Fonte Transfer Rumours

[Heisenberg]

We're essentially just a improved and easy to use, but slightly more expensive, version of the black box for the top 6. Les has openly described us as a 'showcase' club and seems proud of that fact. I just struggle to understand how he can mention ambitions of Champions League football at the same time.

Whilst we are moaning about all the players wanting out, what about those who are signing the contracts? Is it purely for improved wages, or maybe ambition, or maybe a promise that they can leave if a big club comes knocking at the door? Genuinely interested in whether some like Tadic and Long believe in the project or not.

 

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

Tadic was pretty vocal about wanting out, I think a few ITKs confirmed his intentions to leave this summer. I imagine he was expecting a level 2 or 3 club to come knocking and offer him a nice 50/60% payrise. Unfortunately for Tadic no such offers came along and he was probably looking at a sideways move if anything.

 

So Les comes along with a compromise or "gentleman's agreement" we will give you a little increase and if the level 2's come knocking next summer we will let you leave.

 

Like you say Les is not hiding our philosophy or master plan.

 

Long has found his top level IMHO, he moved from level 5 (Hull) to level 4 and would doubt many level 2 clubs would realistically want him.... He may therefore stick with us

[doddisalegend]

Can some one post up a club level guide please. If Glasgow is going to spam the boards with this stuff I might as well try and work out wtf he is talking about...

[S-Clarke]

Whoever approved Glasgows full membership needs to be hung. This place was slightly more bearable last week.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Tadic was pretty vocal about wanting out, I think a few ITKs confirmed his intentions to leave this summer. I imagine he was expecting a level 2 or 3 club to come knocking and offer him a nice 50/60% payrise. Unfortunately for Tadic no such offers came along and he was probably looking at a sideways move if anything.

 

So Les comes along with a compromise or "gentleman's agreement" we will give you a little increase and if the level 2's come knocking next summer we will let you leave.

 

Like you say Les is not hiding our philosophy or master plan.

 

Long has found his top level IMHO, he moved from level 5 (Hull) to level 4 and would doubt many level 2 clubs would realistically want him.... He may therefore stick with us

 

Tadic wanted to leave because he didn't get on with Koeman. Once Koeman left he was primed for a new contract, and signed it.

[Heisenberg]

Whoever approved Glasgows full membership needs to be hung. This place was slightly more bearable last week.

 

You understand what a forum is right?

 

" a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged"

 

I am posting my views and suggest you do the same? We are all Saints fans and can surely have a friendly debate if views differ? No?

 

Failing that just pop me on ignore? Easy

[Heisenberg]

Tadic wanted to leave because he didn't get on with Koeman. Once Koeman left he was primed for a new contract, and signed it.

 

And if Liverpool had made an offer?

 

And if say Spurs make an offer next summer?

[Batman]

The ground is ripe for another YouTube piece from Les

[SO16_Saint]

Club levels are talked about by professionals and agents.

 

Level 1 clubs: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern

Level 2 clubs: Man United, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea

Level 3 clubs: Everton, WHU, Leicester

Level 4: Saints, Swansea, Watford, Palace

 

Levels are determined by medal potential and wages paid.

 

We typically only sell players to level 2 sides. Teams in level 3 sell / lose less players to level 2 clubs

 

Fûck me, that's one weird looking league

[notnowcato]

Given his contract it would have to be a massive offer. I think Tadic is the perfect level for us, very good player but not quite good enough for bigger clubs and unlikely to improve a great deal. If he was getting 12-15 goals a season he'd already be gone.

 

I personally don't think Tadic would look out of place at a Spurs, Seville, Atletico, Dortmund, Juve etc.

 

His goals and assists have been consistently good for us. Really pleased he extended his contract with us.

[st alex]

It bothers us because we are strengthening our rivals, which will potentially cost us points when we play them. Fonte is the rock on which our team is built. He would fill the same role for Mournho at Man United that Terry filled at Chelsea. I cannot believe how much some Saints fans underrate Fonte.

 

I rate Fonte massively and he's a very important player for us but I can't see Man Utd rating him as highly or giving him nearly as much playing time. He's not likely to be made captain there. Remember Lambert went from being a hugely important player for us to being a fringe player at Liverpool.

 

Man Utd did just paid £30m for Bailly and also have Smalling who had a solid season last year and was ahead of £48m Stones for the England team. I think they'd both be chosen ahead of Fonte who they seem to rate at £8m, significantly less than Everton rated Ashley Williams at. It's not all about prices, as age, form etc are a factor, but they've got 2 first choice centre backs in Bailly & Smalling and are looking at Fonte as back-up (according to the gossip).

 

Man Utd would be stronger but only in terms of squad depth.

[ART]

Amazed we aren't trying to get shot of Cedric. Shame Koeman hasn't put him on players to buy list.

The one deal I'm pretty sure is going to happen is Liverpool coming in with a silly money offer for Ryan Bertrand. They are desperate for a left back and Bertrand fits the role perfectly.

Unless the club shows ambition by bringing in 2 or 3 class players soon, I can see more raidjs on our best players.

We ought to be bigging up JWP in the hope it attracts buyers.

[S-Clarke]

Amazed we aren't trying to get shot of Cedric. Shame Koeman hasn't put him on players to buy list.

The one deal I'm pretty sure is going to happen is Liverpool coming in with a silly money offer for Ryan Bertrand. They are desperate for a left back and Bertrand fits the role perfectly.

Unless the club shows ambition by bringing in 2 or 3 class players soon, I can see more raidjs on our best players.

We ought to be bigging up JWP in the hope it attracts buyers.

 

They want Jonas Hector as their left back. Ryan isn't going anywhere this summer, and if he did, it would be for ludicrous sums of money due to his freshly signed contract.

[Evil Monkey]

I personally don't think Tadic would look out of place at a Spurs, Seville, Atletico, Dortmund, Juve etc.

 

I only understand club levels now. Are you saying Tadic might suit a level 2.5 club?

[mrfahaji]

Is it getting hard to claim the club has much ambition. I hope I'm wrong, and I can accept selling players for individual reasons, good price, them not signing a new deal and so on. But the lack of spending and seemingly being fine selling whoever is getting a bit much. Perhaps it'll all be proven wrong in the next two weeks and we'll sign 2 or 3 top players. I hope so.

 

It's good that so many are still positive and defend the club, I mean even if we are saving money and unwilling to spend, there's nothing we can do but back the players we have. They'll do their best and we do have some talent, plus I enjoy watching some of the youngsters get game time. There's just that nagging feeling of how much more we could be doing. This season I still think we'll be top 10, there are plenty of poor sides around.

 

Agree with most of this. It feels like we're seeing how we get on with the current bunch, as there's no point spending money if we don't have to. Except with our squad I think that's a bit naive, or woefully overconfident. I'm happy to give the club the benefit of the doubt that they've made some good signings, but it doesn't seem we've done enough business, our best XI looks decent and has potential but it's not a given, and then take one or two away for form/injury and it starts to look very unconvincing.

[Block34]

Accepting the fact that Heisenbergs opinions and views are worth exactly what you and I pay him for them but he is absolutely free to make them (but whose deliberate acidic tone continually grates with me), my opinion is that, in the short term, Saints at best will be a 6th - 10th position club, whatever level that equates to.

 

We have neither the 'traditional working class' mass of potential supporters nor a large enough catchment area in order to fill a 40k+ stadium on a regular basis which is a foundation for 'historical and acquired bigness'

 

Don't forget SFC is a company, not a 'Saturday afternoon hobby', as such it has employees, salary and pension costs, HMRC bills, it has legal requirements, rates, rentals, etc etc and it has to generate it's own money in the best way that it can in order to continue with its existence. Get that? It has to generate money. It cannot rely on its owner to support it by putting money in to prop it up.

 

So far, it would appear the KL has not taken 'much' (well, not 'much' in her world, a fortune in mine), ~£2m or so, when she would be fully and legally entitled to take dividends, require loans to be repaid etc. An 'inverse' investment you could call it - leaving the money in the club.

 

I've had my own companies (now retired/sold) and was told very early on.... "Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity, but Cash is King"

 

Believe me, having a strong cash position should make us supporters happy.

 

Personally I would be really happy to be repeating the last few seasons results in the future, with a good cup run every so often, playing attractive football. And if we do that by bringing in continued new-blood, then so be it. You will never stop a player having his head turned by a 'big' club, accept it. Bigs clubs + big money rule and no matter what we think, there are many bigger, more attractive clubs than us.

 

But remember, last seasons squad and results is worth exactly 0 points to us this season, so whatever it looked like then is irrelevant. As has been said before, if bigger clubs come a-poaching, SFC have been doing a good job.

 

SFC is here for the long term, really long term, like long after the majority of us have popped off. Given that length of time, continued good financial planning, good continued team building, we will grow to be a big club, but that takes time, (and yes) money but also a decent foundation to work with. And that's what I believe SFC are working towards, a strong, if not spectacular, growth. Think strategic vs. tactical.

 

So you billy-bigger-bøllocks supporters who need to spend, spend, spend to see 'proper ambition' ought perhaps reconsider what really is the best ambition to have... the Saints way or the crash-and-burn Pompey way.

[jamesfp1]

Blimey. It's chaos on here.

[washsaint]

Accepting the fact that Heisenbergs opinions and views are worth exactly what you and I pay him for them but he is absolutely free to make them (but whose deliberate acidic tone continually grates with me), my opinion is that, in the short term, Saints at best will be a 6th - 10th position club, whatever level that equates to.

 

We have neither the 'traditional working class' mass of potential supporters nor a large enough catchment area in order to fill a 40k+ stadium on a regular basis which is a foundation for 'historical and acquired bigness'

 

Don't forget SFC is a company, not a 'Saturday afternoon hobby', as such it has employees, salary and pension costs, HMRC bills, it has legal requirements, rates, rentals, etc etc and it has to generate it's own money in the best way that it can in order to continue with its existence. Get that? It has to generate money. It cannot rely on its owner to support it by putting money in to prop it up.

 

So far, it would appear the KL has not taken 'much' (well, not 'much' in her world, a fortune in mine), ~£2m or so, when she would be fully and legally entitled to take dividends, require loans to be repaid etc. An 'inverse' investment you could call it - leaving the money in the club.

 

I've had my own companies (now retired/sold) and was told very early on.... "Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity, but Cash is King"

 

Believe me, having a strong cash position should make us supporters happy.

 

Personally I would be really happy to be repeating the last few seasons results in the future, with a good cup run every so often, playing attractive football. And if we do that by bringing in continued new-blood, then so be it. You will never stop a player having his head turned by a 'big' club, accept it. Bigs clubs + big money rule and no matter what we think, there are many bigger, more attractive clubs than us.

 

But remember, last seasons squad and results is worth exactly 0 points to us this season, so whatever it looked like then is irrelevant. As has been said before, if bigger clubs come a-poaching, SFC have been doing a good job.

 

SFC is here for the long term, really long term, like long after the majority of us have popped off. Given that length of time, continued good financial planning, good continued team building, we will grow to be a big club, but that takes time, (and yes) money but also a decent foundation to work with. And that's what I believe SFC are working towards, a strong, if not spectacular, growth. Think strategic vs. tactical.

 

So you billy-bigger-bøllocks supporters who need to spend, spend, spend to see 'proper ambition' ought perhaps reconsider what really is the best ambition to have... the Saints way or the crash-and-burn Pompey way.

 

A voice of sanity amongst the panic, bedwetting and Football Manager fantasists. Bravo sir (or madam).

[ALWAYS_SFC]

The ground is ripe for another YouTube piece from Les

 

Or some of your drivel? I know which i prefer

[Saint86]

Glasgow is back I see.

 

Thank god for the other forum....

[Heisenberg]

 

So you billy-bigger-bøllocks supporters who need to spend, spend, spend to see 'proper ambition' ought perhaps reconsider what really is the best ambition to have... the Saints way or the crash-and-burn Pompey way.

 

There is no in between? Nobody is expecting us to spend 100m, but an ambitious club could surely spend what it receives? We are up £40m this summer on transfers. £25m up two summers ago.

 

Even before player sales we must have had a transfer budget this summer?

[angelman]

Is ambition purely down to spending money? It seems that it is, which is why my love of football is very much diminished.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Is ambition purely down to spending money? It seems that it is, which is why my love of football is very much diminished.

 

It is on here...

 

Got to spend millions and millions or he`s go to be crap.....

[Saint-Fred]

Accepting the fact that Heisenbergs opinions and views are worth exactly what you and I pay him for them but he is absolutely free to make them (but whose deliberate acidic tone continually grates with me), my opinion is that, in the short term, Saints at best will be a 6th - 10th position club, whatever level that equates to.

 

We have neither the 'traditional working class' mass of potential supporters nor a large enough catchment area in order to fill a 40k+ stadium on a regular basis which is a foundation for 'historical and acquired bigness'

 

Don't forget SFC is a company, not a 'Saturday afternoon hobby', as such it has employees, salary and pension costs, HMRC bills, it has legal requirements, rates, rentals, etc etc and it has to generate it's own money in the best way that it can in order to continue with its existence. Get that? It has to generate money. It cannot rely on its owner to support it by putting money in to prop it up.

 

So far, it would appear the KL has not taken 'much' (well, not 'much' in her world, a fortune in mine), ~£2m or so, when she would be fully and legally entitled to take dividends, require loans to be repaid etc. An 'inverse' investment you could call it - leaving the money in the club.

 

I've had my own companies (now retired/sold) and was told very early on.... "Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity, but Cash is King"

 

Believe me, having a strong cash position should make us supporters happy.

 

Personally I would be really happy to be repeating the last few seasons results in the future, with a good cup run every so often, playing attractive football. And if we do that by bringing in continued new-blood, then so be it. You will never stop a player having his head turned by a 'big' club, accept it. Bigs clubs + big money rule and no matter what we think, there are many bigger, more attractive clubs than us.

 

But remember, last seasons squad and results is worth exactly 0 points to us this season, so whatever it looked like then is irrelevant. As has been said before, if bigger clubs come a-poaching, SFC have been doing a good job.

 

SFC is here for the long term, really long term, like long after the majority of us have popped off. Given that length of time, continued good financial planning, good continued team building, we will grow to be a big club, but that takes time, (and yes) money but also a decent foundation to work with. And that's what I believe SFC are working towards, a strong, if not spectacular, growth. Think strategic vs. tactical.

 

So you billy-bigger-bøllocks supporters who need to spend, spend, spend to see 'proper ambition' ought perhaps reconsider what really is the best ambition to have... the Saints way or the crash-and-burn Pompey way.

 

Who are all these people asking for us to spend beyond our means? The majority I have seen just want the cash from incoming transfers reinvested in the squad? Forget the extra sky money, forget the extra commercial money..just what was done two years ago when the majority of the incoming cash bought us a new team ,which took us to 7th then 6th place.

Without that near 100m investment we would have gone down. Without that 100m investment we wouldn't be having the commercial deals we have now..

everyone agrees the squad is light...if we don't invest in the team, you go down..look at Villa..... Look at Newcastle..lack of investment caught up with them even if they did chuck money at it last season when it was too late -the squad was rubbish by then.

Making a profit and having cash is great as long as the team on the pitch can compete..I don't think we will go down by any stretch of the imagination this year but imagine selling Forster and VVD next year? Fonte needs replacing next year whether we sell him or not. We'd need to spend a fortune to get a team on the pitch to save us then! Last year only one signing we made managed to hold down a first team place.

If we had the same team as last year how many of this years signings would make the first team? At some point we will need to buy some proven quality.

[James]

Who are all these people asking for us to spend beyond our means? The majority I have seen just want the cash from incoming transfers reinvested in the squad? Forget the extra sky money, forget the extra commercial money..just what was done two years ago when the majority of the incoming cash bought us a new team ,which took us to 7th then 6th place.

Without that near 100m investment we would have gone down. Without that 100m investment we wouldn't be having the commercial deals we have now..

everyone agrees the squad is light...if we don't invest in the team, you go down..look at Villa..... Look at Newcastle..lack of investment caught up with them even if they did chuck money at it last season when it was too late -the squad was rubbish by then.

Making a profit and having cash is great as long as the team on the pitch can compete..I don't think we will go down by any stretch of the imagination this year but imagine selling Forster and VVD next year? Fonte needs replacing next year whether we sell him or not. We'd need to spend a fortune to get a team on the pitch to save us then! Last year only one signing we made managed to hold down a first team place.

If we had the same team as last year how many of this years signings would make the first team? At some point we will need to buy some proven quality.

 

Precisely. Nobody is asking for us to spend beyond our means but we've been accumulating huge sums over the last few years. In the last two summers we brought players in to replace and supplement what we had lost, this year we haven't done so. It's a bit of a weird time for us to be taking this kind of risk with the added pressure of the Europa. You'd have thought we'd need a bigger squad but, on a pure numbers basis, we are down on where we were at the end of last year and have sold two players who made a massive contribution to the number of goals we scored last year.

[shurlock]

Is ambition purely down to spending money? It seems that it is, which is why my love of football is very much diminished.

 

Who said it's purely down to money? Nobody has - except in your selective imagination. But sorry to break it to you, pal, most of the time, it goes quite a long way. The irony is that we have dins mocking people for invoking ambition but not walking the talk financially; yet when money is mentioned, the same dins tell us its role is overrated.

[angelman]

Who said it's purely down to money? Nobody has - except in your selective imagination. But sorry to break it to you, pal, most of the time, it goes quite a long way. The irony is that we have dins mocking people for invoking ambition but not walking the talk financially; yet when money is mentioned, the same dins tell us its role is overrated.

 

It was a question - the use of a question mark should have given the game away.

 

And please, don't want to be pompous, but this "pal" business really isn't necessary.

[hutch]

Precisely. Nobody is asking for us to spend beyond our means but we've been accumulating huge sums over the last few years. In the last two summers we brought players in to replace and supplement what we had lost, this year we haven't done so. It's a bit of a weird time for us to be taking this kind of risk with the added pressure of the Europa. You'd have thought we'd need a bigger squad but, on a pure numbers basis, we are down on where we were at the end of last year and have sold two players who made a massive contribution to the number of goals we scored last year.

Did you forget to pay for Staplewood?

[shurlock]

It was a question - the use of a question mark should have given the game away.

 

And please, don't want to be pompous, but this "pal" business really isn't necessary.

 

It was clearly a rhetorical question - you've been beating your little drum about money and ambition for months now. You're either completely wet behind the ears and new to football or too busy shooting down a strawman of your own creation.

[Saint Benali]

Believe me, having a strong cash position should make us supporters happy.

 

.

 

Agree with what you are saying in general except for the bit above. Every club has a lot of money now and has done so for sometime. I can't see any club doing a Pompey in regards to finances anymore. There is too much money about and a lot of people want to invest in a club. Have a look at how many PL clubs have been purchased recently. The idea that if we spend money we will implode is ridiculous. We will get £80m a season just from tv. That would buy our stadium almost 3 times per season. That is the stupid levels of money now in the game.

 

Reading http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/transfers/wettbewerb/GB1 is really interesting as right now in this window clubs have spent nearly £850M bringing in new players. That is insane!

The teams to have spent less then us are Stoke, West Brom, Sunderland, Burnley and Hull. Other than Stoke I think it is safe to say the rest will be battling relegation. In terms of players sold we sit at the top by quite some way with £65m. The next team is Everton with £48m which was obviously from just one player.

 

Having money in the bank assumes that the money is ours. When in obvious fact it is the owners. Whilst I doubt it would happen there is nothing stopping that person taking that money. Having money in the bank means nothing to me as a supporter. What matters to me is that the club is competitive as that is the whole point of being a club. To compete against other clubs. To invest the money that supporters pay to watch the team go into improving it. If you run a business where you have to sell every 6-12 months is a risky strategy. And that is why no other club does it on the level we do.

[angelman]

It was clearly a rhetorical question - you've been beating your little drum about money and ambition for months now. You're either completely wet behind the ears and new to football or too busy shooting down a strawman of your own creation.

 

If you say so pal. But maybe you can tell me what constitutes ambition.

[trousers]

Accepting the fact that Heisenbergs opinions and views are worth exactly what you and I pay him for them but he is absolutely free to make them (but whose deliberate acidic tone continually grates with me), my opinion is that, in the short term, Saints at best will be a 6th - 10th position club, whatever level that equates to.

 

We have neither the 'traditional working class' mass of potential supporters nor a large enough catchment area in order to fill a 40k+ stadium on a regular basis which is a foundation for 'historical and acquired bigness'

 

Don't forget SFC is a company, not a 'Saturday afternoon hobby', as such it has employees, salary and pension costs, HMRC bills, it has legal requirements, rates, rentals, etc etc and it has to generate it's own money in the best way that it can in order to continue with its existence. Get that? It has to generate money. It cannot rely on its owner to support it by putting money in to prop it up.

 

So far, it would appear the KL has not taken 'much' (well, not 'much' in her world, a fortune in mine), ~£2m or so, when she would be fully and legally entitled to take dividends, require loans to be repaid etc. An 'inverse' investment you could call it - leaving the money in the club.

 

I've had my own companies (now retired/sold) and was told very early on.... "Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity, but Cash is King"

 

Believe me, having a strong cash position should make us supporters happy.

 

Personally I would be really happy to be repeating the last few seasons results in the future, with a good cup run every so often, playing attractive football. And if we do that by bringing in continued new-blood, then so be it. You will never stop a player having his head turned by a 'big' club, accept it. Bigs clubs + big money rule and no matter what we think, there are many bigger, more attractive clubs than us.

 

But remember, last seasons squad and results is worth exactly 0 points to us this season, so whatever it looked like then is irrelevant. As has been said before, if bigger clubs come a-poaching, SFC have been doing a good job.

 

SFC is here for the long term, really long term, like long after the majority of us have popped off. Given that length of time, continued good financial planning, good continued team building, we will grow to be a big club, but that takes time, (and yes) money but also a decent foundation to work with. And that's what I believe SFC are working towards, a strong, if not spectacular, growth. Think strategic vs. tactical.

 

So you billy-bigger-bøllocks supporters who need to spend, spend, spend to see 'proper ambition' ought perhaps reconsider what really is the best ambition to have... the Saints way or the crash-and-burn Pompey way.

 

[Donatello]

It was a question - the use of a question mark should have given the game away.

And please, don't want to be pompous, but this "pal" business really isn't necessary.

 

It seemingly is for the most passive-aggressive poster here.

 

As for Fonte, I think it's a no brainer not to sell him so deep into the window. Frankly, I'd put a time limit on this supposed new contract offer too. He can't have the best of both worlds, waiting for a bid to materialise from United, and having the fallback of a bumper contract with us. He either signs within a reasonable period of time, committing himself, or it gets retracted and he's forced to stay until next summer at the earliest.

Edited 15 August, 2016 by Donatello

[Verbal Kint]

Who are all these people asking for us to spend beyond our means? The majority I have seen just want the cash from incoming transfers reinvested in the squad? Forget the extra sky money, forget the extra commercial money..just what was done two years ago when the majority of the incoming cash bought us a new team ,which took us to 7th then 6th place.

Without that near 100m investment we would have gone down. Without that 100m investment we wouldn't be having the commercial deals we have now..

everyone agrees the squad is light...if we don't invest in the team, you go down..look at Villa..... Look at Newcastle..lack of investment caught up with them even if they did chuck money at it last season when it was too late -the squad was rubbish by then.

Making a profit and having cash is great as long as the team on the pitch can compete..I don't think we will go down by any stretch of the imagination this year but imagine selling Forster and VVD next year? Fonte needs replacing next year whether we sell him or not. We'd need to spend a fortune to get a team on the pitch to save us then! Last year only one signing we made managed to hold down a first team place.

If we had the same team as last year how many of this years signings would make the first team? At some point we will need to buy some proven quality.

 

Why do people think we won't be bringing in further players? 2 weeks left in the window, I fully expect a couple more in (maybe 3 if Fonte goes) and we'll probably break our transfer record. Every summer we have re-invested the money in the squad so why will it be different this time?

[Shroppie]

Accepting the fact that Heisenbergs opinions and views are worth exactly what you and I pay him for them but he is absolutely free to make them (but whose deliberate acidic tone continually grates with me), my opinion is that, in the short term, Saints at best will be a 6th - 10th position club, whatever level that equates to.

 

We have neither the 'traditional working class' mass of potential supporters nor a large enough catchment area in order to fill a 40k+ stadium on a regular basis which is a foundation for 'historical and acquired bigness'

 

Don't forget SFC is a company, not a 'Saturday afternoon hobby', as such it has employees, salary and pension costs, HMRC bills, it has legal requirements, rates, rentals, etc etc and it has to generate it's own money in the best way that it can in order to continue with its existence. Get that? It has to generate money. It cannot rely on its owner to support it by putting money in to prop it up.

 

So far, it would appear the KL has not taken 'much' (well, not 'much' in her world, a fortune in mine), ~£2m or so, when she would be fully and legally entitled to take dividends, require loans to be repaid etc. An 'inverse' investment you could call it - leaving the money in the club.

 

I've had my own companies (now retired/sold) and was told very early on.... "Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity, but Cash is King"

 

Believe me, having a strong cash position should make us supporters happy.

 

Personally I would be really happy to be repeating the last few seasons results in the future, with a good cup run every so often, playing attractive football. And if we do that by bringing in continued new-blood, then so be it. You will never stop a player having his head turned by a 'big' club, accept it. Bigs clubs + big money rule and no matter what we think, there are many bigger, more attractive clubs than us.

 

But remember, last seasons squad and results is worth exactly 0 points to us this season, so whatever it looked like then is irrelevant. As has been said before, if bigger clubs come a-poaching, SFC have been doing a good job.

 

SFC is here for the long term, really long term, like long after the majority of us have popped off. Given that length of time, continued good financial planning, good continued team building, we will grow to be a big club, but that takes time, (and yes) money but also a decent foundation to work with. And that's what I believe SFC are working towards, a strong, if not spectacular, growth. Think strategic vs. tactical.

 

So you billy-bigger-bøllocks supporters who need to spend, spend, spend to see 'proper ambition' ought perhaps reconsider what really is the best ambition to have... the Saints way or the crash-and-burn Pompey way.

This. At last, a post without hysteria.

 

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[Verbal Kint]

Probably. Hopefully.

 

Just paranoia and doubts. Hard to know if it'll happen. Didn't have a net spend last summer and probably won't this summer. Might not be the case at all, but it's worrying when it seems like you have to sell big to spend anything when the modern league and TV money is so huge.

 

We have given out 6 or 7 new deals as well, with the pay rises that go with it, and if we didn't bring a couple more in then that would go against the norm, as every summer for the last 7 years we end up with a better squad than the one we started it with.

 

They have a proven track record of bringing in very good players (and have continued that with they have done this window so far) but yet some people think they will let us drift for the next two weeks with what we have, when it is very clear to everyone where we are short

[Batman]

We have given out 6 or 7 new deals as well, with the pay rises that go with it, and if we didn't bring a couple more in then that would go against the norm, as every summer for the last 7 years we end up with a better squad than the one we started it with.

 

They have a proven track record of bringing in very good players (and have continued that with they have done this window so far) but yet some people think they will let us drift for the next two weeks with what we have, when it is very clear to everyone where we are short

 

You say we'll have a better squad. But we will no doubt sell at least 1 probably 2 of our best players next summer

 

I'd be stunned if VvD is a saints next season. Then you have Forster, tadic and Bertrand

[shurlock]

It seemingly is for the most passive-aggressive poster here.

 

As for Fonte, I think it's a no brainer not to sell him so deep into the window. Frankly, I'd put a time limit on this supposed new contract offer too. He can't have the best of both worlds, waiting for a bid to materialise from United, and having the fallback of a bumper contract with us. He either signs within a reasonable period of time, committing himself, or it gets retracted and he's forced to stay until next summer at the earliest.

 

Sterling work. Psychoanalysed by a halfwit pretentiously called Donatello on a football forum. Got to admit that's a first for me, pal

[CB Fry]

Does naming yourself after a Ninja Turtle qualify as "pretentious" these days? My my.

[notnowcato]

Given how advanced he plays I don't think he shooting/finishing is good enough really. Although maybe could say the same about eriksson at spurs. he's certainly a good player, just seems to go under the radar more than Mane did.

 

His stats are comparable to others that are lorded in the premier league.

[Dazza82]

Turnbull has left the Club now aswell. So that's one more centre back gone, can't see Fonte going unless we have something lined up, which looks unlikely at the minute

[hypochondriac]

Why do people think we won't be bringing in further players? 2 weeks left in the window, I fully expect a couple more in (maybe 3 if Fonte goes) and we'll probably break our transfer record. Every summer we have re-invested the money in the squad so why will it be different this time?

Yeah this basically. I've moaned in the past but the club deserve our patience. If we get to the end of the window and we are still weaker than last year with a fairly uninspiring manager, a formation we are struggling to get to grips with and square pegs in round holes then will be the time to panic.

[hypochondriac]

I will say though that it's pretty silly to suggest it's as black and white as not spending much or doing a pompey. A middle ground between those two extremes would be just fine.

[Faz]

Absolutely. Most threads seem to end up with extremes at either end and boring people like me in the middle. I mean, what would spending within our means be? Because we haven't really had a net spend for a while. Surely spending £10m net would be within our means? £20m? I think most of us would be happy to see a zero net spend this summer from here. Which would be a couple of big signings, but couldn't be described as beyond our means surely?

 

The point of being sustainable is not to have a net spend. Plus, we have no idea how much it has cost us to sign all these player to long term contracts.

[Batman]

The point of being sustainable is not to have a net spend. Plus, we have no idea how much it has cost us to sign all these player to long term contracts.

 

signing your own players is not that great. most teams do it

[Faz]

signing your own players is not that great. most teams do it

 

Good. How much do they spend doing it?

[Batman]

Good. How much do they spend doing it?

 

dunno. probably about the same amount as us.

some more, some less

[Verbal Kint]

signing your own players is not that great. most teams do it

 

They don't do 7 first team players in one summer

[shurlock]

The point of being sustainable is not to have a net spend. Plus, we have no idea how much it has cost us to sign all these player to long term contracts.

 

This makes no sense: net spend is only trivially related to sustainability. It ignores all the other revenue streams that the club enjoys, notably TV money. Whether a club is run sustainably depends on how these balance with the costs of running the club.

[Faz]

dunno. probably about the same amount as us.

some more, some less

 

You had me at "dunno"

[Saint-Fred]

Why do people think we won't be bringing in further players? 2 weeks left in the window, I fully expect a couple more in (maybe 3 if Fonte goes) and we'll probably break our transfer record. Every summer we have re-invested the money in the squad so why will it be different this time?

 

You may well be right. I think the current board have given us the strongest squad I have known at Saints and they deserve credit for that and my gratitude. I never dreamed I'd be watching a team made up of so many 8-10+million pound players.

They may well have something lined up...my only minor gripe is we sell early ( so Mane has a full pre season-which he only had once with us by the way-at Liverpool and starts the season on fire) whilst we still await news of new signings and no doubt will be repeatedly told "they didn't have a pre season-let them bed in"...the reason for that is that we can't buy as others want to secure targets before they sell...well in that case we should do that as well before selling and instead of earning Liverpool 2 points Mane could have been sat on our bench or "injured" like Lukaku waiting to get the go ahead to leave when we had a replacement.

Lukaku hasn't got his Chelsea shirt on tonight has he? If he was ours you'd suspect he would have had a holiday in RA's yacht, scored in all the pre season games and had time to paint his house blue since he had signed for them!