Staplewood

[Saint-Armstrong]

That was nice to see! Good stuff.

[jamesfp1]

feck i missed it

[S-Clarke]

Theres an 8min video on SaintsPlayer if anyone has access to it.

 

The drive from Cortese is so noticeable though, this is going to be one hell of a facility when it's finished. Very exciting.

[Saint Charlie]

Nice write up with quotes on the OS too. Says it is going to set new standards rather than imitate the best of what is out there at the moment.

[SuperSAINT]

Nice write up with quotes on the OS too. Says it is going to set new standards rather than imitate the best of what is out there at the moment.

 

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2698768,00.html

[S-Clarke]

My favourite part of that interview....

 

"I remember the first day Nigel Adkins came down here and he was so impressed with our facilities, but I just said to him wait until you see what we're really going to do here.

"It's also true that the first moment that I stepped out here and even before we even bought the club, Markus and I said we were going to build some new facilities. Our temporary facilities are deemed good enough by the FA who thought they were the finished buildings, so we had already improved things, but this work is going to be the masterpiece."

[SuperSAINT]

My favourite part of that interview....

 

"I remember the first day Nigel Adkins came down here and he was so impressed with our facilities, but I just said to him wait until you see what we're really going to do here.

"It's also true that the first moment that I stepped out here and even before we even bought the club, Markus and I said we were going to build some new facilities. Our temporary facilities are deemed good enough by the FA who thought they were the finished buildings, so we had already improved things, but this work is going to be the masterpiece."

 

Love it. Awesome to hear about Cat.1 status, as well as Les Reed talking about wanting to be world leaders with some of thing's we're implementing.

 

Fantastic.

[trousers]

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2698768,00.html

 

Ha ha... I wonder which club this might have been aimed at:

 

"Sometimes you hear of clubs who put all their finances in one pot and it's a bit of a boom or bust, but we're trying to build something for 20-30 years and that is going to be sustainable."

[DJ_TOAST]

Always enjoy reading how Lallana enjoys it here and wants to stay here for the future:

"I want to be here to experience these facilities in the near and long future. It's a great club and we're going in the right direction. Everyone has pulled together, and we can achieve something brilliant."

[Avenue Saint]

Some of the stuff that I've just read is enough to give you goosebumps!

 

Little old Southampton, what is becoming of you...

 

[Matthew Le God]

BBC's South Today just said the new Southampton training ground is costing £15 million. Considering they already own the land and the training dome was already built years ago, that is a huge amount of money.

Edited 28 March, 2012 by Matthew Le God

[trousers]

Kris Temple on BBC's South Today just said it is costing £15 million.

 

Is that all? What does that equate to in units of Pompey player wages...? ;-)

[Viking Warrior]

I thought that was a secret footage of special forces training in readiness to be deployed to demolish frat ton arg krapp

[Lallana's Left Peg]

Kris Temple on BBC's South Today just said it is costing £15 million.

 

If that is true

[Matthew Le God]

If that is true

 

Why that smiley?

[Lallana's Left Peg]

Why that smiley?

 

If true, it's an incredible / ridiculous amount of money to invest for a club with our income etc. If Les Reed wants to talk about boom or bust then this is an example of it if £15m is the figure. Something like 100% of income on the facilities? Crazy.

 

Although I would find it hard to believe it will cost £15m, more like £5m.

[Matthew Le God]

If true' date=' it's an incredible / ridiculous amount of money to invest for a club with our income etc. If Les Reed wants to talk about boom or bust then this is an example of it if £15m is the figure. Something like 100% of income on the facilities? Crazy.[/quote']

 

Why is it crazy? This adds value to the company, helps achieve category one academy status and helps attract players to the club and first team and academy level.

 

- "Crazy" would be spending 7 years in the top flight like Pompey did and still not owning a training ground or decent stadium after having years of Premier League TV money.

- "Crazy" would be spending £15m on players wages and transfer fees and not investing in infrastructure for the long term benefit of the club like Pompey.

 

Although I would find it hard to believe it will cost £15m' date=' more like £5m.[/quote']

 

You only need to look at the plans on the New Forest website to see it would cost a lot more than £5m. Other Premier League and Championship clubs have made training ground including far less than Staplewood will for prices over £5m.

Edited 28 March, 2012 by Matthew Le God

[CB Fry]

That sounds to me like a ludicrous amount of money, if that number turns out to be accurate. I'm all for investment in infrastructure but this smacks of a vanity project to me.

 

I imagine Matthew Le God is knee deep in his own love juice at the moment.

[Matthew Le God]

That sounds to me like a ludicrous amount of money, if that number turns out to be accurate. I'm all for investment in infrastructure but this smacks of a vanity project to me.

 

I imagine Matthew Le God is knee deep in his own love juice at the moment.

 

I'll just add it to the list of things you and Turkish will be wrong about in the coming years.

 

Coming next up will be your surprise at the announcements of improvements at the stadium, soon to be followed Saints fans flocking in numbers.

 

What makes it a "vanity project"? It will help the club achieve category one academy status, help attract youngsters and first team players, help provide a high quality training environment etc etc. If the Liebherr's have the money and aren't burdening the club with debt it can only be a good thing. It also adds value to the club unlike spending on wages.

 

I'd rather they spent £15m on a training ground that will be in place for 20 - 30 years, than £15m on a player that the Saints academy could produce itself given category one status.

Edited 28 March, 2012 by Matthew Le God

[Saint-Armstrong]

I'll just add it to the list of things you and Turkish will be wrong about in the coming years.

 

Coming next up will be your surprise at the announcements of improvements at the stadium, soon to be followed Saints fans flocking in numbers.

 

What makes it a "vanity project"? It will help the club achieve category one academy status, help attract youngsters and first team players, help provide a high quality training environment etc etc. If the Liebherr's have the money and aren't burdening the club with debt it can only be a good thing. It also adds value to the club unlike spending on wages.

 

Agreed. I'd rather spend £15m on a state-of-the-art training ground than on big time charlie players like Cisse et al and be paying their wages.

[Saint Charlie]

When you think Liverpool spent this one half of Andy Carroll or all of Jordan Henderson then I would say its a pretty sustainable development.

 

Got to say something like this must be an attractive factor for prospective signings too.

[dune]

I think it's great what has been achieved and what they are aiming to achieve - namely category 1 status - not just on a par with the best BUT WORLD LEADERS.

 

What we are doing is building the club up the right way for long term sustainability.

[Saint Charlie]

I think it's great what has been achieved and what they are aiming to achieve - namely category 1 status - not just on a par with the best BUT WORLD LEADERS.

 

What we are doing is building the club up the right way for long term sustainability.

 

Is the perfect summary.

[Avenue Saint]

Sorry... But we have no money and the club is desperately (but secretly!) up for sale???

[explorer saint]

BBC quoted £15m Meridian £10m

[Thedelldays]

this would be like paying £5m for..say kenwyne Jones and pay him £40k a week for 4 years and getting about 50 goals in the process

[krissyboy31]

BBC quoted £15m Meridian £10m

Suspect both are a guestimate and the true figure is another undisclosed secret. In truth it's probably somewhere between the 2.

[Thedelldays]

even our training ground is worth more than pompey lol

[dune]

Full 7 minutes are on sainstplayer now.

[krissyboy31]

even our training ground is worth more than pompey lol

Is there a thread on POL saying that what we are really doing is bulldozing the training ground as part of a fire sale?

[jasoneuelllfanclub]

Amazing how all the doom merchants come out and knock a project which is going to be the envy of the footballing world. 15m will be well spent if it improves current squad, attracts high calibre players and the youth production line becomes even more productive than before. It will soon pay for itself. People can't knock the team so they have to find another excuse to try and down on the club.

[The Kraken]

I'd rather they spent £15m on a training ground that will be in place for 20 - 30 years, than £15m on a player that the Saints academy could produce itself given category one status.

 

That's a fair principle to take. Personally I don't believe its £15M, but then no-one has any real estimation of the actual cost so its a moot point.

 

This type of investment is very good to see within the club. Staplewood was a tired building and needed some form of upgrade to bring it up to at least a mid-range Premier League club, which is where we're aiming to go. I guess Cortese's idea was, if you're going to spend a few million on it anyway, why not spend a bit more and get the best.

 

Its one of the things we can control; getting the foundations right. We won't compete with the top clubs for wages paid or transfers fees shelled out, so we've got to looka t what we can lead at. Control the controllables, I'm sure I've heard that somewhere!

 

MLG and many others have had disagreements about the potential stadium expansion, but I think there has always been an agreement by most/all that an extended St. Marys is not out of the question by any means, just a point of when and by how much. Personally I'll stick to my opinion that we're still at least 2 or 3 years away from that, but in the meantime what we're seeing here is a very nice show of progress, and also I'd hope an indication that its the start of something with us from the owners/CEO.

[Neil]

Will the Oxo Chambo fee cover Staplewood rebuild cost?

[up and away]

Always enjoy reading how Lallana enjoys it here and wants to stay here for the future:

"I want to be here to experience these facilities in the near and long future. It's a great club and we're going in the right direction. Everyone has pulled together, and we can achieve something brilliant."

 

The only way Saints can realistically have young players such as Lallana is if we develop them ourselves. Once developed the trick will then be keeping them, which will again be a mammoth task. But I do believe Cortese may have the knack here, he certainly appreciates the situation.

 

Executive Chairman Nicola Cortese commented:

"We're doing this with the reason to develop players who are going to be Premier League players and love to come to work here because that's very key. I've been asked about the usual players that have come from the Academy but none of them are still here, so what we intend to do in the future is to develop players who love to stay at Southampton Football Club and work for the club. You have to create a good working environment for them, and that's what we're doing."

 

The one thing that will be missing from this equation will be first team football, something very difficult to achieve when you will have so many coming through at different levels and ages. We need to find a method of sending them out to other clubs for a season or more to develop and still retain the desire for playing for the club, especially if you are in with a group of others.

[The Kraken]

Executive Chairman Nicola Cortese commented:

"We're doing this with the reason to develop players who are going to be Premier League players and love to come to work here because that's very key. I've been asked about the usual players that have come from the Academy but none of them are still here, so what we intend to do in the future is to develop players who love to stay at Southampton Football Club and work for the club. You have to create a good working environment for them, and that's what we're doing."

 

I admire the rationale and sentiment, but it's not totally steeped in reality. The one Academy graduate he leaves out, Lallana, has been an exception to the norm. Walcott, Bale, Chamberlain all in very recent years have been enormously keen to leave the club as soon as a bigger name club came calling. Unfortunately not all players will buy into the "love of the club" mantra, in fact most won't.

 

Being in the Premier League will give us a big leg-up in keeping our better academy graduates. But it won't be the be all and end all, we still have to face reality that we'll likely be a selling club (as most in the top dvision are).

[Matthew Le God]

Will the Oxo Chambo fee cover Staplewood rebuild cost?

 

It was announced long before Chamberlain was sold. It was actually first announced in late 2009 before Chamberlain even made his debut.

 

Cortese has stated that even before Markus Liebherr bought the club the intention was to redevelop Staplewood.

[Matthew Le God]

I admire the rationale and sentiment, but it's not totally steeped in reality. The one Academy graduate he leaves out, Lallana, has been an exception to the norm. Walcott, Bale, Chamberlain all in very recent years have been enormously keen to leave the club as soon as a bigger name club came calling. Unfortunately not all players will buy into the "love of the club" mantra, in fact most won't.

 

Being in the Premier League will give us a big leg-up in keeping our better academy graduates. But it won't be the be all and end all, we still have to face reality that we'll likely be a selling club (as most in the top dvision are).

 

A key factor as you hint at is top flight status. That will make a difference and help the club keep hold of its academy products longer. Bale, Walcott and Chamberlain all left Saints whilst still teenagers and not able to play top flight games for Saints. Other middle sized Premier League clubs are at least able to stop the really big Premier League clubs buying players until they are at least in their early to mid 20's rather than teenagers.

[up and away]

I admire the rationale and sentiment, but it's not totally steeped in reality. The one Academy graduate he leaves out, Lallana, has been an exception to the norm. Walcott, Bale, Chamberlain all in very recent years have been enormously keen to leave the club as soon as a bigger name club came calling. Unfortunately not all players will buy into the "love of the club" mantra, in fact most won't.

 

Being in the Premier League will give us a big leg-up in keeping our better academy graduates. But it won't be the be all and end all, we still have to face reality that we'll likely be a selling club (as most in the top dvision are).

 

Very true, but it's not difficult to realistically see things far better if you put the work in to achieve that end. Players such as Surman, Dyer and Mills could stil be here. Bale we may have been able to keep for another 2-3 years. If you get the strong bond going between the club and this band of juniors, it would not have surprised me that we could have kept the likes of Oxo for a few more years without his father around. You only have to look at how the Dutch clubs developed and managed to keep their stars for those extra few years before selling them. The big difference would be if you get a set of players to that level, enjoying that success in the Premier league, you have a far bigger chance of keeping hold of far more talent. The only thing that stopped the Dutch clubs from moving on to this level was the financial rewards of the league they were stuck in. A very different kettle of fish when you are in the worlds most profitable and exciting league.

[The Kraken]

A key factor as you hint at is top flight status. That will make a difference and help the club keep hold of its academy products longer. Bale, Walcott and Chamberlain all left Saints whilst still teenagers and not able to play top flight games for Saints. Other middle sized Premier League clubs are at least able to stop the really big Premier League clubs buying players until they are at least in their early to mid 20's rather than teenagers.

 

What you say is true; however in all three of the cases of Walcott, Bale and Oxo I doubt whether Premier League status would ultimately have made much difference to them staying. When the top 3 or 4 clubs come calling its very difficult for any club to resist, whether in the PL or Championship.

 

I'm not sure I agree with your analogy either of players staying until their mid-20s. Maybe in some cases you're right. But you only have to look at Rooney (moved to United at 19), Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea at 20), Fabregas (Arsenal at 16), Pique (United at 17), and however many others to show that when the really big clubs come calling (even from other big clubs) there isn't a lot clubs can do to keep their best prospects.

 

Where I imagine we will better success in when the clubs just below the top 4 or so come calling, the likes of Villa, Everton, Sunderland, Newcastle. We may just be able to show that we have something equal to offer than they could get there.

[The Kraken]

Very true, but it's not difficult to realistically see things far better if you put the work in to achieve that end. Players such as Surman, Dyer and Mills could stil be here. Bale we may have been able to keep for another 2-3 years. If you get the strong bond going between the club and this band of juniors, it would not have surprised me that we could have kept the likes of Oxo for a few more years without his father around. You only have to look at how the Dutch clubs developed and managed to keep their stars for those extra few years before selling them. The big difference would be if you get a set of players to that level, enjoying that success in the Premier league, you have a far bigger chance of keeping hold of far more talent. The only thing that stopped the Dutch clubs from moving on to this level was the financial rewards of the league they were stuck in. A very different kettle of fish when you are in the worlds most profitable and exciting league.

 

I agree. As I've said above to MLG, I think whatever league we are in we will always struggle to keep players when the likes of United, City, Arsenal, Spurs come calling. Where we may have better success than in the past is when the likes of Everton, Villa, Sunderland start sniffing around. I believe Cortese when he hints at making the stadium bigger; I think we'll definitely look at it in the next few years, though I don't quite buy into the revisionist theories and 45K expectations. I think a 40K stadium is potentially, in the next few years, possible. Which makes us a bigger attraction and, provided we don't get loaded with debt doing it (unknown right now) able to maximise profits better.

[Pedro]

Wonder if the Echo were invited to the press day!! Exciting times for us, at lest the money spent on this is better than giving it to someone like Ben Haim.

[up and away]

I agree. As I've said above to MLG, I think whatever league we are in we will always struggle to keep players when the likes of United, City, Arsenal, Spurs come calling. Where we may have better success than in the past is when the likes of Everton, Villa, Sunderland start sniffing around. I believe Cortese when he hints at making the stadium bigger; I think we'll definitely look at it in the next few years, though I don't quite buy into the revisionist theories and 45K expectations. I think a 40K stadium is potentially, in the next few years, possible. Which makes us a bigger attraction and, provided we don't get loaded with debt doing it (unknown right now) able to maximise profits better.

 

I look back at that Dutch model where they developed the best team in Europe more than once. If they were playing in the Premier league there would have been no reason to break up the squad for financial reasons, they could have gone from strength to strength. And if you get a group of young players who are competing and beating the likes of United, City, Arsenal and Spurs, then you will have further increased your chance of retaining these players. The likes of City will always draw off from every top club in Europe when you are prepared to pay that much above the odds, but it would not be impossible to compete with the others given the right conditions. This is a long way off as we would have need to go through several build and sells to get to that point, but not impossible.

 

When we were in the Premier, I always felt that a 35k stadium would have been optimal. We had about 4-5k who came along for Premier football but with what I would call a soft spot for Saints, some even estranged supporters of other clubs. It will take time but I feel we can eventually get those neutrals back and if we start playing the type of football we are talking about, then 40k does not seem implausible after an extended time. The problem will be the cost of seating and how we could fund such, which I believe would cost many times over our original stadium price. Getting to that 45k stadium could well cost an extra £125M. Something I don't feel we have in our budget and would have to look at outside help to finance, something that will be very difficult for a football club in these times.

 

You only have to look at Arsenal and the monumental task of making the Emirates work. Only achieved by Wenger and how he managed to keep Arsenal competitive whilst providing something like £250-300M towards the cost of the build, Ours would be no where near that level but very similar on degree of difficulty.

[VectisSaint]

I agree. As I've said above to MLG, I think whatever league we are in we will always struggle to keep players when the likes of United, City, Arsenal, Spurs come calling. Where we may have better success than in the past is when the likes of Everton, Villa, Sunderland start sniffing around.

Just out of interest who were the last players we sold to United and City? I am guessing Wallace and Baker (or maybe Channon) respectively. I am sure I am missing someone more recently (did Mark Wright go to City?), but don't think either sniff around too much. Arsenal (Oxo and Walcott, who before that Steve Williams?) and Spuds (Bale) OK, fair enough recently. I guess we sold Beatts to Everton and Kenwyne went to Sunderland. Villa?

[Crazy Diamond]

Just out of interest who were the last players we sold to United and City? I am guessing Wallace and Baker (or maybe Channon) respectively. I am sure I am missing someone more recently (did Mark Wright go to City?), but don't think either sniff around too much. Arsenal (Oxo and Walcott, who before that Steve Williams?) and Spuds (Bale) OK, fair enough recently. I guess we sold Beatts to Everton and Kenwyne went to Sunderland. Villa?

 

We sold the mighty Matt Mills to Man City!

[trousers]

I think it's great what has been achieved and what they are aiming to achieve - namely category 1 status - not just on a par with the best BUT WORLD LEADERS.

 

What we are doing is building the club up the right way for long term sustainability.

 

Similar model to the Tory party.

 

Labour = Pompey

 

Tories = Southampton

 

Simple.

 

(sorry, I've had a few glasses of port this evening so probably talking more b*****ks than usual)

[sperm_john]

Is Adam Lallana sat in the digger? lol

[trousers]

Is Adam Lallana sat in the digger? lol

 

Aye :-)

[Hockey_saint]

And I love it how Nicola still found time at the end to have a pop at West Ham concerning them thinking they're a premiership side or thinking they're already there.

[SaintBobby]

Just a question on the stadium thing.

 

Is it really £125m to expand to a 40k-45K stadium in the circumstances that one was ever needed?

 

If so, this strikes me as complete madness.

 

Is there any precedent for a club building a spanking new stadium with a capacity of X, all the necessary corporate facilities etc and then 15 years later spending £100m+ to simply expand capacity by 35-40%? The financials on that just don't add up as far as I can see.

 

I suppose I can just about imagine some amazing game-changing future in which Saints are regularly in the Champions League and need some space-age 65,000 all-seater stadium which sells out every week.

 

But anything short of such a quantum leap forward and surely St. Mary's (or a marginally expanded St. Mary's) will be more than sufficient?

 

Back on topic - the Staplewood development looks hugely excitingand cutting edge. I just don't feel informed enough to know whether it's a white elephant grand vanity project or has the potential to make us the next Ajax/Barcelona. (or more realistically, where on the spectrum between those two points it sits).

[Matthew Le God]

Just a question on the stadium thing.

 

Is it really £125m to expand to a 40k-45K stadium in the circumstances that one was ever needed?

 

If so, this strikes me as complete madness.

 

Is there any precedent for a club building a spanking new stadium with a capacity of X, all the necessary corporate facilities etc and then 15 years later spending £100m+ to simply expand capacity by 35-40%? The financials on that just don't add up as far as I can see.

 

Wolves are making Molineux bigger by knocking down 3 stands one by one and starting again for a lot less than that.

 

 

They have nearly finished one stand at a cost of £15m. All three stands will cost £50m in total and take capacity to 38,000. If they do the fourth stand it takes them to 50,000.

 

http://www.molineuxpride.co.uk/

Edited 29 March, 2012 by Matthew Le God