Chez

Just a note of warning, Sportrac have no idea abotu player contracts. Not a chance in a million years did JWP sign a five year contract for £45k a week. £145k a week will be closer to the mark.

wonder if it will it be as laughable as the Villa offer last summer.

We break even on transfers, the wage bill is less than the tv/prem money, but total outgoings have created £100m in debt, give or take. Who'd own a football club?

Need to include wages for five years too to provide a fairer picture of spend, although I dare say it wouldn't put us much higher on this table. We have no right to expect to be fighting for europe. Doesnt mean we cant of course.

I recall a whole summer of arguing with people about whether we should keep him one more year and then allow him to walk for free or sell and ensure we had funds to buy other players. I argued that it would have been business suicide to keep him - and there was not a chance it would happen, which it didn't. I agree, we made the right choice. In a similar vain I am wondering about Salisu, who was half way out the door in January. Is now the best time to sell financially? JWP is another, although the long contract means its a different scenario. But is there a better time to sell? Maybe he will be here his whole career though.

This. McCarthy was given a contract to be our number 1 and he will almost certainly be or number 1 come the start of the season. We'll sign a younger keeper. Whether he turns out to be another Gunn is to be seen. Let's hope he turns out to be fantastic.

My point being, that he didn't sign a contract to help Saints. Not a chance. He signed it to make him rich. Walcott. Now there's a guy that signed a contract to ensure Saints got paid, and I for one will be forever grateful to him. Absolute top guy. Gutted its not worked out for him football wise since he came back.

seems a hell of a lot for a 30 year old keeper, but they do go on a long time these days. Is he that good? I haven't seen enough of him to make a judgement. He cant dislodge Pickford from Englands number 1, who has been up and down to say the least. That makes me wonder a little. He looked great at Bury, but that was a few years ago now and strikers don't tend to make you look at mug at that level. We ain't got £40m to spend, so I guess it matters little.

I watched a youtube video of him the other day playing for his previous club. It shows him breaking up play and then bursting into space to start breakaway attacks. Made opponents look slow. He looked small but strong. Dynamic. Basically everything he hasn't been since he got here, or certainly not this season. He has either lost his way, or the opponents and pace of the game here is too much for him. Not sure.

Is that down to poor coaching or poor players? Can you teach an old dog new tricks? If a player doesn't track back, he never did, it just wasn't him, but a coach is on at him every day in training to do it, will he change and actually do it? I wonder how much coaches can actually do to change a player.

IMO if Ralph gives a player a new contract, then they should also be classified as `his' signings. He signed them to a new contract, he waned them, he kept them here, he filled them with that player instead of freeing up a slot for someone else, so they are his too. How many would that amount to?

Fair enough, although I think they are intrinsically linked. If, you have attacking players like Sala, Zaha etc. who don't need anyone else's help to create and score, that means you don't need to push midfielders and defenders forward quite so much, which means you are more solid and tighter at the back. Less competent attackers mean you have to gamble a bit more. The general consensus on here is that three out of four of our back four is OK. Forster was seen as OK, JWP and Romeu seen as ok, yet we let goals in left right and centre. If the personnel defensively ain't woeful, what was the reason? Maybe they aren't all that. Or maybe the reason was the way we were set up. If that's te reason then why set up like that? Perhaps it's to disguise the fact we ain't got much outstanding talent in attack. I don't know, but something has to change over the summer. Even if its just getting confidence back. Right now we look likely to lose to absolutely anyone/everyone.

If the task was to survive and have a decent cup run, then from the owners point of view he didn't fail. Not sure he has been rewarded. Is keeping your job classified as a reward these days?

If our success was largely down to Broja, then him not being here at all next season means we may have a problem. I worry that finding attacking players (number 10s) that can create and score goals straight from the off in the Prem will be incredibly tough with our budget. If you take some like Eze at Palace, signed for £17m, which is perhaps in our ball park, he has done OK, looks like he can play, but certainly didn't take the world by storm in his first season. Suffered from a bad injury this season followed by a struggle to get into the side on a regular basis. Ings certainly made us look good, scoring goals from everywhere, whether we had `earned' them or not. If your strikers aren't flying like he was, then you need to be creating lots of chances and keeping clean sheets. That ain't us. there is much work to do to enhance our attacking threat.

Levy ain't giving us £70m. He's looking for bargains, players with a year left on their contract, not guys that have just signed five year deals.

I'm sure he signed that contract to ensure he got big money.

we ain't giving him a £100k+ a week, five year contract with low ball a CL side release clause.

So far he has been linked with Fulham, West Ham, Villa, Everton, Newcastle and Leicester.

He did a job the previous season and thus Ralph wanted him. If the first team manager wants him, then why is it Crockers fault for delivering him?

I guess we shall see over the next year or two, but this is what I am expecting.

Depending on the deal we manage to strike with the loaning club, it would save us about £2.5m in wages next year that could be spent elsewhere. Whether he'd want to go is a different matter. I'm hopeful the can come back next season with new found confidence and become the player we need him to be. Not confident, but hopeful.

I am not a big fan. Watch Lyanco closely at 1:56 in this video of us being tonked an Anfield, Yes the game was lost, but the way he just makes zero effort to win the header, turns his back and pretty much ducks under it, just sums him up. He is more than happy to take a man out from behind or dive in to intercept a ball no matter what the cost to the side if he gets it wrong, but ask him to do an honest job of standing tall and winning a header in the area and he hides. ...and here at 8:14. Sure, McCarthy has a mare, but just look a the state of the defending by Lynco here. He just backs away from the action as his man then wins a free header to score the winner. Fucking woeful.

Is the total budget sufficient to exceed the current expectation/outcomes? That's a different discussion. Could he have built a better side from the budget available? Again, a different discussion. All I am pointing out is that it's his side.

he's the first team manager. Every single player will be `signed' by him. If he doesn't fancy them or want them, they don't sign for SFC. Likewise, if he doesn't want to keep a player we don't offer them a new contract. Absolutely, finances dictate who is possible to bring in, and of course scouts and others are involved, providing information and guidance, but in the end, the buck stop with him as the manager. That's why he gets £6-7m a year. If he allows others to do the research/work, and make the decisions for him then that's his choice. But its still his responsibility. It's his side.

McCarthy - given 3 year contract by Ralph KWP - signed by Ralph Lyanco - signed by Ralph Stephens - given 3 year contract by Ralph Salisu - signed by Ralph JWP - given five year contract by Ralph Romeu - given 3 year contract by Ralph Ely Redmond - given 4 year contract by Ralph Armstrong - given 3 year contract by Ralph Armstrong - signed by Ralph Djenepo - signed by Ralph Smallbone - given 3 year contract by Ralph Long - given 2 year contract by Ralph Ralph actually signed all of them to contracts with Saints, except Ely.