.

My posting rate has slowed down so you probably don't have to worry about that any more. If you can't figure out which blog to read next I would just go in alphabetical order.

You are right. I did not address that and I should have, but I overlooked it. I would contend, however, that if that were the only reason for not signing Cork to a new contract, it would still make sense to sign him to a new contract. Given who is getting the playing time now, it appears that Reed is not considered to be ready to take over Cork's slot this season. If Cork were signed to a new contract, he could be sold for a profit once Reed was ready.

At the right price anyone can be a Moneyball signing--assuming they are good enough to do a job for the team. At the wrong price, no one is a Money Ball signing. I could be a Money Ball signing for Southampton if they needed an appellate lawyer in California and I was willing to work cheaply enough.

I have posted a new article entitled “Racism in English Football and the Rooney Rule (Part 1).” I do not know how many parts there will be, but I will try to complete them faster than I did in my last multipart series. http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/ http://redsloscf.blogspot.co.uk/

Any reason we can't beat Burnley away?

I think Newcastle has been written off prematurely so I am ok if they draw Liverpool. And I want Man City to beat Man U.

I actually discussed this in my blog post of minutes ago. I have posted a new article entitled “Possible Reasons for not Signing Jack Cork Right Now.” It is speculation, not inside information. http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/ http://redsloscf.blogspot.co.uk/

I have posted a new article entitled “Possible Reasons for not Signing Jack Cork Right Now.” It is speculation, not inside information. http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/ http://redsloscf.blogspot.co.uk/