What the f**k is going on. Done with this rabble

[LGTL]

  On 04/08/2021 at 21:00, Turkish said:

He’s right about the finances though. We’ve had 10 Of premier league money for all but the first two pretty much funded all signings by sales, yet we’re on our arse whist Villa have been here two seasons yet have signed 6 players in that time for more than our transfer record. It’s a joke that we’re looking in the bargain bucket. Yes we’ve made mad signings but so has everyone else and let’s not forget all these bad signings were funded by sales  

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Always makes me laugh when Sky go on about the ’£120million game’ for the play-off final. You wouldn’t think it looking at Saints! 
 

Beggars belief that we’ve been back in the PL for nearly 10 years now, sell anything that isn’t bolted down, and still the other 19 clubs can outdo us on just about everything!

[Matthew Le God]

  On 04/08/2021 at 20:11, Mr X said:

The replacement is an unproven championship player

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That doesn't justify writing him off.

Plus we don't actually know for certain who the replacement will be.

[Sheaf Saint]

  On 04/08/2021 at 20:46, Kaiser Soze said:

Wouldn’t worry too much if it was spurs etc. But if we can’t compete with the likes of Villa who were in the Championship only a couple of years ago what hope have we really got…

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You do realise their owners have a combined worth of about £10bn don't you?

Of course we can't compete with that.

[sad saints fan]

Just got back from the Levante friendly and I must admit I am not to bothered about losing Ings but I would be most concerned if we lost Tella or Adams.

[Turkish]

  On 04/08/2021 at 21:04, LGTL said:

Always makes me laugh when Sky go on about the ’£120million game’ for the play-off final. You wouldn’t think it looking at Saints! 
 

Beggars belief that we’ve been back in the PL for nearly 10 years now, sell anything that isn’t bolted down, and still the other 19 clubs can outdo us on just about everything!

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And yet people insist we are a well run club 🤣

[RedArmy]

  On 04/08/2021 at 21:09, sad saints fan said:

Just got back from the Levante friendly and I must admit I am not to bothered about losing Ings but I would be most concerned if we lost Tella or Adams.

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😂😂😂😂

[Turkish]

  On 04/08/2021 at 21:09, Sheaf Saint said:

You do realise their owners have a combined worth of about £10bn don't you?

Of course we can't compete with that.

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Goa is meant to have a net worth of £3b. So we should at least be able to sign a player without selling one first 

[Doctoroncall]

  On 04/08/2021 at 19:30, Shroppie said:

He only scored 3 more than Adams. 

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His winning goals. 
 

Don’t get me wrong, the club has done the best of a difficult situation. I hope they are as savvy with the replacement, that is all. 

[JRM]

Was interesting listening to reactions at the game tonight, it seemed to be a shock especially the choice of club for Ings to join, if we have a bad start to the season I can sense fans really starting to turn on the ownership of the club. 

[Maggie May]

  On 04/08/2021 at 21:09, sad saints fan said:

Just got back from the Levante friendly and I must admit I am not to bothered about losing Ings but I would be most concerned if we lost Tella or Adams.

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Not sure if this is a wind-up but goodness me. 

I don’t think the situation is as bad as some make out but anyone who thinks we’ve not been significantly weakened by selling Ings need a wake up call.

Yes, we know he wanted a move and, yes, we’ve done well to get £30 million for him, but I’m struggling to see who we can bring in that’s on par with his class. Armstrong definitely isn’t (yet) and is unproven in the Premier League.

Finding Danny’s replacement is going to be the biggest call this management has made in years. It needs to be spot on.

 

[SKD]

Relegation will cost us a hell of a lot more than 30m. That’s what selling him has just caused. 
 

Absolute joke of a club. Losing our best player to villa, clearly only due to money, is a shambles however you try and dress it up. 

[WestMidSaint]

For me, the disappointment is that he would rather be at Villa than Saints. 
 

When players were leaving for Liverpool, United, Spurs and Arsenal it wasn’t pleasant, but at the end of the day they were moving to far “bigger clubs”. 
 

Yes Villa have money but losing Ings to them is very different. They’ve had one good year after surviving by the skin of their teeth and still our best player, who supposedly has an affinity with the area is off. 
 

Part of the problem is it just goes to show how much further we’ve slipped down the pecking order.

 

Whilst we will never know I do wonder what’s gone on or been witnessed by Ings to make him go there? I can’t believe it’s just cash and surely he’s not naive enough to think he’s going to join a top 4 project. 

[Sideways Jim]

  On 04/08/2021 at 21:55, SKD said:

Relegation will cost us a hell of a lot more than 30m. That’s what selling him has just caused. 
 

Absolute joke of a club. Losing our best player to villa, clearly only due to money, is a shambles however you try and dress it up. 

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Enjoy supporting a new club if my club is a joke 👋🏻

[Turkish]

  On 04/08/2021 at 21:44, JRM said:

Was interesting listening to reactions at the game tonight, it seemed to be a shock especially the choice of club for Ings to join, if we have a bad start to the season I can sense fans really starting to turn on the ownership of the club. 

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I can’t. The worst it’ll be is a thumbs down foam hand in the general direction of the directors box. We’ve got so many pathetic, wet fans now that for everyone that wants to protest there will be 5 clapping over them to get behind the team. Whilst Newcastle fans have been protesting about Ashley for years out lot have sat back and sucked up all the excuses applauding the well run club mantra when it was pretty evident it has been anything but.

Edited 4 August, 2021 by Turkish

[Lighthouse]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:06, Turkish said:

Whilst Newcastle fans have been protesting about Ashley for years out lot have sat back and sucked up all the excuses applauding the well run club mantra.

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How's that going for them?

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:06, Sideways Jim said:

Enjoy supporting a new club if my club is a joke 👋🏻

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What a childish response. Challenging how the club is run, doesn’t make you any less of a fan. 
 

Im sick of seeing regression season upon season. If you’re happy to accept mediocrity and being taken for a mug, then crack on son.

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:08, Lighthouse said:

How's that going for them?

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Better than it is for us, imo. 

[Lighthouse]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:08, SKD said:

Im sick of seeing regression season upon season.

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Points over the last five years:

46

36

39

52

43

 

[Turkish]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:08, Lighthouse said:

How's that going for them?

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Point being that whilst our fans sit back and let Rome burn at least Newcastle fans have made their feelings know. If our fans started singing anti Goa chants they’d probably have people getting them ejected for racism on the grassing hotline.

[Whitey Grandad]

Selling Ings was a no-brainer. We can’t look at this one transfer in isolation. Give it until the end of the transfer window and then step back and take a look. Players come, players go, new heroes come along. 

[Lighthouse]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:11, Turkish said:

Point being that whilst our fans sit back and let Rome burn at least Newcastle fans have made their feelings know. If our fans started singing anti Goa chants they’d probably have people getting them ejected for racism on the grassing hotline.

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I thought you didn't like taking the knee because it was just empty gesturing which achieves nothing?

[Turkish]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:12, Lighthouse said:

I thought you didn't like taking the knee because it was just empty gesturing which achieves nothing?

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What has that got to do with protesting against the owners?

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:10, Lighthouse said:

Points over the last five years:

46

36

39

52

43

 

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Do you think a business that basically is forced to sell its best assets year upon year is a well ran business. 

Unable to invest in it future without a detrimental affect on its present. 
 

Selling ings, will the straw that breaks the camels back and will Confirm our relegation. 

[Lighthouse]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:13, Turkish said:

What has that got to do with protesting against the owners?

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Because it amounts to the same thing. Gao doesn't give a flying f**k what the fans think, nor does Ashley. You can round up a mob of 10,000 and stand outside the Itchen screaming for him to be beheaded if you want, he'll just be sat in his apartment in Guangzhou or Shanghai not giving a sh*t. 

[Lighthouse]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:15, SKD said:

Do you think a business that basically is forced to sell its best assets year upon year is a well ran business. 

Unable to invest in it future without a detrimental affect on its present. 
 

Selling ings, will the straw that breaks the camels back and will Confirm our relegation. 

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Those 'best assets' are ones we didn't even have under Puel, so we must have done something right. As far as I can see we signed Ings, got some 40-odd goals out of him in three years, then sold him for a £5m profit. Seems like a well run business to me. 

[OttawaSaint]

  On 04/08/2021 at 21:55, SKD said:

Relegation will cost us a hell of a lot more than 30m. That’s what selling him has just caused. 
 

Absolute joke of a club. Losing our best player to villa, clearly only due to money, is a shambles however you try and dress it up. 

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So we’re relegated without kicking a ball are we?

The club offered him a new contract to make him our highest earner. He rejected it.

What else do you think the club should have done?

Edited 4 August, 2021 by OttawaSaint

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:19, OttawaSaint said:

So we’re relegated without kicking a ball are we?

The club offered him a new contract to make him our highest earner. 

What else do you think the club should have done?

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Why are we losing to players to Villa? (obviously clearly money related) That’s the issue. 

As a club we have 0 ambition. Our goal is to stay afloat. We simply cannot keep pulling rabbits out of hats and keep getting lucky.

We are a shambles. 

[OttawaSaint]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:22, SKD said:

Why are we losing to players to Villa? (obviously clearly money related) That’s the issue. 

As a club we have 0 ambition. Our goal is to stay afloat. We simply cannot keep pulling rabbits out of hats and keep getting lucky.

We are a shambles. 

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What should the club have done?

[S-Clarke]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:22, SKD said:

Why are we losing to players to Villa? (obviously clearly money related) That’s the issue. 

As a club we have 0 ambition. Our goal is to stay afloat. We simply cannot keep pulling rabbits out of hats and keep getting lucky.

We are a shambles. 

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No one is denying that. Our goal is to remain competitive through creative means, thus selling players where we see fit which then allows us to evolve certain things.

It's not sustainable, not at all. But...we have no choice. Until we get new ownership this is how we have to operate because we have no input or help from whoever this owner is.

Dump and run is all he's done, same as KL, she's as guilty. Martin and co are certainly not operating a shambles - they're holding it all together pretty well given the ridiculous constraints they've had placed upon them by the shambles beyond this country.

[maysie]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:22, SKD said:

Why are we losing to players to Villa? (obviously clearly money related) That’s the issue. 

As a club we have 0 ambition. Our goal is to stay afloat. We simply cannot keep pulling rabbits out of hats and keep getting lucky.

We are a shambles. 

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We always sell players, it's where we sit in the hierarchy.

Yeah a surprise it's Villa but it's not like we don't have a track record.

You seem a very miserable person.

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:23, OttawaSaint said:

What should the club have done?

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Given clearly money related, matched the offer to start. 

[egg]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:22, SKD said:

Why are we losing to players to Villa? (obviously clearly money related) That’s the issue. 

As a club we have 0 ambition. Our goal is to stay afloat. We simply cannot keep pulling rabbits out of hats and keep getting lucky.

We are a shambles. 

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Behave. It was a simple choice of taking £30m and replacing as best we can, or getting fuck all next year and having a half arsed player coasting through that year. 

And who gives a shit what club gives us the £30m. Cash is cash.

Shambles of a reaction. 

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:24, S-Clarke said:

No one is denying that. Our goal is to remain competitive through creative means, thus selling players where we see fit which then allows us to evolve certain things.

It's not sustainable, not at all. But...we have no choice. Until we get new ownership this is how we have to operate because we have no input or help from whoever this owner is.

Dump and run is all he's done, same as KL, she's as guilty. Martin and co are certainly not operating a shambles - they're holding it all together pretty well given the ridiculous constraints they've had placed upon them by the shambles beyond this country.

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I agree and it’s not a dig at Semmens / Crocker. I honestly think they’re doing the best that they can. 

Fat Kat and Gao are to blame (more so Kat if I’m honest). 

Our ownership / overall business model is a joke. 

[S-Clarke]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:25, SKD said:

Given clearly money related, matched the offer to start. 

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What if we financially can't do that? That's not a fault of the club. It's a fault of the external non-ownership we've been lumbered with.

We apparently offered Ings 100k, going to make him our best paid player. If Villa have offered him more than that then good on them, they can swim into the sunset paying £120k for a 29 year old. We couldn't sustain that.

[Turkish]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:17, Lighthouse said:

Because it amounts to the same thing. Gao doesn't give a flying f**k what the fans think, nor does Ashley. You can round up a mob of 10,000 and stand outside the Itchen screaming for him to be beheaded if you want, he'll just be sat in his apartment in Guangzhou or Shanghai not giving a sh*t. 

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Like I said then, our fans just aren’t arsed.

 

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:27, egg said:

Behave. It was a simple choice of taking £30m and replacing as best we can, or getting fuck all next year and having a half arsed player coasting through that year. 

And who gives a shit what club gives us the £30m. Cash is cash.

Shambles of a reaction. 

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The trouble is, we’ll replace him with a load of shite. I’m not all that arsed that he’s gone and in the grand scheme of things, 30£m is a pretty good deal. 

However, we should not be losing players to villa. Our players should not want to join villa ffs. it’s palatable when you lose them to a top 4 club, but villa should realistically be a direct rival. 
 

Just shows the total Lack of ambition from the club. 

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:28, S-Clarke said:

What if we financially can't do that? That's not a fault of the club. It's a fault of the external non-ownership we've been lumbered with.

We apparently offered Ings 100k, going to make him our best paid player. If Villa have offered him more than that then good on them, they can swim into the sunset paying £120k for a 29 year old. We couldn't sustain that.

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Which, kind of shows, how poorly our club is being ran. 

If we’re unable to compete, then it’s already not sustainable. 

[Ekelund]

I was getting annoyed about this but then I remembered this years FA Cup semi and how I’d decided I wouldn’t give two shits about selling any of them IF it made sense.

Having got over the villa factor, it makes sense. Now spend it….

[Turkish]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:28, S-Clarke said:

What if we financially can't do that? That's not a fault of the club. It's a fault of the external non-ownership we've been lumbered with.

We apparently offered Ings 100k, going to make him our best paid player. If Villa have offered him more than that then good on them, they can swim into the sunset paying £120k for a 29 year old. We couldn't sustain that.

Expand  

I agree with you. I said on here wouldn’t be comfortable with a player with ings injury record, at his age, on a long term big deal. Now the surprise has worn off it’s a good deal provide we spend the money well, which is a separate point.

SKD is also right though, it shows how far we’ve fallen that players See villa as a better option than Us. I always remember Nick on TUI saying when we were selling players to Liverpool and Man U we shouldn’t worry when we sell players to them big clubs we can’t and should expect to compete it’s when we sell them to clubs of our level that we should well we are.

Edited 4 August, 2021 by Turkish

[Saint IQ]

Disappointed in Ings decision but 30m in exchange for one year of Ings is a good deal really if that's all it was gonna be. That's 25/30 games at most, we need to find those 10/15 extra goals though from somewhere though if we want to be comfortable this season. 

[S-Clarke]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:33, Turkish said:

I agree with you. I said on here wouldn’t be comfortable with a player with ings injury record, at his age, on a long term big deal. Now the surprise has worn off it’s a good deal provide we spend the money well, which is a separate point.

SKD is also right though, it shows how far we’ve fallen that players See villa as a better option than Us. I always remember Nick on TUI saying when we were selling players to Liverpool and Man U we shouldn’t worry when we sell players to them, it’s when we sell them to clubs of our level that we should well we are.

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There's no denying that we've regressed, I don't disagree. I've just kinda accepted the situation as it's not going to change. It's been a decline since Koeman left, but massively accelerated once Gao took full control and we had Reed and Wilson overseeing the clown years.

We wasted so much money, maybe on the naïve thought investment would top that up, but it never did. I know people argue that Gao 'keeps out of the way, and lets the guys run the club' - but bollocks to that. The bloke has been a charlatan since day one, hasn't ever shown any interest, hasn't ever shared any plans. The proof is in the pudding - the regression of the squad and the sale of players to 'mid table' teams just so we can 'compete' to keep our heads above the water is his legacy. Oh, and he still hasn't muttered a single word to the fan base in what must be 5 years of ownership.

Relegation is only ever around the corner with a model like this, but we just have to hope and pray that new ownership comes before relegation. Otherwise it could get a little bit messy.

 

Edited 4 August, 2021 by S-Clarke

[OttawaSaint]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:25, SKD said:

Given clearly money related, matched the offer to start. 

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And you’d be the first one on here slating the club as soon as Ings got injured for paying ludicrous wages to crock.

[egg]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:33, Turkish said:

I agree with you. I said on here wouldn’t be comfortable with a player with ings injury record, at his age, on a long term big deal. Now the surprise has worn off it’s a good deal provide we spend the money well, which is a separate point.

SKD is also right though, it shows how far we’ve fallen that players See villa as a better option than Us. I always remember Nick on TUI saying when we were selling players to Liverpool and Man U we shouldn’t worry when we sell players to them big clubs we can’t and should expect to compete it’s when we sell them to clubs of our level that we should well we are.

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I get all this, and what SKD says, but economically we had to sell this summer as we can't just bin off £30m.

As Villa were the club offering the money, we had to take it. As hard as it is to stomach, Villa are no longer at our level. They're propped up with money, and we're treading water. 

[Chris cooper]

Who says gao will give Ralph the Whole 25m …from transfers of the past from vvd to mane from shaw to Lallana and the rest of dippers exodus we never replaced the quality! GAO will take a chunk and we will probably get barely 10-12 million tops to spend on a replacement.. 100 percent!

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:43, Chris cooper said:

Who says gao will give Ralph the Whole 25m …from transfers of the past from vvd to mane from shaw to Lallana and the rest of dippers exodus we never replaced the quality! GAO will take a chunk and we will probably get barely 10-12 million tops to spend on a replacement.. 100 percent!

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Gao has never taken a penny from the club. Im not concerned about that. 

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:42, egg said:

I get all this, and what SKD says, but economically we had to sell this summer as we can't just bin off £30m.

As Villa were the club offering the money, we had to take it. As hard as it is to stomach, Villa are no longer at our level. They're propped up with money, and we're treading water. 

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Why are we seemingly the only premier league club in this situation though? People bang on about how well were ran, but clearly, if we’re literally forced to sell to stay afloat then that contradicts being well run… surely? 
 

FWIW I don’t disagree that 30m for him is a half decent deal. 

Edited 4 August, 2021 by SKD

[SKD]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:39, S-Clarke said:

There's no denying that we've regressed, I don't disagree. I've just kinda accepted the situation as it's not going to change. It's been a decline since Koeman left, but massively accelerated once Gao took full control and we had Reed and Wilson overseeing the clown years.

We wasted so much money, maybe on the naïve thought investment would top that up, but it never did. I know people argue that Gao 'keeps out of the way, and lets the guys run the club' - but bollocks to that. The bloke has been a charlatan since day one, hasn't ever shown any interest, hasn't ever shared any plans. The proof is in the pudding - the regression of the squad and the sale of players to 'mid table' teams just so we can 'compete' to keep our heads above the water is his legacy.

Relegation is only ever around the corner with a model like this, but we just have to hope and pray that new ownership comes before relegation. Otherwise it could get a little bit messy.

 

Expand  

We needed a take over this summer. It’s too late now unless we some how manage to pull off a miracle.  
 

I’m glad we’ve built a squad of championship players as at least they’ll have the experience to get us back up.

Edited 4 August, 2021 by SKD

[warsash saint]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:25, SKD said:

Given clearly money related, matched the offer to start. 

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& that's why your posting on an internet forum at 11.30pm & not running a Premiership club!!

Edited 4 August, 2021 by warsash saint

[egg]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:47, SKD said:

Why are we seemingly the only premier league club in this situation though? People bang on about how well were ran, but clearly, if we’re literally forced to sell to stay afloat then that contradicts being well run… surely? 

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Other clubs finances are irrelevant to ours. We could have shit players on £30-40k PW and be OK financially but not compete. However we have better players on £60k + PW so are more competitive, but that comes at the expense of having to sell to balance the books. It's crap, but it's where we are sadly.

[Turkish]

  On 04/08/2021 at 22:42, egg said:

I get all this, and what SKD says, but economically we had to sell this summer as we can't just bin off £30m.

As Villa were the club offering the money, we had to take it. As hard as it is to stomach, Villa are no longer at our level. They're propped up with money, and we're treading water. 

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Totally agree, said earlier it’s a good deal. But 3-4 years ago only the top 5 or 6 were seen as a better option. Now we struggle to compete with any other premier league club.