Saint86

I would say the majority view was "not to sell him to liverpool", and only that. Its a theoretical debate anyway, and pointless at this point. Personally I think most would have sold him in the summer with hindsight. Removes a disruptive interest, strengthens the squad at the start of the season, we wouldn't now be in a desperate situation trying to buy players whilst everyone knows we're flush with cash etc, and trying to strengthen the team when players are far harder to come by. It makes our job a lot harder, and I can't believe we let it be announced that he was sold, without having a least 1 or 2 players coming in straight away. The extra money we made from Liverpool by selling in January, will unfortunately be used by paying over the odds for new players after his sale was announced.

Not selling VVD firstly - (And FYI, that was my stance over the summer so I will certainly maintain my stance on this now if that's okay. I imagine the vast majority of the fanbase agree as well.... Unless of course they are ignoring that the £5-10m extra in cash is worth the fall in positional tv monies, devaluation of the squad, and exuberant transfer fees we will now have to pay this January?!?!? Let alone the football standard. I expect only the club plants on here to take that stance though... The sale of VVD obviously needed to happened in the summer (and should have happened). It has resulted in a squad that is weak up top, and unsettled. A wasted 5-6months that sees the team currently in free fall. I understand the argument for not selling him and making a stand, but at the same time its just the wrong decision. The board need to be better than this. Total cock up over the manager situation, its already been stated by the ITK's that we had all our eggs in the Touchel basket with no backup plan (something that is unforgivable strategy wise), but we didn't seal that deal and were left holding nothing and having to start the manager search again. An utter balls up. Lost far too much of the window to this. Recruitment wise we purchased Lemina, who frankly has been average (to utter garbage) so far and is just squad depth as a player in a position we don't need - that may change, but he isn't going to replace Pelle and Mane is he. Meanwhile we wasted the perfect chance to add goals to the team, something that was obviously missing, and had been obviously missing for the whole season under Puel. The job he is doing at Leicester should be point in bloody case to our "board". To argue that the summer was anything other than a complete failure, especially given how things have developed, is complacent tbh. We massively need to improve our business and strategy in the transfer windows. And any business heads who fail to the degree that ours have (repeatedly) would get sacked.

Given the car crash that was our summer transfer window, and then the 21 vehicle pile up that the first half of the season has been... plus the fact that we knew we were selling VVD and needed reinforcements urgently. Why are we now 2weeks past selling VVD with no replacements in sight? Just WTF are we paying this board/recruitment teams to do? For us to survive, Watford is very much a game we need to be winning, and we should be giving ourselves the very best chance to do so.

How would you bet that it wasn't intentional?

Sadly I suspect Les Reed has already started salivating over how much we can sell him for, rather than dreaming over his long term future for the our first team.

If the club are prepared to back him with quality players that fit the style he wants to play, then I would give him that opportunity. However, if we are really in the mire come March then I think he will need to be replaced.

Up front means up front as one lump sum figure. Anything else is installments spread over time.

The club leak whatever they want to the press as convenient. I.e. our rumoured "Sturridge interest", or, "we've sold early and got £70m upfront, what a great deal we've struck" - now changed to "circa £20m up front"... Its just meaningless guff to suit whatever spin they are after in that particular week. Yet a lot of fans treat it as gospel. The only thing fans need to remember, is the summer of discontent when the board said no players would be sold right up until the season ticket deadline lapsed... then they sold Lambert, Lallana, Lovren, Chambers, Shaw etc etc etc... Then they continued with this approach in most windows. If fan's are going to follow the media, then they should not get distracted by the PR guff, and judge the club on what it actually does vs what they told the fans they would do. The track record isn't exactly fantastic for "open and honest communication" with the fans. And I am not saying they speak specifically for the players. For example; if we have leaked its only £20m up front then it is clearly to try and get cheaper deals now that we've dropped a bollock and everyone knows we're loaded... Likewise most fans are probably happy to be mislead by the club provided the club does well. Its just another thing to beat the board with when they've mislead the fans historically, whilst at the same time not delivered in performances.

If anyone still believes ANY of the club's PR then they seriously need to wake up. They have lied to the fans since the second they got control from Cortese.

I'm afraid I don't understand your post MLG, at no point have i said Walcott is a right back.... In fact, at no point have I said anything about right backs at all?

Carillo, sessegnon and Walcott?

Is he an Argentinian striker who plays for Monaco?

Haha, great summary duck. I enjoyed it at least.

If they stick with him and we get relegated then we'll just have to trust the board

We play too contain the opposition. The end.

Beautiful assist for long though...

Not a very convincing win in the end. But played well in the first half. I thought the fans were superb, so hats off to those who went!

Totally missing the point to be honest. We sold lovren - so got Toby, lost him so got VVD. Lallana was directly replaced by Tadic. Shaw to Bertrand Clyne to Cedric Lambert to pelle Etc etc What we have been doing recently is not replacing players with ones of similar attributes or play styles, and therefore totally weakening the team and disrupting the style. We've done this seemingly because the players are young and it's assumed they will develop and then the club will profit. Sadly neither Gabbi or long are target men, Redmond is a poor shadow of mane. As is Boufal. We have totally crippled our attacking style and quality. Surprise surprise we now can't score goals. They're not bad players, but an effective team playing 4321 they do not make! And since it is decreed that we will play a certain way our squad is not good enough! At least the new man is kind of a target man, but again he isn't going to be a star man for us, and he isn't exactly what we need. We have £60m and a whole load of VVD's wages... go buy a quality CF and a proper winger / attacking mid.... two players who are better than what we have for an average of £30m a pop isn't that hard to do...

Well, for example, fosun looks to be significantly better than carillo. Saints don't need fillers, they need 1-2 star players. We have none this year. We have the money, so spend it wisely. It needs to be a player who is significantly better than all our other strikers and will always be first choice on the teemsheet.

Bunsen and buster at the helm.

I honestly think Kat wanted the maximum return on her investment. So she rode Nicola all the way to top, kicked him off, and instigated a "take cash out" policy. Whereby we were on a sound, no risk, approach which banked a profit (from tv/sales/commercial), and helped her get her returns through the sale to Gao. She had no interest in putting money in on the risk we would make it to an established top 6 side. The problem is, in this league, you either push on, or sit still (or do a full sunderland). And sitting still leads to relegation.

You have google? So unless you are too lazy to use wikipedia I don't understand what point you are trying to make? In the two seasons proceeding his move to Saints, Pelle score 27 in 29 appearances, and then 23 in 28 appearances. That is already more than the linked player has netted in his entire career. This chap is not what we need to be wasting our money on... If we sign him the fanbase will be pulling their hair out more than they are already.

As an absolute minimum this needs to happen. We have a knackered Austin, an out of form and disinterested Gabbi, and a 1goal all season Long as our strikers. Why on earth are we not playing a very promising young striker whose attributes are exactly what we are missing.

There isn't a good finish in that video. They are all tap ins bar one header at a corner, and he is unmarked by appalling defending in nearly every goal. Also, does he only live inside the 6yard box? Saints need a target man who can bully defenders, hold the ball up well, link play, and finish half chances. This fellow doesn't appear to excel at the above. I hope I'm wrong, but a 0.17 goals per game ratio playing for one of the best clubs in a weak french top division does not fill me with much confidence!! I think Les and co need to realise that we don't need more squad fillers, what we need is some star players. They have £60m to spend and a huge chunk of wage budget from VVD.... GO SPEND IT ON TWO PLAYERS MAX FFS. Not 4No. £15M signings.

This possibly the most hopeful snippet of insight yet! Its that or we're screwed though:lol:.