Summer Transfer Window 2021

[Ex Lion Tamer]

4 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I think that's exactly it. I'm not seeing anyone calling for Man City levels of investment here, all I'm seeing are fans who'd like the club to be able to bring in the odd loan or a couple of £10-15m signings to 'improve' the squad without having to make strategic sales first. We don't know for sure, but it does feel like we are strangled a lot more than many clubs in this league and it feels like we cannot do anything until we sell first.

The only way we move forward without a struggle every year is a change of ownership, but seeing that happen in this current climate is hard.

Because of the mistakes of the past which we're trying to rectify.

Interestingly your description of the transfers you want are exactly what we're trying to do, except you seem to object to the fact that we have to wait a few weeks to offload some players

[AlexLaw76]

6 minutes ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Because of the mistakes of the past which we're trying to rectify.

Interestingly your description of the transfers you want are exactly what we're trying to do, except you seem to object to the fact that we have to wait a few weeks to offload some players

This rectification period seems to be going on forever. 

how much longer, do you think?

[Ex Lion Tamer]

14 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

This rectification period seems to be going on forever. 

how much longer, do you think?

A lot of players are out of contract next summer, and we're offloading a few of them this summer. I'm not saying we're going to be flush with cash or anything but we're getting better. We had the fifth highest wages/turnover ratio which wasn't sustainable

[AlexLaw76]

1 minute ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

A lot of players are out of contract next summer, and we're offloading a few of them this summer. I'm not saying we're going to be flush with cash or anything but we're getting better. We had the fifth highest wages/turnover ratio which wasn't sustainable

There will be an excuse next summer, and the one after (probably relegation).  We all know it.

Edited 23 July, 2021 by AlexLaw76

[Billy the Kidd]

13 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

There will be an excuse next summer, and the one after (probably relegation).  We all know it.

We really all dont know it. 

No one does, and in reality do you believe we are doing the wrong thing now by trying to get rid of players this summer, who we have tried for years to cut adrift, or would you rather we kept them?

Once they are gone, if imagine we will be able to finalise a few of the deals we are working on.

What is it that would make your happy?

[Ex Lion Tamer]

9 minutes ago, Billy the Kidd said:

We really all dont know it. 

No one does, and in reality do you believe we are doing the wrong thing now by trying to get rid of players this summer, who we have tried for years to cut adrift, or would you rather we kept them?

Once they are gone, if imagine we will be able to finalise a few of the deals we are working on.

What is it that would make your happy?

We know that Gao isn't taking any money out of the club. We also know it's not in his interests to see the club relegated. So why people think the club is withholding money that it could be spending I simply don't know.

Our finance director will be making a recommendation of how much it is safe to spend and frankly I'd be worried if Gao or Semmens decided to overrule him

[Dusic]

Lets be clear - we deserved to be relegated under Pellegrino/Hughes and were saved by Swansea's utter implosion and the Gabbi goal.

I dread to think what that would have led to, despite a small minority on here suggesting it wouldn't be a bad thing.

Last season we started well, but the second half of the season, over a long period we were statistically the worst team by quite a distance. Without a purple period in autumn we would have been relegated.

I have said a few times but Ralph has been able to sign 7 players on permanent deals (Djenepo, Adams,  KWP, Diallo, Salisu, Walcott and Perraud) and I think is entering his 6th transfer window. In the same time, a Manager like Dean Smith or Graham Potter has probably signed double that.

We are soon to be rid of the unsellables, but when you think of the fees and wages on Forster, Boufal, Hoedt, Clasie, Lemina, Carillo, Elyounoussi and the fact we will have recouped less than £10m in getting rid of them is absolutely ridiculous for a club of our size.

In the Ralph era the perm signings like any club have had various levels of success but there has definitely been an improvement and that needs to continue.

I have to say the full back backup situation is baffling though. With worldwide scouting and PL appeal surely we can find a couple of cheap but promising players to develop? That and GK situation are the most frustrating, but we are stuck re GK until we get Forster's wages off the bill next summer.

Another factor is that we were a bit ahead of the game signing young promising players from other leagues whilst West Ham and Sunderland signed Man Utd rejects and PL has beens. Unfortunately all the mid and smaller clubs have cottoned on and are looking for the same profile of player. Our market is reducing as we cannot afford the best Championship players anymore.

 

[Ex Lion Tamer]

11 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Lets be clear - we deserved to be relegated under Pellegrino/Hughes and were saved by Swansea's utter implosion and the Gabbi goal.

I dread to think what that would have led to, despite a small minority on here suggesting it wouldn't be a bad thing.

Last season we started well, but the second half of the season, over a long period we were statistically the worst team by quite a distance. Without a purple period in autumn we would have been relegated.

I have said a few times but Ralph has been able to sign 7 players on permanent deals (Djenepo, Adams,  KWP, Diallo, Salisu, Walcott and Perraud) and I think is entering his 6th transfer window. In the same time, a Manager like Dean Smith or Graham Potter has probably signed double that.

We are soon to be rid of the unsellables, but when you think of the fees and wages on Forster, Boufal, Hoedt, Clasie, Lemina, Carillo, Elyounoussi and the fact we will have recouped less than £10m in getting rid of them is absolutely ridiculous for a club of our size.

In the Ralph era the perm signings like any club have had various levels of success but there has definitely been an improvement and that needs to continue.

I have to say the full back backup situation is baffling though. With worldwide scouting and PL appeal surely we can find a couple of cheap but promising players to develop? That and GK situation are the most frustrating, but we are stuck re GK until we get Forster's wages off the bill next summer.

Another factor is that we were a bit ahead of the game signing young promising players from other leagues whilst West Ham and Sunderland signed Man Utd rejects and PL has beens. Unfortunately all the mid and smaller clubs have cottoned on and are looking for the same profile of player. Our market is reducing as we cannot afford the best Championship players anymore.

 

Money obviously helps but it's also a bit of a red herring. We nearly got relegated because Pellegrino and Hughes were crap managers and we spent all our money on poor players.

[Smirking_Saint]

2 hours ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

We stayed up comfortably last season and are one of the longest serving teams in the division, certainly outside the big clubs

I'd say comfortably is a bit of a stretch

[Lighthouse]

20 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

I'd say comfortably is a bit of a stretch

With hindsight, we were mathematically safe after we beat Liverpool in the New Years Day fixtures. I’d say that was fairly comfortable.

[stevy777_x]

1 hour ago, Dusic said:

Lets be clear - we deserved to be relegated under Pellegrino/Hughes and were saved by Swansea's utter implosion and the Gabbi goal.

I dread to think what that would have led to, despite a small minority on here suggesting it wouldn't be a bad thing.

Last season we started well, but the second half of the season, over a long period we were statistically the worst team by quite a distance. Without a purple period in autumn we would have been relegated.

I have said a few times but Ralph has been able to sign 7 players on permanent deals (Djenepo, Adams,  KWP, Diallo, Salisu, Walcott and Perraud) and I think is entering his 6th transfer window. In the same time, a Manager like Dean Smith or Graham Potter has probably signed double that.

We are soon to be rid of the unsellables, but when you think of the fees and wages on Forster, Boufal, Hoedt, Clasie, Lemina, Carillo, Elyounoussi and the fact we will have recouped less than £10m in getting rid of them is absolutely ridiculous for a club of our size.

In the Ralph era the perm signings like any club have had various levels of success but there has definitely been an improvement and that needs to continue.

I have to say the full back backup situation is baffling though. With worldwide scouting and PL appeal surely we can find a couple of cheap but promising players to develop? That and GK situation are the most frustrating, but we are stuck re GK until we get Forster's wages off the bill next summer.

Another factor is that we were a bit ahead of the game signing young promising players from other leagues whilst West Ham and Sunderland signed Man Utd rejects and PL has beens. Unfortunately all the mid and smaller clubs have cottoned on and are looking for the same profile of player. Our market is reducing as we cannot afford the best Championship players anymore.

 

We need to target new Markets: with brexit rules, south america and african are definately  markets to tap into.

Problem is we will probably have to wait a few years before we have a proper scouting setup there.

 

Also Forster i ve been banging on about  but since his injury and his new contract he must be our most expensive flop ever. The amount he has cost us in wages is outragious, probably way worse than carillo and for what exactly ?

Fans were raving about him at the start of the year as he kept clean sheets but he actually hadn t had lots of shots to save, as soon as he did he didn t do much to save them...

Our highest paid player and he gets no stick as he has had mental health issues. Facts are he is content to earn his big fat wages irrespective of whether he get s game time or not.

[woodsaint1]

2 hours ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Because of the mistakes of the past which we're trying to rectify.

Interestingly your description of the transfers you want are exactly what we're trying to do, except you seem to object to the fact that we have to wait a few weeks to offload some players

Its like we're the only club who've made mistakes across multiple transfer windows. Plenty of other clubs are in the same position as us, but they either have an owner willing to invest further money or have sought out cheaper alternatives or loans. WHU a good example of the latter with the signings of Coufal, Lingard, Soucek and Dawson last season. Those players made a significant difference and contributed to them going from relegation candidates to EL contenders in one season. Those cheaper alternatives are out there but we seem to be haggling over every penny

[Wade Garrett]

4 hours ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Looks that way doesn't it. To be fair, it's equally hysterical to say we'll definitely end up in League 1 if we spend within our means

Where did I say that?

[verlaine1979]

11 hours ago, egg said:

This net spend focus is a flawed approach. The clubs finances, like any business or even household, has to be looked at as a whole. Whether our revenue comes from player sales, gate receipts, sponsorship, TV, equity injection, or anything is irrelevant. If we spend more than we receive whether on players, wages, agents, anything, we make a loss and become unsustainable.

Too many fans seem think that player sales money goes in a little jar to be used pound for pound on new ones. It doesn't work like that, and it's not helped when £100m + gets wasted and we have no obvious resource from which we can draw more revenue. 

Whether you like it or not, football clubs in the same league are extremely comparable as financial entities, and ratios like transfer net spend and wage/turnover make for a reasonable basis of comparison. If those things are roughly equivalent between clubs who still exhibit substantially different spending behaviour, we're entitled to ask why.

More than half the clubs in the league are loss making on a pure P/L basis. We are not alone in making less money from operating income than we spend on operating costs. That is just the nature of football ownership right now - it is inherently speculative, and like any leveraged position, if you don't have extra cash to support yourself during a squeeze, you are f*cked.

That is the situation we are in - we have similar income, similar wages and a similar rate of unsuccessful transfers to several other clubs, but because we do not (apparently) have access to short term (i.e. 2-3 seasons) bridging capital from our owner, we are  handicapped compared to many of our immediate peers. A self-funded business model only works if your competitors aren't burning debt/investment to try and put you down.

Edited 23 July, 2021 by verlaine1979

[egg]

31 minutes ago, verlaine1979 said:

Whether you like it or not, football clubs in the same league are extremely comparable as financial entities, and ratios like transfer net spend and wage/turnover make for a reasonable basis of comparison. If those things are roughly equivalent between clubs who still exhibit substantially different spending behaviour, we're entitled to ask why.

More than half the clubs in the league are loss making on a pure P/L basis. We are not alone in making less money from operating income than we spend on operating costs. That is just the nature of football ownership right now - it is inherently speculative, and like any leveraged position, if you don't have extra cash to support yourself during a squeeze, you are f*cked.

That is the situation we are in - we have similar income, similar wages and a similar rate of unsuccessful transfers to several other clubs, but because we do not (apparently) have access to short term (i.e. 2-3 seasons) bridging capital from our owner, we are  handicapped compared to many of our immediate peers. A self-funded business model only works if your competitors aren't burning debt/investment to try and put you down.

That's a lot of words to say what we all know. We're spending more than we have coming in, and don't have an owner willing or capable to lob cash in. What other clubs are or are not doing doesn't alter that. 

[verlaine1979]

2 minutes ago, egg said:

That's a lot of words to say what we all know. We're spending more than we have coming in, and don't have an owner willing or capable to lob cash in. What other clubs are or are not doing doesn't alter that. 

If everyone knows that the only singular aspect of our financial circumstance compared to our peers is that our owner is skint, why does everyone bring up our transfer failures (Carillo, Forster, Lemina) as if they are the problem, rather than an inevitable risk factor that any  business would have to factor in to its sustainability planning?

[egg]

13 minutes ago, verlaine1979 said:

If everyone knows that the only singular aspect of our financial circumstance compared to our peers is that our owner is skint, why does everyone bring up our transfer failures (Carillo, Forster, Lemina) as if they are the problem, rather than an inevitable risk factor that any  business would have to factor in to its sustainability planning?

We run at a loss. We have an owner who can't / won't support us. We're crippled by poor transfer / contract choices. Our ability to sign players is a consequence of those things. You're trying to complicate a very simple thing. 

[Saint_clark]

4 hours ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

A lot of players are out of contract next summer, and we're offloading a few of them this summer. I'm not saying we're going to be flush with cash or anything but we're getting better. We had the fifth highest wages/turnover ratio which wasn't sustainable

Next summer really is a huge opportunity for us, providing we stay up. We'll finally be free of all the expensive mistakes, have a lot of extra wage budget to play around with. Ideally we'll have Tella or Salisu have a world class season so we can try and get back on track by - sorry everyone - selling one for huge money and letting Ralph reinvest it in the players he actually wants. 

[SuperSAINT]

- I’m sure we like him.

- I’m also sure we can’t afford him.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

1 hour ago, verlaine1979 said:

That is the situation we are in - we have similar income, similar wages and a similar rate of unsuccessful transfers to several other clubs, but because we do not (apparently) have access to short term (i.e. 2-3 seasons) bridging capital from our owner, we are  handicapped compared to many of our immediate peers. A self-funded business model only works if your competitors aren't burning debt/investment to try and put you down.

This is where I disagree. On the latest available figures our wages/turnover ratio was comfortably the fifth highest in the league. That put us in a substantially worse position than others. 

And I'm not convinced other clubs had the sheer number of failed signings that we did. Perhaps someone can analyse it properly but the number of expensive duds we've been carrying has been ridiculous  

[Dusic]

37 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

- I’m sure we like him.

- I’m also sure we can’t afford him.

Interesting that we have been linked with a few centre mids but as you say, assuming we do the more pressing business we have I don't see how we have the cash to make an expensive signing in that position.

Palace, through barely having spent the AWB money and having so many players out of contract have a decent opportunity this summer to make a real change to their squad - like their deals so far.

[egg]

8 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Interesting that we have been linked with a few centre mids but as you say, assuming we do the more pressing business we have I don't see how we have the cash to make an expensive signing in that position.

Palace, through barely having spent the AWB money and having so many players out of contract have a decent opportunity this summer to make a real change to their squad - like their deals so far.

Personally, I don't think Diallo was great overall, and he didn't always play when available. Swapping him out wouldn't be a surprise to me. Alternatively there may be serious interest in JWP. 

 

Edited 23 July, 2021 by egg

[Dusic]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Personally, I don't think Diallo was great overall, and he didn't always play when available. Swapping him out wouldn't be a surprise to me. Alternatively there may be serious interest in JWP. 

 

I think its more of a depth thing. We only have 3 CMs plus Armstrong who is a first choice in another position.

JWP has been a freak availability wise but surely at some stage he will miss games.

We don't seem to have any U23 CMs who are anywhere near first team ready.

Some PL teams have 5 or 6 players for that position so whilst we aren't going to be spending big there it would be a position we could do with one more - a similar signing to Simeu would probably fit the bill, i.e to replace Jankewitz.

Edited 23 July, 2021 by Dusic

[woodsaint1]

1 hour ago, Dusic said:

Interesting that we have been linked with a few centre mids but as you say, assuming we do the more pressing business we have I don't see how we have the cash to make an expensive signing in that position.

Palace, through barely having spent the AWB money and having so many players out of contract have a decent opportunity this summer to make a real change to their squad - like their deals so far.

They're also going to have new players making up a large part of their squad this season. Sometimes too many signings at once can be a hindrance and it affects the continuity (like Fulham a few seasons back) Throw into the mix that they've a new manager who hasnt managed at this level before.

Although their business to date has been decent (not convinced with Guehi though), I would still rather be in our position than theirs. They'll be one of the contenders for relegation from the outset

Edited 23 July, 2021 by woodsaint1
Hit send too early by mistake

[verlaine1979]

2 hours ago, egg said:

We run at a loss. We have an owner who can't / won't support us. We're crippled by poor transfer / contract choices. Our ability to sign players is a consequence of those things. You're trying to complicate a very simple thing. 

We're crippled by our ownership. Everything else flows from that. Nothing simpler.

[Cartman]

6 minutes ago, verlaine1979 said:

We're crippled by our ownership. Everything else flows from that. Nothing simpler.

No we aren't. We are crippled by the mess left over by the previous ownership, our current ownership are the reason we haven't already been relegated and whoever thinks that the next ownership will throw money at us is setting themselves up for disappointment.

Since 2014 Leicester and West Ham haven't received anything from their owners and by the money tap seems to be switching off at Everton and Wolves with nothing to show for it.

[East Kent Saint]

Saints are far from the only Prem team to buy players that never make it at the club . Think of all the record signings say Spurs , Arsenal and Man U have made who never made it into the team . IIRC Benitez managed to amass 60 players on Liverpool’s books ! It seems to be more size of squad in our case so a dud is a big deal.

Edited 24 July, 2021 by East Kent Saint

[hypochondriac]

20 minutes ago, East Kent Saint said:

Saints are far from the only Prem team to buy players that never make it at the club . Think of all the record signings say Spurs , Arsenal and Man U have made who never made it into the team . IIRC Benitez managed to amass 60 players on Liverpool’s books ! It seems to be more size of squad in our case so a dud is a big deal.

Yes but also the amount we have had in such a short space of time. You can swallow one hoedt, carillo, lemina, elyonoussi etc but having them all on the clubs books at once is crippling for a small club like us. 

[egg]

7 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Yes but also the amount we have had in such a short space of time. You can swallow one hoedt, carillo, lemina, elyonoussi etc but having them all on the clubs books at once is crippling for a small club like us. 

Exactly. That's £100m plus on players, and their wages that we won't ever get back. To compound it, we've then had to fund other players to fill gaps created by the duds. 

Edited 24 July, 2021 by egg

[SuperSAINT]

Rumoured Saints target from Celtic, Leo Hjelde, is strongly tipped to sign for Leeds. 

Leeds are like how most people I know play FM.  They are absolute monsters at hoovering you young talent. 

I know I’ll bring on the “ wish we were Leeds” posts 👀, but I wish we did it more.

Edited 24 July, 2021 by SuperSAINT

[SKD]

17 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Yes but also the amount we have had in such a short space of time. You can swallow one hoedt, carillo, lemina, elyonoussi etc but having them all on the clubs books at once is crippling for a small club like us. 

I still don’t think I’ll ever get over this signing. It’s Actually a bit of comedy show that we had people running the club who thought it’d be a good idea to spend a record fee, on someone who clearly hadn’t been watched, to appease a manager who was clearly a game or 2 from getting the sack. 

The others, you can sort of forgive (other than perhaps Hodet who again was massively out of his depth). 

Amazing that Ross Wilson has gone on and done an alright job with Rangers, really. Perhaps finding that championship level player is his limit. 

[egg]

17 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

Rumoured Saints target from Celtic, Leo Hjelde, is strongly tipped to sign for Leeds. 

Leeds are like how most people I know play FM.  The are absolute monsters at hoovering you young talent. 

I know I’ll bring on the “ wish we were Leeds” posts 👀, but I wish we did it more.

Leeds are a decent club to be fair. Great stadium, good manager and the young players are given a decent chance up there. Our reputation over the years has been to develop talent and play it but we've not been doing that. Watts is in the Oz Olympic squad but hasn't had a look in, Jankewitz was ignored after the fiasco and has left, Tchapet is very good but hasn't had any first team exposure and will probably leave. Nobody knows, but I'd hazard a guess Leeds would have nurtured them better. Young players will know what's going on here and I was a promising youngster and my choice was playing in our woeful development team plus some occasional first team bench warming, or Leeds, I know where I'd go. 

[East Kent Saint]

37 minutes ago, egg said:

Exactly. That's £100m plus on players, and their wages that we won't ever get back. To compound it, we've then had to fund other players to fill gaps created by the duds. 

Yes but Pepe £73M was what I had in mind !

[egg]

19 minutes ago, East Kent Saint said:

Yes but Pepe £73M was what I had in mind !

Didn't realise he was £73m. That makes Carillo look like a cracking bit of business. 

[tajjuk]

15 hours ago, Saint Garrett said:

The sustainable model is likely to only keep us treading water, until we get some transfers wrong and get relegated.

We have got shed loads of transfers wrong, back to back, which is why we are struggling to spend.

I don't really get this argument people are making, they are expecting a unicorn but unicorns don't exist, where do you think the money is coming from if we make transfer f*ck up after transfer f*ck up. Our owner neither adds nor takes out money, therefore we have to spend what we have, until the last 2-3 years we have spent that very poorly and got nothing back from those purchases.

We have spent around £150 million (transfer fees + wages) on half a first team, that basically have not made any impact or had any re-sale, whilst also then needing to have a full first team. 

I don't get how people don't get that doesn't cripple our finances? Add in Covid and the situation becomes very understandable.  Add £150 million to the books, we suddenly become one of the wealthiest teams in the league. 

We also probably threw £10+ million away on sacking managers we should have never hired in the first place.

We made too many f*ck ups in a short space of time and that has basically crippled our transfer strategy for the last 3 years. Those f*ck ups were the previous regimes fault as well, with the ultimate example being Carillo who was a panic buy signed for £19 million on the say so of a manager who should have been sacked weeks before and clearly had shown he was out of his depth. 

That alone probably cost us £35 million, we are still probably paying some of his wages. I bet we are paying some of Boufal's and Hoedt's as well. 

The reason we are still in the league is largely down to Ralph, some transfer hits like Ings, Armstrong, Bednerak, KWP etc. and players like JWP stepping up their game, meaning we got a lot more value than our outlay. 

[egg]

8 minutes ago, tajjuk said:

We have got shed loads of transfers wrong, back to back, which is why we are struggling to spend.

I don't really get this argument people are making, they are expecting a unicorn but unicorns don't exist, where do you think the money is coming from if we make transfer f*ck up after transfer f*ck up. Our owner neither adds nor takes out money, therefore we have to spend what we have, until the last 2-3 years we have spent that very poorly and got nothing back from those purchases.

We have spent around £150 million (transfer fees + wages) on half a first team, that basically have not made any impact or had any re-sale, whilst also then needing to have a full first team. 

I don't get how people don't get that doesn't cripple our finances? Add in Covid and the situation becomes very understandable.  Add £150 million to the books, we suddenly become one of the wealthiest teams in the league. 

We also probably threw £10+ million away on sacking managers we should have never hired in the first place.

We made too many f*ck ups in a short space of time and that has basically crippled our transfer strategy for the last 3 years. Those f*ck ups were the previous regimes fault as well, with the ultimate example being Carillo who was a panic buy signed for £19 million on the say so of a manager who should have been sacked weeks before and clearly had shown he was out of his depth. 

That alone probably cost us £35 million, we are still probably paying some of his wages. I bet we are paying some of Boufal's and Hoedt's as well. 

The reason we are still in the league is largely down to Ralph, some transfer hits like Ings, Armstrong, Bednerak, KWP etc. and players like JWP stepping up their game, meaning we got a lot more value than our outlay. 

Yep, no graphs or analysis or pointless comparisons with other clubs is needed to see this. 

My brothers car died the other week. He'd spent all his savings on that car so didn't have cash for a new one. He'll have to borrow one off a mate until he can scrape some cash together to buy another. If the attitude of some of our fans was applied to that scenario, they would expect the fairies to produce that money, or tell us that because Martin down the road could afford a new car, that my brother surely  must be able to afford a new one.

Bizarre how some people think. 

[hypochondriac]

1 hour ago, SKD said:

I still don’t think I’ll ever get over this signing. It’s Actually a bit of comedy show that we had people running the club who thought it’d be a good idea to spend a record fee, on someone who clearly hadn’t been watched, to appease a manager who was clearly a game or 2 from getting the sack. 

The others, you can sort of forgive (other than perhaps Hodet who again was massively out of his depth). 

Amazing that Ross Wilson has gone on and done an alright job with Rangers, really. Perhaps finding that championship level player is his limit. 

The other depressing thing is it's the only time in my life that my wife has pointed to someone at a restaurant (the week he signed) and said "is he a footballer?" Had I known what I know now I would have definitely replied in the negative. 

[Charlie Wayman]

16 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

The other depressing thing is it's the only time in my life that my wife has pointed to someone at a restaurant (the week he signed) and said "is he a footballer?" Had I known what I know now I would have definitely replied in the negative. 

I doubt my wife would know who Harry Kane was if he sat next to us on the bus

[hypochondriac]

4 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

I doubt my wife would know who Harry Kane was if he sat next to us on the bus

She definitely had no idea who Carillo was. It was almost certainly a lucky guess based on his physique, what he was wearing and the fact he was very clearly foreign (and the staff were fawning all over him.)

[StrangelyBrown]

9 hours ago, verlaine1979 said:

We're crippled by our ownership. Everything else flows from that. Nothing simpler.

What do you seriously expect from an owner?

There are no good returns on football "investment", we have a relatively small fanbase and we're not exactly a world renowned brand (like man u, Liverpool, etc) - so the only way we would have someone who was prepared to throw their hard earned money at us is if they have a connection to the club. Now remind me how many Southampton supporting billionaires are there???

[Matthew Le God]

5 minutes ago, StrangelyBrown said:

There are no good returns on football "investment", we have a relatively small fanbase and we're not exactly a world renowned brand (like man u, Liverpool, etc) - so the only way we would have someone who was prepared to throw their hard earned money at us is if they have a connection to the club. Now remind me how many Southampton supporting billionaires are there???

They don't need to be pre-existing fans of the club. Wolves and Leicester's owners weren't fans of the club before they purchased those clubs. Their owners (like Liebherr) became fans of the club after the purchase.

[StrangelyBrown]

18 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

They don't need to be pre-existing fans of the club. Wolves and Leicester's owners weren't fans of the club before they purchased those clubs. Their owners (like Liebherr) became fans of the club after the purchase.

Ok clever clogs, what is in it for someone to invest in Southampton? Both wolves and Leicester we're invested in when there was growth potential I'm the football market and both were in good positions for investment - I wasn't talking about what happened a few years ago I'm talking about now.

why don't you stop being a pedantic bore and actually contribute something worthwhile to this forum for once??

[Verbal]

19 minutes ago, StrangelyBrown said:

Ok clever clogs, what is in it for someone to invest in Southampton? Both wolves and Leicester we're invested in when there was growth potential I'm the football market and both were in good positions for investment - I wasn't talking about what happened a few years ago I'm talking about now.

why don't you stop being a pedantic bore and actually contribute something worthwhile to this forum for once??

Look at this objectively.  Would you rather read the post of a pedant who's more often right than wrong, or the post, quite common on here, sent from the rocky shores of Lake Despond?

[Smirking_Saint]

16 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

With hindsight, we were mathematically safe after we beat Liverpool in the New Years Day fixtures. I’d say that was fairly comfortable.

I get that, but all of us were worried towards the end of the season, some more than others, we got away with it because of our early season form, which was fantastic

We were lucky that those at the bottom of the table never really found any significant form

I get what you are saying, and in hindsight we were fine, but were you really feeling 'comfortable' ? 

[qwertyell]

3 hours ago, egg said:

Didn't realise he was £73m. That makes Carillo look like a cracking bit of business. 

16 goals and 5 assists from the wing last season.

Overpaid for him, yes. Carrillo-style insane money spunked up the wall for literally no return? Not even close.

[Saint_clark]

3 hours ago, egg said:

Didn't realise he was £73m. That makes Carillo look like a cracking bit of business. 

Pepe has been a good player for them and will become more and more important. 

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Pepe has been a good player for them and will become more and more important. 

Probably only from last season to be honest, last season was when he finally started to score goals and look a threat.

Before that he has been a mess, close to being shipped out. He's not even come close to meeting the demands of that price tag, they've overpaid for him and then some.

[Saint_clark]

1 minute ago, S-Clarke said:

Probably only from last season to be honest, last season was when he finally started to score goals and look a threat.

Before that he has been a mess, close to being shipped out. He's not even come close to meeting the demands of that price tag, they've overpaid for him and then some.

Before that it was his first season there, he was a victim of his inflated price tag. When big money signings come in nobody is willing to give them time to settle. 

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Before that it was his first season there, he was a victim of his inflated price tag. When big money signings come in nobody is willing to give them time to settle. 

Oh yeah for sure, the price tag will immediately raise everyone's expectations. It was certainly too much for him, 30-40m player tops in my opinion.

This doesn't compare with the Carillo transfer though, as at least Pepe has done something for Arsenal, albeit only from a bit of last season. We basically opened the Kingsland concourse doors and threw £19m + whatever wages in the air.

Edited 24 July, 2021 by S-Clarke

[Saint_clark]

1 minute ago, S-Clarke said:

Oh yeah for sure, the price tag will immediately raise everyone's expectations. It was certainly too much for him, 30-40m player tops in my opinion.

This doesn't compare with the Carillo transfer though, as at least Pepe has done something for Arsenal, albeit only from a bit of last season. We basically opened the Kingsland concourse doors and threw £19m + whatever wages in the air.

I agree, they overpaid but they were desperate and I think he'll end up being an important player for them for a long time. 

Carillo was an utter abomination.