Are Southampton being sold down the river?

[Southern Scouse]

I feel sorry for Southampton, but I think it's a little of both. LFC have spent about £75m so far, £49m for Lambert, Lallana and Lovren. All three of those players will be involved with CL football, on higher wages and two of them will probably be first team starters. Most pundits believe that LFC have still not started on the £75m received for LS and that the money spent so far was in the kitty and included sales.
Lallana, who was expensive is a decent PL/England player.
Ricky is a Roy of the Rovers job who will probably score 10 goals and is a great bit player.
Lovren will probably partner Turtle with Sahko as a reserve. Dagger although technically good is a glass cannon and will probably leave. Lovren gives us the Carra effect and will be a top player.
Problem is that Southampton will never get the type of player in the transfer market that they are selling, it will takes years to get a decent crop in again. To be fair, who will want to join a club selling 8 to 10 players?
I think they will need ten years to get back to where they are now.....

 

[Soulman]

Didn't know he is from Worthing!

He has already got Prem first team caps. Three I believe..

He has just signed a four year deal with the club and will definitely play a major role this season. I've watched his development over the last two years and he is a really exciting player. Comparisons with Scholes are not wayward. And not just because of his hair

He is a mate of my lad. He will be sad that Chambers has gone, he used to stay at his parents place. Was a big fan of your ex manager.

 

[HoveSaint]

I feel sorry for Southampton, but I think it's a little of both. LFC have spent about £75m so far, £49m for Lambert, Lallana and Lovren. All three of those players will be involved with CL football, on higher wages and two of them will probably be first team starters. Most pundits believe that LFC have still not started on the £75m received for LS and that the money spent so far was in the kitty and included sales.
Lallana, who was expensive is a decent PL/England player.
Ricky is a Roy of the Rovers job who will probably score 10 goals and is a great bit player.
Lovren will probably partner Turtle with Sahko as a reserve. Dagger although technically good is a glass cannon and will probably leave. Lovren gives us the Carra effect and will be a top player.
Problem is that Southampton will never get the type of player in the transfer market that they are selling, it will takes years to get a decent crop in again. To be fair, who will want to join a club selling 8 to 10 players?
I think they will need ten years to get back to where they are now.....

That's funny! Really, quality humour! Well done.

Ten years, nonsense. Do you think our academy only recruits once a decade? Lallana, Shaw, Chambers all home grown. Plenty more where they came from. And with £72 million left to spend and a good scouting network and an exceptionally well respected manager we will have no trouble filling holes.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

That's funny! Really, quality humour! Well done.

Ten years, nonsense

To be be fair, he probably knows a lot about clubs taking a long time to get back to former glory days

 

[Southern Scouse]

That's funny! Really, quality humour! Well done.

Ten years, nonsense. Do you think our academy only recruits once a decade? Lallana, Shaw, Chambers all home grown. Plenty more where they came from. And with £72 million left to spend and a good scouting network and an exceptionally well respected manager we will have no trouble filling holes.

You will be relegated, Ronald is a deceptively poor manager.

 

[Southern Scouse]

To be be fair, he probably knows a lot about clubs taking a long time to get back to former glory days

As BHA fans having some former glory would be nice, at least the stains had 1976!.........

 

[Lady Whistledown]

As BHA fans having some former glory would be nice, at least the stains had 1976!.........

I never suggested otherwise. We know our place

 

[Lady Whistledown]

As BHA fans having some former glory would be nice, at least the stains had 1976!.........

I never suggested otherwise. We know our place

 

[Chicken Runner61]

I feel sorry for Southampton, but I think it's a little of both. LFC have spent about £75m so far, £49m for Lambert, Lallana and Lovren. All three of those players will be involved with CL football, on higher wages and two of them will probably be first team starters. Most pundits believe that LFC have still not started on the £75m received for LS and that the money spent so far was in the kitty and included sales.
Lallana, who was expensive is a decent PL/England player.
Ricky is a Roy of the Rovers job who will probably score 10 goals and is a great bit player.
Lovren will probably partner Turtle with Sahko as a reserve. Dagger although technically good is a glass cannon and will probably leave. Lovren gives us the Carra effect and will be a top player.
Problem is that Southampton will never get the type of player in the transfer market that they are selling, it will takes years to get a decent crop in again. To be fair, who will want to join a club selling 8 to 10 players?
I think they will need ten years to get back to where they are now.....

You blew the Suarez money on 5 players - paid over then top again like you did with the show pony Carroll.

This season might be a let down - like last season

 

[Rogero]

Owners taking there money out?

No,but I think they could be taking their money out.

 

[Munkfish]

I hope Southampton do well this season and continue to bring through quaility talent.

Liverpool and the rest of the top 6 could only dream of turning out the quaility of players southampton have done in the last 5 years+

I feel sorry for them, that the vultures have come in and picked what looked a very promosing team apart.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Thought I'd give you my perspective.

Katrina Liebherr is worth something like 3 billion euros. I fail to see why on earth she would be interested in 'asset stripping'. Her father bought SFC for the princely sum of £15 million plus £15 million of debt. He then put in another £20 million, and it appears a further £15 million since his untimely death. So a total investment by the Liebherrs of £65 million all told. Over the last three years - while KL has been the owner - the club has spent about £25 million turning Staplewood (the training ground) into one of the very, very best training centres in Europe. And that is not an exaggeration. It lacks nothing. Twelve pitches all with different types of turf to mimic the other Prem grounds etc.

Behind the scenes, she clearly did not get on with her father's choice of CEO. Cortese did a lot of good for SFC - taking us from league one to the Prem and being hard-nosed in the extreme. He was, however, not popular. Banning MLT from SMS was about the most stupid thing you could do. So, he was sent packing. Since then the amount of spending on non-football recruitment - such as PR, Marketing, Hospitality etc - has almost tripled. The club is investing heavily in 'promoting the brand'. The club recently recruited the former head of marketing for Apple UK. I would imagine that does not come cheap. All these things do not, in my mind at least, suggest an owner who is bailing on the club. But if she had decided to bail, why not just put the club up for sale. Selling SFC after finishing 8th in the Prem, with the academy we have and the squad would have been ridiculously easy. The club turned over £120 million plus last season and has no debt. The value of SFC would be north of £250m of any Arab's money. £65 million in, £250 million out. Good business.

KL has also been very upfront with the fans. She has stated in no uncertain terms that she wants to remain part of SFC and keep on building. She might be lying, but if she is then she is going about it in a very peculiar way.

So then what about the 'exodus' that the media are so quick to mention?

Lambert to Livepool, his boy-hood club for £4m. Lambo's best years are most definitely behind him. A club legend, and one day someone will make a film about him because his story and his success are extraordinary. He struggled to get 60 mins a game last season, but was still effective. He had two years left on his deal, and by letting him go to his boyhood club we earn his love and respect for ever. We purchased him from Rovers for £1m and look where he has got us. Well repaid the investment. We have replaced him with Pelle who was the Dutch first division's second top scorer last season, and over the last two seasons scores an average of 0.85 goals per game. He is big, tall, and in every way an ideal replacement for Lambo. £12 million. Four year deal.

Lallana to Liverpool. Adam became a bit of a cock since playing for England. A shame really. Clatenburg may have been on to something. He made it totally clear to the board he was not going to play for SFC again. He rubbed up a lot of people the wrong way, even rudely refusing to at least have the courtesy to sit down with the new manager and talk about his future. He went for £25 million, and after Bournemouth's cut we get about £20 million. We bring in Dusan Tadic for £8.5 million, probably on lower wages too. He is a snap-in replacement for Lallana. Looks very, very neat.

Shaw to Untied for £30m + addons. There isn't a chairman alive who would have turned that down. That is not asset stripping. That is text-book good business. A quality Prem experienced left back would cost us no more than £10 million. £15 million max. And good as Shaw is, there is no way he is a thirty million pound player. But no worries, because there is this kid called Matt Targett, 18 years old. Plays left back and is every bit as good as Shaw was two years ago.

Lovren to Liverpool for £20m. We bought him for £8.5 million 13 months ago. Good player, no doubt but had an average second half of the season. He came back from the world cup and just plain refused to play for the Saints again. Massive ego. Head completely turned. What are we to do? Of course we sell! Twenty million is all about SFC mugging Liverpool, not KL asset stripping.

Chambers to Arsenal for £16m. The kid is good. No question. His is perhaps the most 'annoying' loss. I would have liked to have got another year out of him, but again sixteen million quid for a lad who has only played 20 odd games in the Prem is a lot of money. He is Arsenal's third most expensive player of all time. And his head was clearly turned too. I can't imagine what wages he is on.

If Schneiderlin and JRod go too, then there will be another £40 million at least. JRod is not irreplaceable. Schniederlin would be a loss, but if the figure of £25 million is correct then easily replaceable with clever scouting.

So confirmed we have sold £92 million and spent £20 million. We have £72 million burning a whole in the bank account, and that is before spending any of the £83 million in prize money we won last season. In each of the previous two seasons (when KL was the owner) we spent £30 million. SFC does not have a cash problem. We can now attract players by paying them more wages as well as higher fees. If we so wish. However, I actually don't want to see all that money spent a-la Spurs or QPR. This year we have six exceptional youngster coming into the first team setup. People have said that this years crop of youngsters is perhaps the best ever. I have followed them closely at games over the years and I can attest to that. Isgrove, Targett, Sinclair, Rowe, Reed, Turnbull, McQueen... These will be household names within two years. Probably because they will have been sold to the big clubs for stupid money. That is life.

Albion and SFC are two very similar clubs. Both in size, size of ground and catchment area of fans and talent. If Tony Bloom was offered the sort of money mentioned above for any Albion players he would do business. No question about it. Fans who sit around in La-La land dreaming of loyal players who will stick with the 'provincial' club over the Big Mega Club and commensurate Big Wage are delusional. Neither SFC, nor Albion will ever become a Big Club. We are what we are. There is no reason Albion can't join us in the Prem, and once your academy starts producing young talent their heads will be turned too and they will be off for the bright lights. But we will never be more than the 'best of the rest'. There is no reason to get upset about it. There are plenty of plastics in Southampton and Brighton who are from those respective towns but wear Big Club replica shirts and are probably really, really dull people.

What matters is can SFC put out a solid team who will play 100% and entertain the crowd? Yes, already we can. Can we put out a team which can maintain 8th position? Not yet, but £30-40 million of spending and no problem. Can we deepen the squad. Yes. Can we satisfy the dreamers and finish top four? No. Not even if we spent every penny of what has been a bonanza windfall.

I believe the club will bring in several more good quality players to strengthen an already good side. Talk of relegation is just nuts. Reality is that clubs our size will always be selling clubs. The trick is to get absolute top-dollar and SFC have done just that.

See y'all at the Amex on thursday. Our next wave of youngsters will be on display

There's absolutely no place for this sort of reasonable, well thought out, insightful analysis on NSC. What were you thinking of?

 

[Withdean South Stand]

Thought I'd give you my perspective.

Katrina Liebherr is worth something like 3 billion euros. I fail to see why on earth she would be interested in 'asset stripping'. Her father bought SFC for the princely sum of £15 million plus £15 million of debt. He then put in another £20 million, and it appears a further £15 million since his untimely death. So a total investment by the Liebherrs of £65 million all told. Over the last three years - while KL has been the owner - the club has spent about £25 million turning Staplewood (the training ground) into one of the very, very best training centres in Europe. And that is not an exaggeration. It lacks nothing. Twelve pitches all with different types of turf to mimic the other Prem grounds etc.

Behind the scenes, she clearly did not get on with her father's choice of CEO. Cortese did a lot of good for SFC - taking us from league one to the Prem and being hard-nosed in the extreme. He was, however, not popular. Banning MLT from SMS was about the most stupid thing you could do. So, he was sent packing. Since then the amount of spending on non-football recruitment - such as PR, Marketing, Hospitality etc - has almost tripled. The club is investing heavily in 'promoting the brand'. The club recently recruited the former head of marketing for Apple UK. I would imagine that does not come cheap. All these things do not, in my mind at least, suggest an owner who is bailing on the club. But if she had decided to bail, why not just put the club up for sale. Selling SFC after finishing 8th in the Prem, with the academy we have and the squad would have been ridiculously easy. The club turned over £120 million plus last season and has no debt. The value of SFC would be north of £250m of any Arab's money. £65 million in, £250 million out. Good business.

KL has also been very upfront with the fans. She has stated in no uncertain terms that she wants to remain part of SFC and keep on building. She might be lying, but if she is then she is going about it in a very peculiar way.

So then what about the 'exodus' that the media are so quick to mention?

Lambert to Livepool, his boy-hood club for £4m. Lambo's best years are most definitely behind him. A club legend, and one day someone will make a film about him because his story and his success are extraordinary. He struggled to get 60 mins a game last season, but was still effective. He had two years left on his deal, and by letting him go to his boyhood club we earn his love and respect for ever. We purchased him from Rovers for £1m and look where he has got us. Well repaid the investment. We have replaced him with Pelle who was the Dutch first division's second top scorer last season, and over the last two seasons scores an average of 0.85 goals per game. He is big, tall, and in every way an ideal replacement for Lambo. £12 million. Four year deal.

Lallana to Liverpool. Adam became a bit of a cock since playing for England. A shame really. Clatenburg may have been on to something. He made it totally clear to the board he was not going to play for SFC again. He rubbed up a lot of people the wrong way, even rudely refusing to at least have the courtesy to sit down with the new manager and talk about his future. He went for £25 million, and after Bournemouth's cut we get about £20 million. We bring in Dusan Tadic for £8.5 million, probably on lower wages too. He is a snap-in replacement for Lallana. Looks very, very neat.

Shaw to Untied for £30m + addons. There isn't a chairman alive who would have turned that down. That is not asset stripping. That is text-book good business. A quality Prem experienced left back would cost us no more than £10 million. £15 million max. And good as Shaw is, there is no way he is a thirty million pound player. But no worries, because there is this kid called Matt Targett, 18 years old. Plays left back and is every bit as good as Shaw was two years ago.

Lovren to Liverpool for £20m. We bought him for £8.5 million 13 months ago. Good player, no doubt but had an average second half of the season. He came back from the world cup and just plain refused to play for the Saints again. Massive ego. Head completely turned. What are we to do? Of course we sell! Twenty million is all about SFC mugging Liverpool, not KL asset stripping.

Chambers to Arsenal for £16m. The kid is good. No question. His is perhaps the most 'annoying' loss. I would have liked to have got another year out of him, but again sixteen million quid for a lad who has only played 20 odd games in the Prem is a lot of money. He is Arsenal's third most expensive player of all time. And his head was clearly turned too. I can't imagine what wages he is on.

If Schneiderlin and JRod go too, then there will be another £40 million at least. JRod is not irreplaceable. Schniederlin would be a loss, but if the figure of £25 million is correct then easily replaceable with clever scouting.

So confirmed we have sold £92 million and spent £20 million. We have £72 million burning a whole in the bank account, and that is before spending any of the £83 million in prize money we won last season. In each of the previous two seasons (when KL was the owner) we spent £30 million. SFC does not have a cash problem. We can now attract players by paying them more wages as well as higher fees. If we so wish. However, I actually don't want to see all that money spent a-la Spurs or QPR. This year we have six exceptional youngster coming into the first team setup. People have said that this years crop of youngsters is perhaps the best ever. I have followed them closely at games over the years and I can attest to that. Isgrove, Targett, Sinclair, Rowe, Reed, Turnbull, McQueen... These will be household names within two years. Probably because they will have been sold to the big clubs for stupid money. That is life.

Albion and SFC are two very similar clubs. Both in size, size of ground and catchment area of fans and talent. If Tony Bloom was offered the sort of money mentioned above for any Albion players he would do business. No question about it. Fans who sit around in La-La land dreaming of loyal players who will stick with the 'provincial' club over the Big Mega Club and commensurate Big Wage are delusional. Neither SFC, nor Albion will ever become a Big Club. We are what we are. There is no reason Albion can't join us in the Prem, and once your academy starts producing young talent their heads will be turned too and they will be off for the bright lights. But we will never be more than the 'best of the rest'. There is no reason to get upset about it. There are plenty of plastics in Southampton and Brighton who are from those respective towns but wear Big Club replica shirts and are probably really, really dull people.

What matters is can SFC put out a solid team who will play 100% and entertain the crowd? Yes, already we can. Can we put out a team which can maintain 8th position? Not yet, but £30-40 million of spending and no problem. Can we deepen the squad. Yes. Can we satisfy the dreamers and finish top four? No. Not even if we spent every penny of what has been a bonanza windfall.

I believe the club will bring in several more good quality players to strengthen an already good side. Talk of relegation is just nuts. Reality is that clubs our size will always be selling clubs. The trick is to get absolute top-dollar and SFC have done just that.

See y'all at the Amex on thursday. Our next wave of youngsters will be on display

That is a fantastic post, thank you for taking the time to share that with us all.

 

[Jambo Seagull]

Hove Saint's post is excellent. Whilst Southampton have clearly sold far more players than their fans would be comfortable with, they have got massively over the odds for all of them.

 

[Drebin]

Thought I'd give you my perspective.

Katrina Liebherr is worth something like 3 billion euros. I fail to see why on earth she would be interested in 'asset stripping'. Her father bought SFC for the princely sum of £15 million plus £15 million of debt. He then put in another £20 million, and it appears a further £15 million since his untimely death. So a total investment by the Liebherrs of £65 million all told. Over the last three years - while KL has been the owner - the club has spent about £25 million turning Staplewood (the training ground) into one of the very, very best training centres in Europe. And that is not an exaggeration. It lacks nothing. Twelve pitches all with different types of turf to mimic the other Prem grounds etc.

Behind the scenes, she clearly did not get on with her father's choice of CEO. Cortese did a lot of good for SFC - taking us from league one to the Prem and being hard-nosed in the extreme. He was, however, not popular. Banning MLT from SMS was about the most stupid thing you could do. So, he was sent packing. Since then the amount of spending on non-football recruitment - such as PR, Marketing, Hospitality etc - has almost tripled. The club is investing heavily in 'promoting the brand'. The club recently recruited the former head of marketing for Apple UK. I would imagine that does not come cheap. All these things do not, in my mind at least, suggest an owner who is bailing on the club. But if she had decided to bail, why not just put the club up for sale. Selling SFC after finishing 8th in the Prem, with the academy we have and the squad would have been ridiculously easy. The club turned over £120 million plus last season and has no debt. The value of SFC would be north of £250m of any Arab's money. £65 million in, £250 million out. Good business.

KL has also been very upfront with the fans. She has stated in no uncertain terms that she wants to remain part of SFC and keep on building. She might be lying, but if she is then she is going about it in a very peculiar way.

So then what about the 'exodus' that the media are so quick to mention?

Lambert to Livepool, his boy-hood club for £4m. Lambo's best years are most definitely behind him. A club legend, and one day someone will make a film about him because his story and his success are extraordinary. He struggled to get 60 mins a game last season, but was still effective. He had two years left on his deal, and by letting him go to his boyhood club we earn his love and respect for ever. We purchased him from Rovers for £1m and look where he has got us. Well repaid the investment. We have replaced him with Pelle who was the Dutch first division's second top scorer last season, and over the last two seasons scores an average of 0.85 goals per game. He is big, tall, and in every way an ideal replacement for Lambo. £12 million. Four year deal.

Lallana to Liverpool. Adam became a bit of a cock since playing for England. A shame really. Clatenburg may have been on to something. He made it totally clear to the board he was not going to play for SFC again. He rubbed up a lot of people the wrong way, even rudely refusing to at least have the courtesy to sit down with the new manager and talk about his future. He went for £25 million, and after Bournemouth's cut we get about £20 million. We bring in Dusan Tadic for £8.5 million, probably on lower wages too. He is a snap-in replacement for Lallana. Looks very, very neat.

Shaw to Untied for £30m + addons. There isn't a chairman alive who would have turned that down. That is not asset stripping. That is text-book good business. A quality Prem experienced left back would cost us no more than £10 million. £15 million max. And good as Shaw is, there is no way he is a thirty million pound player. But no worries, because there is this kid called Matt Targett, 18 years old. Plays left back and is every bit as good as Shaw was two years ago.

Lovren to Liverpool for £20m. We bought him for £8.5 million 13 months ago. Good player, no doubt but had an average second half of the season. He came back from the world cup and just plain refused to play for the Saints again. Massive ego. Head completely turned. What are we to do? Of course we sell! Twenty million is all about SFC mugging Liverpool, not KL asset stripping.

Chambers to Arsenal for £16m. The kid is good. No question. His is perhaps the most 'annoying' loss. I would have liked to have got another year out of him, but again sixteen million quid for a lad who has only played 20 odd games in the Prem is a lot of money. He is Arsenal's third most expensive player of all time. And his head was clearly turned too. I can't imagine what wages he is on.

If Schneiderlin and JRod go too, then there will be another £40 million at least. JRod is not irreplaceable. Schniederlin would be a loss, but if the figure of £25 million is correct then easily replaceable with clever scouting.

So confirmed we have sold £92 million and spent £20 million. We have £72 million burning a whole in the bank account, and that is before spending any of the £83 million in prize money we won last season. In each of the previous two seasons (when KL was the owner) we spent £30 million. SFC does not have a cash problem. We can now attract players by paying them more wages as well as higher fees. If we so wish. However, I actually don't want to see all that money spent a-la Spurs or QPR. This year we have six exceptional youngster coming into the first team setup. People have said that this years crop of youngsters is perhaps the best ever. I have followed them closely at games over the years and I can attest to that. Isgrove, Targett, Sinclair, Rowe, Reed, Turnbull, McQueen... These will be household names within two years. Probably because they will have been sold to the big clubs for stupid money. That is life.

Albion and SFC are two very similar clubs. Both in size, size of ground and catchment area of fans and talent. If Tony Bloom was offered the sort of money mentioned above for any Albion players he would do business. No question about it. Fans who sit around in La-La land dreaming of loyal players who will stick with the 'provincial' club over the Big Mega Club and commensurate Big Wage are delusional. Neither SFC, nor Albion will ever become a Big Club. We are what we are. There is no reason Albion can't join us in the Prem, and once your academy starts producing young talent their heads will be turned too and they will be off for the bright lights. But we will never be more than the 'best of the rest'. There is no reason to get upset about it. There are plenty of plastics in Southampton and Brighton who are from those respective towns but wear Big Club replica shirts and are probably really, really dull people.

What matters is can SFC put out a solid team who will play 100% and entertain the crowd? Yes, already we can. Can we put out a team which can maintain 8th position? Not yet, but £30-40 million of spending and no problem. Can we deepen the squad. Yes. Can we satisfy the dreamers and finish top four? No. Not even if we spent every penny of what has been a bonanza windfall.

I believe the club will bring in several more good quality players to strengthen an already good side. Talk of relegation is just nuts. Reality is that clubs our size will always be selling clubs. The trick is to get absolute top-dollar and SFC have done just that.

See y'all at the Amex on thursday. Our next wave of youngsters will be on display

Best post I've read on NSC in a good while. I hope we're not far behind you. It's just a shame good young players jump ship to the top end perm clubs (hate the term 'big club') so quickly.

 

[Southern Scouse]

I never suggested otherwise. We know our place

Edna, as I BHA fan I will never know my place and hope we as a club don't settle for what we have because if we do we may as well give up

 

[piersa]

Didn't know he is from Worthing!

He has already got Prem first team caps. Three I believe..

He has just signed a four year deal with the club and will definitely play a major role this season. I've watched his development over the last two years and he is a really exciting player. Comparisons with Scholes are not wayward. And not just because of his hair

That is a huge, huge claim! If he is as good as Scholes, he wont be at Soton for long. I would seriously doubt he ever will be though and I have never seen him play.

 

[Southern Scouse]

You blew the Suarez money on 5 players - paid over then top again like you did with the show pony Carroll.

This season might be a let down - like last season

Chicken LFC havent even touched the Suarez money yet......
Last season was not a let down I can promise you that

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Some size of war chest they've been left with. Should be OK if they spend it wisely.

 

[MarioOrlandi]

Asset stripping