The problem with Jack Wilshere is attitude. Class player, poor attitude. There has always been questions throughout his career about how he looks after himself away from football, poor diet, smoking etc. It is why he has always had injuries. Jack Wilshere comes with high wages. I put this as a high risk for Bournemouth. Can work if he plays regularly, if he doesn't it is money for nothing.
Having watched the latest press conference it seemed quite clear that Ralph is under a lot of pressure with so many players injured and the use of our medical and training facilities restricted. He was very open about Saints being in a difficult financial position but also said that was nothing unique and most other clubs were also facing difficulties. He definitely wasn't his usual up-beat self but I guess that is understandable when the guy is facing many players being sidelined for longer periods than normal, and the club finances being something that has to be finely balanced. He clearly has a very tough job, made much harder by the Covid crisis and this season might not turn out to be what it might have been. What I saw in his statement was that of course he wants Danny and Ryan to sign new contracts but there is only so much money available, and at their age the length of contracts are maybe not quite what the players are hoping for. Maybe Saints are looking at shorter contracts to avoid the mess we are in with Fraser's contract, and you can't blame them for that. I like it that Saints are a club that has to work within our means rather than chucking money at mega stars. I couldn't support a club like that and don't see any value in effectively buying success. The most important thing for me is that we have a brilliant manager, who could possibly turn out to be not only one of the best we have ever had, but also one of the longest serving managers in our history. Keeping Ralph and having him build a really good team and to have an academy that is regularly producing exciting young players will be something to really get behind. I still think Danny and Ryan will sign new contracts and next season could be something special.
Absolutely agree, though I fear if the status quo continues too long, and we don't find a sensible buyer, that working with no cash might get a bit frustrating...
I agree that’s a distinct possibility, but then again, although Saints’ finances look dire, we are one of the first clubs to publish our accounts. If most of the PL is in a similar position to us, as well they might be, things begin to look more positive again. The one thing we have on our side is an excellent board driving the sustainability agenda, so our recovery from this period might be quicker than most people’s l
I agree about having what seems like a good board in place. However, will that recovery and sustainability come from selling players like Ings & JWP, who have been integral in the turnaround of the club (along with Ralph obviously), or are our long term finances based on a big sponsorship deal/new owner/sales of less players etc? Be interesting, as it always is with Saints, to see what happens.
It's all speculation with the likelihood of something completely left field to confound us all. Danny, JWP, Bertie and Ralph to stay on melding the exiting new academy players into a trophy winning machine. A blend of youth and experience creating the new model for EPL clubs. There will be statues!
In some ways JWP already deserves one. Assuming he is still here in October it will mark an incredible 10 years as a first team player, and he’ll still only be 26 years old.
Simply 'liking' this post does not do it justice. My only other hope is that this season could be something special too. One thing that frustrates me about football at the moment is the obscene amount of money being ploughed into the game to the point where players on £70k per week are still looking for the next 'bigger' pay day. Putting aside all the horrors that we are experiencing from the pandemic, I can't help feeling the economic constraints could help the EPL financial bubble to implode so we can return to a sensibly financed sport.
This thread has descended into a Saints love in! Like someone has slipped something into our drink/cigarette!
We were already in about the worst financial shape of any PL club prior to the pandemic. The extent to which it's a driver is being vastly overstated by our board: it absolutely doesn't help, but the real problem is that our transfer dealings were really bad for years, which led us to have a mountain of bad contracts on the books. I'm also not sure what makes the board 'excellent', if I'm being honest. We do seem to be making positive steps, and we did hang on to Ralph, but years of preaching sustainability left us with a totally unsustainable debt crisis.
Les Reed and Ralph Krueger’s doing. The current board are slowly getting us out of that hole, and but for Covid would have got us further out.
Perhaps? Our player recruitment has improved, but this board also signed a shirt sponsorship with a company that effectively didn't exist. I'm not quite sure that I'm ready to christen them as our saviors just yet...most of that credit goes to Ralph.
A tale of two clubs, who were in a similar position a few years ago. Two owners who loved the club, and invested money, sadly the two owners past away at different times. Their ownership was passed on to their kids, one has continued the great work by their father, and as of tonight are top of the league, the other sold us to an unknown silent businessman who doesnt seem to want to invest in the club!