Matthew Le God

- Shearer, the Wallaces and Davies were sold whilst Saints were at The Dell with little investment from the owner. - Bridge was sold whilst at St Mary's, by Rupert Lowe who didn't have much in the way of ambition and certainly not the resources available to meet those ambitions. Again, not like for like comparisons.

Were Saints a Premier League club when they sold Bale, Walcott or Chamberlain? Did any of them have Premier League experience? With Saints now back in the Premier League if they are forced into selling young players the price will be higher, that can then be reinvested into the squad.

I don't know if you noticed, but Saints have been in tier 2 and tier 3 of English football for the last 7 years which is 50% of the time the academy has existed. So not a like for like comparison.

So one player. Impressive.

Name some Sunderland academy products.

Great minds...

Wolves knocked down the Stan Cullis Stand in May 2011 and had people watching a game vs Spurs in the lower tier of the new stand in September 2011. http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/wolverhampton-wanderers-fc/2011/09/09/wolves-get-go-ahead-to-open-new-stan-cullis-stand/

I think Bolton will be less of a threat in the league and transfer market than QPR will be to Saints next season.

I've always liked that as a feature idea, although it wouldn't be the assistant manager, for Saints it would likely be either Les Reed or Nicola Cortese.

- For how many years of your lifetime have Saints been at St Mary's? - For how many years of your lifetime have Saints been owned by someone with vast wealth and ambition? - For how many years have both of these factors been in place at the same time? And what has happened in that short space of time? As pointed out earlier by someone else, many of the older heads in here are stuck in a smalltime Dell complex. Never before in Southampton's 126 year history have they been in such a strong position in terms of infrastructure at the stadium, academy and training ground or with the ambition and wealth of those running and owning the club. Things are vastly different now to at any point between 1885 and 2009. We are not at The Dell, the likes of Guy Askham and Rupert Lowe aren't running the club.

8,000 people when situations were similar is a significant difference.

What bearing do league titles in 1912, 1914 and one funded by an owner they no longer have in 1995 have on the size of the club today? Certainly not reflected in their match going fanbase.

Why was it a debacle? Do you disagree with what I said about Blackburn?

Are they? Blackburn in the Premier League relegated = 22,551 Southampton in the Premier League relegated = 30,610 Quite a noticeable difference of 8,000 people when both clubs weren't exactly an attractive proposition to watch. Plus Blackburn has some very cheap tickets.

Southampton averaged similar to that when they finished 20th and were relegated. If anything it shows Saints possibly have a larger matching going fanbase than Everton.

They only have one player of note that would interest Adkins... Peter Whittingham.

As I said, Everton are behind Saints in terms of stadium, training ground and academy. It is them that need to catch up. Everton's average attendance this season is... 32,879 which is similar to what Saints will average next season. Plus that Everton figure is added by their stadium being over 40,000 so for some games they could get more to boost the average. If anything it shows Southampton's match going fanbase is probably larger in theory. As for wages and player purchases, Bill Kenwright isn't exactly last of the big spenders. Saints wages will be largely funded by Premier League TV money, just as Everton's currently is. The main thing where Saints are behind Everton is quality of the 1st team squad. It certainly wouldn't need anywhere near £100m to make up that difference.

You think it would take £100m to catch up with Everton? Yes, their squad is better than ours, but no where near £100m better. Plus Saints have an advantage over Everton in that they already have a modern stadium and although Everton's Finch Farm training ground and academy is good, it isn't as good as Staplewood will be when construction has finished.

Over half way there already.

Because Sour Mash has a history of contradicting himself.

And to climb higher than the ambitions of Rupert Lowe, St Mary's will need to be expanded and/or development around the stadium. Ask yourself, does Cortese have ambitions higher than Rupert Lowe? Does Cortese have the resources from the Liebherr's to match those ambitions? Announcing a £15 million training ground whilst in League One suggests he does...

1) Clubs with the larger turnovers benefit most from FFP. - In 2011/12 only 10 Premier League club averaged over 30k. - Southampton will join this list next season. 2) Clubs with the stronger academies will benefit from FFP as the transfer market will change and those able to bring through their own quality youngsters will benefit. - Saints have one of the strongest academies in England - Next season under EPPP Saints will be category 1 3) Clubs with rich benefactors will benefit from FFP. - Although they can't fund the club through loans or equity as they have before they can still invest in infrastructure. - Saints are currently building a £15 million development at Staplewood. - Cortese has stated he has plans to either expand St Mary's or relocate if required, that will help increase revenue streams even further. Clubs without strong financial backing will struggle to do this. - Cortese has also hinted at development around St Mary's. Maybe hotels, restaurants, shops, apartments etc etc, all would help boost revenue and then be used on the team. Giving them an advantage over competitors.

Ah, so you agree, in order for Saints to remain competitive when FFP comes in they would need to expand or relocate in order to increase revenue streams? It has been a long time coming, but you've finally seen the light!

I know, but as I outlined it was lack of investment from Lowe in the winter of 2003/04 that probably led to Strachan leaving and a downward spiral of two relegations and administration. And what has made the gap bigger? Ambition and the money to fulfil that ambition, both of which Cortese/Liebherr seem to have along with the good management skills to pull it off. FFP regulations will make clubs even more reliant on the revenue they create, hence why so many clubs are currently looking to expand or relocate their stadiums. FFP is a key factor that you continuingly overlook whenever we discuss expanding or relocating away from St Mary's. In order for Saints to compete they will need more than 32k seats as without them their key competitors will have a higher turnover and be able to spend more on transfers and wages.

I've was editing the post as you responded. Can you answer it as it now stands?