Banks may force player sale
Well now Labour has solved the world recession, back to the important story of the day.
Southampton 0 v 0 Plymouth Argyle.
Not the greatest game, but another point in the bank. Which is more than can be said for cash in the bank. News that Southampton managed to lose £4.9m last year despite selling nearly £14m worth of player contracts reveals the shambles that Leon Crouch and Michael Wilde created in their short term in charge of the shop. It has taken the return of the most hated man at the club, Rupert Lowe, to get a grip of the finances and have sufficient courage to say we can't afford high wage prima donnas and we'll have to make do with players coming out of the academy.
On the pitch it is beginning to work. Jan Portvliet, the coach, is slowly getting the players to play with confidence all over the pitch. If only he could get them to shoot straight, or shoot at all (only two shots on target tonight) we would begin to be a force to be reckoned with.
Off the pitch the finances still loom worryingly and the banks will want to see a sharp reduction in their exposure come the January transfer window. We will probably have to raise £5m at a minimum, which suggests three of the high earning loan players going for what ever we can get - maybe £750,000 for John, Raziak and Sagernowski between them. Maybe a £1.5 for Lallana going to Spurs (although that seems an unlikely buy for Harry Redknap) and £2m for Schneiderlin to Arsenal would just about do it, although there may be sell on clause in the Schneiderlin deal which will reduce our income. So we may have to top it up by offloading Surman for £1m (if we are very lucky).
That will weaken the squad and we will have to hope that one or two loan players are available to come our way to bridge ta gap.
In the meantime - Charlton on Saturday and three points there would be just what the doctor ordered. And the banks.
