Turkish

Astori with no training or Hooliveld with it..........

Hereis the direct quote fom Ramirez. €2m net plus a signing on fee http://www.insidefutbol.com/2012/08/17/they-will-pay-me-so-much-money-liverpool-target-gaston-ramirez-set-for-southampton/67264/ It's a lot because we aren't used to it. But that is what these sort of players cost. It's not likes he's a 33 year old after a last pay day.

Luigi Del Rosso has yet to comment, when he does we know it's happening.

Care to elaborate?

I checked it after the UI thread on it today, I'm sure £62k is the right figure. Don't forget it €2m euros so around £1.6m. I stand to be corrected though having struggled through my tax return this year!

You sure mate? I ran it through the PAYE calculator on the tax office website earlier and worked it out As £62k a week.

/\ probably.

I'm only repeating what he has tweeted.

Well Nixon has been tweeting today that we are being used by agents on this player and the Astoria deals. Make of that what you will.

Newcastle, Leeds and West Ham have all probably said the same thing in the recent past.

£2.5m according to transfer league.

I expect the reply of 'funny what? Like I'm a clown, like I amuse you' wouldn't go down well with Ken Bates when he laughed off our £500k for Robert Snodgrass in July.

At today's exchange rate it's £62k p/w gross. The €2m per year net fee is right. He said so in an interview. He also got a €1m signing on fee.

I've been told Cortese holds a gun to their head and tells them it'll be their brains or signature on the contract.

Live Exchange rate is 0.81 Pounds to the Euro or 1.22 the other way round. We use this at work to check http://www.xe.com/

The Sardinian Saints then!

Because Cagliari have always set Serie A alight!!

Medical i guess?

Depends if we reinvest it in players or not. If we do a Lowe and sell the likes of Wayne Bridges and replace them with Graham Le Sauxs then we are going to be in trouble. If we sign the next Ramirez or the next Clyne, who by then will be playing for an established side then that's fine. In fact, if we make loads of money on them we could buy two of them. If anyone seriosuly thinks the likes of Ramirez will be here in 5 years time they are deluded. Even Arsenal cant hold onto their best young players. For us it's making sure we get the most out of them we can, enoy them while we can and replace them with the next one. I'd much rather do it our way than West Hams way, most football fans across the country probably would as well. I just think we should have started it as an established premier league club and done it gradually rather than in our first season.

Are you sure this is the mongboard for you sir?

Think long term Jamie. If we stay up and sell Ramirez in 2 years time for £25m, Clyne for £10m and Astori for £15m, with the TV and prize money covering the wages then it has been worth it. How many business do you know who have a one year plan? Buying football players isn't like planning this weeks menu you know!

Of course, any amount of money is a risk. £12m gets you Ramirez Daniel Sturridge, both have masses of talent but are relatively unproven or it gets you Peter Crouch, a proven premier league player who is a fair bit older. The later is less of a risk, but the first two are ones that the fans will want to see and potentially represent better value.

You can see clearly what Saints policy is. Buy good young talent, combine it with our own academy players and hopefully build a successful side. If they player decided they want to move on to a bigger club, which inevitably some will do, they will be proven players in a top Euopean league and we should be able to make a considerable profit on them. Of course this depends heavily on three things. The player fullfilling his pontential, for every Christiano Ronaldo there are 10 Francis Jeffers, the money being reinvested in the same way, ie signing the next Ramirez, Clyne etc and most importantly staying up. I'd be far more comortable with this policy if we had started it as an established premier league side with the likes of Ramirez, Shaw and Clyne surrounded by experienced pros rather than one that just come up where everyone from the chairman down had no experience or knowledge of the premier league* and our first season was always likely to be a releagtion battle. The big worry of course is that if we do go down we may have to take less for Ramirez, lallana, Shaw etc than we would have got for them otherwise. Or else we may be stuck with an unhappy player on a large wage who as a result is not performing, risking us coming straight back up. In fairness it's an admirable policy and the right one for a club of Saints size if we are every going to get anywhere near the champions league dream some of you have. It's also one that could blow up in our faces if it doesn't go as well as we need it to. *awaits for someone to tell me Davis x 2 and Les Reed have premier league experience

You do realise he didn't become a multi billionaire by getting bored and walking away from his investments? do you seriously think he'd wake up one morning decide he's had enough and pull out?