Chez

but the SKY money goes straight through the club and straight into the players pockets. You mentioned in another post how big our wage bill is. We were also reported to be £60m in debt, so I am not sure how Les and Kat have shown greed. Not sure my post will change your mind, but I am interested to know why you are so sure they are taking funds out.

Agree with you here. I have been saying it for ages, we are paying some of our guys like Austin big wages (approaching £100k a week). Still along way short of the figures being mentioned at the big five or six clubs.

Whether the £60m or £70m demands are true or not, I have to say its nice to hear these hefty figures being bandied about. £40m is too low IMO in the current market.

good point. Easy to say now, but I always thought it was a no brainer signing for any premiership club, he that far ahead of anyone else in Scotland and clearly worth the punt. But we did and are reaping the benefits. It's funny, centre half was a huge weak spot for us for years and years (and is a terribly hard position to fill as Man City have proved), but the recent signings have by and large been outstanding. Hope we can do it again. That position is crucial and as much as like Jack and Yoshida I do think there is room for improvement.

you are absolutely right, but not sure a black and whatever that colour is, striped shirt is terribly creative in itself. Personally I'm not looking for terribly creative, simple solid design works better for me. As you say, it's all about opinions.

premiership footballers having had an outstanding season and attracting all kinds of interest don't then sign five year deals for £45k a week. That said £180k a week is probably going to be beyond our means...

Home kit is an improvement on last seasons, but then again how could it possibly have been worse? I don't understand why the thin stripes around the sleave cuffs, which hark back to the 80s kit nicely are not replicated around the collar and perhaps even between the colour panels. There doesn't seem to be any continuity of design. The fussy collar doesn't seem in keeping with the simplistic sleeve cuffs for example. One of the easiest kits to get right and UA still somehow manage to do a **** design job. The away shirt is just, well, pretty **** really. Why not replicate the home shirt, but in different colours? The two tone blue shirt of the 80s was great. Perhaps that is too boring and won't get the sales they want, but why move away from thin stripes for the home and then bring them back in strange colours for the away? No rhyme or reason. It just seems like another design bodge job with a lack of joined up thinking, although without knowing the full brief perhaps I am being too harsh on the work experience guy that gets asked to do the Saint kit each year. Having said all that, I reiterate that it matters not what they look like as I never buy one of these overpriced sweat sacks and don't understand why grown men do.

should he depart, it will still be Les Reeds fault in some people's eyes, ignoring the fact that you can't keep a player happy when that sort of contract is on the table, unless you match it, which we can't.

“After we got promoted I stated how I wanted to stay at the club for a long time, how much I loved the club and I didn’t want to leave." I wanted a new long term contract, on more money. I made sure I told the fans what they wanted to hear. "The big disappointment then was in the next couple of weeks. It was quite clear which direction the club wanted to go in with the new American owners coming in. My request fell on deaf ears. Eisner clearly doesn't rate me. "With a heavy heart I decided now was the right time to move on. It wasn’t the Portsmouth that I had joined.” I'm glad to get away from the moaning dinlos. The Riquelme talk has restarted.

wouldn't leave us much time to replace him, unless you propose we buy before we eventually sell.

Pretty sure that's what I just said. The club secures the player and a larger future transfer fee, the player in return gets a wage rise.

The clowns in charge at the moment didn't have a clue, yet they still managed to get promoted three years later. It took Sheff United a long while, but money talks in the end.

********. Players sign new contracts to earn more, knowing that if a big club does want him they will spend the money required to get him. Absoluetly nothing to do with helping the current club out. That's the trade between the two. Club gets way of securing player and future transfer, player gets more money. Theo Walcott was probably the only player that did us a favour...

Fans gave him **** for 18 months, kissed his ass for a week then revert back to type.

Agreed. Shows where we are at as a club. A couple of top notch players in Bertrand and VVD, and a batch of players that are good enough for their age group, but no more than that. Poland is a bloody nice trip with the sun on your back.

This. Plenty of good attractive passing football on display, but critically not as many guilt edge chances as we have come accustomed to in recent years (I put that down to our lack of really high quality players in the final third). Without those genuine clear cut chances you don't score goals and win enough games. If we had no one would be talking about entertainment. Better attacking players supported by a reasonable methodology. Not sure we will have either next season.

Sanchez at centre half looked a hell of a player. Is he always that good? Break the bank...

An incredibly rich benefactor, a squad on relative peanuts wages and a ridiculously large amount of tv money just like every other prem side. Not sure we should throw any stones, check our wage bill, there are some monster pay packets in there.

New owner, new CEO, new manager and new players? All in an average summer for Saints.

isn't it just £10 to become a member of Newport County's supporter trust though? Not exactly comparable is it.

stranger things have happened, but I'm pretty sure anyone that witnessed some of the woeful and disgraceful hood ball displays by West Ham against us in the championship and premiership wouldn't want him anywhere near SMS.

fully agree. Signing an injured Boufal was madness IMO. Why not wait for him to get fit and up to full speed before spending that kind of wedge?

Take Romeu, VVD and Bertrand out of that squad, as Phil Thompson suggested, and the heady heights of mid table midiocrity will seem like a dream. Yet again I approach the summer with trepidation. I've neither backed or criticised Puel throughout the season as I feel you are only as good as the players at your disposal and these are simply not at the level under Poch and to a lessor extent fat Ron. I know Mane came good in his second season, but I am not confident that Bofal will replicate that improvement. If that doesn't happen, thenwe are going to pull some rabbits out of hats.

Oh, I can't help quoting you Because every thing that you said rings true

Like the sound of that. When does his current contract run out?