Interesting article here showing how little our net spend has been over last 5 years. Easily the lowest in the league excluding the relegated teams. Some will say it shows you have to spend big to climb the table whilst others will undoubtedly say it shows good management to keep us in the top flight with such a modest investment. I think the thing that strikes me though is that, whilst it would be nice to see a stronger investment, I love Saints because we haven't succumbed to the spend spend spend of modern football. Interesting to see that Brighton and Burnley finished below us despite a bigger net spend. Similarly Wolves - who finished 2 points above us in the league (but for a couple of shameful performances toward the end of the season we should have finished above them!) - have a net spend of £217m. Thats nearly 8 times our own net spend. All for two points!
We have succumbed to the spend-spend-spend, we just do it on exorbitant wages for bad players, rather than transfer fees. We have had some of the highest wage bills in the PL outside the big six in recent years, which is why we're losing so much money. This isn't some brave stand against football finance: the people that ran the club were just really bad at their jobs, and in trying to be cheap they somehow created a massive money pit. It's some sort of achievement to lose more money than all but one or two clubs in the PL while also investing less in transfers than anyone else, but not one I'd really celebrate.
I don't know what was more sickening seeing us 17th only ahead of the promoted teams or Carillo as how highest buy
Yeah I'm not really sure that we've not bought into the spend mantra. You've seen our wage bill right? Up until the most recent season we were literally paying a 3rd choice goalkeeper 80k a week. We're as bad as most other clubs for spending ridiculous money. We just do it in a different way.
For those curious, the profligate spenders in Burnley posted a pre-tax profit of £5m in 2019/20. Brighton posted a pre-tax loss of £22m. Savvy, cash-conscious Saints lost £76m.
Yeah, I'm actually fairly hopeful about the new management team. Pair them with a new owner who has the ability to catch us if we fall and that would rise all the way to genuinely optimistic. But there's really no mistaking what happened before they arrived on the scene.
The previous management team could easily have driven us back into administration, so inept were they at the fundamentals, This transfer window SHOULD see us cut out the last of the dead wood.
Can't disagree with any of that. Faith in the current set up is the only thing that matters really. I just don't get the blame game for previous management teams. Yes, we lost our way a bit but that, for me is a collective responsibility not down to one person. Les Reed, after all, was part of the team that gave us Lambert, VVD, Mane, Tadic and Pelle signings was he not?
The word 'here' is in blue = hyperlink to the page https://www.shieldsgazette.com/spor...ompares-to-leicester-southampton-more-3277086
