Goes back to my original point....a 'yes' man will know the resources are there but won't insist on them being used again.



Sorry for the link to football but look at Ferguson insisting the Glazers fork out to Rooney's demands - ok that was a fire fighting situation and not an acquisition, but it was a successful manager explaining the consequences of what would happen if they didn't fork out..I could see Noble being persuasive and convincing the FC board of exactly what we need to do and how it would benefit.

How do you know we didn't approach them about Chase before Westerman?



Even if they had been willing to sell him, which they weren't, we certainly would not have got him for £150K.



If they had been willing to sell him for say, £300K do you think he would have been worth it? Personally I don't.

I see what you're saying, but keeping the clubs biggest star from going to your local rivals is a very different situation to the ones we're talking about.



In terms of Westerman and Chase, their combined value will be well in excess of 300 grand (more than Wire paid for Myler, and they have a sugar daddy) and we obviously decided that we wanted them both, I don't think you can fault the willingness to invest there. The problem was caused by the poor strategy we devised to get them, we knew Cas needed a windfall to pay the deposit on their new stadium (and thus all but secure their SL franchise) and we knew that Westerman had far less time on his contract than Chase so was always going to be the easier part of the deal. So why we then decided to remove their immediate need for cash by paying them for Westerman, and then go back and ask for Chase aswell is beyond me. I'm not sure what having Noble instead of Agar would have done to change that, because as far as I know it's the board who deal with such things.

See above, but I don't believe for a second that they went in for Chase and got turned down, bought Westerman off them, and then went back asking for Chase again.

What's the odds that Saints get Chase as Eastomonds replacement now???

There's always talk about Saints going after the likes of Chase, Dobson etc but do they actually have the cash to shell out on transfer fees for contracted players?

When was the last time saints actually paid a significant fee? Unless Mcmanus opens his personal cheque book.

I think the difference is that players are attracted to teams like Saints/Leeds/Wigan as they believe they have more chance of success/silverware....The best available H/backs will no doubt choose Saints above us next season

If we haven't got anything sorted for next year then Eastmond going to onion just made our position for securing a half a whole lot worse. Saints being in the market will just push prices up and we , unlike them , have just spent a fair bit on Westerman , Obst and to some degree Tansey. It's a sellers market as far as half backs are concerned. The cap will probably increase as well so even if we have a bit more space than most it could be nulified.