Thetownend.com

After todays disgraceful drubbing by gillingham surely Mr fitton will finally get out his chequebook and get us in a 300k plus striker... if he doesnt then were doomed. I can honestly see wilson being sacked before christmas if something doesnt change...

I don't think we have 300K do we. And if wew did who would be available?

what money.

ah, the bottomless pit we have.

Where will the 300k come from?
Who should we sign?
How will it stop us conceding FIVE goals against a team like Gillingham?

You're not wrong. We need strikers. EVERYBODY knows that. But calling for Fitton to spend a stupid large amount of money won't necessarily solve the problem.

I'm not sure splashing lots of cash is necessary the answer but as I just said in the matchday thread it's a big August for Fitton, he needs to start getting the football side of things right. At the moment he still appears naive and an idealist. He's without doubt a very good businessman but football is a business unlike anything else.

 I thought knowing that Cox needed replacing and having a bit of money to play with, we'd have gone for someone like Pitman at Bormuff...now I don't know much about this boy, but he's 20, 6 foot and scored 30 odd in 50 games for a struggling side.  Bormuff are seriously skint so would probably welcome a deal.

How anyone can blame fitton is beyond me.That was wilsons team simple as that.He has been given money 6 or 7 of those were his signings yesterday. This time last year that would of been malpas,byrne and granvilles fault but this year it must be fittons? That was fucking awful yesterday and i am struggling to find a worse performance in my time. Only billy paynter can say he put a shift in

Spot on Deano.

I didnt go to the game though and im still angry

I agree.

While it's okay to question the board on some matters you can't blame him for a 5-0 defeat. We've been actively looking for a striker or two so it's up to Wilson and Shirtliff to sort it out.

Make it so Wilson and Shirtliff, make it so.

How long do you give them?

In my time of supporting, the only example of a similar opening day drubbing I can think of, was 71/72....we lost 4-1 at Blackpool.

The thing here was that Dave Mackay was brought in...it didn't immediately work, but we won the next game and it took a further 11 games to concede 5.

We need to see a similar sort of reaction...we did have 4 debutants, and sometimes it does just go pear shaped.

So what is acceptable in midweek v Dongs?  Would losing 0-1 0-2 be seen as an improvement? 

Is it the worst opening day defeat we've ever had?

The idea of sacking Wilson sounds and feels ridiculous at this point, a total knee-jerk reaction if you will.

With Transfer windows and such it strikes me as pointless to sack a manager and replace them with someone who can't make changes... But that's the problem isn't it? CHANGES. Since Andy King left Iffy Onuora, Dennis Wise, Paul Sturrock, Maurice Malpas and Danny Wilson have all come in and tried making a new team. That's only a four year period, ridiculous really.

This "it's not his team" argument is too easy to use.

Anyhow, as you know Reg we've got a difficult opening month... Lose against Franchise twice and it's Southampton, Oldham (a) and Southend, all tricky games that we could lose.

I'm going to see what happens in the next fortnight with the hope yesterday was a bad day and that signings are made. Most of the stuff I've written in the last day have been "thinking out loud" more than anything.

Wilson is a good coach and we will get a lot better. He likes to play football and sometimes you fall on your arse (yes I know we didnt try and play much football yesterday either!).

Even after total humiliation I still rekon he is the best manager we will get. Whilst it was 5-0, they still only get 3 points.

I think a lot of the players have got to realise they have to earn their money. Football isnt played out on paper. You have to win your battles and work hard. Gills have signed a lot of players from non league, whilst ours have come from clubs like Leeds, Doncaster, Fulham, Southend and it showed. They had that semi pro team spirit yesterday.

 I'm only going on our FL record but yes I'd say so....some might argue that the 6-1 defeat at Bury I mentioned yesterday in 64/65 was worse, but there were mitigating circumstances of playing much of the game with 10 men and an outfield player in goal.

 Similar but not quite as bad was losing 5-1 at Bormuff 32/33, in Harry Morris's last season, he scored the consolation.  This was a terrible season Sam Allen's last I think, which prompted the appointment of a proper manager Ted Vizard for the next season.

64/65 we were relegated....32/33 had to apply for re-election. :(

Scored a screamer yesterday.but has just signed a new three year deal so would coust a tidy amount

I've obviously missed something here, what money?

The clubs finances still aren't great and I know a few creditors that are still owed quite a bit of cash, in fact I was only talking to one today who was moaning.

Why people think we've got money to burn is beyond me.

And why bringing in a £300k will stop the goals I don't know, as we're tired of pointing out on this site, its goalkeepers we need.

The fact is though we were told that we neednt be a selling club anymore..........untill that is the truth we will cotinue to struggle...no coincidence that Posh turned down several big offers for there star players last year...and now they are reaping the benifit.

When were we told that?  Fitton has made it clear we will spend money on players if he thinks we can recoup that and more on them in the future.  He's made it clear with Cox that it was a showcase type of deal, we showed we could give him first team football and in turn we told him we'd listen to good offers from teams in higher divisions if and when they came in.

If anything we've been quite clearly told we are a selling club and that's how we will continue to survive as a club, just that now we have a long term view on our signings to make sure that acheived.  I think their belief is that by doing this we can attract better players than we have been used to and this will make the club better on the pitch.  Obviously that ones a slow burner!!!!

Fitton and Wray are not multi billionaires.  Their friends have a decent asset stockpile behind them, but they are investors as opposed to outrights this is my business owners.  They are there to secure the club and stump up a few quid when another Cox comes along - see Cuthbert no doubt.  We have little more money as a football club than we have ever had, we just have security.

cracking post mr t

Fitton has actually said the opposite. I think he compared us to the likes of Crewe, but he felt we would have more potential to progress as a result.

Confirmed by Wilson who confirmed at the RAF evening that he has not actually been given a set amount of money but if he identifies someone who he thinks is worthwhile then Fitton tries to get the deal done.

At this level we will always be a selling club if a bigger team ocme in offering a decent amount, the difference is we do not have to take the first offer anymore and we wil lbe seen as a club that is worth playing for to get noticed and be allowed to move when the time is right for player and club.

What is a selling club anyway. Man U just sold Ronaldo, Liverpool Alonso, etc.

All lower league clubs need to sell to stay afloat.

I think Fitton meant we'd be selling players if right for player and club rather than throwing cash around like Huddersfield.

OK...i will rephrase that...i was led to believe that we didnt need to sell players to stay afloat..i mean Saints have sold to say afloat but just gone and spent big on what they need to push up the lge...course ime not sugesting we can spend millions..but as i said untill we stop selling we will struggle.

Ahh. but who led you to believe that?

The brain, it does strange things, like make you dream.

Saints have billions behind them and will spend to get out as they see the Premiership as their rightful place and have the ground and training facilities to suit. We have ambition to get to the Championship and see it as a bonus if we get there and will spend and buy accordingly to make a slow push to that league.

Who says?

I was told the new owner had paid all the debts off but hasn't put any extra money in for a spending spree and doesn't plan to. Though they do now own their ground outright and with decent crowds every week they should still have a good few quid to spend.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1197540/Swiss-billionaires-roll-save-League-One-Southampton.html

£1m quid after only being owners for 3 weeks in League one would form the basis of quite a good speading spree

That article doesn't say anything and was from before they took over. Plus Southampton have sold a few players recently so its possible the money for Lambert is coming from that or other income sources. Again, I haven't seen or heard anything to suggest the new owners are bank rolling them big style - they seem more akin to Fitton & co.

Don't forget that Southampton will most likely get 20k attendances in League 1, which means a shit load of cash coming in every fortnight. £1m isn't much when you're getting £500k income a home game.

They sold/released players because they needed to shed some off the wage bill. The season ticket sales were in excess of 11,000 and do have large crowds so you're right with the income but they also have higher outgoings. But I think having the 4th richest owners in the football league may help slightly when spending money.

There are plently of other clubs that are/have been in league one and not spent £1m on a single players especially when only just out of administration, the investors are the main push behind any investments not your gate income.

Whoever wrote it, deserves a kick in the nads for the title of this thread alone.

There goes the neighbourhood ...