Chez

personally I'm not even thinking about the possibility that he might not score goals this coming season. I'm looking at next summer and having zero to spend on his replacement. But you make a fair point. No club wants a player to leave on a free. Sometimes its out of their hands, but its just terrible business and as the world keeps on telling us fans, `football is a business these days', so with that in mind you just cant allow assets to depreciate from £20m (or whatever) to nothing in just 12 months (when you can avoid it).

So next summer, when he leaves on a free, then we are `probably fucked', right? You may well be right (losing talent doesn't make you better thats for sure) and the current set up may well spunk the money we get for him up the wall, but if they don't get any money how can they/we hope to replace him? Kicking the can down the road is not a plan. This is the summer to have money as it will go long way. Many teams are on their knees financially. If we have a few quid in our pocket we should be able to get some talent.

agree with that too, but not really sure why he wants to leave Spurs in the first place, so not sure what he is looking for.

Putting my football heart to one side. It's very bad business to allow him to walk next summer. It would b eOK, if you had a never ending supply of money from an oil rich owner, but not if you are being run on a self-financed basis as we are. On a pure business level, we simply must replace him now using whatever monies we can get for him this summer. 12 months down the line, we will still need to replace and have £0 monies coming in to help fund that replacement. Kicking the problem down the line, is not a good option. It's all very well saying his goals will keep us up, but what about next season? We are just delaying the inevitable. The club know this and the buying clubs know this. Our poker face is gonna have to be amazing otherwise he's gone for a snip as Hoj was. I'm not sure what that means in terms of his actual resale value right now, but it's gonna be much less than we (on here) all hope. If we keep him, what is that solution next season? Is Amstrong gonna still be at Blackburn and then available on a free next season? If we'd sold him for £25m and spent it all on say Patson Daka, it may have been a seamless transition. It may not have worked, but at least it would have been an attempted solution.

if we got him on a free, then we could probably stomach the £100k a week wages he probably will expect - if not, then I don't see us interested.

isn't that what a football business should be doing? The debt we have saddled ourselves with, all be it covid induced means that in the coming years, we need to make a profit to enable us to pay that rising debt off.

is that because he went to Spurs, instead of signing for us, or because he isn't the player he was?

how has he played for Spurs last season? Has his form, pace etc. dropped off a cliff, or is he still the player we had before, but in a faltering side? Two years left on his contract, so Spurs still hold some cards, and £100k a week by all accounts, will limit suitors.

The windows opens July 1st. Players will always leave on and after that date, because they cant before. Are you saying the the club should not sell and do promotion for season tickets until after the summer transfer window closes? Or should they sell the players earlier? What if players are sold in January, is the club still conning fans when they don't say something back in May? If your ST purchase depends on Saints keeping our star players then maybe you are supporting the wrong club. Check our history and where we are in the pyramid. We sell players, simple as.

in terms of youth talent, them and Chelsea seem to grab pretty much anyone decent south of Birmingham. Seems along time ago now that Shaw chose us ahead of Chelsea. Not sure we beat them to the punch these days with all the money they throw at the youth system.

I wonder how we sell ourselves now?

Nothing has changed. Unless someone (Spurs) pays us what we value him (and not what they want to pay) for the last year of his contract, he will see out his contract. Not sure that social media post points to anything. The idea the club is conning fans is madness and do fans really make a decision on a ST purchase based on whether a star player stays or goes?

Patson Daka £23m. About half what Chelsea paid for Werner. I guess about the same we paid for Ings. I'm fascinated to see how he fairs.

fair question, but work well for us with WGS. Decent mangers can get relegated. Someone has to relegated and circumstances are often beyond the control of a manager - inheriting a shit squad and shit youth system for starters.

we have seemingly been in the same market for left backs, whether thats true, who knows, but it will be interesting to see how he and our own new left bak signing compare.

fine lines. Muller scores and who knows what happens. For me the 5 at the back doesn't work and leaves CBs not marking strikers. What do I know though.

you are probably right there, but strikes me there are a few markets this summer. Prem+billionaire/oil money, rest of Europe with billionaire money, rest of Prem, rest of Europe. There are only so many teams in the top two brackets. Because of the Prem TV deal going through, there is a sizeable gap between rest of prem and rest of Europe as, although our finances have been hit hard by COVID, the european teams have possibly been hit harder. I think a lot of european club teams are going to be desperate to sell someone this summer to balance the books. Lille won the league, will have CL money, but are selling... With only, say, 15 `rest of prem' teams, and a fair amout of talent out there, that means our money, what little we have, should actually go a long way if buying from abroad. Mbappe might go for £200m or whatever, but £15m should get you some genuine talent. Not sure we should be looking at anyone from the Prem this summer like Williams etc. as there is better value from Europe I'd of thought.

I see Patson Daka has said he is joining Leicester. Pity.

Have to say that I was very impressed with Austria last night. The whole side was very comfortable on the ball, composed and willing/able to play through the press. Quite a few young players too. Alaba and Arnatovich obviously caught the eye a lot, but players like Baumgartner just 21 looked very comfortable at that level. Grillitsch especially looked like he could really play. Technically good, decent range of passes... He is out of contract next summer, but maybe is looking at bigger clubs than us.

Boy thats a wedge in the current climate, but I guess money is no object for them. Bernado is a cracking player. Has his nose been put out of joint by lack of game time? Can see him playing for Barca or suchlike.

maybe they have/will. I'd of thought any side looking to push on, like Villa, would have at least spoken to his agent to see what level he hoped to play at this or next season.

I worry though that our scouting system is not manned to the extent that players sent out on loan can all be watched most weeks.

Not arguing with what you are saying, but I get the feeling that bridges have been burned, things perhaps said, and neither wants to work with the other. I would be amazed if he ever played for us again unless the manager left this summer, which is unlikely.

I don't understand why we would not loan some players out that just need real game time, especially keepers and CBs. OK, so its less refined, but many lower eague sides play very good passing footbalI. If it is good enough for Harry Kane...

does he dominate strikers? If not, then I don't want to see him come here. We need an athlete, that is strong, pacey and can play a bit. I fear we are settling for players that a can do a job at the level. We need players that we will struggle to keep here a year or two later