Exodus begins

[Greyhound]

It's just reality - if someone wants to make a silly offer for Eze, we would have to take it, and he would probably want to go.

We have a good strategy now, much more in line with the way the club has traditionally built teams. And there are plenty of overlooked players out there who can be acquired cheaply, we are seeing them all the time at other clubs, and are just getting our act together in the last few years to enable us to join the party.

I hope we never go back to the Remy or Cisse days. Those kind of players do far more harm to the club than if we nurture a talent like Eze for a few seasons and then lose him for a good price.

[Rbee]

I enjoyed watching Cisse and Remy play! But I get your point.

We still need to have some playing experience around the place and the occassional sniff at promotion which would boost the club no end.

It seems this summer we are taking a step backwards losing a bunch of players.

Like most things in life a happy medium is the ideal solution.

[QPR_John]

It's just reality - if someone wants to make a silly offer for Eze, we would have to take it, and he would probably want to go.

We have a good strategy now, much more in line with the way the club has traditionally built teams. And there are plenty of overlooked players out there who can be acquired cheaply, we are seeing them all the time at other clubs, and are just getting our act together in the last few years to enable us to join the party.

I hope we never go back to the Remy or Cisse days. Those kind of players do far more harm to the club than if we nurture a talent like Eze for a few seasons and then lose him for a good price.

Exactly my point, what will not work is selling players after only a few games. No scouting system however good could handle that

[Rbee]

Exactly my point, what will not work is selling players after only a few games. No scouting system however good could handle that.

Selling players every season or two. It looks like Southampton have finally capitulated with this strategy forced upon them.

[stainesranger]

Whilst Holloway has said that we def will lose some senior pros and there has been some speculation about who might go, I remain hopeful that it won’t be an “exodus”.

I think that the club won’t necessarily sacrifice the promising foundation that it has slowly built. There seems to be an assumption that we will flog anyone that might command a transfer fee. Maybe we will but, until we know for definite, I hope that we might keep the nucleus of a strong squad together. I’m certainly not overly concerned by those that have been confirmed to be on their way out.

[dm]

The difficulty today is the big clubs can hoover up and warehouse a large number of young and promising players which causes problems to both selling clubs and players alike.

I think new rules on selling players under, say, 21 should be created to give some protection. For example, if bought give the clubs the right to keep their young players on loan for a season or two, perhaps dependant on age, while the buying club still has to pay the increased wage. That would at least help matters.

[kernowhoop]

Two harsh but unavoidable economic realities: player sales are the only way of significantly bumping our income in the short term; player salaries have to be lower than they were a few years back.

The consequences of this are that we have to accept any decent offer for any player, and this is what we will do. Also, we are not going to be able to offer the kinds of contract the players like Perch and Onuoha have had in the past. We will be easily outbid by our Championship rivals, never mind PL teams.

So we have to be focused on quietly acquiring affordable replacements for these players, and this is really the club's traditional strategy, and what Ferdinand and Hoos have quietly been putting together in the background for the last few years, in addition to the player development side (Ramsey) which is now starting to bear real fruit.

But how long can we go on getting affordable replacements how many are there out there. The clubs traditional strategy worked, how many games did we get out of Sinclair, how many games did we get out of Ferdinand, Clive Allen, Seaman etc. There is already talk about selling Eze after only a few games. You can sell one or two a season but if everybody is up for sale that is not a strategy.

I was intrigued by that question (rhetorical?) about how many games Trevor Sinclair, Clive Allen, Les Ferdinand and David Seaman played for us. With the help of Wikipedia, the answer seems to be:
Trevor Sinclair 167 (16 goals)
Clive Allen 49 (32 goals!) (later, he returned and made 87 appearances and scored 40 goals)
Les Ferdinand 163 (80 goals)
David Seaman 141

Not too bad?

[BiscuitRanger]

I was intrigued by that question (rhetorical?) about how many games Trevor Sinclair, Clive Allen, Les Ferdinand and David Seaman played for us. With the help of Wikipedia, the answer seems to be:
Trevor Sinclair 167 (16 goals)
Clive Allen 49 (32 goals!) (later, he returned and made 87 appearances and scored 40 goals)
Les Ferdinand 163 (80 goals)
David Seaman 141

Not too bad?

Very disappointed in Spunky's goal record!

For those of you with better memories than me, I thought that Seaman played to a much higher standard after he left us, is that a reasonable statement?

Who was the best keeper we ever had?

[patrickqpr]

Phil Parkes

[Esox Lucius]

Phil Parkes; although Seaman made the best save I have ever seen live from an Ian Rush header at the School End, he arched backwards to tip a ball going low into the corner, over the crossbar. I worked with a scouser at the time who had gone to the game and he thought it was better than Banks' save from Pele, he may have been right.

[White Duck]

Exactly my point, what will not work is selling players after only a few games. No scouting system however good could handle that.

Selling players every season or two. It looks like Southampton have finally capitulated with this strategy forced upon them.

To get top money for players when we sell them we need to wait until they have played a decent number of games and raised their profile. Selling Bowler after a few minutes first team football seemed crazy: he could have become a first team regular this season helping us to achieve better results and at the same time increasing his selling value. Would keep Eze, Smyth etc and look to sell the more established players such a Luongo whilst their stock is at its highest.

[old pauline]

Exodus Lucius

[Rbee]

Jan Stejskal is the only goalkeeper that has made me shout out 'Oh what a save.' It was down at the School End, I can't remember against who. But Jan also had the ability to punch the ball six inches away, never heard a crowd gasp with amazement like that before!

Difficult to choose between Phil and David, it's all too easy to don the rose coloured specs when it comes to the 75/76 team but quite rightly so. Phil was always behind Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton when it came to England but before Joe Corrigan.

White Duck I agree with what you say and you paint the ideal scenario but as dm points out the Premier League clubs can just hoover up young talent if they want to.

[Esox Lucius]

Exodus Lucius

Movement of Dab people?

[Satch]

Exactly my point, what will not work is selling players after only a few games. No scouting system however good could handle that.

Selling players every season or two. It looks like Southampton have finally capitulated with this strategy forced upon them.

To get top money for players when we sell them we need to wait until they have played a decent number of games and raised their profile. Selling Bowler after a few minutes first team football seemed crazy: he could have become a first team regular this season helping us to achieve better results and at the same time increasing his selling value. Would keep Eze, Smyth etc and look to sell the more established players such a Luongo whilst their stock is at its highest.

Wasn't Bowler unwilling to extend his deal? Both that and what he's achieved in Everton's youth team make me think the club were probably justified in taking the cash. I agree with you though, i think we'd be better off trying to keep Eze and Smyth unless a silly offer comes in and try and get meaningful revenue for the likes of Smithies and Luongo or Freeman (more likely the former, i'd prefer the later) even if it's daunting to face next season weakened.