spyinthesky

I agree £67 m for VVD (Ie £75m less 10% sell on to Celtic) £11m for Tadic £78m £19m for the wonderfully successful Argie CF £18m for our new Danish CH £16m for our Norwegian/Moroccan Winger £10m for our new reserve goalie £7m for Armstong £70m Allow for Vat, Transfer Levy, Signing on and Agent Fees etc etc and we are just about spent up. Like last year we remain short of a 10+ goal a year striker!!

Just received notice from the club that season Ticket holders have until 9th July to claim their free tickets for the Ceta Vigo/BMG games. Presume only certain parts of the ground are open? Also not much time to claim before the deadline. 4 of the 6 in our group are currently away on holiday and may not be aware of the deadline so will possibly miss out

Maya is 100% committed and a very good team player. He had a decent game last night. That said he is not dominant in the air (as we all know) and struggles against big, powerful players and lost Lukaku a couple of times in the air which could easily have counted against Japan although he wasn't alone in this against a big Belgian side

Think the Huddersfield Examiner link should become a 'sticky' for the majority of us who have very little idea how much it costs a club to bring in players and assume a £70m reported sale provides the net amount available to spend

Good news and hopefully he will progress with the good form displayed at the end of the season Another £1m pa in wages though?

Appreciate that this topic has been raised before but wonder if it is time for an update bearing in mind the rapidly increasing 'value' of players. As an example the Liverpool Echo has recently run a piece on the perceived value of the Everton squad which is estimated at £495 million Wonderfully optimistic for a team that was pretty average last season or a realistic assessment of what you have to pay in the marker place?? May somehow explain why we had to pay £19m for a distinctly average Monaco reserve striker

Apparently 4 year deal at £40k a week, ie double his weekly wedge at Celtic Hope he turns out a good 'un (the Celtic fans views are divided) and he keeps injury free

Anyone been? Went today but it was fairly empty I thought the presentation was OK and brought back a few memories. However there was reference to our rivalry with Pompey which perpetuated the myth of the non existent Dock Strike caused by the mysterious S.C.U.M union. I thought the organisers would not have been taken in by this 'Fake News'. Also talking to one of the ladies who works there, the Museum gets busy on a Monday when German cruise passengers from the Aida Cruise Line take advantage of a free shuttle bus service which drops off at the Sea City Museum and the ticket price for the Titanic exhibition includes entry to the Saints display. Perhaps we will gain some German fans as a consequence of this

Nice one!!

Anyone know any detail about the future of the gasometer site? Presumably the two structures are no longer operational and wonder if our new owners might be looking at acquiring the site for incorporation into the stadium footprint or for redevelopment. Latter came to mind after visiting the Kings Cross/St Pancras area recently where two old gasometers have been turned into quite trendy, and presumably expensive, circular accommodation

Sue Me too. I wonder how the sales are going? I reckon quite slow

Celebrating winning the Cup Looking to build a very expensive new stadium, replace current Manager and invest in new players? Wonder if the recent news about the owner having problems getting a new visa is just paper trail delay or something more significant which could affect the flow of funds into the club?

Interesting figures regarding the cost of relegation

Games on TV 16 £19.6m Place Money £8.0m (would have been £9.9m if Man City hadnt scored in 93rd minute) Equal Share £82.0m Total Revenue £109.6m Compare Man Utd £153.6m Liverpool £149.6m Burnley £122.3m Leicester (9th) £120.8m B'mouth £113.6m Brighton £110.0m Huddersfield £104.5m So we probably lost £10m in revenue from not finishing in a position we aspire to BUT managed to maintain revenue stream next season versus a season (or several) in the lower league(s)

I suppose everyone will be tuned in to Radio Solent this week as they are doing a 10 year reflection on Pompey's FA Cup win. All down hill from there though!!

Did we really pay £3.5m for Alex McCarthy? I thought Alex came on a free as a third choice at Crystal Palace

According to an article in today's Sunday Times, taken from the book 'Football Leaks', VVD is on £124,658 per week at Liverpool He received a £6m signing on fee and gets a further 'Loyalty Bonus' of £5m plus another £4m if he completes 150 games plus £250k if Liverpool manage 15 clean sheets after he signed for them. This is relatively small beer compared to some other deals Agents have been able to screw out of our big spending clubs,. For example, 29 year old Alexis Sanchez was paid a £6.7m signing on fee and gets £20.35m a year in salary PLU £750k every time he STARTS a game. It is no wonder we cant keep star players when faced with such largesse and makes me realise what challenges management of smaller clubs have to contend with.

A recent report by 'Brand Directory' indicates that Saints are now rated 45th in Football's Most Valuable Brand League Table, down from 19th last year Valuation is now $132m down from $281m There are a number of other commercial 'value' measurements in the report. We sit well below Bournemouth in the table!!! For most of us this all means very little but perhaps sponsors and the like take all this stuff into consideration. Wasn't Ralph supposed to be responsible for improving our commercial presence/revenue? No bonus for you Ralphie boy!!!!!!

If I was Mark Hughes I would be playing it very tight from the off, allowing plenty of time to take throw ins and goalkicks etc and trying to keep the score down until the last quarter, a bit like Wigan did, albeit against 10 men. My nightmare is having a player sent off early doors and being 3-0 or 4-0 down at half time with Swansea a couple or three goals up. Dont think I could bear the second half. Still fair play to Swansea if they were able to turn it round but serious questions would have to be asked a la Bruce Grobelaar v Spurs and the Wimbledon keeper in their last game at Everton several years ago.

I reckon that the stress level after we scored was very similar to the time I was waiting for a specialist to advise whether test results would show I had an aggressive or benign tumour.. Fortunately both results came out the right way. However this comparison makes me realise how ridiculous my long term obsession with the Saints is.

I doubt if there are too many people who remember the last game of the 1965/66 season (our first promotion to the top division) We played Man City away on the last game of the season and had to avoid a 6-0 defeat to ensure promotion ahead of Coventry City. The City Manager at the time was Malcolm Allison and he boasted about the fact that his team would look to beat us by that score As it turned out we drew 0-0 and I can remember going for a celebratory under age drink at the Manor in Portsmouth Road A similar 0-0 result would suit me fine Meantime if the worst happened and we lost the 9 goal difference and ended level with Swansea on goal difference what happens then?

Interesting article on Macclesfield in the press recently after they had just been promoted back to the Football League They had only one player signed on before the season started and they had to work hard to get a squad in at short notice. Their top earner is on £25k a year!! so their wage bill is far less than Eastleigh. Understand that Eastleigh will not only have to revisit their expensive wage bill but deal with some commercial losses that have been covered by the previous owner Perhaps Paul Doswell could be encouraged to return if Sutton dont go up as he has a decent wedge from selling his development company

TCWTB was sat not far from me for the Macedonia game. He was singing 'Play up England' until a very fired up Saints fan confronted him and TCWTB was escorted away for his own safety

Appreciate it is old hat for the youngsters on here but every year I wake up on the 1st May remembering the sense of anticipation in seeing my team walk out at Wembley for the first time. Despite expecting to be on the end of a drubbing (mid place 2nd Division team versus a very good, young, Div 1 United outfit) by the same time as I am writing this we were worthy Cup Winners. One of the greatest days of my life that will stick with me forever!!!