Nigel Adkins has spoken about the fact that Nicola Cortese may be ready to spend in January to ensure promotion.
In certain respects i feel a sesne of deja vu when i read that our Chairman is willing to back the managers judgement in the January transfer window, after all this is just what happened last year and after Saints had gone from 7 points behins a play off spot to 18 caused the start of the rift between the manager and the Chairman who felt that the money had made things worse not better.
But itsthe Saints supporters that hold the key to the purse strings being loosened, starting with Tuesday nights visit of Brighton, put bluntly its games like this that can put extra money in the coffers.
Basing it on the average home gate of 20,901, the visit of Brighton gives us the opportunity to virtually buy a player with the extra gate receipts that could be generated, 5,000 extra at £24 per ticket would put £120,000 into the coffers and of course if we could stretch to a near capacity figure then that amount would be nearer £250k, at this level the price of a decent player.
Of course i did mention this a year ago and undoubtably big gates such as Eeter on Boxing Day showed Cortese that any investment could be recouped through the gate if the side did well and that applies just as much this season as it did 12 months ago.
So in some respects its a chicken & egg situation, football supporters often wont go till they can see a winning team and a team cant start winning till its got some money to invest in new players, now we have to break that circle and get some cash in the pot, after the Bighton match Saints have 3 league home games including the day of the transfer window opening on New Years Day, every person per game in excess of our current average could be said to contribute to that transfer kitty, whilst i wouldnt expert the Brentford game to be much different from the average certainly both the Hudderfield game and Exeter should see near 30k crowds for both fixtures if Saintscontinue to win if they do that could put half a million into the transfer fund and thats probably more than all the other teams in League 1 have to spend between them, Saints fans can give the team a big advantage towards promotion, but to do so we have to show that Lawrie McMenemies claims that in the South the team has to do its bit before the fans do theirs is not as accurate as it was 30 odd years ago.