Saint86

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

This could spawn the best random summer thread yet... The middle aged men of saintsweb vs Andrew and Rob!

In fairness, we're about to replace the overwhelming amount of the squad, you'd like to think we'll buy players that at least suit his play style 🤞

The fact we're in the championship and about to appoint Russell Martin is a shit show. The End. All we really needed to do last summer was sign a decent goalscorer. But here we are 1 CEO, 2 managers, 2 first team coaching setups, 1 director of football/academy/finance etc., and £160M later, and we've got fans excited about selling players like JWP, KWP, ABK, Lavia etc. and starting again in the championship with a seemingly 2nd rate manager with no achievements to his name 😄. Its an utter travesty of cumulative avoidable fuck ups sadly - no disrespect to Mr Martin ofc... he could be the best manager in europe for all i know! Sad reality is he is seemingly our level now 🤮🤮🤮

We should only be selling JWP, Lavia, Sulemana, and Alcaraz if the offers are too good to refuse. They're on long contracts and are like as not our best assets. Who are you thinking we'll loan Mara to? If he isn't good enough for the championship then it really was a bad buy sadly.

May or may not have given some token "confused" reactions 😬

Wasn't he saying that the clubs we signed them from won't be happy that we've reneged on our side of the deal (by getting relegated), and can now tell us where we need to loan them to etc?

He's put £20M in over the last few months sure? the £15M and the extra £5M more recently? But £400M? Not seen any reference to that anywhere.

Think we can safely say he is off after today then.

I'm merely saying the option is there. Nothing I've seen from SR makes me believe we'll ever keep hold of a player when we can sell them for a profit 😢 Reality is that with the wage cuts, a few high earners leaving, selected transfer sales, and parachute payments - we should be able to keep our best young prospects - they're on comparatively low wages and on long contracts. If we wanted to do well in the champ we'd fight tooth and nail to keep our best players... But yes, agree, I don't think it will happen. Suspect we're still in the "break it" phase, and only when everything has been rebuilt in rasmus' brentford mould will Rasmus be able to say that his plan works.

City are rumoured to have first refusal on any accepted offer, and they have a buy back clause (rumoured at £40M) that comes into affect next summer. They're also rumoured to have a sell on clause. Whatever happens they have the option to match (and likey get an effective discount on) whatever any "rivals" may pay this summer. But saints still hold the cards - we can decide to keep him if we wish (knowing we'll still be able to demand £40M next summer), or we can cash in now... City don't get a say. Also didn't lavia sign a 5-6 year deal when he joined? If we can afford it, we should put our foot down and keep him - unless someone offers silly money. But this stuff you're saying about saints breaking the 'deal' because we get relegated, and for city then having some controlling say over saints' transfer policy because we're relegated... that is just pie in the sky talk. Its also bordering on 3rd party ownership to say stuff along the lines of, "city won't be happy with him playing championship football" etc etc. He isn't their player anymore, regardless of what securities they have in place to facilitate a buy back.

How soon is soon? 😂

Back to back promotions *and a net negative spend...