Dusic

Of course he will have been monitored for a long time by these clubs. I think the club would be totally relaxed about any interest in JWP. The fact we extended his contract means if we were to sell him in the next couple of years we could name the price.

A lot (all) of the reports from 'our journos' are based on Ralph's quotes from the press conferences. I think its pretty obvious Saints would like to keep him longer, and in order to do that we would need to speak to Chelsea. Both of those are things Ralph has confirmed and what the journos have reported. The things nobody has reported which are largely unknown yet extremely important: - do Chelsea have any intention of selling him? - for what price/terms? - does Broja want to leave Chelsea when he probably has a great shot of being in their squad next season? Find his interview from 2yrs ago when he signed his first pro deal and he says he has suported and played for Chelsea since he was a kid and loves the club. Why throw away a chance at playing for them when you finally get close to it? - which other teams would match Saints offer (probably at least 4 or 5 PL clubs) and would Broja want to join Saints over others? As I have said before, from Broja's perspective and Chelsea's perspective I don't see why they would rush to a permanent move at this point, it doesnt really make sense for either party. Ralph's continual comments about Ings being happy and wanting to stay also spring to mind when seemingly he had no intention to. Not saying he lies but wouldn't particularly trust manager comments in the press as they are always working to an agenda even if its not always obvious what that is. Entirely possible Broja is very happy here and his family are no doubt pleased he is doing well. But that doesn't necessarily equal him wanting to join on a permanent deal right now.

I believe that is incorrect. Cedric joined Arsenal on loan, with Arsenal paying a loan fee of about £1m-£1.5m and then signing him permanently when his Saints contract ended. Saints made a saving on his wages for the 6months of the loan which some reports then used incorrectly, in addition to the loan fee to make this mythical £5m sale that you erroneously refer to.

In theory works well but Tino was £5m, I would imagine Broja at the least would be £25m. So then what is an acceptable buy back? Saints would surely want it set at £50m or so which then is pricy for Chelsea when they could just loan him out for another season, or use him themselves.

Its a simple situation. For him to sign for us permanently four things need to happen: 1. Saints need to want to sign him permanently, and be able to afford to do so. 2. Broja needs to want to permanently leave Chelsea, who he has represented for a long time and is probably now the closest he has ever been to getting in their first team squad. 3. Chelsea need to agree to sell a player who is clearly developing well at his loan club (as was the whole point) and looks like he could do a good job in their squad for next year and ehose value is rapidly increasing. 4. Broja needs to prefer to join Saints over any other team who is interested in him. We can be sure that if the price were to be one Saints can afford then half the PL will show an interest. Of these four things, I would say about 0.5 of them are clear, which is that Saints would like to sign him (#1). I can't see there being a rush for #2 or #3 as no need for either Broja or Chelsea to act now. Ultimately, the chances of it falling into place are pretty low and thats what you get when the deal is a loan with no option or obligation to buy. A second loan is far more likely.

Yes, and as Ralph said the other day, most young players who successfully transition from Academy to PL make debuts at 16-18. If you are 20 and not a massive standout in L2 then its odds against, although obviously still possible to have a great pro career.

Can see the logic, and surely no coincidence that after Watts joins Ferry, Ramsay links up with Vokins. Makes it easier for those players to settle, easier for the club to monitor them and in SPL whilst standard overall isnt great it does give exposure to better players than L1/2 level in a handful of games. That said, pretty clear that at the ages Ramsay, Vokins, Ferry etc are they won't be making it at Saints in the PL.

Would hope the club are looking to extend Salisu's contract about now to preserve his value. If not then this summer would be his high point value wise before he approaches 18mths to go.

https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1481197257949163528 @FabrizioRomano: Saints manager Hasenhuttl on Broja future: "We'd love to extend his stay here, he likes it. He wants to be with us, you can feel this in every moment". 🔴 #SaintsFC ...but Chelsea are already planning with talented Armando Broja as part of their future project. #CFC https://t.co/Zeq4u4evRL -------- Fabrizio is usually on the money. Would be personally very suprised if he doesn't start next season at Chelsea. The loan is working out perfectly for them, for Broja and for Saints. But it also shows the problem with loans - you get attached to players that aren't yours!

If I were Broja I wouldn't be committing to anything at this point and would be fancying a crack at breaking into Chelsea's squad next season, which is very realistic.

Kegs and Simeu

Because its not Football Manager, its real life. As it would be McCarthy's third contract with us and he has been our no1 for about 3 years I would imagine he is on a first team regulars wage. No chance he will be accepting less money this time around, so he will be getting paid a first team GK wage. I am 99% sure whichever GK we sign will be on less cash than McCarthy.

As McCarthy is seemingly signing a new contract we can only assume that we will be signing a young no2 keeper 'to push him' rather than an obvious first choice. Likely in the summer as we already have 3 senior keepers. Otherwise we have the same situation as now where our backup keeper is one of the highest paid players, which for a club like Saints is clearly stupid.

He has also played further forward for Liverpool but I agree, seems a strange one unless Livramento's injury was suddenly bad, and Ralph didnt seem as concerned today. If he wants regular game time I don't think he would get that with us, apart from maybe for a couple of weeks now.

It was a foul every day of the week in that kind of position. If he didnt want a second yellow he should have let him go, as he wasnt getting the ball anyway. First lunge so early in the game was stupid. I think he has run out of chances now.

Deserved win. Swansea were crap, even if we weren't great we still had more quality when it counted. They were very nice to play against. JWP great shift at RB and Long very good as a sub. Stuart Armstrong gives the ball away too much in the centre. But ultimately...imagine Ralph will be very pissed off with Valery. Unprofessional and made what looked like a comfortable game into a massive slog.

Would imagine he wants to get away from Staplewood to be honest.

Maybe so. But for us to go for someone like Johnstone then we should allow both Forster and McCarthy's contracts to expire, sign Johnstone and a younger keeper. The fact we have seemingly agreed to extend McCarthy's deal suggests its unlikely we will sign a senior keeper for the reasons above.

Seeing as we have agreed a new deal for McCarthy, I don't see us going for Johnstone or any keeper of that seniority. Would make no real sense to lose one big earning sub in Forster and then sign someone who would mean the same happens to either Johnstone or (more likely) McCarthy. I would imagine we will sign a 20-23yr old keeper who we feel can challenge McCarthy, and who will be on modest money. Its then easy to find an older keeper willing to be a no3 like Caballero and thats ideal because in the event they are needed to play they actually can, unlike when you have Harry Lewis who is a pointless 3rd keeper as they know he is essentially unselectable.

Our success rate with EFL loans in the last few years is shocking. Do we continually pick the wrong clubs or are the players not even good enough at L1/L2 level?

Would imagine it would be used in a fairly similar way to how Brighton use Union Saint-Gilloise, who are now top of the Belgian league after being promoted last season. Their new Polish midfielder has signed and gone straight there on loan to join a Japanese player who did the same in the summer. A club in a country like Belgium, Holland, Poland, Austria is probably ideal.

Given its been widely reported that Gao has been under financial pressure to sell Saints, and indeed has done so at a substantial loss, its interesting to also hear Semmens say that its easy to find investors but not easy to find good ones. The Liebherr veto could well have stopped us from being sold to any old shyster (assuming SR are better of course) as without that surely Gao would have sold a while back to the first person to stump up the cash.

For those suggesting Eriksen and Ramsey - have you missed the entire strategy of Saints somehow? Re Broja - worth remembering he will have a say and quite legitimately I'm sure he will want to have a proper crack at Chelsea. No chance anything happens with him til later in the summer window, if at all.

Slighly reassuring to have some current football expertise involved. But not keen on being part of a multi club system.

Presume KL will retain her share then. Good that something is happening...all we can do is hope that this guy is better than Gao because that is far from certain...