SaintBobby

This has to happen!

Yep, that is a logistical nightmare but could boost attendance a lot.

On some of the academy/ex-academy players, I’m relaxed if they are deep squad players. If Josh Sims is our 4th/5th choice attacking midfielder, that’s fine by me. Valery is absolutely fine as 2nd choice right back. Don’t know much about Alfie Jones, but again can we do better for a 4th/5th choice centre back? I’d like us to put most resources into the starting XI (plus maybe 2 or 3 others). If the deeper squad is a bit tilted to Championship level players, so be it. The recent nightmare has been spending c£15m and £60k pw on players who don’t play for us very much or even at all.

That would surely raise some pretty big financial issues - both for lower division clubs who want more games not fewer and presumably repaying the sponsor in full (I guess they might still have to pay a % back if the competition is diminished).

It’s now linked to the new third tier European competition - the conference league or whatever. Which sounds a bit like the Intertoto Cup in terms of excitement (we would be unlikely to be playing Inter Milan etc, but rather teams from much smaller leagues) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFL_Cup

Am yet to see any hard facts on how the League Cup will operate next season. Some reports suggest that teams in European competition will not participate or will be allowed to field development/academy teams. A bit odd that there seems no confirmation on this given there are suggestions that the first round will be played before the Premier League restart one September 12th. With only around 3 weeks to go, I’d have thought they’d have resolved who is actually entering the Cup. If the competition is “downgraded” might that actually be a reason for Saints to take it much more seriously? You can imagine we might be amongst the three or four favourites to win it. I gather that it no longer comes with a Europa League spot, but it’s still silverware. Sort of like a beefed up version of the JPT.

Saints are basically run at a profit/loss of zero. If you want an owner who will cover big losses then we don’t have one. I love how the Gordon Brown approach of describing spending as investment has caught on. I’m going down the pub tomorrow and might invest in a few pints of beer. If I get hungry, I might invest in a pack of crisps. I’ll also invest in a taxi to drive me home etc

Yeah, but they are richer than us. And much more likely to qualify for Europe in future.

Can something be “massively unique”? Asking for a friend.

Or Jack Stephens at a pinch, no?

Absolutely. The logistics are pretty hellish. I can imagine tickets having entry windows and needing to be there an hour or more before kick off.

The club seem to think they can get 7k to 8k in. I can imagine the protocols being like an airport though - different arrival, departure and check in times or whatever.

I met someone from the club last week who said that they are hopeful of up to 25% capacity from September 12th, although they are obviously at the mercy of government regulations. Also suggested a limited capacity friendly (presumably in September 5th) is likely. They suggested tickets will probably be allocated by a mix of ballot and price (eg hospitality ST holders likely to be given preference).

A worthy cause, but can someone tell me how much money they need to edit about 40 videos a year? I took a look at Patreon and they are up to 60+ supporters - meaning an annual budget of over £7,000. Is any further support needed? How will excess funds be deployed?

It’s surely oven ready by now?

Looks like great business if these numbers are right. KWP and 8m+ for PEH was at the high end of my hopes. Good job on not folding like a house of cards.

Really dire today. Such a shame, i know Steve has worked hard to keep the site going, but this could kill it off entirely.

As reported, looks an okay deal especially if there are add-ons for PEH. I would have hoped for KWP+6 or 7m. This seems about there. If, as other reports indicate, Saints playing hardball, we might get there or above it. Reasonable business overall it seems. Not stunning, but reasonable.

Not disagreeing. We held firm before eventually bowing to the inevitable and getting a good price. Dropped VVD from a number of matches too. No reason to think we should act much differently on PEH.

We got £75m for him. A very fair price at the time.

I confess though that it’s great having you as a regular poster. Any lively forum always needs a chap like you. The one who brilliantly proves that their ignorance is no barrier at all to expressing an opinion. You do bring a smile to our faces, sweetie.

Well, good of you to put your hand in the air. Given I negotiate for a pretty good living (albeit not sales of football players), I’ll keep my hands down thanks.

I’m sceptical about that tbh. The idea that the negotiation involves Hojbjerg and Spurs agreeing a package that is perfect for the former and Saints then just need to accept almost any offer Levy makes is not how any negotiation works.

His apparent determination to only go to Spurs might make our negotiating position trickier, but it surely makes his salary negotiation harder too? Why would they offer him a bumper salary if he isn’t willing to sign for Everton no matter what? Why not offer him a more modest salary and add the savings to the transfer offer to Saints to get the deal over the line?

I don’t know if they’re also waiting to see who progresses and doesn’t in the later parts of Europa League and Champions League as I think these teams won’t start their games until after Sept 12th