Saint86

Unless he is going to be really unhappy and kick off then we absolutely should keep last year's player of the year and a title winner. His value to us is quite high - we had an absolutely awful attack last year, and we're struggling for a winning mentality - what we absolutely need is players that know how to win, and more than that, players that know how to win the league / get promoted - as that is our fundamental objective. So unless its for silly money we should be keeping Tella - we have more than enough other players to shift / replace / improve on without busying ourselves shifting a player that is nigh on perfect for what we would be going out and looking for anyway ffs - not to mention the absolute utter turmoil that is our upper management and recruitment teams at present.

A 60k stadium with London price tickets where SMS is, and with the associated terrible transport links? Nah probably not. But built somewhere a bit more accessible with proper transport links? I reckon we could get up to 50k if the increased revenue led to improvements on the pitch (i.e. not being utter shite). Ultimately the London stadium is extremely well served by public transport and has a dense population around it. Saints have fans travelling from across Hampshire, Wilshire, Dorset and probably some from Somerset - to a stadium with no direct public transport links and in a city with limited parking (near the ground) or rail access 🤷‍♂️. Our fanbase isn't as small as people make it out to be, but getting to the ground is a challenge. People said we'd never sell out SMS when it was first proposed, and yet we maintain a decent attendance even when its been dirge for a year and despite it being a pretty uninspiring stadium and a cost of living crisis.

Yeah can't seeing it have much impact. Fees are largely set by the player's value to his club, remaining contract length, club's resolve. Feel a bit for Brighton, losing him for £35M is far worse than us losing Mane for £35-40M. They look to be following a similar path to what we set under Koeman (and also Leicester), albeit not quite reaching as high. How many players can they sell before their recruitment falters? Will they be the side that bucks the trend, or in 5years will they be battling relegation like every other team that dares to knock on the glass ceiling.

Sounds similar to our home support in recent years.... maybe revitalised screens will lift the atmosphere - that and some more light shows 😆 (ducks for cover) 😄

Fair point, although the broken clock adage springs to mind. Also I'd manage to block that whole escapade out - thanks for that 😭.

Given this is stoke fans, those quotes really don't carry much weight. A genuinely clueless set of supporters if ever there was one! 😂

Not only that, but I thought it badly need to be re-laid after last summer and issues with the playing surface this year?

No, they'd have needed 34 points and better goal difference to survive. In only one of the last five seasons was 35points required for survival, and 36 in none of them 😋😄

Would make a horrendous Saints kit in this form.

That isn't true though is it! If we'd have got 34 more points, other teams would have dropped points - so it becomes highly theoretical. For example, a better saints side should easily have had 6 points off of forest this year (the worst team i've seen at SMS in years - bar us this year), and would have beaten Everton at home. That is us on 34points, Everton on 33 and forest on 32... And you can keep your Leicester and Leeds where they are. Reality is that 18th place got 34 points, so beating 34 points and a -17GD was the safety boundary - as it would have been for any other team, and as many predicted. 18th place's points tally in recent seasons - i.e. the threshold to survive. 2022/23 = 34 2021/22 = 35 2020/21 = 28 2019/20 = 34 2018/21 = 34

Weird point to keep hammering on the transfer thread - do you have some personal grudge against anka or something 😅. Personal oppinion ofc, but for me he was streets ahead of Sheldon (pretty shit) and tanswell (anka light)!

He's a Premier league relegation level player. He's off the wage bill and I don't want to see him back 😰.

Yeah, that article from Jacob was had the usual drip of meaningful content, a load of aggregated rumours with no meat behind them, and no real insight. Even had someone commenting underneath that he should win the best reporter award 😄😂... You'll probably find as much / more information aggregated on here this summer. I think the reality is that Alfie House is the man with the inside tact these days. Also is there a journlistic firm out there that use "anonymous sources" more regularly than the Athletic?

I don't think that is true. The club will want sales for certain players without futures. And they'll probably sanction 1 or 2 big departures as it will raise money. But i imagine there is a perceived limit to how much of a refresh can be managed given the turmoil in upper management, so i would anticipate most of our long term contract players will be stay - unless ofc we get offered silly money and/or think we can effectively spend it. All of which probably translates to a couple of those players racing to be the ones that get out of the door (i.e. lavia, sulemana, JWP, ABK, Tella etc.) before the club slam it shut on further departures. Ultimately we know we need a certain amount to balance the books, and we hold the cards with those players re contract length. So yeah, we'll lose the likes of KWP, Salisu, Adams, one or two of the above mentioned), but outside of that we can flog most of our players and i wouldn't care. Reckon we'll keep Baz, Tino, Perraud, and smallbone regardless). Of course i could be wrong, and SR/Wilcox feel happy managing the sales of most of the squad, banking a lot of wonga, and then spending it all rapidly and efficiently this summer on lower reputation players....

I don't know chez, it's a fair point. I like him and would keep him for the champ no question, but there have been a few rumours about him leaving.

Its madness from Swansea, they'll pay his wages for a month and end up with the same compensation level. Meanwhile they've got to recruit a new manager and can't plan for the new season whilst at the same time the deal may fall through 😄

Tbh, Swansea are the ones being silly here. They've made a move for a new mananger and Martin is therefore leaving now regardless. It's the off season, Martin won't be involved in their planning going forward, so all they're doing is paying him wages whilst we wait to be a confirmed 2nd tier side. Meanwhile, if he is joining us, I'm sure he's on 'holiday' in communication with wilcox etc planning for June / july at saints 🤣

Dream scenario (given where we are) is that we keep most of our key players whilst rebalancing the squad by shifting squad players or high wage players - i.e. we shift all the average, short contract, or limited long term resale value players (KWP 😭, Salisu, Diallo 🤷‍♂️, two of Lyanco/DCC/Stephens 🤷‍♂️, Onuachu , Adams (likely lets be honest 😰), Perraud (if he does want out?), Macca, etc Would leave us with a slimmed down side including the likes of: GK - Baz, Lis, + new? CB - "Janny B", ABK, someone retained + others LB - Perraud/new starter, and Larios, Small RB - Tino and Bree CM - Lavia, JWP, Smallbone, Doyle, Sam Amo-Ameyaw? Wingers or AMs - Stu, Tella, Sulemana, Carlos, Edozie, Attackers - A.Armstrong, Ballard, New signing Compared to our last championship team, that would be pretty strong? Edit - Its still a shit show that we're in the championship and in a position where the likes of JWP, KWP, Salisu, ABK, Sulemana, Alcaraz etc could be poached off of us 😄, but at least something like the above would be a sign of intent and a chance to reset, build something for the future.

Figures from Kieran McGuire in fairness 🤷‍♂️.

Quick thoughts: The linked article to that one states our wages are between £50M-£60M. The included interview states that we made £115M from TV money in the prem last season. It states that we'll receive £41M in parachute payments next year, and an average of £8M for championship TV monies - so circa £50M in tv money for the first year in the championship. So fundamentally, we'll be short circa £65M in comparative income between the two. On the wages front, we know straight away that Theo and Ely are leaving, going out on a limb i will say that is easily £120k per week (or circa £6M off the wage bill) - leaving lets say £55M annual wages left. Lets assume the average relegation wage reduction clause is 20% of that £55M (the rumoured value is closer to 40%), therefore saving a further £11M. (Total saving so far being £17M of that £65M shortfall, £48M left. Say we sold JWP for £40M and cleared £100k per week (£5.2M) off the wages, that would effectively offset the reduction in income for the first year? Or switch out JWP and equate that to Salisu and KWP leaving? And the reality is we know we'll be losing far more than that with all the dead wood / bloat... Every player that leaves (assuming an average of £50K per week is £2.5M off the wage bill - let alone transfer fees. I don't think we're in that bad a position frankly 🤷‍♂️. We'll be looking at fairly significant fees for the likes of JWP, Lavia, KWP, Salisu, ABK, Alcaraz, Sulemana, Adams if they leave, plus large wage reductions. We've got the likes of Smallbone and Tella (hopefully) to come into the side, as well as academy prospects like Doyle and Ballard. We'll shift a lot of bloat to balance debts and restructure the team, and we'll likely sell 1 or 2 gems because the deals work out well enough for the club and the player. But regardless, we should have adequate funds to push on in the championship and not worry too much financially i'd have thought. Is this wildly out? Really aggressive owners would underwrite some of the loss and keep a very strong team 🤷‍♂️. (i know i've ignored matchday revenue in the above, but i can't see it as being overly significant compared to wages and tv money.)

With knowledge and experience like this, Rob doesn't stand a chance 😂

It wasn't brewing for some time. They had £160M and failed to buy a striker, and then sold romeu and got no back up cdm. Not only did we fail to address that, but we've also set about rapid change at all levels and disrupted seemingly all parts of the club! A lot of that was uneccessary or done to hastily. So I would say that this year's relegation was avoidable - and SR shouldn't hide / be excused from that (they aren't trying to dodge it tbf). And at least they're committed and seemingly have ambition - that Immediatley sets them above any CEO/ownership since the cortese/Marcus days. They have the right to try and fix the mess we're in this summer and be supported by the fans - provided they do follow up with investment and sound decisions at least. But another year like last and we'll surely see a huge turning against them from the fans?!

“When we appointed Nathan it was based on what we needed to improve to stay in the Premier League,” Ankersen says. Worries me slightly as it shows an underlying lack of footballing understanding, I don't think there is any serious metric where he was an upgrade on Ralph? But saying that, they have put more footballing people in place. Credit to them for being open and accessible to the fans again with this peice (even if cynically some positive PR is needed). I don't think anyone can say they haven't at least invested in the club, so we just have to hope they get it right... There is a lot of damage to repair sadly.

If he's the Rob from the fan's forum then i don't think he's far off being middle aged himself 😄

Its been moved to a new thread