@davidmatzdorf and @Sp3akerboxxx please, by all means, I'm curious to hear your logic in contradiction to the post above.
"one of league's leading scoring strikers + league's leading scoring midfielder + x = in sixth place with a +5 goal differential"
How can you refute the above? How would you solve for x?
I just cannot understand why every year we refuse the opportunity to push on, especially when the answer is so clear.
Heh. It was this part:
I have set out in several posts already why we do not buy major/expensive players or players to improve the current season's campaign during January transfer windows. We never do it and it's pretty clear why, but still we get this rain of posts either angry or, in your case, mystified that we do not. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with what's clearly a policy, but the club's reasons are not obscure or dificult to follow: they don't consider that important players are available at good value in January and they look at the squad on a longer time frame than the next 5 months.
Indeed, VDVs acquisition has certainly been proved to be the exception. Unless Levy spots a deal like Pienaar, or Holtby, where contracts were almost up. The Saha/Nelson window told everyone what was going to happen. Competitive, more or less, equals saving the money-but saving the money for what or when is the key unanswered question.
£50m training ground/academy. Which we are already seeing the benefits from.
Well over £100m on the new stadium (including £50m in the last year on the contract for the groundworks).
Levy is looking for long term success. It's hard for the fans because we want trophies and CL. Just hope that we can sort out the Archway mess this month and then get the stadium going properly.
Another monumental fail by Levy, but you won't have any joy convincing the bsodl.
There's a herd mentality at work here with everyone trying to outdo each other with slavish optimism, and scoring points for abusing the minority of un intimidated dissenters.
For the record:
I'm very happy with the performance of MP, the wonderful development of Kane and Eriksson, and perhaps most of all with the way our longtime weakness of mentality is being rectified. Even the lesser players are showing signs of improvement,and there is an encouraging trend of more open progression from youth to first team, with some good prospects.
In itself that is enough for me to be able to enjoy this season, I don't require 4th, or a trophy to do that, and in theory I'm quite prepared to patiently watch the squad develop as organically as Levy's allotment, if he had one. Unfortunately we all know, when not blinded by partisan optimism, that that's not how it works in the PL. I'm not happy with the prospects for the coming seasons because All the above positives do not amount, and will not amount to progress in our League position. For that you actually have to invest in the team in a timely and astute fashion, which Levy consistently refuses to do.
We are indeed weakened. We've lost two squad options, while replacing only one very inexperienced unknown quantity in Yedlin. Much more importantly we've lost another opportunity to build our squad incrementally with the addition of at least one quality player. That's important because new players take time to bed in and can't all be brought in at once as we learnt to our cost with the less than magnificent seven.
Even more unforgivably in my view, is that Levy has for the second window running, failed to significantly clear the deadwood ( ade, Paul, kab,cap, chir) despite opportunities to do so. That means the summer window, instead of being about finally proactively backing MP with his own players, will now be a repeat of the last two, the same old mantra of outs before ins before eventually picking up scraps at the last moment.
We are weakened because the time-scale of any realistic notional progress to CL has again shifted back at least another 6months ( much the same as the stadium plans always do). And what the bsodl are unwilling to face up to is that that is absolutely critical, because in today's PL if you don't make significant progress you are effectively moving backwards. Not just because your rivals are strengthening and any fond ideas of progress are actually only significant relative to what other teams are doing, but because there's a fast ticking clock on those hopes of progress. The likes of Eriksson, Loris, Verts, and even Kane will not stick around for ever waiting for Daniel to do his business, they won't even stay very long at this rate if they are given no reason to believe the ambition of the clu b could soon match their own. The failure to strengthen is effectively a weakening in itself, because our hopes of holding on to them, and their morale and commitment to the club over the next few months as the vulture agents circle can't help but be weakened. If the chairman consistently puts money before all else, why should we expect them not to?
Yes they might go anyway, but that's all the more reason to strengthen while we have them so we can achieve some continuity and weather the loss. That way it would be a case of two steps forward, one back, which equals progress. The present policy , heading for a repeat of the bale situation, sees us making one forward, one back and that's effectively at least two back when you factor in the time, morale and momentum lost and extra disruption to our transfer schedule waiting for the dreaded sales to go through. That, my friends, is a recipe for, at best, stasis and perennial false optimism. Exactly what we're used to.
Dafuq you get 20-25 million from?
You do know he's been carrying a serious injury? As well as that, the last time I saw a price quoted for him it was 15 million.
Christ on a bike, it's like having a Sun journo on here.
Lol.
As if anyone's going to pay 15 mill for a semi-injured player. He's either going to be considered injured or not. If not the price will be what it was before, and someone will pay it. But you sir, appear to be too foolish to argue with so I suggest you agree to the following or refrain from your mouthy posturing:
£10 donation to SC:
From me if Rodriguez goes anywhere for 15mill or less.
From you if he goes anywhere for 20mill or more.
Lol.
As if anyone's going to pay 15 mill for a semi-injured player. He's either going to be considered injured or not. If not the price will be what it was before, and someone will pay it. But you sir, appear to be too foolish to argue with so I suggest you agree to the following or refrain from your mouthy posturing:
£10 donation to SC:
From me if Rodriguez goes anywhere for 15mill or less.
From you if he goes anywhere for 20mill or more.
Done.
I'll join on this one. If Rodrigues goes for 20m or more I will cough up a tenner. Having not played a whole season and given that Southampton have Tadic, Elia, Churcic(sp) and Mane amongst others in this position I would expect him to go relatively cheaply. Probably in the 8-15m bracket. His injury was a serious one and he won't have had much playing time by the time he returns to the end of the season.
Heh. It was this part:
I have set out in several posts already why we do not buy major/expensive players or players to improve the current season's campaign during January transfer windows. We never do it and it's pretty clear why, but still we get this rain of posts either angry or, in your case, mystified that we do not. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with what's clearly a policy, but the club's reasons are not obscure or difficult to follow: they don't consider that important players are available at good value in January and they look at the squad on a longer time frame than the next 5 months.
Indeed, VDVs acquisition has certainly been proved to be the exception. Unless Levy spots a deal like Pienaar, or Holtby, where contracts were almost up. The Saha/Nelson window told everyone what was going to happen. Competitive, more or less, equals saving the money-but saving the money for what or when is the key unanswered question.
Indeed, VDVs acquisition has certainly been proved to be the exception. Unless Levy spots a deal like Pienaar, or Holtby, where contracts were almost up. The Saha/Nelson window told everyone what was going to happen. Competitive, more or less, equals saving the money-but saving the money for what or when is the key unanswered question.