I don't often defend the club but in terms of transfer fees we've spent 3 in Agar's time here, some other big clubs haven't spent any.

I agree with you about the fee but the point stands that we would have had a much better chance of getting Chase if he hadn't already lined their pockets with the Westerman money.

Fair point and I do agree but we paid a fee for Tansey when we are 100% desperate....the outlay for Westerman was huge but I just think we could afford more....if we had pushed the boat out even further for Rangi Chase then it would have brought in plenty more season passes (I for one would have renewed mine).

Obst...again we were in a desperate position on the back of Berrigan and Tansey departing. So I think for two of these three deals our hand was forced due to the respective situations we found ourselves in, in which case we were left with no choice but to fork out.

Not sure about us being desperate for Tansey cos our season was already dead at the point we signed him, but I agree with you that the way we target and negotiate for players often seems pretty poor. I'm just saying that I don't think you can argue the resources aren't there to be used.

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.