It may be some hundred and three days away, but on the 8th of June 2015 our summer transfer window re-opens. I don’t know about you but I’m already thinking about who and what we need to try and progress from our present standing. While I think it’s fair to say we will pretty much all agree on what’s required, the bigger question is what does our owner think we need? My guess is he’ll spend as little as possible to keep our current status in the Premier League. For me, the prudent, cautious approach, though I know some will say **** right stingy, is better than blowing big bucks on aging and possibly ‘had their day’ players. That said there surely has to be room for two, maybe three, quality experienced players who may well be 26 and over and I do feel we are far too rigid in our transfer policy. For every cracking little player like Ayoze Perez you will most likely get 3 or 4 mediocre duds. I also think Graham Carr being hailed a scouting genius is a bit much too, yes he’s un earthed a few gems but also a couple of duds as well. We have also been linked to many players on the well built up dossier of Grahams only to find ourselves outbid by other clubs due to our owner not wanting to be part of a bidding war. What then is the point of Carr putting in so much leg work if in the end we won’t pay the asking price. Again this just serves to show our rigidity in both age and price restrictions and this must be detrimental to us ever building a team of quality good enough to truely compete on any level. It’s also policy to wipe our own noses and we obviously sell to buy now and though that makes some financial sense it only works if you replace the quality you lost straight away; leaving it until the next window just leaves you in a perilous position.I would like to see us break the constraints a little and bring in a couple of quality guys alongside youth, what do you think?
KIMTOON
Kim Thanks I agree with you on our transfer policy, we badly need a real leader and they arn’t normally kids
Big Dave(Quote)
Thanks Kim. 😉
Definitely too rigid. The fact we have the second youngest squad in the league tells you everything
I think Carr has done a great job tbh. I’m sure many of his first recommendations have failed to materialise because of the transfer policy of paying low wages and fees.
It’s the lack of signings that’s the issue and we are relying on the youth too much.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Good article Kim, thanks. Dave’s right – Leadership has been lacking for years now and it normally comes with an age and price tag attached. What do we need? A leader at Centre Back and / or in defensive midfield, plus an arrogant hog the limelight striker to replace a issue who is clearly off for a Gulf pay day in the summer. Outside of that, replacements for those sold. I think that the squad can be worked with, but lacks quality and leadership in a couple of positions and a dominant personality in attack (compare that to Shearer and Bellamy). What will we get? Kids.
GTE(Quote)
no chance, we will still looking for bargins, not so bad if you manage to get them but Carr has brought some duck egss
john bertram(Quote)
Pointless. It’s not gonna change. Ashley wants to buy players as an investment and then improve the player, and therefore his value, and therefore the value of the club. Mind you, Arsenal have done that pretty well over the years so it’s not a terrible idea!
We have the likes of Saylor, Colo, Tiote, Krul and Cisse with plenty of experience so I don’t think we’re lacking too much there if I’m honest.
What I think we need most is a decent manager to imprint a sense of style on our side.
I still think it’s going to be bloody tough to even get 6th. The gap in revenue to the top 5 is gigantic, it’s still huge to Spurs in 6th but the chasing pack behind us isn’t that far behind. If Swansea or West Ham offer higher wages, most players will go there, and we can’t always afford to top their offers…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
A few duck eggs, sure, but compare our transfer record to that of most clubs in the Prem over the last few years, and it stands up – Anita looks too lightweight, but even then I’d like to see how he and AbeId say, fit into a more technically minded coach’s plans. Marveaux had talent but either bad attitude or fell out with Pardew. Obertan has talent, just no brain and was allegedly Pards’ pick anyway.
GTE(Quote)
The plight of Blackpool and Wigan shows how much money can make a difference…their income wouldn’t have been massively behind us when in the PL, but they’re plummeting like a stone now they’ve been relegated.
The TV money and coverage from the PL and CL has meant that the CL clubs get much richer but behind that, the PL becomes a much more even playing field. Not good for the clubs that are at the next level from the CL clubs…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Its as productive a transfer policy; we have bought some absolute gems there have been duds (disagree the there’s 3 or 4 for every one success btw) but no club gets it right all the time.
The flaw for me is the thinking is too long term, We should have with Steven Taylor injured & Yanga Mbiwa leaving brought in a short term stop gap, Huth, Toure, Kalas eg were all available
CC(Quote)
Not sure what the transfer policy is, so can’t really answer that question. And I have no idea what management is thinking so can’t really second guess that either.
It seems to me that what the default policy has been in the recent past is to deal within our budget. That has meant using sales to cover purchases. However, if the books are going to show a large profit because of tv money, then it may well be that the budget is bigger than just using sales.
Of course I wouldn’t put it past them to hoard the profits for whatever reason, again because I have no idea what the bigger picture management is looking at is.
For me, though, I’d like to see about 7 purples coming in and a whole load of dross shipped out. And I’d like a new coaching team – preferably of a continental persuasion – preferably German.
brisvegas(Quote)
The transfer policy is not too rigid, the problem is more fundamental than that! The transfer strategy is just utterly at odds to our strategy as football fans.
The clubs transfer strategy is 90% geared towards bringing in players to put them in the EPL spot light and then move them on for optimum profit. The remaining 10% goes towards achieving the only football ambition Mike Ashley has, which is stay in the EPL.
Anyone who think other than this is deluded.
They are not trying to build a team! How many times has the situation presented /required the squad to be improved and hasn’t been done? Finish 5th, buy now and push on? Nope.
Finish 16th, buy now to push up the league, nope our squad was deemed strong enough to stay in the EPL.
How many times have all of the fans known what position(s) on the field needs strengthening and we buy no-one or a player in another position? They are not building a ‘team’, SJP is not a football field it is a shop window!
The only time we buy is when a re-sellable profit-making bargain presents itself or if we are in serious danger of relegation. The sooner our fans accept this the sooner we can accept out situation.
Mag71(Quote)
CC
But those players wouldn’t want to be a short-term stop-gap only to be discarded in the summer. I’d rather see us blood the young players personally. They need to be given a chance to prove themselves.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
CC, that’s the thing mate, the fact we didn’t get cover for those guys is plain stupid and shows how rigid we are. There has to be some flexibility for when things go tits up, a football club is not the same as a branch of SD how ever much he thinks it is. His shop merchandise is in the main non perishables with going out of fashion/trend the worst situation likely; footballers can have poor form/ long term injury that see’s their value plummet. It’s simply not the same yet he insist on trying to run it like a shop, in the end most of the cash we make is tv cash not player sales.
kimtoon(Quote)
Why spend millions on signing on fees and wages just to maybe finish a place or too higher? It doesn’t make any sense! Better to blood a young player and save that money on a signing in the summer that’s going to be a long-term player.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
We have fans complaining that we don’t give young players a chance, fans complaining that we sign players on big wages who aren’t good enough long-term and fans complaining that we aren’t signing players as stop-gaps…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
ToonDarnSarf you are 100% spot on @13. Saving money is important.
Stem(Quote)
STEM
As long as it’s spent in the summer on proper players of course hey? 🙂
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
ToonDarnSarf there defiantly enough money for a few upgrades and freebies like Ayew and Ings. A new manager and a new style might just be why we have spent nothing.
Stem(Quote)
TDS @ 14 Then we have some fans that seem to be happy enough with how the club is going and is run, but they complain that other fans are not happy with how things are going 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
Why not ? two have gone on loan until the end of the season and ones out of contract in the summer
It would have been better for the to play for us for 6 months than leicester, boro or liverpools reserves. Wed have been a much better shop window for them imo
CC(Quote)
STEM
I’d like to think so! No point in wasting money for a nothing season. Players won’t sign 6 month contracts when they can go somewhere else on longer term contracts anyway, why would they?
Stop-gap players only go for the money.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
BIG DAVE
I don’t know any fan who is happy with how the club is run and how things are going to be honest mate…
But there’s a big difference between being happy and moaning about every little thing…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
CC
Why would Liverpool have sold or loaned Toure to us if they need him as backup? Why would we pay him £80kpw or something ridiculous?
Why would Huth join us for a few months when he is probably on a long-term contract with Leicester?
Why do we want to blood a 21 year old Chelsea youngster (who no other PL club wanted to loan and play presumably) rather than bloody the likes of Satka?
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Jabba only buy players 26 and under get two seasons out of them then move them on at a profit hopefully, i don’t think it will change there is no sell on value with older players jabba only interest is to stay in the PL the cheapest way.Carr has signed a couple of duffers but I think that’s not all his fault some players just cannot handle the PL then you need a coach/manager to get the best from then players imo Pardew could not handle flair players,Jong has came out and said he was never played as a striker at SJP and was told to play more or less in m/f he is now banging them in Holland again,its a case of not being able to handle the PL plus Pardew playing him out of position
icedog(Quote)
Who was here for a couple of seasons and sold at a profit? Ba? Release clause he insisted upon. Cabaye? Got good money for him and he was offered CL football and mega bucks back in France. Debuchy? Also of a certain age and he was offered big bucks and CL football. Enrique? Whinged about going for CL football so left.
Anyone else? No. Stop banging the same drum. It sounds stupid.
Tiote, Cisse, Krul, Colo, Sissoko all still here despite richer clubs surely having enquired at some point
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
TDS – good to have you back mate. It’s the Dutch model. Koeman said itlast week that in Netherlands coahces expect to have to rebuild a team each year, since any decent player gets picked up by Ajax or bought by a bigger foreign team. Makes you want to hire a coach who accepts and welcomes that model…
GTE(Quote)
TDS with one of the most outrageously ridiculous comments there about us not being able to afford to pay wages that Swansea pay! Unbelievable! Have you seen our accounts compared to theirs?
Stuart79(Quote)
TOONDARNSARF, are you on MA’s pay-roll? You’ve reeled off a nice list of players that MA has made a very healthy profit from and made excuses for selling them. As football fans we want our team to hold onto players like these not move them on as soon as you can.
What about very recently Santon – would he strengthen our team? Yes he would, but MA knew this was his last chance to cut his losses on him. Accept it! Every transfer decision is purely money focused nothing about building a team. The players you listed as ‘still being here’, well, there’s still time for Krul and Sissoko, Tiote, Cisse and Colo will never have really have generated the sort of interest/offers that Ashley would be looking for. NUFC are actively trying to sell players to make a profit…not having them poached away.
Mag71(Quote)
TDS imo you always come on here and talk **** just to back up jabba,just
tell me what jabba has done for our club in 7/8years,oh yes he saved us from a fate worse than death,your talking out your ***,go back and boss the kids on eds site
icedog(Quote)
NUFC buys players first and foremost if they see a return on their investment. They do not buy players that the team needs or when the team needs them. That is why we are not a football club, we are business that trades in the commodity that is football players.
Charnley has said already that the club will sell a player if they get a good offer for him and may not replace that player for a season or two until a player of value comes available. That is a classic example of being more of a commodity trading company than a football club. Value is more important than the football and I find that so rigid it just can never work.
Stuart79(Quote)
MAG 71 your reet mate,in fact I think he’s a scum fan,he always trying to preach his views (****) on here no one else has one iho
icedog(Quote)
GTE
I’ll pop back from time to time mate! Not a huge amount to say at the moment to be honest…
Any club outside of the CL clubs has to accept that model. There’s just no other way as every player has ambitions to play in the CL. We all need to accept that Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Chelski and Liverpool are far and away the biggest and richest 5 clubs in the PL and that catching them is nigh on impossible. Sad but true. That’s what all this money has done to football in this country.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
I’m with Newkie on this. I don’t know what the policy is. I could make guesses as many on here appear to. But I don’t know. I can look back and see examples of players who we have valued at a certain level then been outbid on who have gone on to be better or worse than we thought. We have bought players with experience from abroad but not the Prem. So I could hazard a guess at some criteria. But I could be wrong.
Premandup(Quote)
STUART
Didn’t say we can’t afford the wages that Swansea pay. But if the likes of West Ham and QPR want to gamble and pay huge wages on unproven players in a desperate attempt to stay up, why should we be dragged along and copy them?
I see no reason to pay well over the odds for a player just because another team was willing to. If they want to go to a smaller club for more money, let them.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Ice @ 28 do you feel better after you got that of your chest 😆 .
TDS you seem to be happy enough with how things are 😉 as you seem to always be positive. Sissoko seemed to have done his best to get a move in the last window, and as for Colo the only club we have heard that he was linked to was wanting him for free 😆
Big Dave(Quote)
Stuart – in 2013-14, Swansea’s wage bill was almost the same as ours (£58m vs £62m). They maintained much higher wages to turnover and ran a loss. SInce then we have at best kept out bill steady, more likely cut it, they meanwhile signed Gomis, Bony and others on substantial wages. Swansea, like a load of other clubs, are prepared to spend future revenue on wages (as Huw Edwards admitted recently) like we used to and are famously not prepared to do again, so yes, Swansea pay more wages than we can / are prepared to, as do about 15 other teams…get used to it.
GTE(Quote)
MAG71
Do you understand that a non-CL club is going to lose players? Spurs lost the likes of Berbatov, Modric and Bale when they wanted to keep them. And they have the added advantages of being a London club and being more established at the top of the PL! Even Arsenal have lost the likes of Fabregas, RvP, Nasri and Clichy.
So what makes us more special to non-fans than Spurs or Arsenal.
Players leave for bigger/richer clubs and CL football. Face reality.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
STUART spot on mate,its there for everyone to see if they open their eyes,trouble is a lot wear blinkers
icedog(Quote)
TDS Said; If Swansea or West Ham offer higher wages, most players will go there, and we can’t always afford to top their offers…
We can afford to we just don’t want to, because value is the name of the game, not success or attempted success.
Stuart79(Quote)
DAVE 😆 😆 ,aye I do mate,IMO he is always the same a right PR man for jabba
icedog(Quote)
Point is that the likes of Swansea, West Ham, QPR and others are behaving like yoyo clubs. They’ll spend big wages on players to stay up for a few years, knowing that their status and stability won’t attract these players otherwise, then they get relegated for a few years.
What we need to do is ensure we don’t get lumbered with a Huth on a 4 year contract at £60kpw or an injury prone Carroll on £100kpw etc.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
It’s hard to judge all the players we’ve bought or failed to bring through when the most important factor is the manager. Pardew was never right for our club and I don’t think anybody thought he was except Ashley and his cronies. God knows how many players looked poor or failed to come through from the kids due entirely to the managers instructions/coaching/playing style. For example all of our wide players have been stifled or actually ruined by Pardew’s insistence on them becoming auxiliary full backs.
We need a modern progressive coach more than anything.
georgio(Quote)
It’s about to get worse, though Stu – the new TV deal will mean that donkeys will be able to demand £100kpw salaries, which we won’t pay, but most PL competition will. I agree that its because we won’t rather than we can’t, but I also believe that players who sign mostly for money, rather than football (even if that football is about a stepping stone to a CL club) are normally a liability, and TDS is right that there’ll be a lot of clubs crashing with expensive squads crashing in the league. In that context, I’d rather see us adopt a younger hungrier cheaoer approach, BUT with a few older leader pros sprinkled in – it’s that bit thats missing IMO
GTE(Quote)
OH by the way thanks for the thread KIM,even if it brings the worse out of me lol
icedog(Quote)
GTE – More rubbish! We can afford to pay the wages that Swansea pay, we just aren’t prepared to. Our turnover is way in excess of Swansea’s so your comparison is silly. Actually Bony wasn’t on big wages when he first arrived so that’s another rubbish statement. As for Gomis, well they didn’t pay a transfer fee for him so another pathetic comparison.
Why don’t you look at these arguments with a balanced view? if you did you would realise how stupid you look saying these things.
Stuart79(Quote)
BIG DAVE
Happy because I’m a toon fan and I love this club. If football fans were only happy with their club when they’re overachieving, then they’d be miserable 80% of the time. Should Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool fans be miserable because they’re not challenging for the league? Should Everton fans be miserable because they’re not challenge for Europe?
Look at the PL table and I’d say only Chelsea, City and Saints can be particularly excited about this season. Probably West Ham, Swansea, Stoke and Palace are about where their fans would have wanted, the rest of the fans would all have expected more.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Cracking thread you started here Kim!
GTE(Quote)
GTE @ 41then we fall behind and will find it impossible to recover. I am a bit tired of people telling me we will be in the perfect position when the bubble bursts, but I am still waiting for the bubble to burst.
Stuart79(Quote)
GEORGIO I agree mate a lot of my thoughts to
icedog(Quote)
Stu,:
1. Read the posts bfore you type. I said that we choose not to pay, not that we can’t.
2. Our turnover in 2013-14 was 20% higher than Swansea’s, this season that gap will have closed a little due to their league position last season, while their accounts show their willingness to spend far more of that turnover on wages
3. Chill out a bit, it’s a discussion
GTE(Quote)
Finally, why on earth is Ashley so intent on making us so reliant on the TV money as every other club? It’s about 75% of our total revenue now so we would be just as effected as every other club if the bubble did burst.
There is just no sensible explanation to the tightness that the club hold onto their money to the detriment of the club.
Stuart79(Quote)
Kim – bet you didn’t anticipate so much blood boiling this morning 😀
Anyway good thread and happy birthday for Sat. Bit of a poisoned chalice on a game day!
georgio(Quote)
TDS comment 31…trotting out the old line of ‘can’t compete with the CL clubs’
Most people with at least half a brain don’t expect to compete with the CL clubs…that said why can’t we compete with Arsenal and Liverpool, but that’s another discussion.
We can’t even compete with Everton and Spurs, hell we can’t even compete with the likes of Stoke, West Brom and Hull.
TDS and other people like you – if you are happy to watch poor poor football and finish in the ‘avoid relegation’ bracket whilst the soul is ripped out of our club and MA gets richer and richer from our club then that’s fine. I however am not happy with that, I’m a football fan first and a bean counter a far distant second! I want to an attempt to build a team, I would like to see good football and my team trying to finish as high up the EPL as possible while going on a decent cup run. This is why I am so unhappy at the current situation!
Mag71(Quote)
Stu – the model for us ought to be Everton (until this season) or Spurs. That shows what ambition can do for a club that remains financially behind the 5 cash biggies. We lack that ambition and I hate that as much as you do. Difference is that, from your posts, I judge that if we were where Spurs are now you’d still be saying “I’ve given up with this lot, what’s the point in going to the games, they;re gutless…”
It’s money in football. UNless we get a Levy (believes club can break in top echelon) or a Kenwright (proper fan) owning the club, no businessman owner will be very different from Ashley in terms of investment. I’m impatiently waiting for the crash as well, but there’s no point looking for a fairy tale prince ending.
GTE(Quote)
I reckon there is about £50m minimum that the club have generated that hasn’t been spent on players. Why is that? Isn’t football the most important thing that actually happens at a football club?
One good question; What is the point in a football club making all this money if it doesn’t spend it improving the team?
Stuart79(Quote)
Now the £50m is interesting. It won’t be sitting waiting for the taxman to take a big share, so presumably it pays down the loan? It sure as hell won’t go on players.
GTE(Quote)
STUART
According to the Deloitte Football Money League 2015, our revenue in 2014 was around £130M with Everton at £120M, West Ham at £105M, Villa at £101M, Saints at £97M, Sunderland at £95M, Swansea and Stoke at £90M. In other words…not that far behind us.
Spurs are at £180M so further away from us than all of those clubs are behind us. While, Liverpool are at £255M and the other 4 are all over £300M.
See the problem?
And as already pointed out, lots of these smaller clubs are willing to gamble on players, many of which do not work out and they get relegated.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
TDS I don’t need our club to be overachieving, I would be happy for the club to show some ambition and try to do the best they can. Not just to try to stay in the Prem
Big Dave(Quote)
GTE its hard for STU to chill and I understand it totally for a long time he has stuck to his guns and rightly imo when it comes to the running of our club don’t think he expects us to be going for PL titles just a fair crack of the whip and give the fans something to cheer and not run the club as a bye product
icedog(Quote)
MAG71
Why can’t we compete with Arsenal and Liverpool? Because they are much bigger clubs than us mate! It would take a brilliant season for us to challenge them and that only happens once in a while. Liverpool’s revenue is £255M (about double ours) and Arsenal’s is £300M. They have a huge amount of money to buy big players and they are frequently in Europe. Arsenal are in the CL virtually every season!
And I believe we’re ahead of Everton, West Brom, Hull and just one place behind Stoke…so I’ve no idea what your point is there…
I want exactly the same as you! But you need to face reality, that season is only going to be once every so often these days. There are 5 huge clubs in the PL and Spurs ahead of us too. Those clubs are going to dominate the challenges for Europe and cups until we can grow to a similar size.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Based on the 2014 actual spends, known ins – outs since then and wages / turnover, the wages league today looks something like this, with clubs like WBA Palace and Hull (if they stay up) set to go above us unlessthey change their wages to turnover policies (or we change ours):
Spend on wages £m
Manchester City 275
Chelsea 250
Manchester United 200
Liverpool 200
Arsenal 190
Tottenham 130
West Ham 85
Everton 80
Aston Villa 80
Swansea 80
Stoke City 80
Sunderland 75
Southampton 70
Newcastle 65
West Brom 65
GTE(Quote)
Who are these clubs that overspend on players recently and get relegated?
georgio(Quote)
BIG DAVE
I have no idea who tripped out this bullshit that the club just wants to stay in the PL. It makes no logical sense from a business or financial perspective, even ignoring the football perspective.
The club is on record in saying that it’s minimum target is top 10. It makes sense in every possible way of thinking to believe that is true. Not perhaps as exciting as saying we’re going for the Europa League, but then given the current attitude towards the NUFC board and managers, why would anyone want to put their neck on the line targeting that when they know it’s a long shot?
Ambition doesn’t always mean taking risks and gambling your future to go for it in one season. Sometimes it takes time and planning to get things right.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Ice – agree, if we had the ambition to compete with Spurs, I’d be delighted. I don’t care if Europea LEague isn’t a good investment for the club’s finances, I loved European nights and its a trophy we could win…so I can’t stand the current listless lack of ambition and contempt for the fans. I just can’t see a Geordie white knight on the horizon.
proper continental coach, yung pacy team, lots of local youth, a sprinkling of hard case experienced leaders, that would do me – but not holding me breath
GTE(Quote)
Have tou seen the bottom of the Championship Table lately, Georgio?
GTE(Quote)
GTE
Not sure where you got that from as far as accuracy goes. But what it does show is that there isn’t much of a difference between the other 14 clubs. The top 6 are so much richer.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
TDS comment 56, this is part of the problem ‘fans’ like you are more interested in the Deloitte Football Money League rather than our standing in the EPL and what is happening on the pitch.
Why is the NUFC revenue not up there with the other ‘big’ clubs in EPL? Gross mis-management, that’s why!
Bottom line, is the squad getting stronger and stronger each transfer window, is it staying static, or is it getting weaker?
IMO it is getting weaker and I don’t know anyone who follows NUFC that disagrees with me.
Mag71(Quote)
MAG71@52 I think that’s all 99% of fans want so spot on,is it to much to expect it seems so with this crowd
icedog(Quote)
It shows how much we’ve f****d up since Ashley came in – at that stage we were well ahead of most of the clubs and more of less level with Spurs. Don’t get me wrong, Fatty’s a waster. However new owner or still Ashley, we are now sadly competing on a level playing field with most of the division, rather than being miles ahead – so again its about football, and a coach doing the best with the resources (look at Saints and Stoke) – which again suggests that Troy was right all along about Pardew.,..
(Loving this thread kicking off
GTE(Quote)
GTE
February 26, 2015 at 11:36
There are just so much of that which is fundementally wrong.
I don’t expect us to be challenging the top 4 consistently. I want us to be the best we can be. But clearly we aren’t as we aren’t spending any money that we are generating improving the squad.
As for your point about needing a Levy, that’s just wrong! Every single owner in the football wants their football club to achieve things and improve, except it seems Ashley. No other owner anywhere watches their club make millions and then doesn’t spend that money on improving the club. You can’t deny that, so it is not about finding a Levy or a Kenwright, it’s about finding an owner who wants his club to be as good as it possibly can be.
Stuart79(Quote)
TDS if it makes you happy and you believe what the club says good for you.
I will judge it on what I see and believe and that is that the club is happy to stay in the prem.
Big Dave(Quote)
GTE @68
Not Ashley primarily at fault there. That’s just the PL and CL and the way it’s gone. Plus City spending hugely. We probably would be level with Spurs if we hadn’t been relegated though, but they do have the advantage of being a London club.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Mag71 @ 66 there seems to be some fans that seem to happy that we are a **** football team aslong as we have a good set of books
Big Dave(Quote)
MAG71
“Fans like me”? Don’t give me that ****. If I wanted to follow finances, I’d monitor the stock exchange. I’m simple using those figures to point out where football has gone these days and you can clearly see how much finances influence a club’s performance. The best 5 clubs in the PL are also the richest. Southampton currently bucking the trend a little but there are always quirks with some clubs doing better than expected and others worse.
I want success, but I’m not going to put hate on the club all of the time just because I’m not getting it right now.
It’s not an easy thing following a big club that isn’t one of the biggest. Ask fans of Everton and VIlla…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
TDS – backing most of what you’re saying on here mate, but I do think Ashley at fault a lot. First of all, who presided over the relegation? More importantly, flatlinong of commercial side of the business, largely because of the free SD advertising. Another owner without the SD interest generates us enough extra revenue to fund a proper Centre Half…but I accept that the PL finances level the playing field for all except the stratospheric five.
GTE(Quote)
ToonDarnSarf
February 26, 2015 at 11:38
STUART
According to the Deloitte Football Money League 2015, our revenue in 2014 was around £130M with Everton at £120M, West Ham at £105M, Villa at £101M, Saints at £97M, Sunderland at £95M, Swansea and Stoke at £90M. In other words…not that far behind us.
Sorry but I would class £25m, £29m £33m and £40m being a long way behind us! How can you dress that up to make it look like we’re close to these teams in terms of turnover? We’re millions ahead yet they consistently have a higher net spend than us on players.
I haven’t seen you once come up with an explanation as to why we have to sell to buy and why we have such a **** poor attitude to improving the team.
Stuart79(Quote)