Squad Depth

[Smirking_Saint]

I think we are finding we arent quite strong enough yet, in almost a carbon copy of last year we are coming unstuck due to the December fixture pile up, injuries and opposition.

 

Still think we should finish in the top 6, even tonight we looked a very good outfit, for most of the game restricting Arsenal and not allowing them to play their dominant possession game.

 

We arent far off but as many of us expected the squad is still too thin, though thats to be as expected due to our brief climb from league 1 not long ago in footballing terms. Options from the bench are limited and overall a few injuries and we have become exposed a little, worryingly Pelle and big Vic are only a caution away from a ban too.

 

Hopefully the club will bring 1-2 or 3 in Jan to bulk the squad up for this year and what is, unless we capitulate, a likely european campaign next year.

[Saint Garrett]

Could go with Gaston right now, as well as having Isgrove on the bench. Could Sims/Seager be worth including? Can't be much worse than Mayuka or Mane...

[david in sweden]

I think we are finding we arent quite strong enough yet, in almost a carbon copy of last year we are coming unstuck due to the December fixture pile up, injuries and opposition.

 

Still think we should finish in the top 6, even tonight we looked a very good outfit, for most of the game restricting Arsenal and not allowing them to play their dominant possession game.

 

We arent far off but as many of us expected the squad is still too thin, though thats to be as expected due to our brief climb from league 1 not long ago in footballing terms.

Options from the bench are limited and overall a few injuries and we have become exposed a little, worryingly Pelle and big Vic are only a caution away from a ban too.

 

Hopefully the club will bring 1-2 or 3 in Jan to bulk the squad up for this year and what is, unless we capitulate, a likely european campaign next year.

 

 

....this has been my argument for several seasons past. Whereas we can (theoretically) field a good start eleven, when injuries, suspensions and loss of form inevitably come - we are ****ed.

 

Boruc's freak injury (and subsequent absence) cost us a higher finish last season. Jay Rod's tragic inury, Lambert's late season form-loss, Lovren's injury (good as he was then) left us with Jos and Yoshida neither of whom came near filling the void. ....and the list is endless.

 

Koeman seems satisfied that knows his best team, but more importantly now he has to plan a good bench for the future. Hope we can make it to January without losing too many more points.

[OldNick]

If we are budgeting for a 10th position club as per Krugar, then we will only have a thin squad

[Ulrich van Gobbel]

I'm glad that January is just round the corner..

[Sour Mash]

Squad depth has always looked an issue for us this season, but last night went way beyond what could have been sufficiently covered even with squad strengthening. We're never going to have a squad that can deal with Ward-Prowse, Schneiderlin, Cork, Tadic and Alderweireld all out of action at the same time.

[KelvinsRightGlove]

If we are budgeting for a 10th position club as per Krugar, then we will only have a thin squad

 

Dafuq?

 

I'm glad that January is just round the corner..

 

I don't think we'll do much in Jan tbh. Not claiming I know anything, just think we'll stick.

 

I don't think we are that bad squad wise, but compared to the teams we are attempting to compete with (i.e. the established 'Top 6') then yes we are weaker. The reasons are obvious, and the ones people hate being mentioned. We don't have the resources and have had a much shorter time at this level to assemble a squad as competitive. I'd say at the minute we are on the right track, though not quite there.

[S-Clarke]

Dafuq?

 

 

 

I don't think we'll do much in Jan tbh. Not claiming I know anything, just think we'll stick.

 

I don't think we are that bad squad wise, but compared to the teams we are attempting to compete with (i.e. the established 'Top 6') then yes we are weaker. The reasons are obvious, and the ones people hate being mentioned. We don't have the resources and have had a much shorter time at this level to assemble a squad as competitive. I'd say at the minute we are on the right track, though not quite there.

 

I think it would be a bit misguided for us to go and spend, spend, spend in January - as the expectation of everyone is then permanently changed, and if we don't make it....we could be a bit of a mess the following season! I don't think we operate like that, we seem to have a stable policy and know what we want and when we want it.

 

I'm not thinking about top 4, as that's not even in the remit...but top 6, possibly. If you look at the usual sides who are in and around the Top 6, they're struggling. Spurs, Everton being the 2 main ones at the mo. If we can keep our heads above those 2 sides - not really worried about the City's, Uniteds etc......then we can give ourselves a great chance for a top 6 finish. West Ham, Newcastle and Swansea are in and around it at the mo as well....but I think we're in exactly the same boat as those sides in terms of squad, so it's quite open I'd say.

[Lallana's Left Peg]

I sincerely hope we do not become one of those clubs who patch up their squad with senior players whenever we have an injury crisis or whatnot. We have one of the best Academies in the world and whilst you'd prefer to ease the kids into the fold in a more controlled manner one of the very few things I actually enjoy about modern football is seeing youth players come through the system. If we turn our back on that a little I'll become even more uninterested.

[Smirking_Saint]

Squad depth has always looked an issue for us this season, but last night went way beyond what could have been sufficiently covered even with squad strengthening. We're never going to have a squad that can deal with Ward-Prowse, Schneiderlin, Cork, Tadic and Alderweireld all out of action at the same time.

 

Im not saying we are, in fact we are lucky that we were effectively so strong in midfield. Its the lack of options that worries me.

[KelvinsRightGlove]

Dafuq?

 

 

 

I don't think we'll do much in Jan tbh. Not claiming I know anything, just think we'll stick.

 

I don't think we are that bad squad wise, but compared to the teams we are attempting to compete with (i.e. the established 'Top 6') then yes we are weaker. The reasons are obvious, and the ones people hate being mentioned. We don't have the resources and have had a much shorter time at this level to assemble a squad as competitive. I'd say at the minute we are on the right track, though not quite there.

 

FFS, thanks Ronald

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30328189?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[benjii]

It's not even necessarily "depth" that is the issue IMO. We are deep at CM - it's just unlucky that loads of them are injured at once. We are pretty deep in defence too. Gardos and Yoshida are probably the strongest 3rd / 4th choice centre backs we've ever had. We are thin at centre forward but once Gallagher and Jay Rod are fit we will look much better.

 

The thing that makes it really hard to climb into the very top level of the league and stay there is the lack of one or two really top-level offensive players. In terms of midfield and defence there is very little difference between us and the top sides. Our midfield and defence units would do absolutely fine in the Champions League against the majority of opponents.

 

What the real problem is, IMO, is that it is almost impossible for a club like Saints to have the game changers that the "Big" (ie. rich) clubs can afford. The last few games our attack has looked a little blunt. That happens to all teams at times during a season. The difference is that Chelsea (Hazard, Fabregas, Oscar), City (Aguero, Silva, Toure), Arsenal (Sanchez), Man U (van Persie, Di Maria, Mata) have players who are worth £35million or more who can bring home the points even if the rest of the team is not playing well. We have players who will score a screamer or two throughout the season but we don't have the players who can terrorise a defence on their own. For a club like Saints, signing that sort of player is just not a feasible option and so you need the collective to be on its game that much more to progress - which is hard. Absent another MLT folk-hero type it's hard to see how an attacking unit that can compete with the very top consistently can be formulated.

 

If Arsenal were without Sanchez right now, or City were without Aguero they would be a heck of a lot weaker. Liverpool without Suaraez is the obvious case in point.

[Verbal Kint]

It's not even necessarily "depth" that is the issue IMO. We are deep at CM - it's just unlucky that loads of them are injured at once. We are pretty deep in defence too. Gardos and Yoshida are probably the strongest 3rd / 4th choice centre backs we've ever had. We are thin at centre forward but once Gallagher and Jay Rod are fit we will look much better.

 

The thing that makes it really hard to climb into the very top level of the league and stay there is the lack of one or two really top-level offensive players. In terms of midfield and defence there is very little difference between us and the top sides. Our midfield and defence units would do absolutely fine in the Champions League against the majority of opponents.

 

What the real problem is, IMO, is that it is almost impossible for a club like Saints to have the game changers that the "Big" (ie. rich) clubs can afford. The last few games our attack has looked a little blunt. That happens to all teams at times during a season. The difference is that Chelsea (Hazard, Fabregas, Oscar), City (Aguero, Silva, Toure), Arsenal (Sanchez), Man U (van Persie, Di Maria, Mata) have players who are worth £35million or more who can bring home the points even if the rest of the team is not playing well. We have players who will score a screamer or two throughout the season but we don't have the players who can terrorise a defence on their own. For a club like Saints, signing that sort of player is just not a feasible option and so you need the collective to be on its game that much more to progress - which is hard. Absent another MLT folk-hero type it's hard to see how an attacking unit that can compete with the very top consistently can be formulated.

 

If Arsenal were without Sanchez right now, or City were without Aguero they would be a heck of a lot weaker. Liverpool without Suaraez is the obvious case in point.

 

You've absolutely nailed it IMO. The only difference between us and the big boys is we don't have that one world class offensive player which the others have. Put a Sanchez, Aguero, Di Maria, Hazard in our team and we'd compete at the top . We have been very unlucky our injuries have all come in midfield but our depth is ok. What we don't have is that one special player who can make the difference and they cost too much for us to go out and buy.

[doddisalegend]

You've absolutely nailed it IMO. The only difference between us and the big boys is we don't have that one world class offensive player which the others have. Put a Sanchez, Aguero, Di Maria, Hazard in our team and we'd compete at the top . We have been very unlucky our injuries have all come in midfield but our depth is ok. What we don't have is that one special player who can make the difference and they cost too much for us to go out and buy.

Even if we could afford them getting them to choose Southampton over the big clubs would be a nigh on impossible sell.

[Sour Mash]

You've absolutely nailed it IMO. The only difference between us and the big boys is we don't have that one world class offensive player which the others have. Put a Sanchez, Aguero, Di Maria, Hazard in our team and we'd compete at the top . We have been very unlucky our injuries have all come in midfield but our depth is ok. What we don't have is that one special player who can make the difference and they cost too much for us to go out and buy.

His point about us not having "game-changers" is very valid, but our depth currently isn't ok for competing with top 4 sides. Who is back-up to Clyne? To Tadic? To Pelle? To Forster? Arsenal were playing their third choice keeper last night, compare him to our Gazzaniga?

[the saint in winchester]

Different budgets, different squad quality.

RK says he will talk with the Board about what they want to do in Jan. RK wants to spend the money left over from pre-season trading. Let's see if Krueger, Reed at al want to do that.

If our budget is maintained at 10th place level, then that is where we will finish. But if we spend the money, add to the budget, maybe, just maybe, we are back in with the big bucks clubs.

[Dellman]

Every one says we 'need a good bench' I agree, of course we do, every top club does. But it can't be easy to get top grade players with the prospect of sitting on the bench, unless you are promising them £100,000 a week which FFP would not allow us to do. So why bang on about it? we 've got a stronger bench than last year and that's progress, and we've got some young ones coming through and that's progress. Don't see any alternative myself

[Sour Mash]

Every one says we 'need a good bench' I agree, of course we do, every top club does. But it can't be easy to get top grade players with the prospect of sitting on the bench, unless you are promising them £100,000 a week which FFP would not allow us to do. So why bang on about it? we 've got a stronger bench than last year and that's progress, and we've got some young ones coming through and that's progress. Don't see any alternative myself

Because there is quite a lot of scope between having a bench of top internationals on £100k a week and having a bench containing Mayuka, Kelvin Davis and Reed - somewhere sort of inbetween is not an unreasonable aspiration.

[Bucks Saint]

Every one says we 'need a good bench' I agree, of course we do, every top club does. But it can't be easy to get top grade players with the prospect of sitting on the bench, unless you are promising them £100,000 a week which FFP would not allow us to do. So why bang on about it? we 've got a stronger bench than last year and that's progress, and we've got some young ones coming through and that's progress. Don't see any alternative myself

 

Agreed. In fact the best bench (and worst problems of keeping people happy) is still to come. When Morgan, Cork, JWP, J Rod and Gallagher are all fit again, the bench will be very handy indeed and some regular squad players will not feature at all. I will start the speculation and say the bench could be:

 

Davies, Cork, JWP, Gallagher, Yoshida (or Gardos), Mane, Long.

 

This means no place for Reed or Targett, but as the above bench is quite attacking, it might mean no place for Mane instead

Edited 4 December, 2014 by Bucks Saint

[david in sweden]

Every one says we 'need a good bench' I agree, of course we do, every top club does.

But it can't be easy to get top grade players with the prospect of sitting on the bench, unless you are promising them £100,000 a week which FFP would not allow us to do.

So why bang on about it? we 've got a stronger bench than last year and that's progress, and we've got some young ones coming through and that's progress. Don't see any alternative myself

 

 

well-have we? not so sure. Looking at the bench in the last month of last season ...it (regularly) included Reed and Targett.. but also Chambers, Ward-Prowse, Gallagher and Hooiveld.

 

Chambers has proven (something to Wenger and Hodgson at least), and of course people always raise ??? over Jos, but Sam G. made a good impression (albeit as sub.)

 

At present, Gardos is still unproven at this level. Long (although I do like him) hasn't impressed for £12 million, and (sadly) Mayuka impresses no-one.

 

If we bought "someone big", and dared to pay them 100K /week:scared:, they'd be in the start side every week regardless of form or fancy, not on the bench.

[Sour Mash]

Agreed. In fact the best bench (and worst problems of keeping people happy) is still to come. When Morgan, Cork, JWP, J Rod and Gallagher are all fit again, the bench will be very handy indeed and some regular squad players will not feature at all. I will start the speculation and say the bench could be:

 

Davies, Cork, JWP, Gallagher, Yoshida (or Gardos), Mane, Long.

 

This means no place for Reed or Targett, but as the above bench is quite attacking, it might mean no place for Mane instead

You're working off the basis that we'll have a squad with 100% fitness; that probably won't happen on one single occassion for the rest of this season.

[Bucks Saint]

You're working off the basis that we'll have a squad with 100% fitness; that probably won't happen on one single occassion for the rest of this season.

 

Granted yes, it was for illustration though. Hopefully in future the injuries we do have will be to fewer critcial players like it is now with Jay Rod, Morgan and Toby

[cambsaint]

I have just been reading "The Secret Footballer" which I can recommend ti everyone.

He is talking ato a senior figure at Man City about how thay can afford the very best.

The answer was that they make a $100 million out of oil every day!

Nobody except possibly Abramovitch can compete with that.

We need to be realistic and hope the owner and board have a sound business plan in place,

or otherwise be bought by a mega-rich outfit for whom money is no object.

[Bucks Saint]

I have just been reading "The Secret Footballer" which I can recommend ti everyone.

He is talking ato a senior figure at Man City about how thay can afford the very best.

The answer was that they make a $100 million out of oil every day!

Nobody except possibly Abramovitch can compete with that.

We need to be realistic and hope the owner and board have a sound business plan in place,

or otherwise be bought by a mega-rich outfit for whom money is no object.

 

That used to be the case, now FFP limits the "money no object" approach

[aintforever]

The problem is costs too much for us to get the sort of squad we need to compete with the usual top clubs.

[Roo1976]

Could go with Gaston right now, as well as having Isgrove on the bench. Could Sims/Seager be worth including? Can't be much worse than Mayuka or Mane...

 

so your not enthralled by either mane or mayuka then i think they can both be better players given time to develope ....gaston is to lightweight easily knocked off the ball at crucial passages in play and i dont think we miss him at the moment to be perfectly frank. btw i used to live in basingstoke in baird avenue any relevance to where you might be. Used to climb over the garages to get into the camrose in the early 60s loads of fun spent all the money to grt in on playing cards and swapping them great days.......i digress mayuka and mane wont be here for the african nations nor wanyama so fringe players will get the go ahead im certain.

[redkeith]

We don't seem to have a deputy for Clyne coming through the u21 team and the same goes for Morgan ( Reed and Hesketh played there in the last u21 game).

 

January would be a god time to fill these gaps with some up and coming players that fit the "Southampton Way" . George Thorne at Derby would have been my choice for midfield, but he has the same injury as JayRod.

[VectisSaint]

so your not enthralled by either mane or mayuka then i think they can both be better players given time to develope ....gaston is to lightweight easily knocked off the ball at crucial passages in play and i dont think we miss him at the moment to be perfectly frank.

Compared with Mane Gaston would never be easily knocked off the ball. Every time a player goes near Mane he ends up flying through the air because he is so lightweight.

[Leicestersaint]

I have just been reading "The Secret Footballer" which I can recommend ti everyone.

He is talking ato a senior figure at Man City about how thay can afford the very best.

The answer was that they make a $100 million out of oil every day!

Nobody except possibly Abramovitch can compete with that.

We need to be realistic and hope the owner and board have a sound business plan in place,

or otherwise be bought by a mega-rich outfit for whom money is no object.

 

No thank you!

[Window Cleaner]

That used to be the case, now FFP limits the "money no object" approach

 

Not really when you have tame investment companies owned by the same people as the club who bung you a 20 million sponsorship contract whenever you want. Do you really think that ETIHAD actually get any return from all the money that the dob City? I mean they obviously get a bit of publicity but how many air fares to the Middle East do you need to tote up 200 million a year or whatever it is. City and PSG are in the same boat, their owners just dob them money from subsidaries, UEFA inflicted toothless sanctions against them and it produced no effect, just spent even more money on players.

[The9]

Squad depth has always looked an issue for us this season, but last night went way beyond what could have been sufficiently covered even with squad strengthening. We're never going to have a squad that can deal with Ward-Prowse, Schneiderlin, Cork, Tadic and Alderweireld all out of action at the same time.

 

Well this is news to a lot of posters on here judging by some of the threads about our "much stronger squad" less than a month ago.

 

Precisely the point of this is that we can sustain losing Ward-Prowse, Schneiderlin, Cork, and Tadic because we have so much depth in midfield - but lose Alderweireld and we've got no-one to cover at CB, or for that matter cover at DM or RB when there are others injured.

[The9]

Compared with Mane Gaston would never be easily knocked off the ball. Every time a player goes near Mane he ends up flying through the air because he is so lightweight.

 

I completely disagree. Mane is actually pretty strong and perfectly capable of holding larger players off, and has done plenty of times. He only goes over in order to win free-kicks or if he's off-balance.

[The9]

Here's one of the previous iterations of the "squad depth" argument. Needless to say NickG comes across as a deluded happy clapper...

 

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?52458-Four-reasons-for-and-four-against#.VIHJY9KsWSo

[NickG]

Here's one of the previous iterations of the "squad depth" argument. Needless to say NickG comes across as a deluded happy clapper...

 

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?52458-Four-reasons-for-and-four-against#.VIHJY9KsWSo

 

Funny getting called deluded every season by people who call how we are going to do with far less accuracy than I do! You may disagree but my view is far from deluded.

 

Fact is we won't pay enough to keep top players happy with regular first team football. More do we offer as many opportunities without Europe.

 

People moaned that Cork wasnt getting opportunities earlier in the season as Schneiderlin, Wanyama, JWP & Davis all preferred. We are currently looking weak in CM but what level could we recruit? Someone to sit behind all of those if all fit? Or push Cork down the list?

Squad strength is hard, a balance of not being bloated when players fit, but able to cover reasonable injury levels. IMHO we are not , for level we are, far off there.

Deluded isn't rating players slightly different, although it maybe , as you did, claiming this time latlst year we were 2nd to back your argument - we were 8th! Maybe because, as a deluded poster said in that thread you quoted, because our squad is stronger!

[VectisSaint]

I completely disagree. Mane is actually pretty strong and perfectly capable of holding larger players off, and has done plenty of times. He only goes over in order to win free-kicks or if he's off-balance.

Clearly you must be watching a different player called Mane to the one I see. I'm not knocking him and of course he avoids it by turning inside his opponent on many occasions but he seems to bounce off players so easily. Against Man City it was almost laughable (and it has been the same at other matches to a lesser degree).

[Verbal Kint]

Funny getting called deluded every season by people who call how we are going to do with far less accuracy than I do! You may disagree but my view is far from deluded.

 

Fact is we won't pay enough to keep top players happy with regular first team football. More do we offer as many opportunities without Europe.

 

People moaned that Cork wasnt getting opportunities earlier in the season as Schneiderlin, Wanyama, JWP & Davis all preferred. We are currently looking weak in CM but what level could we recruit? Someone to sit behind all of those if all fit? Or push Cork down the list?

Squad strength is hard, a balance of not being bloated when players fit, but able to cover reasonable injury levels. IMHO we are not , for level we are, far off there.

Deluded isn't rating players slightly different, although it maybe , as you did, claiming this time latlst year we were 2nd to back your argument - we were 8th! Maybe because, as a deluded poster said in that thread you quoted, because our squad is stronger!

 

I agree with this. Even with 3 central midfielders out (4 if you want to include Toby) we will still have Davis and Wanyama in midfield alongside a talented youngster in Reed. For a club of our size that is good strength in depth and you just can't plan for more than 3 or 4 players in one position being injured at the same time.

 

We are lacking a replacement keeper if Forster gets injured (should be Gazzaniga but he's utter ****e and we can't give him away now) but our main problem is in attack. We have 4 realistic options for 3 positions which isn't enough and even adding Rodriguez back we would still need 1 more. It's difficult though, as just because he is out for so long doesn't mean we aren't paying him. He's still on the wage bill and we can't keep adding players without acknowledging we have a budget which is probably already in excess of last year's

[CB Fry]

Funny getting called deluded every season by people who call how we are going to do with far less accuracy than I do! You may disagree but my view is far from deluded.

 

 

In fairness your prediction that we would lose all our games against the big boys has been bang on so far. Well done.

[CB Fry]

I agree with this. Even with 3 central midfielders out (4 if you want to include Toby) we will still have Davis and Wanyama in midfield alongside a talented youngster in Reed. For a club of our size that is good strength in depth and you just can't plan for more than 3 or 4 players in one position being injured at the same time.

 

We are lacking a replacement keeper if Forster gets injured (should be Gazzaniga but he's utter ****e and we can't give him away now) but our main problem is in attack. We have 4 realistic options for 3 positions which isn't enough and even adding Rodriguez back we would still need 1 more. It's difficult though, as just because he is out for so long doesn't mean we aren't paying him. He's still on the wage bill and we can't keep adding players without acknowledging we have a budget which is probably already in excess of last year's

 

This.

 

We have a cover in central midfield. If three or four are out at the same time we struggle but so would Chelsea.

 

If we sign another CM it will just mean we'll be getting shot of Cork. [edit: just seen the Cork news, we won't sign another C/DM then.]

 

People can bleat about our apparent weak squad but it ain't ever going to get better than this: we are never, ever going to have the 24-26 top 6 class players that the biggest clubs have. Not going to happen.

Edited 5 December, 2014 by CB Fry

[Batman]

if we cant make top 6 this season from where we are

we wont for a long time.

 

 

go for the league cup, I say

[Redslo]

Not really when you have tame investment companies owned by the same people as the club who bung you a 20 million sponsorship contract whenever you want. Do you really think that ETIHAD actually get any return from all the money that the dob City? I mean they obviously get a bit of publicity but how many air fares to the Middle East do you need to tote up 200 million a year or whatever it is. City and PSG are in the same boat, their owners just dob them money from subsidaries, UEFA inflicted toothless sanctions against them and it produced no effect, just spent even more money on players.

 

The sanctions for the first year were always going to be less serious. The real test will be next season. If the clubs are not FFP compliant, will they receive significant penalties? This would include point deductions or exclusions from competitions because, obviously, massive fines are not significant penalties for the clubs that would otherwise be spending massive amounts of money. Limiting the number of players a club can register for the Champions League is never going to be a good enough remedy unless they leave the eight home grown player rule intact--which they did not this year. We shall see what happens.

Edited 5 December, 2014 by Redslo
To increase coherency

[sotonist]

we are weak in depth

 

a) in goal - we set our depth out on loan and were back to square one

 

b) right back - we need to sacrifice a first choice centre back to cover it

 

c) centre midfield - we have two first team regulars and the first choice back up/rotation player injured. for whatever reason koeman thinks reed wasn't ready.

 

d) up front - we started the season with two players recovering from surgery

 

tbh with this injury record the top clubs all struggle.

 

goal and right back are weaknesses of our own creation and rightly should attract criticism.

[S-Clarke]

tbh sotonist, we are not weak in midfield. A club of our size will never ever have more midfield options than we have right now.

 

Cork, Wanyama, Morgan, Davis, Reed, JWP, Toby - all can play there. Cork, Morgan, JWP, Toby all injured. Very little as a club we can do to prepare for that.

[sotonist]

tbh sotonist, we are not weak in midfield. A club of our size will never ever have more midfield options than we have right now.

 

Cork, Wanyama, Morgan, Davis, Reed, JWP, Toby - all can play there. Cork, Morgan, JWP, Toby all injured. Very little as a club we can do to prepare for that.

 

that was kind of my point.

[angelman]

I'm quite looking forward to seeing the youngsters playing. It's about the only thing that is keeping me interested in football at the moment. For some reason the press's story today about Man Utd having another £150m war chest to spend this and/or next transfer window (bringing LvG's total to about £300m) struck me a bit that the whole thing is completely pointless. What really is the point of carrying on supporting an industry that is so obscene with the amount of money swilling around from so few? I realise that in the scheme of things we are part of the problem and compared to some in this league and all in other leagues, we are very rich. I think that our performances this season so far have rather papered over the cracks for me.

[Batman]

I'm quite looking forward to seeing the youngsters playing. It's about the only thing that is keeping me interested in football at the moment. For some reason the press's story today about Man Utd having another £150m war chest to spend this and/or next transfer window (bringing LvG's total to about £300m) struck me a bit that the whole thing is completely pointless. What really is the point of carrying on supporting an industry that is so obscene with the amount of money swilling around from so few? I realise that in the scheme of things we are part of the problem and compared to some in this league and all in other leagues, we are very rich. I think that our performances this season so far have rather papered over the cracks for me.

 

bit like us in league 1. blowing the rest of the division out of the water in transfer fees (to finish 2nd)

[DuncanRG]

We have much, much better depth this year than last. In the last two seasons a couple of injuries was enough to send us into a nasty run of form, whereas now I think we can stay competitive even if the first choice XI (naturally) has a better cutting edge.

 

There's always room to improve, though.

Edited 5 December, 2014 by DuncanRG

[angelman]

bit like us in league 1. blowing the rest of the division out of the water in transfer fees (to finish 2nd)

 

Really?

 

2009/10, players sold = £4.5m, players bought = £2.5m (nett earning £2m)

2010/11, players sold = £0.0m, players bought = £2.6m (nett spend £2.6m)

 

Let's take, for example, Huddersfield.

2009/10 nett spend £1.5m

2010/11 nett earning £0.25m

 

Or maybe Brighton

2009/10 nett spend £0.4m

2010/11 nett spend £0.6m

 

So really, saying we bought our way out of the league isn't really accurate (if going by transfer fees which is what I was referring to Man Utd above) seeing as the 2 seasons in L1, we had a nett spend of £0.6m. That's more than some, and less than others.

[cellone]

I'm being dum here but don't those figures show we did?

[whelk]

I'm being dum here but don't those figures show we did?

 

No, if correct then we spent 0.6m which is not higher than competitors. Although didn't Ox go when in L1?

[Batman]

Really?

 

2009/10, players sold = £4.5m, players bought = £2.5m (nett earning £2m)

2010/11, players sold = £0.0m, players bought = £2.6m (nett spend £2.6m)

 

Let's take, for example, Huddersfield.

2009/10 nett spend £1.5m

2010/11 nett earning £0.25m

 

Or maybe Brighton

2009/10 nett spend £0.4m

2010/11 nett spend £0.6m

 

So really, saying we bought our way out of the league isn't really accurate (if going by transfer fees which is what I was referring to Man Utd above) seeing as the 2 seasons in L1, we had a nett spend of £0.6m. That's more than some, and less than others.

most teams in league 1 were not really able to spend what they sold

 

lambert cost more than the next two highest fees for that season COMBINED...(one of them was another player we bought)

 

we blew everyone away if transfers, before selling OxO

buy Fonte was another example. he dropped a league whilst being heavily linked to CLIMB a league

 

you reckon pardew came cheap?

yet we ended up £33m (or so) in debt, with the owner writing it all off