Gao Speaks....

Well, that's the obvious answer I got at the time. Doesn't answer the fact that it happened.

 

Until we attract the same kind of Billionaire that the big 6 + Everton have it will be forever the case. Even with Markus and Nicola here we weren't spending and matching the wages that those bigger clubs were offering. Any "ambitious" player would have their head turned when that type of club comes calling and it doesn't help when they spend time with players from those other clubs at international level and ****ing Roy Hodgson too!.

 

Of course there was a measure of good fortune, like any successful endeavour. But the club got themselves into rather an upward streak, due to the Cortese/Liebherr years of genuine ambition and a goal to qualify for Europe in one competition or another. They rather overshot from making up the numbers into real achievement above the ordinary. The fans were absolutely delighted and there was a really good feeling around the city. But there was always the nagging doubt, particularly of the Saints supporter, that the club would find a way to end it. One stays hopeful that they can once again capture the ambition to actually do something exciting, but I doubt it now. And in supporting the ambition to survive only they may find they flirt with relegation every season until it happens.
Let's hope bloody hard I'm wrong.

 

Here’s me being idealistic again, but it would be relatively simple for FIFA/UEFA to make a rule that players have to finish their contracts. That would also have the effect of lowering transfer fees from the ridiculous amounts they have become. Our business model would still work, especially if we carry on turning out decent graduates from the Academy.

 

No it was more than that.

 

Care to elaborate?


Sorry i've just read your reply to Fats.

 

If players had to stick to their contracts it would be tougher to sign good players on anything longer than one season.

 

Not yet again. I had enough conversations with various people the last time. I detailed it enough then. It's a done debate with me.

 

But you do keep posting about it TSS, you will get asked questions...

 

Well, related conversations and opinions appear that can be answered by my opinion that Saints were systematically dissected. I will be interested to see if it happens to Wolves. We'll see. My guess is that they have deeper pockets, but you never know. One to watch.

 

Minimum 3 year contracts. The top clubs can’t sign every player there is, so we would still have the same market available that we do now. The difference is that when we unearth a Mané or bring through an Oxlade-Chamberlain we get them for longer before we have to sell them

 

But if they have to see out their contract how could we sell them? Surely transfer fees would be completely eradicated in that scenario?

 

Well that wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

 

To change the structure, including the wages and transfer fee's, it would be great.
But there's too many fingers in the pie now. It won't happen.
But one day it will collapse, through greed mainly.
Hopefully we paint everything before that happens. Colour investment.

 

Under those circumstances, you'd be selling the contract.

I've mentioned that idea before, and it's really the only thing that would change matters. That said, my understanding is that it probably isn't legal under EU contract law.

 

Interesting! Call me uninformed, but football isn't an area I devote loads of time to, but I read somewhere today that the MLS has a salary cap. They did this because the previous incarnation of US Association Football blew up and folded because there wasn't one.

I find that interesting because even the bastiam of capitalism realises that you get a fairer sporting environment if salaries aren't so widely different.

 

But, we must remember why the salaries exploded if we are to solve the problem. Players were unhappy that the men in the suits where exploiting them, and they wanted a bigger share, so they fought for it. I read Robbie Fowler;s book a few years ago, and he is very honest about how unhappy he was, and he decided to fight them for a bigger cut. He considered himself & other players the entertainment, and didn't like the fact the people in the background were taking the lions share.

 

MLS is weeeeird. It has a salary cap, but with all manner of exceptions and clauses. It's less about making things fair than keeping the owners from going broke, though; most collective bargaining agreements in sport are. Beyond the drafts, fairness is not a top priority.

It's definitely a bit amusing that North American sports all feature very stringent contractual restrictions and their European counterparts are a free-for-all.

 

And one other thing that needs to be mentioned: player salaries in the PL are lower as a percentage of revenues than they've been for many years (though slightly higher than in other sports leagues; in the NBA, as an example, the players are guaranteed 50% of all revenues whereas players received 59% in the PL last year. Far fewer players on an NBA team however, so the paycheques are much larger). Players should be getting paid a lot of money; they are the key contributors in a league that generated almost £5b in revenues in 2016-17.

 

OK, thanks for the detail. Still, there are restrictions as you say, whereas in Europe the limit is how deep is the investors pocket and enthusiasm.