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Will Roko and the board go for broke in January!!!


Bermuda Saint

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Hmmm, an intersting post earlier with a hint, a suggestion, a tease, a titillating tattle that we may fork out big money for a world class player in January.....rubbish, January transfer rumour trash again! but maybe not.....I am delighted how we have come through our transformation from Mopo to Roko, and was always optimistic we were doing the right things with hard decisions. But even this start to the season has been a revelation.

 

The cautious and pessimistic do make good points about team unity and not wanting to upset the balance of the team. We do have good young academy players in the wings, we have quality new players settling in and injured players coming back. We look like we could strengthen with the normal passage of time. Each week increases our ambitions of reaching as high as we can go (BPL winners).

 

I have noticed a subtle change to ROKO post match interviews, he has gone from we are almost a new team that will do its best, to cautious optimism that we can survive this league, to confident we can challenge for the top six...........I believe this man is a winner, someone who will see the top 4 as a challenge that he can overcome. He is now feeling confident in his team he has at his disposal that we can challenge the top 6, so why stop there, why wait a year letting the team grow into what ROKO and the BOARD have envisioned. We are here!!! we can take the bull by the horns. Will our Manager and Board make a huge bet with the 30 mill surplus we had from summer sales and buy someone who might keep us in the top 4?.

 

The rewards are unbelievable to SFC, the money of CL, the notoriety of the world stage, the new fans that will put on our beloved shirt (we are the darlings of the neutrals, a CL spot will affirm to many we are worthy of support and worship). It will accelerate any long term future plans we have for the grow of our club. It will increase our off field revenue, it will give us the ability to be a big club, pay bigger wages, keep our star players (wow, who in there right mind would have thought that 5 years ago).

 

I have read redsolo very informative blogs and opinions on SFC, he has addressed a lot of the financial issues with trying to be a CL club and the FFP rules. But there seems to be enough wiggle room for us to pull off a "world class" player purchase if SFC felt now was the time to strike while the iron is hot!!. Our Board has made brave and bold decisions before, this is another one they must be contemplating........we are not going to be relegated, we sit in 2ND place on merit, we are financially sound (got 30 mill, burning a hole in Reeds pocket), and we have a transfer window coming up that we can try to improve the team to sustain a top 4 challenge. Hey if they fail, maybe it was enough for a top 6. I'd take that any day. We will still be moving in the right direction.

 

So i am hoping our Manager and board see it as a chance of a life time to catapult us into the stratosphere of footballing giants. That they will take the gamble, continue to be bold and smart in picking players who will take us to the next level. That they recognition that the risk reward ratio is tipping into our favour and a big gamble in January will be the killer blow to all doubters. My wishes would be a WC striker or attacking midfielder, someone who can turn the tide of a tight game. We have never ventured in this pond before, 30+ mill player is a huge gamble, but if our manager reputation, the performance of the team to this point and the potential to stick it to the big boys, we may have a player out there willing to be part of this saints miracle journey and join the SAINTS GO MARCHING ON!!

 

Who would you pick?, just one, the one to get you to the CL, the one that will compliment what we have......the one....the one....the one..............

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Interesting read, but "go for broke" is exactly what the board won't want to do. I can see us making a signing or two in order to bring cover in, but would be surprised at a record-breaking marquee signing. Can also see a couple shipped out.

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I don't see any problem with spending big in January if RK feels the need.

 

A top class striker for the inevitable injury/suspension to Pelle, a GK and we're nearly there.

 

It's one of those rare seasons where, at the moment, a CL place appears to be up for grabs.

 

There will never be a better time for a team like Saints to break into the top four. Arsenal and Utd will also be spending big this next window in an attempt to make it as well.

 

If we do spend big, those new players will also be a magnet for others in the summer.

 

Seems like a win/win situation to me....

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If we are still very much in contention for a top 4 then it's going to be a big call.

 

If Artur doesn't come back then GK backup is definitely required then after that the position I'd probably look at strengthening is playmaker. If we lost Tadic we don't really have another similar option and the team would really suffer.

 

Hopefully JRod would be back to give Pelle some competition and the midfield\defence looks pretty good with Yoshi as backup.

 

1 or 2 quality signings at most could just push us over the line but a long way to go yet.

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We don't have money burning a hole in our pocket, but I am sure there is some money there for one or two. The most important for me are getting Bertrand and Alderweireld signed up permanently.

 

Jay Rod is a weird one as we don't know how he'll come back. I would support selling him and bringing in Shaqiri, that's for sure.

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I don't think we do have £30M+ burning a hole in our pockets as it's not just transfer fees you have to take into consideration. The money raked in during the summer would also have gone towards paying wages, signing-on fees, paying for the training ground redevelopment and other outstanding debts. We may make one or two signings but I doubt we will spend silly money and I wouldn't want us to, just a couple of additions to add depth in certain areas but let's not rock the boat too much.

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We don't do 'go for broke'. We're a sensible and sustainable club, that will develop its infrastructure and enable the manager to achieve top half finishes.

 

If that means making top 6, awesome. If not, oh well. I'd love to be a sustainable top half club.

 

damn, always get one or two who missed the point, Knew I should have clarified the "go for broke", of course we are not going to put the club in financial instability. I thought the post was clear enough we will spend the excess money from summer sales. We started with approximately 100mill and have 30 mill left, if we spend that we are back to "0", broke!, in that sense. Of course not in Owners worth, clubs finances and assets etc.

 

I see you had no suggestions for a WC player, just criticism.....

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I just don't see it and hope it doesn't happen in all honesty. All along the message has been about sustainability and progressive growth. A "Vegas or bust" approach would just be very out of the blue. It would also have a high possibility of unbalancing the team.

I agree that this season seems a great opportunity to seize on the faltering of others but the risk is just too high.

 

Don't get me wrong, if Silva desperately wanted to move up the table and play for £50K a week, I'd consider it.

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We wont go for broke and I doubt that the 30 mil is 'burning a hole' Im sure if the right player comes up then we will potentially stump up the cash for them. We need a back up keeper, but this will likely be an older aquisition, you wont likely get a brilliant keeper as backup but hopefully someone who could certainly do a shift if required.

 

The other area we are lacking is backup to Pellè considering he is fundamental to how we play. Someone like Benteke or Bony. But both of those are unlikely. Harry Kane has been mentioned. Again unlikely in reality.

 

Something else to think about is how we stand on FFP, although recieving funds this year we spent a lot out, no doubt paying reasonable wages aswell.

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damn, always get one or two who missed the point, Knew I should have clarified the "go for broke", of course we are not going to put the club in financial instability. I thought the post was clear enough we will spend the excess money from summer sales. We started with approximately 100mill and have 30 mill left, if we spend that we are back to "0", broke!, in that sense. Of course not in Owners worth, clubs finances and assets etc.

 

I see you had no suggestions for a WC player, just criticism.....

 

We didn't start off with 100 million though, the figures aren't that big.

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We don't have money burning a hole in our pocket, but I am sure there is some money there for one or two. The most important for me are getting Bertrand and Alderweireld signed up permanently.

 

Jay Rod is a weird one as we don't know how he'll come back. I would support selling him and bringing in Shaqiri, that's for sure.

 

presumably we can then look for another couple of loan signings to try out potential signings we will complete in the summer.

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I'd like to see Alderweireld and Bertrand signed permanently. After that I'd like to see competition for Forster, Clyne and Pellè and then I would feel much more comfortable. I'm also interested to see whether Cork and Rodriguez will sign new deals. I know Cork hasn't been offered one while Rodriguez is sitting on an offer. If neither look like being offered or signing a new deal then something will need to be done in terms of bringing in another midfielder and attacking player. Who knows, maybe the linking of Spurs' players to Saints is a bid to try and line up an exchange of Kane and Townsend for Rodriguez. Pie in the sky in all likelihood and very greedy I know but these are heady days.

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OK, once again you focus on the small details, your right i don't know how much SFC have left after the summer transfer fees. I don't care if they spent it all already, but anyone with ambition to be the best will see this as a golden opportunity to take a stab at something that was previously unthinkable. If I were KL, and ROKO thought this could be the push we needed to sustain a top 4 finish, with her money and desire to honour her father love for SFC, I would actually think this would be an investment of folly that may pan out to be worth the risk of losing a small fortune (tiny,teensy loss to her billions). If it fails we continue with our long term plans for our future development.

 

I completely disagree with the "we will add a few more quality players to strengthen" point of view at the Jan transfer window. The long term scouting of potential players, Reed knows it is best to buy in the summer transfer window. We have been very good at recognizing players that are 2nd tier in price but have the potential to be great players, usually young and talented and need a little more time to be molded into the gem that we hope they will be. I don't want this this year!!! we have good, potentially great players on the beach and in the academy now! We need (If SFC think we can get the right player, that will take us to the next level) a proven WC player to come in and be ready to score against any defense, no learning his trade, the finished product, a proven player, one to convince SFC and KL that the millions of pound invested will be a good investment. Is there one out there, I don't know, but I do know our owner/board and Manager have made some bold decision, I am hoping this will be one.

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I know you BeSa, I know what ur like. If we add this £30m world class give-us-a-push-to-make-top-4 player in January, you won't be satisfied with that. Ur gonna want to do the same in the Summer, to give us a push to win title! Ur insatiable!

 

In any case, I think it will go like this: Dear Kat Do Not Miss This Opportunity To Spend £30m On A Football Player! Kat: no tks.

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I can see where your coming from - We could be in or around the top 4 by early Jan

All the pundits say we wont stay the course because of our strength in depth of the squad - therefore in Jan we could have JRod back the equivalent of adding a £15m striker to the squad and Boruc - then the board would be in a situation where they could invest £30m for example to grow the squad and be in a pretty damn good chance for a CL place. The only marque signing Ive seen written about is Jordy Classie.

Given the poor performance of the other CL contenders - I think this may be our best possible chance and would go for it

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whatever happens in January, I trust that it will be a reasoned decision, both financially and performance-wise.

 

I doubt it would be a one player 30mil signing.

 

It's a pretty tight knit group as it stands now. Any players brought in would have to have the proper personality and character. It can't just only be about football talent.

 

We don't want to create a self-inflicted wound by bringing something toxic into, what appears to be, a pretty happy locker room.

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Ings out of contract in July. We could very likely get him for a signing on fee then. Clasie would be a strengthening in January. We've had two Marquee signings look how that worked out.

 

Sell Rodriguez ASAP unless he signs the extension. Sell Ramirez for a decent fee even if it means giving Hull back part of their loan fee. Bring in one or two more along the lines of the summer signings. Replace Boruc if he goes permanently in Jan.

 

That would do for me as long as we don't lose anybody we want to keep.

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whatever happens in January, I trust that it will be a reasoned decision, both financially and performance-wise.

 

I doubt it would be a one player 30mil signing.

 

It's a pretty tight knit group as it stands now. Any players brought in would have to have the proper personality and character. It can't just only be about football talent.

 

We don't want to create a self-inflicted wound by bringing something toxic into, what appears to be, a pretty happy locker room.

This.

 

Other teams' transfer activity in the summer proves that you don't buy success with random big money buys.

 

Our approach has been proved to work. Identify needs then match to players with the right mentality and skills to fill the gaps and fit in with the current squad. Don't buy a star player then change everything to fit around that player.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if our activity is limited to maybe signing up Toby and Bertrand plus perhaps backup keeper and, depending on Jrod situation, a striker.

 

Cork's contract is an interesting one. Got a feeling we have a target in mind to replace/upgrade and Jack may not get the renewal. Which would be a shame.

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Don't rate Ings myself - have seen nothing to suggest he is actually any good, and if he wasn't a Saints fan most of us would be like "what the actual ****?".

 

His performances in the championship were exceptional, being a saints fan is a bonus. However he has not performed well this year, but that could be due to burnley's overall s***ness. Bet he'll go and score a brace against us now.

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His performances in the championship were exceptional, being a saints fan is a bonus. However he has not performed well this year, but that could be due to burnley's overall s***ness. Bet he'll go and score a brace against us now.

 

Exceptional is a bit hyperbolic don't you think? He was good, no better than Billy Sharp for us when we got promoted though, and not as good as Austin, Vokes, Gestede, Deeney, McCormack or Matt Smith according to WhoScored.

 

So signing the 7th best striker from the Championship. Meh.

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Ings has only just come back from injury so saying he's not performed that well so far is a bit harsh.

 

But as others have said Austin is much better and unike Ings could play up front by himself as an alternative to Pelle should he be injured.

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Exceptional is a bit hyperbolic don't you think? He was good, no better than Billy Sharp for us when we got promoted though, and not as good as Austin, Vokes, Gestede, Deeney, McCormack or Matt Smith according to WhoScored.

 

So signing the 7th best striker from the Championship. Meh.

 

Ok exceptional may be a bit of a stretch... Very good then.

And wiki have him as the 4th highest championship scorer last season, behind McCormack, Rhodes & Deeney.

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The only cover that concerns me is for Tadic. So much of our play is going through him and we rely on him for creativity. A similar player for him would be great although I wonder if the club feels Ward-prowse is developing into that type. We have no like for like for Pelle but we have other options to play there, we would just gave to adjust our style a bit

 

Sign up Toby and Bertrand, tell Boruc he's staying as second choice for the second half of the season and get Jay back fit and on form.

 

We really don't need to go big in January

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We don't buy world class players, the strength and special skill of our club - which more and more people admire- is that we turn good players into top players, some even to world class players (while they are with us). So sign up Toby and Bertrand, perhaps buy another playmaker for tuppence that no one except Les had heard of----and into the Champions League we go!

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Just to digress - I really dislike nicknames like MoPo and RoKo.

 

The manager's name is Koeman. What's wrong with using his real name? That's only two more letters to type!

 

 

As far as the original point goes, I would favour getting in another striker - if a decent one becomes available. What could ruin our current hot form is two or three injuries to key individuals: Pelle, Tadic, Fonte or Alderweireld, for example. I think defence and midfield are covered. Another striker would be good.

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