KelvinsRightGlove

There you go again. I must have said explicitly at least twice, if not more (and again now) that I think it is UNLIKELY but not unobtainable.

Perhaps, though this season and last it's been very much a 2 horse race. It's been a while since Arsenal have seriously challenged for the title (I say while, 4-6 years) yet they still finish top 4 year in, year out.

A) Did I say that? B) Did I say we had 'untold billions in the bank'? If you want to debate, debate. But at present you are simply putting words in my mouth and arguing with yourself. It may just as well be that release of funds was staggered over a period, with getting more at certain times according to the '5 year plan'. Being ahead of this may have meant a temporary short-coming, or cash-flow problem. There, I have come up with a solution based on no facts whatsoever, but I will purport this to be FACT just like you. Discussion over.

I like how you talk about facts whilst basing everything on speculation and what ifs. It's not unheard of for companies to take out loans short-term for numerous reasons. I have previously worked for companies that take in multi-m £ loans to cover temporary cash-flow problems or for tax issues, despite have turnover and profit far in excess of what Saints have. As I said, without all the facts, making assumptions based solely on this is pointless.

Seeing as we have no idea how much we supposedly borrowed, or why we borrowed it. It is hard to say with any level of certainty whether this has a long-term impact on long-term goals.

How does one loan, which we have no idea the amount of, or purpose of, equate to "Dodgy financial situation and overreliance on borrowing"?

Eh? Sorry, are will still talking about Southampton here?

You seem to be using this thread to prove that all on your lonesome fella.

Ha, it was definitely a Two-Legged tie as well. Come on buddy, at least try and make this harder.

Maybe read the whole post mate "top half team". As I said, unlikely, but not unobtainable. That's no reason to not aim for it. Stranger things happen on a regular basis.

What, Swansea being a top half team and outplaying Chelsea to reach a cup final? That definitely hasn't happened since '92.

Top post. Great points, well made. Further to point 3, one only needs to cast eyes across the Channel to France. And Montpellier beating PSG to the title. I don't think we are all that likely to qualify for the CL. But, I don't believe that is a reason to simply not try, or that it is impossible for Saints to achieve it.

I'm not sure we needed 2. Fonte, eventually, showed his is good enough for the division. Recently, Jos has come back in and done a decent job. I'm pretty sure he played against both Chelsea & Everton, which were both games I expected us to lose (probably, heavily) and yet we got decent draws from. We got in Boruc, who is now showing he is good enough. In an ideal world, yes, all signings would be done and dusted in time for day one of Pre-Season. But, in reality, this is not how things work. We can moan about it, and throw our windowly hissyfits, but it just doesn't happen. Not just at Southampton, but all clubs. Do you all really think it's just a coincidence that the final week, and often final day, of the windows are the most busy? Just because things don't happen straight away, or we don't hear about every single minute detail, doesn't mean the club are fannying around. Nor does it prove, that the club are only capable of handling one transfer negotiation at any given time. This is just ludicrous, and anyone that says there is proof of this (lol apparently Coutinho proves this) just shows how clueless these people are. Or how short their memories are, remember all the Astori talk, and then we went and signed Forren. Come on guys, at least make it challenging.

At least now, with us A) Being in the Prem & B) Being on a much more sound financial footing, we are likely to receive some hefty fees for clubs looking to sign our players. If we got £15m for Oxo who had only played 2/3s of a season in L1, imagine what Cortese would likely demand for (just an example here) Luke Shaw? I wouldn't be surprised if it were more like £25m. Which, whilst it being a great loss, would certainly help improvement in other areas of the squad. especially seeing as now when we get fees, they aren't going to immediately disappear on trying desperately to keep the club afloat.

I find that highly unlikely.

I'm sure many would have said the same about Citeh winning the league & being in the Champions League when they were in League 1, what 12 - 15 years ago? (cannae remember the exact dates, but pretty sure it was around then. Probably, but look at City/Chelsea/PSG, not that many clubs are all that sustainable these days without their wealthy backers. If only we were owned by a deceased billionaire....

It's not like it's a stated ambition of the club to bring through academy products to the first team. Or that Shaw (along with Ward-Prowse, and was it Chambers & Reeves?) that were promoted to the first team squad in the summer. Nah, was just panic and luck. All of it. Like everything else that has ever gone right.

How the bloody hell did I forget Clyne?! Feels like he's been here ages already. For me, him and Shaw are future England FBs. I know a lot was made of our failure to sign a lb, and the Buttner deal falling through. But, I wonder if it was felt Shaw was close enough to making the leap that it wasn't seen as such a priority.

Like last summer when we didn't strengthen? Even though Ramirez is clearly a class act. Yoshi is looking a snip, and still improving. J-Rod looks good. Davis again was very cheap and provides solid cover to one of the better (in my opinion) CM pairings in the division. Boruc was late, but was a free, and despite taking time to settle is looking a decent signing now, proving me wrong in the process - I thought we needed a GK in the window, not so much now. Or last Jan, when we were told we needed striking reinforcements, otherwise we would blow our chance of promotion, when we bought in Lee, who started well - unfair to judge that transfer too harshly given the nature of his injury & Billy Sharp, who probably did help secure promotion with his goals. Or the summer previous to that, when we improved on our L1 squad sufficiently to come flying out of the traps, and gain a second successive promotion. Though then we weren't ambitious enough, and didn't have a chance of competing with big spending clubs like Leicester & West Ham. So yeah, I know what you think. But when you show me something that suggests your continual complaining about transfer activity has some grounding, I'll ease up a bit. Sound fair?

As are you my friend. Look back at any transfer thread over the past few seasons. Guarantee my point will be proven.

I'm not angry. I think he's funny. SWF would be duller without him. He's like a panto villan. I think he likes the attention really, despite the protests.

Anytime I question him, or refer to his previous rants which are wrong, I get an insult from him. He's entitled to his opinion, and when I agree with him, or think he makes a good point I will say as much. By the same token, when he (or anyone else) makes the same tired point, claims to be proven right time and again, when the reality is quite the converse, I will call him (them) up on it.

The irony of this is mind-blowing.

Today, being the appropriate word. How you can troll constantly on here, then play the victim when you get a little something back beggars belief mate. Does anyone else here think I am being overly harsh, or unfair in this assessment? Every window, you do throw a wobbler about it not being good enough and the season being blown. Which, in every case since I have been viewing (prior to joining) this forum and seen these posts, you prove to be wrong.

Yo, Papster. Finally got a new tele, so having an xbox renaissance. Enjoying Sonic transformed, though it's quite tricky (perhaps deciding to start on A Class wasn't the smartest of moves?) Are you an xbox man? If so chuck us your Gamertag, got a glut of new games (Sonic Transformed, Halo 4, Far Cry 3, Fifa 13), if you ever fancy a game...