Dusic

Once he had a year left nobody was ever going to pay a fee. Hopefully as its a permanent transfer we are not contributing to his wages but almost certainly it will be a free transfer. More chance of getting a small fee for Lemina or Elyounoussi. Hopefully we will accept whatever offers we do get for those rather than more loans. Re Perraud - seems he is on holiday at the moment so imagine things will become clearer either way on that soon.

Out of interest, why do a number of people seem to think Saints would only be tempted by £60m+? Clearly he isn't a £60m player. I would be amazed if he wanted to go and we got an offer of £40m+ and didn't take it. Also, nobody has mentioned that JWP may be tempted by the wages on offer, that Saints could not match.

With how long these things take to sort out I would say the chances of any new ownership before the window shuts must be <5% Gao picked an awful time to be wanting his money back.

The Athletic have also just reported that JWP is on Villa's shortlist as their wealthy owners are set to spend big again. Could that be a move that may happen? IMO it would need a bid of at least £50m for Saints to be able to save face on it with supporters, and as good as he is, you would have to wonder if he is really worth that to Villa? As ever, it will come down to the player. He may just feel that he has pretty much done everything he can at Saints and with the club financially unable to compete higher up the league than the bottom third - he could see this as a good time to move on to a more ambitious club. We have lost Bertrand who he played with for years and will surely know whether Ings is likely to stay or not (and it doesnt take a genius to realiae without his goals we will be bang in trouble). I am sure the England situation will have disappointed him, and he probably isn't better than Phillips, Rice, Henderson or Mount but even so, if he played for a better team would that give him a stronger chance of making the WC squad? If he is ever going to make a move then is there going to be a better chance than this summer? One to watch I reckon.

Start is most crucial IMO considering the poor form at the end of last season. If we end up with 4 of the first six vs the big teams then you have to wonder how long Ralph would last. Seeing as most of our key players will get a full pre season, a relatively kind start would give a chance to change the mood amongst fans and probably the players.

Thought this snippet from an Athletic interview with Brighton DoF Dan Ashworth might be of interest: In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Ashworth says: “It would very much depend on the age of the player. If you are talking about the here and now first-team ready player at 25, 26, then there’s probably three different bands. “You’ve got the top six, next tier down I’d put West Ham, Everton, Leicester, Wolves — although I wouldn’t know exactly their budget but just my gut instinct on it — and then you’ve got the bottom third of the Premier League from a financial point of view. “Ourselves, Southampton, Burnley, Newcastle — I’m not sure, maybe they’d be that higher one up. If we are going for a 25-26-year-old who is Premier League ready, I’d say two-thirds of the Premier League would be able to outbid us from a transfer fee and wages point of view. “Our recruitment strategy has got to be a bit different. If we go fishing in the same pond as them, we may not get the player we want. “Hence, we’ve tended to either go to a different market or buying potential rather than performance. The danger of that is you are buying potential, so you don’t quite know; they don’t always come to what you’d hope they’d be.” Although Brighton’s strategy increases the likelihood of more misses than hits, lower risk can bring high rewards. “The advantages are you’ve got ones below market value if they become what you hope they’d be,” Ashworth says. “Jakub Moder is one, for example, that looks like he is going to work out for us, because the level of player I think he will become and what he has certainly shown in the second half of the season would be higher than the value that we paid for him (£6 million). “There are others that maybe haven’t worked out quite as well. That’s the trade-off, I guess.”

https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-southampton-and-norwich-lead-armstrong-race-as-price-tag-revealed/ I don't know much of this site but recall MLG rates them as being pretty on the money, so interesting update.

Firpo is/was seemingly a contingency plan to Perraud - don't see us signing them both and we certainly won't be spending €18m on a second choice LB. Perraud ticks more of the boxes that Crocker referred to, certainly re current playing time.

To bring some balance to this...I remember him being asked about this in one of the pressers towards the end of the season. What he actually said was that having two good keepers is healthy because it means one can step in when the other goes through a bad period of form. He said he can foresee that during the season both will likely have a spell where they are the first choice keeper. He said that he would judge them in pre season and then select the most impressive one to start the season. Very logical. He didn't say anything to suggest that they would be switching on a game by game basis. The problem with these Twitter accounts is they don't explain the full context with the quotes and then some of those who read them interpret it too literally. Quite clearly Ralph would rather have a new GK, but his hands are tied until next summer in that respect - as both GKs are out of contract then. What an error that Forster extension has been.

Would he need one if we were to sign him and then loan him out again?

https://www.lematin.ch/story/ca-bouge-du-cote-du-lausanne-sport-183407787498 Another link to Evann Guessand who were were linked with in May. Young striker on loan as Lausanne from Nice but set to be sold this summer as contract is expiring. From a quick YT he definitely looks interesting. French market being targetted by the PL as lots of clubs suffering financially - something Semmens hinted at in the fans forum.

Signing Theo and a LB helps us to stand still vs last season. The success of the window ultimately depends on what happens with Ings, and our power position on that is weak. I suspect in the end the only net addition will be a backup loan full back, and likely most will be left debating whether our squad is actually weaker overall given the likely departures (Ings almost certainly) that we will struggle to replace with anywhere near the same quality. I may be wrong of course.

15 years on from the infamous John Halls move, history is repeating itself.

Need to hire Les Reed as a consultant to fend of this late hijack! We all know how this will end...

Would only be viable if Ings goes, and likely Edouard would have already moved elsewhere by then as the Ings situation will rumble on for most of the summer IMO.

Defending is difficult to quantify stats wise I think, especially for a full back and in the case of Perraud all the reports I had read suggest that Brest used him very high up on the left as their main attacking threat on that side. It appears he is very effective at pressing, which is clearly a need in a Ralph team. Seems he is more of an attacking full back which is good, and hopefully they feel his defensive deficits are coachable - thats the market we are in. Certainly seems a highly rated player in France and has just played a full season as a key player which is a good sign.

With the backup full back, who can ideally cover both sides, I really don't see the value to anyone of that being a loan signing, unless it is with a clear option to buy. The team loaning the player out don't really gain as they won't have any certainty that he will get minutes. If the player is being loaned for experience he may not get much. If we can't/don't sign the player permanently then we have exactly the same problem again next summer of needed full back cover (would be about 3 seasons in a row by then). Surely a PL club can't have only two full backs on permanent contracts?!

Alao highlights the difference that spending makes to league position. In 5 transfers windows Ralph has signed 5 players on permanent deals: Djenepo, Adams, KWP, Salisu and Diallo In the last 4 windows Smith has been able to sign 14 on permanent deals: Douglas Luiz, Mings, Wesley, Targett, Konsa, Nakamba, Samatta, Trezeguet, El Ghazi, Cash, Watkins, Traore, Sanson and Martinez Villa, within 3 windows basically changed the whole of their team and improved from it, especially after the second summer where the success rate was higher. Just shows that Ralph has certainly been hindered in trying to really change the fortunes of a team that struggled before he arrived. If you really want to dramatically change fortunes then you need to sign good players.

Genuinely staggering that some think we should entertain offers of £30-£40m for our most important player, in his prime years and with a long contract. If all of a sudden they chuck around £50m plus then it should be considered, but I don't see that happening as it wouldn't really represent value for them.

Understandable given how weak we are at CB and the fact he can play RB and CM too. Would personally start White over Mings or Coady. JWP very unlucky in the end, but he would have been 5th choice CM so his set plays wouldn't be overly useful in that context. Three ex Academy players in the squad, with only one making it pro at Saints - interesting!

As ever, it will come down to what the player wants to do. And if JWP is going to move then he is probably at his peak about now. I would think £40m or so would make the club think...but it would be an awful message for the fans to sell him to a non top 6 club.

How do you define whether it is helping or not?

FF and AMc are out of contract next summer and I think the club knows the best case for either would be a season long loan with wages covered. Gunn it may be possible to sell but loan with a view to buy surely more realistic. Surely we see that next summer we would need to buy a #1 and arent going to have sold a keeper to fund that? Therefore potentially we could go for a keeper this summer if a good opportunity came up but we would need to loan out Gunn and one of the others. Given Dragovic is a starting GK in Serie A then surely the fee needed would be too high for us. Overall I just don't see it. GK revolution surely coming next summer.

Thanks, promising then. Good profile, good price and then French league is closer in style to the PL than some where we have signed players who have failed to adapt. The scout report on this link is quite an interesting read:

Pretty sure Perraud was also linked in Jan or last summer. L'Equipe are usually quite on the ball but would be good to read the original as that Saints Extra account doesn't always accurately report what the source says.