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Saints "do not have a massive pot of cash"


Fitzhugh Fella

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So says Adam Leitch in tonight's Echo. He was referring to the fact that Saints do not have "a direct replacement for Lambert". Something that has bothered a few of us on here.

 

He goes on to say within the same article "you have to accept that without a massive pot of cash, WHICH SAINTS DON'T HAVE, you aren't going to get a like-for-like in terms of quality for your star turn".

 

Well over the last 12 months - even without taking into account the wealth of the owner(s) of the club - we are , thanks mainly to the income from the Chamberlain transfer, a good 8 to 9 million in the black. So why does Adam insinuate there is not decent money available.

 

Sloppy Echo reporting/accounting or does he know something, we don't.

 

No agenda before the accusations start........ just genuinely intrigued why the local sports' reporter thinks we can't - or won't -afford a decent back up for Rickee.

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How much would it cost to buy another Lambert, not a 2nd rate one to sit on the bench in case RL picks up a knock, but a genuine, all round, centre forward? £5m? £10m?

 

Are we going to spunk that on a player in case one of ours get injured? No, of course not.

 

As for the Echo knowing what we do have to spend, I couldn't trust it to tell if the sun was shining.

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If we take the prudent approach and assume that the club is being run without any additional injection of funds from the Liebherr estate, my estimate (and that's all it can be without actually seeing the accounts, and now the club is in private hands that information is always more dated when it's released) is that a decent chunk of the Chamberlain money will have covered the losses from the previous two seasons (£8m-ish in 09/10, undisclosed as yet for 10/11), with the rest being used to offset a wage bill that is almost certainly above the "ideal" wages/turnover ratio of 60-65%.

 

However, we have clearly been in discussions with clubs regarding players of significant worth, so I do think there will be *some* money to spend in January, but I'm pretty sure it won't be all of the £12m Chamberlain money.

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Utterly rubbish reporting. With relations between the club and the Echo what they are, I'd think the Echo would be the last people to know if the club was suffering financially.

 

With nearly all the news we get from the Echo regarding Saints, it's just a cut and paste job from the OS. When we get to higher issues such as this, I doubt the Echo has any greater to offer. I have been looking closely at this aspect by comparing pre and post Markus and there is little indicating anything has changed. The players salary levels are high, investment in the Academy building is not faltering (how much did we pay for that plymouth youth player?) and we have tabled a lot of money to buy players, even though clubs were not prepared to sell. The purchase of Fox demonstrated that we were prepared to pay over the top for someone marginally better than already held, with firm offers in for another £5M+ worth for a striker and CB, not to mention Cork and De Ridder. The Oxo fee slightly masks what is going on, but there is nothing to indicate that we would not have still spent as we have (with the possible exception of De Ridder), even with keeping Oxo.

 

There may come a time when we can say it looks like the money is drying up, but no indication so far. Most of this comes from our inability to get back up for another striker before the window closes and knowing what we do now, Cortese must feel he has slipped up here. The question I ask is would Cortese have behaved the same if Markus were alive today and I cannot see that. Even astounded to the value we were prepared to pay for Rodriguez, but maybe I am just out of touch with these values.

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Makes perfect sense. It is what I have suspected and explains our relative modest investment over the summer.

 

I would also bet that our aim was consolidation and that our current position is way above what we ever expected.

 

Including Jos H we spent near on £7m this summer, hardly modest.

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Makes perfect sense. It is what I have suspected and explains our relative modest investment over the summer.

 

was it relatively modest? Besides if you elongate the time period our transfer/wage spending has been massive.
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Makes perfect sense. It is what I have suspected and explains our relative modest investment over the summer.

 

I would also bet that our aim was consolidation and that our current position is way above what we ever expected.

 

I have it on good authority that the club expected 17th place this season.

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I think Adam Leich's statement is only one of those generalisations that everyone makes from time to time and to be fair to him whilst we may indeed be fairly well off as a club taken overall in the Championship (no doubt two thirds of them running on empty), we should not let our ambition lead us to believe that we have the buying power of the top 6 or 8 clubs in the premier league for example - so whislt we may have a few million to spend wisely we probably don't have a 'pot of cash' to spend in those terms. Our owners for all their ambition are not oil soaked Sheiks from Arabia but honest-to-goodness Industrial Engineers from Helvetica whose business profitability is measured in low % terms - and spare a thought that this global recession is hurting manufacturing industry across the world.

 

These are not the times for reckless spending on hobbies and never forget that Saints are a Hobby pursuit of the family.

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Makes perfect sense. It is what I have suspected and explains our relative modest investment over the summer.

 

I would also bet that our aim was consolidation and that our current position is way above what we ever expected.

 

what i would like to know is how come this to-sser is allowed to post the same ****** time and time again. its painful seeing the same repetitive slant on his one view and clearly is designed to wind folk up. im sure if he banged on in person to most of the posters on this board he would spend most of his time eating through a straw.

 

i propose a new rule where if a poster hits a fixed number people (say circa 100) adding them to the ignore list then they get banned for life.

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what i would like to know is how come this to-sser is allowed to post the same ****** time and time again. its painful seeing the same repetitive slant on his one view and clearly is designed to wind folk up. im sure if he banged on in person to most of the posters on this board he would spend most of his time eating through a straw.

 

i propose a new rule where if a poster hits a fixed number people (say circa 100) adding them to the ignore list then they get banned for life.

 

Clearly touched a raw nerve or close to the truth. Your proposal to 'shut me up' is akin to the policy of a tin pot dictator who cannot deal with a view that is dffernt from his own.

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Clearly touched a raw nerve or close to the truth. Your proposal to 'shut me up' is akin to the policy of a tin pot dictator who cannot deal with a view that is dffernt from his own.
i truley dont mind opinion i just cant stand people that ram thier opinion down your throat time and time again. i have read yours and i have taken it on board but you still feel the need to tell me again.
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Another crafty move by Cortese....leak a snippet of fake info to the Echo so that other clubs get the impression we're not as flush as they thought we were....hey presto, we get our January transfer target(s) for less that we might otherwise have done.

 

Nice work Nicola.

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Another crafty move by Cortese....leak a snippet of fake info to the Echo so that other clubs get the impression we're not as flush as they thought we were....hey presto, we get our January transfer target(s) for less that we might otherwise have done.

 

Nice work Nicola.

 

Well you have just blown up his strategy then by posting it on here.:scared:

 

 

 

Only joking before someone thinks I was being serious :lol:

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To be fair, no one really puts money in pots anymore. Bank accounts are the preferred method of money storage.

 

Nonsense. There's no way in hell you're aware of how the club stores its money, unless you work for the club, in which case Cortese will find you and probably lay you off soon for not keeping your mouth shut.

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Makes perfect sense. It is what I have suspected and explains our relative modest investment over the summer.

 

I would also bet that our aim was consolidation and that our current position is way above what we ever expected.

 

Another tedious wind up. I doubt you can get the Echo in Norwich. Onto the 'ignore' list methinks along with all the other wind up merchants/dickheads that I do not have to bother with

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**** me how come all those players are worth that when we only payed a million for the leagues top scorer? I have no idea how much money saints do or don't have but I'd much rather we bought good players with something to prove at sensible prices from the lower leagues than be asked to pay over the top prices for higher league level "stars". If we get back to the PL no doubt we will be expected to cough up 10 million for really average PL players and journeymen.

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£7m? - I make it £3m -£4m.

 

Fox 1.5, Jos 1.2 and De Ridder £1m?

 

Cork? The re-signing of Lallana, Barnie etc

 

For what it's worth I think the Echo are a typical parochial publication looking to make news when they have blown their credibility with their local club - an issue for both parties but far more for the paper as they trade on being 'local'. As has been pointed out they have not got any access to the real figures so they can make up any massive or minimal pot stories they like and the information will be just as flawed either way.

 

Vote with your pocket guys...they'll not last if nobody buys or advertises and enough letters about poor journalism will point the shareholders as to why they're circulation is falling.

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Including Jos H we spent near on £7m this summer, hardly modest.

 

it's all down to what you consider " modest " isn't it Turkish?

 

If you think of us as a former L1 side , newly promoted and wanting to consolidate in CC - then it sounds a goodly sum, compared to say ..Brighton and Peterboro's spending in the same period.

 

If on the other hand, we are seen as a club who are top of the league, and likely candidates for automatic promotion to the Premiership, then I'd say we made some very shrewd buys for players who most likely would retain their team places when promoted. Of course we would need to spend a lot more on some key players to maintain a secure place in the Prem. but it seems to me that the majority of Prem. signings are costing many millions per player anyway.

One million here or there, sounds like a "signing-on fee " for a player in the top divison. ..if not in a lump sum, then as a much higher salary check.

 

Looking at us a potential Premiership side ..I think we've made some of the best buys for many a season past. Considering what we paid for players like; Pahars, Lundekvam Beattie, and Michael Svensson ..around 10 years ago...don't our most recent signings seem like a bargain to you ?..considering 10 year inflation.

Edited by david in sweden
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Well if thats what it is then so be it! Let us not forget we spent huge money in League One and given all of the new contracts handed out in the summer I can't help but worry about our wages. Personally, as much as I want us to take advantage of our present league position, I don't want to see £3-4m spent on a player who has no track record of the Prem and even go down the same road as Leicester. Get some a decent loan or two in. At some point our spending will need to be curved.

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We have money, we just don't throw it around. Fine by me.

 

This.

 

Surely it is clear to everyone now that the club does have money to spend but Cortese and Adkins are very, very careful in how they spend it. They are not prepared to pay over the odds for players in terms of transfer fee or salary. Also they want to ensure the player will fit into the squad and not disrupt the team spirit we have.

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