Matthew Le God

The West Ham philosophy for their 20k jump in capacity to 54,000!

Perfect for us for what? Forever, regardless of an improvement in league position? If that logic was followed through we wouldn't need a stadium bigger than 22k based on League One attendances or 26k based on Championship attendances, unless you believe we really have reached an unbreakable glass ceiling at 8th int he Premier League. In any case 32k is too small when Man Utd, Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea come to play even with us as a mid table team. As we sell out those games and people that want a seat can't get one. Other home games will also sell out regardless of opposition on Boxing Day and the last game of the season. If we really do have ambitions of competing at the top then it is too small. Not saying we should increase all sides in one go, but the club has commissioned designs to develop the surrounding land and put another tier onto the Kinglsand Stand. A capacity of 38k to 40k wouldn't be unreasonable along with hotel, apartments, restaurants, shops etc to provide new revenue streams. We wouldn't sellout a 40k stadium for games against some of the smaller sides, but we likely would for the big sides and that would boost the average attendance. Clearly not completely pie in the sky from me, as Cortese commissioned AFL to come up with some designs and Krueger said on his first day..."training ground is priority one" & looking at expanding/improving St Mary's second behind that".

Gaston had cramp, he should really be fine for a game 8 days later. Lovren had a kick in the Guly's, the match video shows his testicles weren't stood on as Pochettino said.

Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach 5m Krueger told me finishing training ground was "priority one" & looking at expanding/improving St Mary's second behind that. Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach 6m Being reassessed & he seemed keen to look at ways of monetizing area. Perhaps this isn't dead after all...

One of Everton's games in hand is away at Newcastle and they also have to come to St Mary's. Its an outside chance of catching them, but we do still have enough of a chance of catching Man Utd and Everton to mean we have something to play for. Which is the point I was making to adriansfc, and thats without even touching on a number of our players with the World Cup to focus their minds on good performances in the last 8 games.

Saints are 6 points off a Europa League place, Spurs are 7 points off a Champions League place. A Saints win puts us 5 points behind Spurs. Saints are 3 points from Man Utd in 7th and 6 from Everton in 6th with both of them still to come to St Mary's, plus we have players playing for World Cup selection.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9213465/jose-mourinho-says-aston-villa-loanee-ryan-bertrand-has-a-future-at-chelsea

You are jumping to a lot of assumptions there. Pochettino said Wanyama had a knock in training to the same part of his leg he injured previously. Doesn't mean he has a "fragile bone structure" or is injury prone. I think most people wouldn't be good after taking knock to the part of your leg that has only just recovered from a hairline fracture!

He is 3 years older than Shaw, I'd say that is quite signifcant.

We've had players play on Friday for the under 21's at Staplewood and then appear on the bench at St Mary's the following day this season. Why not again?

[video=youtube;KDG-eKGsTEA]

I think the same as what happened with Shaw, Chambers and Ward-Prowse. None of them have been out on loan as teenagers.

Why? He didn't say we'd never loan out a player, he said in certain circumstances we would.

On what is that based? Even if the Liebherr's didn't invest as much, there is still so much money just for being in the Premier League I don't see why £10m+ signings wouldn't happen. On top of the £60m+ TV money, we'll get circa £17m prize money this season for our league finish. Swansea's owners are massively wealthy and not investing huge amounts, yet were still able to spend £10m+ on a player this summer. She has been the owner for the last 4 years, in that time we have risen to the Premier League and spent over £100m on infrastructure and players. She said after Cortese left nothing has change in terms of plans for the club. Why hasn't she earned your trust in the last 4 years as to her good intentions for the club? Is it the reason you think it? Because I don't see any evidence to support it, so possibly stems from something irrelevant.

In an era of only spending what you earn, profits from such a development could help fund the wages of an good quality extra player. Also it would have knock on effects, if our stadium and surrounding land looked like those pictures I think we'd find it easier to attract higher level sponsorship with brands wanting to link up with us. Not that I like the idea (as I like St Mary's as a name), but Krueger did mention today of stadium sponsorship, which would be more attractive if the stadium looks as it does in those images. Stadium sponsorship deals could earn Saints a huge amount of money. So indirectly the stadium improvements could have positive knock on effects elsewhere to the club's income. Plus you make a good point of "relegation insurance", if in decades to come we were ever relegated again with the loss of Premier League TV the added income from such a development would give us an edge over Championship rivals on top of parachute money. The income from the development wouldn't be reliant on on field success. Things like that is what help make a club "healthy and sustainable in the future". Isn't there a story that Abramovich was going to buy Spurs, but flew in a helicopter over Stamford Bridge and thought "wow I want that"? Chelsea Village may have made a difference! Yes, I know Chelsea Village is only a very small part of their success and most of it is down to Abramovich. But it has still produced a lot of money over the years and holds a lot of value for the business.

Did I say it was sustainable as a club? No But Chelsea Village does help provide an income for the club and has done for many years and will continue to do so in the future.

Indeed.

I'm lost as to your point. If Plymouth and Brentford can do it, why not us? Chelsea did it with Chelsea Village many years ago.

As long as he keeps to his word of delegation to those skilled in each area and takes onboard advice I don't see that as a problem, for example Les Reed is still director of football and he clearly knows his football.

Both of these have been granted planning permission... Plymouth Argyle - new grandstand, an ice rink, ten-screen cinema, a hotel, shops and restaurants... Brentford - new stadium with hotel, apartments, shops etc... With FFP developments such as these are the future for clubs as they look for new revenue streams. It is things like that which help sustainability of a club and isn't dependant on league position.

Why have you made that up?

Where have you plucked £500k from? Looks like a huge number of apartments in that image, not to mentioned the shop/office rent and the money a large hotel would make. Just look at the scale of the development and the size of some of the buildings. If it really is a daft suggestion, why is the club looking at it? Maybe its not a goer, but it isn't daft and is worth considering. Which is what is happening.

By buying the surrounding land.

Well as your question was... "How long would it take such a development to return significant funds to Southampton Football Club?" And all I have to go on is one concept design from an architect with no annotations it is impossible for me to answer! For a start we can only guess at the use for each of the buildings let alone their potential income or cost to construct. The tall building on the left looks like it might be a hotel, but as for its size and potential income it is hard to tell. Other buildings look like apartments with shops/restaurants below, maybe some offices and the red building has similarities with a banqueting/conference suite at a Edgebaston cricket ground. But its still only guesses from one picture. Why does it even matter if it is a long time? The football club will still exist in many decades to come, such a development provides a new revenue stream to it for many years and also raises the value of the company.

You'd have a point if a) it was just my idea and not something the chairman of the club said today they were looking into and b) it was a larger expansion than only another tier on the Kingsland. I think 40k will be fine for us, yes we won't sell every game out at that size but we would for some. People tend to focus on the "stadium expansion", I think that will end up being only one part of any development. It is monetizing the surrounding area to the club's benefit that will be key.