Forum
Reply

van Dijk
at 14:47 2 Jun 2017

For years I've been saying that Saints are right to take top offers for players, achieve stability in EPL, build an international brand, build non-football revenues to compete with bigger clubs etc.

However this time I think the club would be wrong to sell, and definitely not for less than £65m (sorry LFC, MCFC, CFC, but its a crazy market and we don't need to sell -accept it or don't buy. Good bye.)

We have had a tough season and the board have some making up to to do after leaving Puel short of goal scorers and squad depth. They are also talking about being ambitious, getting new investment in order to 'reach the next level' etc which is all great.

Well, If we are really to aim higher than perennial 7th/8th, VvD is exactly the sort of player we need to be keeping, and building a side around, as Davis said today. We should be adding and developing more quality players from now on, not flogging those that we have.

Right now around the world - particularly in the US - Saints has the romantic image of a plucky and very well run club striving to compete with the big boys. Sell VvD now, on the back of a difficult season for fans and I fear that our global story will become that of the club who showed promise, but ultimately lacked ambition to do anything more than sell players to big clubs. That's why anything less than a world record price to a really big club for VvD will cost us far more than it brings in. £65m would be too little.

Virgil's agent is probably stirring things up - it's his job to some degree, and he will make millions from any move, so wants it in the bag this year, not next. However Saints board need to play hardball. If they don't get a truly stupidly big offer (£70m plus would count) then he needs to know that he has a long contract, and we Saints expect another year from him. If he sulks, he is benched, his stock goes down, he drops out of the limelight in a World Cup season. Virgil could be forced to stay, and he should be.

Please log in to use all the site's facilities

SaintOxford

Site Scores

Forum Votes:	0
Comment Votes:	1
Prediction League:	0
TOTAL:	1