Southampton et al should club together and demand changes. No team should be there just to make up the numbers. Without Southampton et al, Man City and co are NOTHING
To be fair, we have stood our ground on certain topics. We voted against the big clubs pay reforms when the pressure was mounting. I hope we stand our ground when the money men come calling about the 39th game, and I think we. Well, unless Fraser is still hanging around the parking lot!
I remember reading somewhere that there was a Financial Fair Play issue for us if we bought him this summer as well. True?
to be fair though he was our No1 and emerging as Englands No1 when that deal was done I know the defence played a large part in this, but Jan 2016 - 708 mins without conceding!!!
Yep, it called "short memory-itis" spidey. Easy to moan after the event...... Those who chanted that he was England's No 1 back then, were happy enough when that new contract was announced.
The way I see it is that currently there are 4 points in Southampton - there are no points in West Ham
There is no way this is the new owners plan. Who invests large sums of money to achieve mediocrity? I think you and Archers are both right though as we need a mixed bag of players who we can keep, players we might keep and players we try to keep for as long as possible. At least minimising the number of clubs who can steal from us helps. We also need to improve on the youth input again. Meantime we try to increase commercial revenue so we can pay players more. This season's examples are Gunn, JV, Moy, Stuart, Ings who all improve the squad. Gallagher who I'm excited to see play more We've kept Berty and Cedric who might have gone We've had a blip but many clubs like us end up in the Championship from their blip and we haven't, so hopefully we are now building again
Someone who is using the club for some other reason? Look at Mike Ashley at Newcastle as an example, he has basically used the club to push Sports Direct globally. It is debatable whether the Gao's have invested huge sums of money. There has been talk that they took out a loan against the club to purchase the club (I'm sure someone with more accounting knowledge than me can verify that) so as long as the club is making enough to pay back the loan repayments then it is fine. Think Glazers at Man Utd but on a much smaller scale. Staying in the PL is worth a fortune, only 3 teams go down each year from about 12 candidates, seems a pretty good gamble to me to buy an established side if you are looking to use the club for some other reason and have it be pretty self sufficient.
Also known as Fifa-Pro-Evolution-Manager-itis ("Running a football club is a doddle, I've just won the treble")
True, but as I think Archers said you can't run a stable EPL club and he must know that. If you don't try and improve you die. Newly promoted teams are the only ones who can target 17th place. Plus kudos doesn't come from surviving. I know the funding was not simple but he still has skin ion the game and I'm not sure what his 'Sports Direct' is. I think Ashley and Newcastle is different for a number of reasons. 1st Newcastle is a much bigger brand and club than us from the off. 2nd He's a fan and that skews things because he has emotional investment and ego and he wants to be a True Geordie Hero (not going well is it?) Looking at your Avatar - Who is that and is that a Newcastle shirt?
Sports Direct is the company Mike Ashley owns, it is basically a sports shop that sells everything. He has it branded all over Newcastle's stuff now so people think he uses Newcastle for essentially free advertising in a huge global market (the PL) as he hardly puts any money into the club and just lets it run self sufficiently, whilst making money from Sports Direct himself. I have no idea if he is an actual fan, he is from London so isn't a Geordie anyway. I agree about Newcastle being bigger, but there isn't THAT much in it in reality when you consider the ££££ on offer from being in the PL and how the Gao's could potentially grow their other businesses by using Saints to do it. I am speculating of course but the evidence so far is that they aren't going to be pumping loads of money in. My avatar is Bendtner, it is a Juve shirt. I forgot to change it after the World Cup when I drew Denmark in the sweepstake.