paulfromsutton

If the only reason we are losing out to other clubs for the creative players quoted (Hoolahan aside) is fees and wages then we are not living in the real world when it comes to being a Premiership club. I look at some of the creative players Southampton signed before Koeman and players Swansea have signed, I find it very hard to understand why they have managed it and we can't. Yes I am over simplifying and taking a narrow view, but our transfer policies and targets are hard to accept. We massively overspent and completely **** ourselves up because of this. It takes a while to come back from that sort of thing unless you accept relegation and a complete asset strip of the playing squad. Even then, it can take years to get back onto an even footing. The problem is that football fans want instant gratification. Essentially, they're not fussed about anything behind the scenes as long as results on the pitch are good. Nobody was worried about all the spending we were doing when finishing 6th 3 seasons in a row, but look how much that has cost us now? Coupled with the introduction of FFP (or, the "rich get richer" ruling) we've had to haul back hugely on investment - and that's even if the owner is still interested in the club. This !

That simple is it? Lol

They are part of the current finances which are affordable so yes it would towards a budget whenever they go

I certainly wan't trying to beat Lambert with that stick, it was aimed as a dig at the lack of funds from the owner. Funds he can't give due to rules...

People who think the manager is blind have no perception of reality he priorities players to come in then there are all sorts of considerations to take into place hence why messi ronaldo and bale aren't the front three at City

Hoolahan has had his time pass now he would have been a cheap player to bridge the gap before now I doubt very much he could do much fornus

More importantly, does he want to go? I was told it's all about money and ambition in that order

Totally you can have the best manager in history if he doesn't have the players to win games he won't

He is at least a premier league player don't go over the top

I think he is just lacking motivation personally. I'd drop him for a few games

This is a good narrative until you add in the detail that among the players he's "had to" offload are Luna, Bennett, Sylla, Tonev, Helenius, El Ahmadi, and Bowery - all players he brought to the club but who weren't good enough. I suppose you could add Hutton to the "must offload" list, except now he is playing a key part in our defence this season. Lambert has had 5 transfer windows to get in a creative midfielder and he hasn't really looked like he knows what that means. I'm not hopeful about him being 6th time lucky. I think Lambert's transfer activity has been average. Also, an equally important role of a manager is to get his team winning matches and that is an area where he has shown himself to be seriously lacking. Some of those players are still here and just out on loan and the combined total of those players brought are a joke. It's like moaning about mon buying harewood when he was trying to flesh out a squad.

It's so funny people think we should have a complete squad by now. This manager has had to offload so many players and bring new ones in on the cheap. If there is one thing he hasn't failed at it is the transfer market and to me that is the most important thing to get right. We would easily be a top half side with a creative midfielder and two wide forwards. To my knowledge we only have the cash to buy one and that should be a creative midfielder no point having a world class Benteke if you can't give him decent balls to score from

Kozak won't be back for a while and we need creativity in the midfield and wide forward area. I do think we will be safe without spending a penny you just buy the players when they are available so if that is the summer I won't be pissed

I'm not arguing against that point just the rouble point

I think most of these big wage players get paid in euros or dollars so it is now much more expensive to keep them

He would be an excellent signing on a free providing his wages weren't stupid because of it

I knew people would go for bosnich but the league is much harder now than it was in his day and he was playing in a better team

If cleverley is worth 7.5 or 8m with 6 months left Delph is worth 12 plus

Is this lol? If this were football manager which it isn't! I would have janujaz on loan and dembele. If we sold Delph for 15m I'd buy cleverley for 5m and spend the other ten on a wide forward

Friedel for me followed by guzan then bosnich

Januzaj should be available for loan we would have to convince them we are the right place for him for half a season and no one else bids for him if we even enquire

As we don't know yet I would assume at least a month they will want him in training for weeks first too

It would have if they spent it wisely like lambert has proved himself to.

The point is to not try to replace him but strengthen the team all over.

If we were ever offered 40m we would be mad to turn it down. Is he worth that? Yes to a big CL club but not to us we could buy 4 good players with that making us less reliant on one player and improving the teams ability to win games over all