InvictaSaint Posted 22 January, 2023 Share Posted 22 January, 2023 (edited) Afternoon All. Not trying to be defeatist or negative....but given our current position it would be naïve not to think about what happens to the club if Saints go down at the end of the season. I thought therefore that this section - which I have transcribed - of the recent BBC Solent interview between Adam Blackmore, Rasmus Ankersen and Martin Semmens is of particular relevance and importance. I've highlighted the bits I think are worthy of note....Thoughts welcome. MS: You’ve got to have a plan you’ve got to give Nathan the resources he needs. AB: How much is the reality of relegation a catalyst for everybody? What happens....how much do Sports Republic worry about relegation and the impact it has on the future of the club or do you think long-term the club will be okay anyway the club will recover if things don’t go well with the backing it’s got? MS: let me answer that and then Rasmus can answer from a Sports Republic point of view, but yes absolutely... so a football club in our position every year focuses 100% on staying in the league and winning games but there is a plan in the background if things you know do not go our way so there’s nothing different or complicated to that. The one thing I can say is that we are having a wonderful ownership group now who have an investment, that are committed to the long-term. It is not a short-term plan so we are in a very very good financial position for the league we are in and any league we’re in and any plan that we have in future so I can only really say that we’re in a stronger position than we’ve ever been. I know that sounds counterintuitive when we’re bottom of the league but from a club structural point of view and an ownership-investment point of view we are in the best position we’ve been in since I’ve been here. AB: Rasmus would you like to add anything to that? RA: Yeah I mean (laughs).... if you are in one of the bottom 12 clubs of the Premier League, you have a certain risk every year of relegation you know and it would be you know irresponsible not to take that into account, but this is the risk of being in the Premier League The risk in the investment. And we fully bought into that but what I can assure you is we are fully committed to the long term of Southampton Football Club. You know we really want to make this successful. We are working as hard....we are fighting as hard as we can and we hope we can get everybody behind us for the last 19 games of the Premier League and then I’m sure we’ll get there. Edited 22 January, 2023 by InvictaSaint 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr X Posted 22 January, 2023 Share Posted 22 January, 2023 They are certainly going to need to be committed to the long term future like they bang on about as getting back out of the championship is going to be extremely difficult to achieve within 5 years! They have got so many decisions wrong in the premier league why would any fans trust them to make the right decisions in the championship? Also when we go down theres no way they could stick with jones surely as animosity towards him would be intense then again they obviously feared we were going to get relegated hence employing him in the first place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted 22 January, 2023 Share Posted 22 January, 2023 3 hours ago, InvictaSaint said: Afternoon All. Not trying to be defeatist or negative....but given our current position it would be naïve not to think about what happens to the club if Saints go down at the end of the season. I thought therefore that this section - which I have transcribed - of the recent BBC Solent interview between Adam Blackmore, Rasmus Ankersen and Martin Semmens is of particular relevance and importance. I've highlighted the bits I think are worthy of note....Thoughts welcome. MS: You’ve got to have a plan you’ve got to give Nathan the resources he needs. AB: How much is the reality of relegation a catalyst for everybody? What happens....how much do Sports Republic worry about relegation and the impact it has on the future of the club or do you think long-term the club will be okay anyway the club will recover if things don’t go well with the backing it’s got? MS: let me answer that and then Rasmus can answer from a Sports Republic point of view, but yes absolutely... so a football club in our position every year focuses 100% on staying in the league and winning games but there is a plan in the background if things you know do not go our way so there’s nothing different or complicated to that. The one thing I can say is that we are having a wonderful ownership group now who have an investment, that are committed to the long-term. It is not a short-term plan so we are in a very very good financial position for the league we are in and any league we’re in and any plan that we have in future so I can only really say that we’re in a stronger position than we’ve ever been. I know that sounds counterintuitive when we’re bottom of the league but from a club structural point of view and an ownership-investment point of view we are in the best position we’ve been in since I’ve been here. AB: Rasmus would you like to add anything to that? RA: Yeah I mean (laughs).... if you are in one of the bottom 12 clubs of the Premier League, you have a certain risk every year of relegation you know and it would be you know irresponsible not to take that into account, but this is the risk of being in the Premier League The risk in the investment. And we fully bought into that but what I can assure you is we are fully committed to the long term of Southampton Football Club. You know we really want to make this successful. We are working as hard....we are fighting as hard as we can and we hope we can get everybody behind us for the last 19 games of the Premier League and then I’m sure we’ll get there. Surely the title should have when instead of if 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stknowle Posted 22 January, 2023 Share Posted 22 January, 2023 (edited) 3 hours ago, InvictaSaint said: Afternoon All. Not trying to be defeatist or negative....but given our current position it would be naïve not to think about what happens to the club if Saints go down at the end of the season. I thought therefore that this section - which I have transcribed - of the recent BBC Solent interview between Adam Blackmore, Rasmus Ankersen and Martin Semmens is of particular relevance and importance. I've highlighted the bits I think are worthy of note....Thoughts welcome. MS: You’ve got to have a plan you’ve got to give Nathan the resources he needs. AB: How much is the reality of relegation a catalyst for everybody? What happens....how much do Sports Republic worry about relegation and the impact it has on the future of the club or do you think long-term the club will be okay anyway the club will recover if things don’t go well with the backing it’s got? MS: let me answer that and then Rasmus can answer from a Sports Republic point of view, but yes absolutely... so a football club in our position every year focuses 100% on staying in the league and winning games but there is a plan in the background if things you know do not go our way so there’s nothing different or complicated to that. The one thing I can say is that we are having a wonderful ownership group now who have an investment, that are committed to the long-term. It is not a short-term plan so we are in a very very good financial position for the league we are in and any league we’re in and any plan that we have in future so I can only really say that we’re in a stronger position than we’ve ever been. I know that sounds counterintuitive when we’re bottom of the league but from a club structural point of view and an ownership-investment point of view we are in the best position we’ve been in since I’ve been here. AB: Rasmus would you like to add anything to that? RA: Yeah I mean (laughs).... if you are in one of the bottom 12 clubs of the Premier League, you have a certain risk every year of relegation you know and it would be you know irresponsible not to take that into account, but this is the risk of being in the Premier League The risk in the investment. And we fully bought into that but what I can assure you is we are fully committed to the long term of Southampton Football Club. You know we really want to make this successful. We are working as hard....we are fighting as hard as we can and we hope we can get everybody behind us for the last 19 games of the Premier League and then I’m sure we’ll get there. Waffle blah blah waffle blah. Edited 22 January, 2023 by stknowle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Munster Posted 22 January, 2023 Share Posted 22 January, 2023 Quote we are having a wonderful ownership group now who have an investment, that are committed to the long-term. It is not a short-term plan so we are in a very very good financial position for the league we are in and any league we’re in and any plan that we have in future so I can only really say that we’re in a stronger position than we’ve ever been. Words are cheap. Why should we believe any of that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InvictaSaint Posted 22 January, 2023 Author Share Posted 22 January, 2023 2 hours ago, stknowle said: Waffle blah blah waffle blah. Me….or them?! 😳🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InvictaSaint Posted 22 January, 2023 Author Share Posted 22 January, 2023 1 hour ago, Dark Munster said: Words are cheap. Why should we believe any of that? Not saying we should. Just interested in people’s thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Munster Posted 22 January, 2023 Share Posted 22 January, 2023 6 minutes ago, InvictaSaint said: Not saying we should. Just interested in people’s thoughts. It seems the two jokers (Semmens and Ankersen) are not very worried about relegation, since the owner is loaded. Two thoughts on that: 1) That blasé attitude is a recipe for relegation. 2) Dragan is probably none too pleased with them being so casual about him losing a fortune if/when we go down. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SotonianWill Posted 22 January, 2023 Share Posted 22 January, 2023 I hope we don’t go down, the premier league is the best league in the world, the epitome of the best experiance a fan can get 😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫 on a serious note, I saw during the transfer window weirdo fans online spreading that meme of ‘sport republic worshipping’ (if you saw those accounts posting in, you’d have shared my feeling of cringe) they looked like right twats then and they look even worse now, fuck sports republic. I believe they will stay on due to rasmus success in brentford promotion so he’ll be confident in doing so again, but that dosent mean I want them to. they’re all annoyingly smug about turning our club into a youth team, couldn’t have one beer between them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stknowle Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 8 hours ago, InvictaSaint said: Me….or them?! 😳🤔 Ha - them. No messenger shooting here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miltonaggro Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 I actually feel sorry for Dragan Solak with cocky charlatans like these two in charge of his investment. There are shades of Lowe in the ignorant flawed lateral thinking and shades of Cortese in the willingness to part a billionaire with a slice of his wealth. Complete wankers. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Fan CaM Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 It’s an interesting insight and AB asked the right question, but the big issue is around the appointment of Ralph’s replacement which is an impossible topic for them to explore in a public forum. The style and substance of how the team plays and the team sheet will dictate whether the project is a success or not in the short, mid and long term. This is where the key investment needs to take place, however despite some fortunate wins, they’ve demonstrably got this wrong in my opinion with Jones appointment. That and not improving the pool of striking capability in the SUMMER, but that’s a function of them either backing or sacking Ralph at the end of last season. Everything has happened too late…Semmens is behind the curve when you need to be on the front foot to match or better every other club in the Premier league. My biggest fear during Ralph’s reign to date is the deficient style of football we’ve witnessed over the last 3-4 years. It’s not always been this bad, but the substance of how we play has deteriorated due to the quality in the squad being eroded. One goes hand in hand with the other. Where has the pass and move gone? Where has the ‘press as a pack’ physicality gone? Nathan Jones is not a bad Manager - he’s just one that does not know how to be successful in the EPL and now even decent player signings will not get us out this mess. The squad we’ve got is capable- they’re just being managed wrong and the buck stops with the weakness inherent in the Board. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miltonaggro Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 16 hours ago, InvictaSaint said: Afternoon All. Not trying to be defeatist or negative....but given our current position it would be naïve not to think about what happens to the club if Saints go down at the end of the season. I thought therefore that this section - which I have transcribed - of the recent BBC Solent interview between Adam Blackmore, Rasmus Ankersen and Martin Semmens is of particular relevance and importance. I've highlighted the bits I think are worthy of note....Thoughts welcome. MS: You’ve got to have a plan you’ve got to give Nathan the resources he needs. AB: How much is the reality of relegation a catalyst for everybody? What happens....how much do Sports Republic worry about relegation and the impact it has on the future of the club or do you think long-term the club will be okay anyway the club will recover if things don’t go well with the backing it’s got? MS: let me answer that and then Rasmus can answer from a Sports Republic point of view, but yes absolutely... so a football club in our position every year focuses 100% on staying in the league and winning games but there is a plan in the background if things you know do not go our way so there’s nothing different or complicated to that. The one thing I can say is that we are having a wonderful ownership group now who have an investment, that are committed to the long-term. It is not a short-term plan so we are in a very very good financial position for the league we are in and any league we’re in and any plan that we have in future so I can only really say that we’re in a stronger position than we’ve ever been. I know that sounds counterintuitive when we’re bottom of the league but from a club structural point of view and an ownership-investment point of view we are in the best position we’ve been in since I’ve been here. AB: Rasmus would you like to add anything to that? RA: Yeah I mean (laughs).... if you are in one of the bottom 12 clubs of the Premier League, you have a certain risk every year of relegation you know and it would be you know irresponsible not to take that into account, but this is the risk of being in the Premier League The risk in the investment. And we fully bought into that but what I can assure you is we are fully committed to the long term of Southampton Football Club. You know we really want to make this successful. We are working as hard....we are fighting as hard as we can and we hope we can get everybody behind us for the last 19 games of the Premier League and then I’m sure we’ll get there. With such visionaries at the helm it’s probably time to change the club slogan from ‘We March On’ to ‘We Waffle On’. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr X Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 5 hours ago, Miltonaggro said: With such visionaries at the helm it’s probably time to change the club slogan from ‘We March On’ to ‘We Waffle On’. Exactly they clearly talk the talk but don't walk the walk! None of their ideas have transpired to anything visionary on the pitch in fact quite the opposite! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simo is back Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 *when Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highfield Saint Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 17 hours ago, Dark Munster said: Words are cheap. Why should we believe any of that? Ummm - maybe because they stand to lose many tens of millions £ if they dont recover the situation? If we lose they lose - simples Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miltonaggro Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 19 minutes ago, Highfield Saint said: Ummm - maybe because they stand to lose many tens of millions £ if they dont recover the situation? If we lose they lose - simples Solak loses massively, Kraft to an extent but these two muppets would continue to be overpaid for their mediocrity, right up until the point they are seen through by those paying them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Munster Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 47 minutes ago, Highfield Saint said: Ummm - maybe because they stand to lose many tens of millions £ if they dont recover the situation? If we lose they lose - simples Those two clowns won’t lose anything (except their pride). Dragan is the one who is on course for losing a fortune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david in sweden Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 (edited) 18 hours ago, Dark Munster said: Words are cheap. Why should we believe any of that? ...and, as a matter of interest ..what would your reply have been ? If we were to prematurely sack Nathan Jones, we could offer the job to either of Englands' best and most experienced players in the last 15 years - Messers. Lampard and Gerrard, Surely they would be good choices for Premier League management...having been sacked from two of the richest and successful clubs around. Even the best players don't automatically make good managers. Edited 23 January, 2023 by david in sweden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctoroncall Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 It just seems that they are in for the long term (for now) which hast altered their strategy with the team being in the relegation zone. If we are relegated, I cannot see the approach changing, obviously we will lose key players but if finances are not an issue they don’t need to go cheaply at least and there could be potential for young players to perform well at that level eg Tella, Obafemi, and others prior to the past couple of seasons. But again, as long as there are some experienced players in the squad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 I like the optimism of the "if" in the title! 🙂 I also like the relaxed tone of MS and RA. Not for them that Cortese ruthlessness to drive success. Because he was a berk. Far better to have a knowing chuckle. After all, we're in the strongest position we've ever been. Even including the days we had a striker. I'm sure all the club staff staring redundancy in the face, if we drop, will share in the laughter. It's normal practice to have contingency planning. It's less common to incompetently drive your organisation towards having to implement them. At the bottom of the table, responses should be a balance of reassurance, self awareness and drive to get us out of it. We only got the first part, and that read as complacent. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted 23 January, 2023 Share Posted 23 January, 2023 If they "really want to make this successful", where is the new striker ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BotleySaint Posted 25 January, 2023 Share Posted 25 January, 2023 It's nice to hear they want to stick around and make us successful etc. But they've made a lot of bad decisions so far, over and over again. So unless they learn from that, it does not bode well and suggests we'd be better off if they didn't stick around for the long term. Possibly bringing Wilcox in is a step towards trying to improve the decision making. Hope so.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Give it to Ron Posted 25 January, 2023 Share Posted 25 January, 2023 No Var is a bonus !! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redkeith Posted 25 January, 2023 Share Posted 25 January, 2023 We will get a lot of money, from the sale of KWP, ABK, Lavia, JWP and Alcarez, but most of the should probably be used to pay of the Covid debt. Salisu , Adams and Tella will also raise some cash , and Elyonousi will go on a free transfer. Lyancos agent thinks he can get a move to Brazil and Willy will be state pension age by then. Theo will retire. This will leave us with a squad of: - GK Bazunu, McCarthy RB Liveramento ( until he proves his fitness, hopefully), Payne LB Perraud, Larios CB DCC, Bednarek, Simeo, Stephens MF Diallo,Smallbone, Finnegan AMF Arribo, S Armstrong ,Pearce, Dibbling, Wing Djenepo, Orsic, Edozie, Orsic Forward Mara, A Armstrong, Ballard . There is the basis of a squad there, with a need for midfield reinforcements, a Goal keeper and of course, a Centre Forward. We will have parachute payments, but we will be lucky to sell 10,000 season tickets. Many people I know are no longer willing to fork out that amount of money when there have only been 3 or 4 decent home games a season since Koeman left 6 years ago! I can see it going as badly as last time, although you would hope they can do better than signing Denis Wise, Hjato and the other Willy McKay clients that we bought. The most important thing will be to get Payne, Pearce , Dibbling and Ballard involved, or else the Academy players will walk out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Garrett Posted 26 January, 2023 Share Posted 26 January, 2023 Fulham got promoted by keeping Mitrovic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee On Solent Saint Posted 26 January, 2023 Share Posted 26 January, 2023 On 25/01/2023 at 11:13, redkeith said: We will get a lot of money, from the sale of KWP, ABK, Lavia, JWP and Alcarez, but most of the should probably be used to pay of the Covid debt. Salisu , Adams and Tella will also raise some cash , and Elyonousi will go on a free transfer. Lyancos agent thinks he can get a move to Brazil and Willy will be state pension age by then. Theo will retire. This will leave us with a squad of: - GK Bazunu, McCarthy RB Liveramento ( until he proves his fitness, hopefully), Payne LB Perraud, Larios CB DCC, Bednarek, Simeo, Stephens MF Diallo,Smallbone, Finnegan AMF Arribo, S Armstrong ,Pearce, Dibbling, Wing Djenepo, Orsic, Edozie, Orsic Forward Mara, A Armstrong, Ballard . There is the basis of a squad there, with a need for midfield reinforcements, a Goal keeper and of course, a Centre Forward. We will have parachute payments, but we will be lucky to sell 10,000 season tickets. Many people I know are no longer willing to fork out that amount of money when there have only been 3 or 4 decent home games a season since Koeman left 6 years ago! I can see it going as badly as last time, although you would hope they can do better than signing Denis Wise, Hjato and the other Willy McKay clients that we bought. The most important thing will be to get Payne, Pearce , Dibbling and Ballard involved, or else the Academy players will walk out. That squad looks shocking even for the Championship. DCC, Bednarek and Orsic are experienced international players. What makes you so sure they are going to still be here? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarehamSaintJames Posted 26 January, 2023 Share Posted 26 January, 2023 I wonder how many of our players (if any), have relegation wage drops in their contracts. I can’t imagine they’ll be many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Clarke Posted 26 January, 2023 Share Posted 26 January, 2023 Just now, FarehamSaintJames said: I wonder how many of our players (if any), have relegation wage drops in their contracts. I can’t imagine they’ll be many. Given that the club have spent the last 2 years convincing us all that we're lucky to be here, then I'd expect them to have put clauses in everyone's contracts given that they've been preparing for this day with their attitudes and actions. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarehamSaintJames Posted 26 January, 2023 Share Posted 26 January, 2023 Just now, S-Clarke said: Given that the club have spent the last 2 years convincing us all that we're lucky to be here, then I'd expect them to have put clauses in everyone's contracts given that they've been preparing for this day with their attitudes and actions. I suppose it depends when the co tracts are signed. SR have only been here a year, and I can’t recall there being many contracts signed in the past year (not including new players). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted 26 January, 2023 Share Posted 26 January, 2023 26 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said: I wonder how many of our players (if any), have relegation wage drops in their contracts. I can’t imagine they’ll be many. I'd have thought they would be in there as standard. Southampton have finance arrangements with MSD because we are at too high a risk of the drop for others to accept. That should be replicated in the contracts of the playing staff. I can't think of any player we've signed that was so good, we'd risk not having that clause in during negotiations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redkeith Posted 26 January, 2023 Share Posted 26 January, 2023 40 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said: That squad looks shocking even for the Championship. DCC, Bednarek and Orsic are experienced international players. What makes you so sure they are going to still be here? Bednarek couldn't get a game for Villa, so I think there could be a shortage of takers, but DCC and Orsic could get buyers if they do well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted 27 January, 2023 Share Posted 27 January, 2023 On 26/01/2023 at 20:36, Wade Garrett said: Fulham got promoted by keeping Mitrovic. Just watch us flog anything we can get a decent fee for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodsaint1 Posted 27 January, 2023 Share Posted 27 January, 2023 Dont see Adams and Alcaraz leaving. The sale of Lavia, KWP and Salisu wil give us plenty of funding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benjii Posted 28 January, 2023 Share Posted 28 January, 2023 If we can keep the finances even then provided some of the recent signings stay, we could actually have a pretty good season. As others have said JWP, KWP, Lavia, Salisu and ABK will off. Should get well over 100,000,000 for those unless we completely fuck up proceedings. Can see a newly promoted team being interested in Che too. AMN loan will end. Willy and Theo off to run a pub. Defence looks decent for Championship with DCC, Bednarek, Perraud and Tino but would need a bit of cover added. Central midfield is poor but if Acaraz stays then just need to get a bit of muscle in. Upfront, Mara and Armstrong should be quality. Give some of the kids a go on wings too. Wouldn't need major surgery. A lot of our players are better than people think, they've just been saddled with inert and poor leadership. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 28 January, 2023 Share Posted 28 January, 2023 2 hours ago, benjii said: If we can keep the finances even then provided some of the recent signings stay, we could actually have a pretty good season. As others have said JWP, KWP, Lavia, Salisu and ABK will off. Should get well over 100,000,000 for those unless we completely fuck up proceedings. Can see a newly promoted team being interested in Che too. AMN loan will end. Willy and Theo off to run a pub. Defence looks decent for Championship with DCC, Bednarek, Perraud and Tino but would need a bit of cover added. Central midfield is poor but if Acaraz stays then just need to get a bit of muscle in. Upfront, Mara and Armstrong should be quality. Give some of the kids a go on wings too. Wouldn't need major surgery. A lot of our players are better than people think, they've just been saddled with inert and poor leadership. Yep. We're actually in not a terrible position if we get relegated. A lot of our players are not really good enough for the prem at the moment but probably quite decent championship players. Bazunu in goal or maybe a new keeper, Bree is proven in the championship and someone like Stephens would be good along with Bednarek if he stays, maybe DCC and Perraud and then real quality with Tino if he has recovered. We could maybe persuade Alcaraz and Orsic to stay, get rid of Mo and Armstrong will probably go to Scotland. Edozie would probably stay and he'd be a good option on the wings. I'd say if we get a chance for some signings we should concentrate in midfield where we will probably need replacements for Lavia and JWP, AMN and maybe Diallo so success will depend on if we manage to get the midfield sorted. Armstrong and Mara should be decent up front and we'd maybe have Adams but you'd hope that we'd have enough cash to bring in a top championship striker like Brereton Diaz or similar. It may be own club bias but I think there's some real championship quality there. If we keep the players I've predicted I'd like to see us sign: Keeper Lb or utility defender DM x2 Cm Winger Striker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgey Posted 28 January, 2023 Share Posted 28 January, 2023 (edited) This is the thing, if we do this right we should be in a good position. JWP / KWP / ABK / Lavia / Salisu will all have suitors - £120m min for that lot or we’ve had a shocker. Let’s say we pocket £80m to pay off loans that leaves £40m to re-invest - big budget for that level. Also assume we’re not mad enough to give Walcott/Willy/AMN a contract. That’s 8 high earners off the wage bill Then the squad: Gk: Bazuna, McCarthy, other bloke we bought RB: Livramento, Bree, Paine LB: Perraud, Larios, Small CB: Stephens, Bednerak, Lyanco, CC, Simeu Mid: Diallo, Smallbone, Alvarez, Moi (new contract), Finegan A Mid: S Armstrong, Edozie, Aribo, Djenepo, Osric, Tella, Dibbling, Pearce FW: Adams, Armstrong, Mara, Ballard Thats a squad of 30 I would argue should be minimum play offs - you have 3 players who have scored a decent amount in that division, a few who have shined in the SPL which is equivalent, and a fair few youngsters who have already done ok in the Prem, a right back many are saying is one of the best in that division and of course a manager proven at that level. it’s missing a bit of muscle and nastiness at cb and dm which you need in that division, but with £40m he could easily raid Luton to get that with change. Momentum would be the key and getting over the losing habit. But I’m not seeing a team that would struggle there. Edited 28 January, 2023 by Hodgey Missed Caleta Carr ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chez Posted 28 January, 2023 Share Posted 28 January, 2023 12 hours ago, Turkish said: Just watch us flog anything we can get a decent fee for We certainly did last time, with the sale of Crouch keeping us afloat according to Lowe. But what's the alternative? Keep everyone to try to go straight back up and add another £50m, £60m of debt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkish Posted 28 January, 2023 Share Posted 28 January, 2023 41 minutes ago, Chez said: We certainly did last time, with the sale of Crouch keeping us afloat according to Lowe. But what's the alternative? Keep everyone to try to go straight back up and add another £50m, £60m of debt? Lowe, the bloke who refused to sign Malbranque and Saha because he didn’t want to make Fulham financially stronger and us financially weaker. I’ve never heard that before about Crouch but I’m calling bullshit on it if he did say it, how many clubs go bust the minute they get relegated from the premier league? obviously some will go as they’ll want to stay in the premier league but other clubs have managed to hold onto their better players and given it a good go for a season or two. Let’s face it if we don’t do it within two years we’ll be down there for a while anyway so let’s give it a good go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 28 January, 2023 Share Posted 28 January, 2023 25 minutes ago, Turkish said: Lowe, the bloke who refused to sign Malbranque and Saha because he didn’t want to make Fulham financially stronger and us financially weaker. I’ve never heard that before about Crouch but I’m calling bullshit on it if he did say it, how many clubs go bust the minute they get relegated from the premier league? obviously some will go as they’ll want to stay in the premier league but other clubs have managed to hold onto their better players and given it a good go for a season or two. Let’s face it if we don’t do it within two years we’ll be down there for a while anyway so let’s give it a good go. I'd like to see us give a good go of keeping jwp for a season. No idea if he'd want to or if its realistic but I think there might be a chance. Would massively increase our chances of going up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miltonaggro Posted 28 January, 2023 Share Posted 28 January, 2023 We’ve now had a year of Sport Republic’s stewardship after establishing in the Premier League for over a decade. I dread to think what their relegation crisis management would look like, but my guess is that Ankersen has a PowerPoint presentation already prepared. Forget any local PR, when we go down Solak will decide what happens and he may well cut and run. Could anyone actually blame him. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kraken Posted 28 January, 2023 Share Posted 28 January, 2023 32 minutes ago, hypochondriac said: I'd like to see us give a good go of keeping jwp for a season. No idea if he'd want to or if its realistic but I think there might be a chance. Would massively increase our chances of going up. Getting rid of JWP for a big fee might be problematic. He’s got a long stretch on his contract, so the club are ok in that regard. And surely he’ll have a few potential suitors from the PL. The issue comes with how high the transfer fee can realistically go. He’ll turn 29 next season, not sure how many clubs will be willing to shell out an enormous transfer fee. Top 6 could afford it but don’t know if they’d want him at the price being touted. The club may have to take a hit on the fee to get his wages off the books. Can’t see JWP being content to spend any time in the championship personally, unless he does an MLT and decides he doesn’t want to move from the south coast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dman Posted 28 January, 2023 Share Posted 28 January, 2023 (edited) Next season is the campaign before a European championship. There is no way we keep anyone with any ambition in playing in that.. JWP, ABK, DCC, lavia etc. Edited 28 January, 2023 by Dman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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