verlaine1979

Since the Lander money is apparently being raised from debt, the club's accounting is unlikely to be as simple as that.

If true, half of europe will want to buy him, so no chance he'll end up here. Atletico Madrid will need a new striker for a start, and he's absolutely a Dortmund style signing.

At the top of any list marked 'Managers we haven't got the slightest hope of even getting to come for an interview'

Is anyone surprised we take more crosses than anyone else? Our approach play is so slow that generally shoveling it out wide to the fullback or Tadic is the only option left other than recycling it back to Forster for a punt upfield. Bertrand and Tadic are decent crossers, but Cedric has a tendency to balloon 9 out of 10, and besides, due to the aforementioned slowness in approach, most crosses end up being made against a well set defence, meaning they aren't all that difficult to defend against.

Fear we'll struggle to get rid of Long if his wages are as high as suggested. No promoted team is going to look at him and believe he's going be the 10-15 goal striker who'll give them a chance of staying up.

Really nice weight of pass down the line from Clasie too. Bent it round the fullback.

And this is becoming a problem. Tadic, Redmond and Boufal have all been ropey of late, and are all subject to the pressure of being replaced, while JWP chops in and out of the side. Regardless of how you rate his long term career at Saints, Davis has been just as flakey as any of those, but is an immediate pick through the captaincy, even when Clasie arguably put in a far better performance than any he's managed as a defensive midfielder (and scored a cracking goal as well). If the captain is going to be undroppable, you'd better make sure you pick someone who never deserves to be dropped.

Wow, then followed up by two awful passes in the box in the same attack. Awful.

Credit where it's due - excellent cover from Davis then

Rubbish from you-know-who after nice work from JWP to win possession in a good position.

So you'd be perfectly content going into next season with him as a nailed on starter? Did you see that pass in the second half - any other player would've been crucified for that, but only one person on the forum even noticed it was him... I'm sure the majority of fans are probably still under the impression that it was JWP, or that Clasie jogged onto the pitch accidentally for a second - anyone but saintly 'Davo'. Having observed the phenomenon for a while now, responses to Davis fall into the following categories: - He plays, but puts in an average, anonymous performance = default response 'Davis had a great game' - He plays, and makes one good pass or run, but is otherwise average = default response 'Davis is one of the most underrated players in the league, and deserves a place on the banner' - He plays, and makes a series of mistakes, loses possession, or is otherwise disappointing = default response 'Tadic/Boufal/any foreign player was worse' Judging by your avatar I can see why you're an unreliable judge, but it's genuinely mystifying how regularly he's forgiven by everyone else for performances that would result in witch hunts of any other player.

Surely he can't stay captain next season. The idea that he is in any way undroppable has been refuted so many times this year.

Regardless of our strategy when we don't have the ball, when we do have it, we look useless. Is our only plan to get it forward expecting one of the fullbacks to chip it hopefully into the Liverpool half?

Why are people arguing about league position, when the only real complaint anyone has made is that we're playing extremely drab football? Finish between 16th-8th playing exciting football with a few promising young/skillful players, and almost everyone is happy; finish between 16th-8th playing dull football averaging only around a goal a game, and people will be disappointed. Nobody wants to be relegated, nobody expects to usurp the top six - everyone just wants to be entertained. That's it.

As reported, her 10% stake isn't intended to be permanent, and she'll sell on a set schedule (if she really retains it at all). As for why she might sell to a bunch of cowboys - it seems she's trying to release the value of an asset valued at around half her net worth. The rhetoric around doing what's best for the club probably only stretches so far when the alternative is leaving fully half her money in an illiquid asset that's probably increased in capital value as much as it's ever going to. If rumours are true that the club has been up for sale for some time, maybe this is the only offer in town close to her valuation?

Since they've apparently been trying to raise financing for the deal in China, there seems to be a real possibility that they have *no* money, and that the whole takeover is going to be funded purely on debt. Looking at the state of modern football ownership, I'd argue that a reasonable rule of thumb is that if you have to scrabble around for money to buy into the premier league, you can't afford it.

Funnily enough though, between them Davis and Cedric were responsible for at least half of the slow-down in our attacking play against Hull, as (aside from one admittedly good run from Davis in the first half) they both generally preferred to stop after advancing ten yards and pop the ball back to the CBs, who eventually popped it back for Forster to kick into touch. We've done this so often this season - reasonable field position advancing into midfield given up for another pointless GK punt (or increasingly, a mistake at the back that puts us under immediate pressure).

I hope Redmond spends a while berating himself when he fails to play a simple ball down the line to Bertrand.

We've got four players wanting to play on the edge of the Hull box and two central midfielders playing within the width of our half of the centre circle - completely disjointed with no platform to build on (with the exception of one good run from Davis).

No argument there - even taking into account the Liebherr family's loans to the club & converted equity, it'll still be a very healthy return. Though it probably also explains why eventually Cortese started taking out loans against the TV money to bridge player acquisition costs rather than turning to the owner to tide him over.

Interesting that the Echo are now quoting her net worth as £300-400m, of which Saints would represent well over half at the valuations being talked about. Not at all surprised she wants to sell.

Clasie in for Davis - he really didn't deserve to be dropped after West Brom, and Davis hasn't done anything to suggest he deserves an unquestioned place on the team sheet. Would start the same front three as against Chelsea, as Boufal certainly seems happier playing his way into games rather than coming on as a sub (assuming he's fit).

We played some pretty football at times, but even when we looked good, it still had a whiff of propaganda about it. Everyone apart from Romeu seems to need half a dozen looks before they decide where they're going to pass.

Especially as, surprise surprise, there was actually a forward pass on for him, and he still elected to try and pass it backwards.

I looks increasingly like Saints now represent a far larger percentage of her net worth than most people realised (I'm pretty sure she's nowhere near being a billionaire, assuming the story about Markus handing back his family shares is true). In which case, she's probably been advised to sell an asset that has appreciated as much as its likely to, and diversify into safer/more income-generating investments.