Saint86

Actually think that's not the best article from them, its titled, "can Southampton bounce back" then provides essentially no opinion/argument on that topic and instead dances around the financial situation with a load of comparisons to previous seasons (a fair few of which are rather meaningless to our current situation - and it would have been fairly easy to at least postulate on the likely financial health and spending power this summer). Better financial detail for the current situation is available via the echo breakdown or from swiss ramble (and in fact i just checked that source and the article you've linked has actually lifted directly from it in a couple of place - which is pretty poor). This could then be paired with likely wage levels for the coming season, and with estimates for player wages due to be leaving etc. Similarly we know fairly well what our revenue will be next season... Swiss ramble (6th may): The political economy of football (8th may) under a subtitle of "fire sale" (which it also wasn't 🤦‍♂️🤣). If they were going to be this lazy, they may as well have copied some of the analysis and views that have been bandied about on this forum. Apologies, but shit/lazy "journalists" really wind me up 😅. What is your view on whether we can bounce back? Personally think that financially we're in a pretty solid state and should be able to spend well whilst maintaining a sensible financial balance. Doing that efficiently will depend on Spors and his team, on hiring a good manager, and on marketing saints as a project players want to be a part of... Rumours the club is for sale won't be helping that.

I've tried to set my expectations low for this one... And then i can't be disappointed so here goes... City need goals to catch Arsenal. Against that. we really have been shocking in recent games.. no ideas, team can't defend, no belief, and they've pretty much well and truly given up / look beaten / waiting for it all to be over. I've therefore set my sights low - We're getting pumped. Could even be the first double figures in the prem. And with this in mind, hopefully i won't be feeling disappointed come Monday... heck, if we keep it respectable i might even be happy? 🤣

Just seen a rumour saying KWP is staying and wants to be a leader at saints next season... silly season well and truly underway it seems 😂🤣

There seems to have been epic complacency re reform from Labour until now, and to be honest its still continuing. Johnson beat corbyn in 2019 to secure a majority, he did it by taking the red wall seats. Starmer won this current majority with a similar vote share to corbyn's fairly staggering loss. The core reason for that was because a huge number of those "red/blue" wall seats voted for reform in 2024 - splitting the tory/reform vote, and ensuring Labour had enough to win those seats. But crucially for me, those voters that voted reform were never really Tory voters in the first place, many of them were voting tory for the first time ever when they voted for Johnson, Brexit, and against Labour. But they are meant to be Labour's core voters... and basically they've not gone back to labour.... they've gone to Reform. How many seats did Labour win in 2024 with reform narrowly behind them in 2nd? Reform have gained backing and momentum ever since then, and the recent local elections (and the by-election) demonstrate that they have mobilised even more of labour's core vote. Labour are going to lose a lot of seats to reform in the next GE - The winter fuel allowances, migration, taxing jobs... its all going to come home to roost with respect to those voters.

Yup, exactly this. They need to adopt a clear and obvious approach (with benefit of doubt to the attacker, the linesmans still flagging after the fact, and VAR jsut to check obvious errors) - i.e., similar to how it used to be but with the technology there to prevent major miscarriages. None of this mm measuring crap. Its that or they go the whole hog to automated offsides, with chips in the ball, sleeves, boots etc. and computer systems notifying the ref/linesman of offsides. Absolutely need to get away from a bunch off unprofessional shite video assistant refs drawing arbitrary fat lines on a low resolution image.

Revisiting this now. What stands out is the number of these staff being based out of staplewood. Is this a deliberate attempt to repair some of the damage caused by the initial SR (Ankersen/Kraft) multi club vision where they dismantled the decentralised club based scouting/recruitment to a group based recruitment? Or is this tying in with what blackmore has said we forcing Rasmus to take a back seat and space being created to allow Spors freedom/control? Alternatively, and perhaps more of a long shot, is this part of a longer term strategy -one with a view to saints being run as a singular club again (tying in with the "for sale" rumours)? Or potentially the associated clubs being sold off seperatley/together in the mid/long term,.

Reading this, one other poster immediatley comes to mind... 😂

Hopefully Spors is looking for players that (with a years regular playing in the championship) can be considered as good enough for the prem. Anyone considered "good enough for the championship" should be firmly considered as squad depth this coming season.

Agreed that it's an all in strategy and assumes Spors will do a good job, but then equally we are easily one of the big boys in the champ (squad wise and financially). If he can't manage to do it with reasonable competence this summer, then fundamentally it's a not a good sign and unlikely he'll fair better over multiple windows (this summer we will be our strongest relative to our competition). Whilst I would like to think that we can afford to rebuild in the championship over multiple seasons, the odds of gaining promotion decrease significantly every year we fail, and with the latest prem teams getting relegated / whatever financially doped league 1 club is coming through. I think we should be bold this summer.

Pretty good odds that we will beat -38 with city and arsenal to play 😭

Think we'll see a massive shake up this summer and keep only a smattering of the first team - thats what i'd like to see anyway. Reckon the likes of manning, Arma, Charles will feature next year. Good chance that one of Downes of THB is still around. Edwards will step up and i'm excited to see him do that. We've got a lot of players that seemingly don't want to be here (Sulemana, Onuachu, Fernandes, Dibling seemingly, Bednarek, ABK, Aribo, Taylor), and if that is the case then we should welcome the chance to clear them out / move them on, and build a largely new team and dressing room. Won't be too dissimilar to the job Koeman did in his first season. And imo, something like that needs to happen to stop this cylical rut that we're in, and it shouldn't be something we're scared of doing - relegation will be the perfect opportunity to do it, the finances are in a solid enough state, wage clauses likewise, and the squad needs a radical restructuring under a new manager and Spors...

According to Blackmore, Ankerson has been moved well away from the club's football operations and is being kept out of the way to allow Spors to do his work. Make of that what you will given Blackmore often parrots information as he's told to by the club.

Could have paid him a competitive wage and pushed him more towards the first team. He's a top top talent. You never know how careers turn out with injuries/managers/systems and all that (saggy chops tried to dump bale out of spurs at one point), but i expect him to be one of the best players to ever come from our academy 🤷‍♂️

He deserves a crack in pre season. He isn't going to offer less than Stewart ffs.

Yeah... except Saints won't need to hold it open for the likes of man city 😂

could be a 0-9 incoming here, they need the GD to catch Arsenal.

Financial / PSR?

There is a lot to be said for appointing Rohl - he's got a solid track record in the champ, Wednesday fans love him, and there is a slight air of bringing one of our own back to the club. It will give him a good level of support and soft landing, and create some positivity at the club this summer. Not to say that other candidates won't do that either.

MLG, I think most would agree with what you've said here, but for your own sake - maybe let this one go and stop biting? You don't have to be right all the time, its a football forum not a legal case 😉

It was a Covid loan with a significant/alarming interest rate originally - something like £80-90M with 9% interest or something. (just checked this actually, my recollection not too far off: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/feb/22/sign-of-the-times-how-english-clubs-are-turning-to-high-interest-us-loans#:~:text=Southampton's £78.8m loan,and the club's other properties.) ^^ That article was from 2021. From the echo summary of the accounts (see also my post earlier in the year), last season the club paid of a whopping £23.8M, which only took the loan down to £70M. Someone with more time than me can go through every set of club accounts since 2021 and calculate exactly how much interest we've paid on that loan in 3-4years, but suffice to say its probably horrendous and not something that is sustainable. So when all is said and done: Bringing the loan under a more favourable interest rates is a good thing.

Starmer is going to come in for some flack for that Runcorn loss - Labour missed out by 6seats. Farage went there multiple times to support the Reform candidate, whereas Starmer stayed away (seemingly afraid to be attached to a loss)... but with only 6 seats in it he's got nowhere to hide retrospectively - how can he be afraid to go there and support his candidate when he's only months into a landmark super majority government?!?!

Who are the near certain departures then? Aribo (1 year left on his contract so that will be saints getting minimal fee for him as well.) Bednarek (2 years left and clearly trying to exit) Sulemana (would be worth keeping for the champ for how little we'll get for him, but has seemingly wanted out for years and into his final 2 years) KWP (sadly) Fernandes (much better than championship and will have interest) - maybe the club will put their foot down and make a show of keeping him? Dibling (2 years left on his contract and no sign of a new deal) ABK (1 year left on his contract - bye bye) Probable departures: Ramsdale Armstrong - wants out Onuachu - i would keep him for what we'll likely get for him, but has interest from abroad for years.

Think we will lose Bednarek and ABK at CB. Hopeful of keeping THB. THB, Woods, Stephens, Edwards - that is a decent enough set of CBs for the championship (if we play with 4 at the back)... Preferably we start THB and Edwards from those 2, and i think both can develop into good players for saints. Manning on the left (wellington, and dare i say it, Larios, as backups). Sugarawara and Bree and RB. Its solid if not spectacular. Could it be improved - absolutely, but there are likely to be other areas that need it more. Where we are strongest is in our starting CM for next season i think - excited to see if we can play Charles and Downes as holding and central mids in a 3man central midfield. Hopefully keeping one of Dibling or fernandes to play in front of them. Failing that Aribo, and Smallbone could also play in front of them but obviously we'd like to see some improvements there. Depth wise we'll be a bit weak for that kind of setup however. Have to assume that Sulemana is finally leaving, so wide attackers are weak... Edozie, keep AA? Maybe dibling... Significant improvements needed there at any rate - especially in the depth department. A shame we've let SAA go 😕 Then up front its Stewart, Onuachu, and Archer... Can we get a tune out of them or do we just reset? GK....

Last game at Everton, with specific measure in place to prevent touting and ticket transfers. Will be tough for him to use it.

Wasn't it Barclays reducing the overdraft somewhat harshly that put us under?