Dusic

Interesting that we have been linked with a few centre mids but as you say, assuming we do the more pressing business we have I don't see how we have the cash to make an expensive signing in that position. Palace, through barely having spent the AWB money and having so many players out of contract have a decent opportunity this summer to make a real change to their squad - like their deals so far.

Lets be clear - we deserved to be relegated under Pellegrino/Hughes and were saved by Swansea's utter implosion and the Gabbi goal. I dread to think what that would have led to, despite a small minority on here suggesting it wouldn't be a bad thing. Last season we started well, but the second half of the season, over a long period we were statistically the worst team by quite a distance. Without a purple period in autumn we would have been relegated. I have said a few times but Ralph has been able to sign 7 players on permanent deals (Djenepo, Adams, KWP, Diallo, Salisu, Walcott and Perraud) and I think is entering his 6th transfer window. In the same time, a Manager like Dean Smith or Graham Potter has probably signed double that. We are soon to be rid of the unsellables, but when you think of the fees and wages on Forster, Boufal, Hoedt, Clasie, Lemina, Carillo, Elyounoussi and the fact we will have recouped less than £10m in getting rid of them is absolutely ridiculous for a club of our size. In the Ralph era the perm signings like any club have had various levels of success but there has definitely been an improvement and that needs to continue. I have to say the full back backup situation is baffling though. With worldwide scouting and PL appeal surely we can find a couple of cheap but promising players to develop? That and GK situation are the most frustrating, but we are stuck re GK until we get Forster's wages off the bill next summer. Another factor is that we were a bit ahead of the game signing young promising players from other leagues whilst West Ham and Sunderland signed Man Utd rejects and PL has beens. Unfortunately all the mid and smaller clubs have cottoned on and are looking for the same profile of player. Our market is reducing as we cannot afford the best Championship players anymore.

Surely there is no way we offered Forster an extension. Having spent 3 yrs trying everything to get rid of him I havent seen anything to suggest we should be trying to keep him. I would hope we may still be looking to shift him this summer and bring in another keeper, but probably unlikely. One of the ultimate unsellables and surely will leave on a free next summer. For a club that needs to sell to buy, the amount of flops we have ended up losing money on is utter madness. Thank god for Swansea's implosion and Gabbiadini because we would probably be back in administration in L1 without it.

Nobody is going to be giving us £8m for a player that has one year on his contract and we have no desire to keep. We would have ended up loaning him out if we had to. Any fee is a bonus but no chance it will be £8m, as proven by Crook reporting it.

Still don't see the point of that if its a loan with no option, considering it would cost about £5m incl wages just for one season of a backup full back and then probably another £15m if we wanted to sign him permanently. Thats in total more than we will get for selling one of the best strikers in the PL! Someone like Livramento would have been a great signing for us unfortunately!

Nothing to dislike about this signing, exactly the type we should be looking to make more often. Re Salisu & Bednarek partnership the bit that is really lacking for me is ability on the ball. Bednarek is a very safe passer and Salisu seems the same. Can imagine oppo just letting them have the ball and covering their passing options and they would really struggle to initiate moves. Thats where Vestergaard does excel.

First game on Saturday will be interesting if we get a teamsheet. I imagine Adams, Armstrong and Bednarek won't play. Ings hasnt been in the last couple of training videos or pics so he probably won't either. Otherwise probably 45mins for a most of the squad, including a few who about 3 weeks ago seemed unlikely to ever pull on a Saints shirt again.

Not bothered re AMN. He would probably cost at least £20m and wouldn't be a starter for us unless JWP were to be sold. Livramento is frustrating as he seems an ideal signing for us and the exact profile of player we should be targetting, especially with Crocker (and Skyrme) having a great knowledge of the England Youth players. There is a clear and obvious pathway at Saints given our lack of numbers at full back, but being a Croydon lad and having seen Lamptey make the same move successfully then you can see why he has picked Brighton. Equally their U23s are good and ours are shite and got relegated so seeing as he will likely start at that level maybe it is a factor too? These lads want to be playing the best players in their age group not against the dross. Big shame to miss out on him to a direct rival, but our recruitment between 16-22yrs seems very lacking the last few years, and no sign of that changing unfortunately. We are trading off an ageing rep in terms of youth development whilst others have gone past us.

Thats why I think we will end up keeping Obafemi as we really needed an extra striker even of Ings stayed, but obviously we will only get Armstrong if Ings goes. Tella is clearly considered a striker, so I reckon we will end up with Adams, Armstrong, Tella and Obafemi with Walcott an additional forward option. A struggle ahead as we are poor at keeping goals out and are set to lose our main proven goalscorer, replacing likely with someone totally unproven at PL level.

Who knows? It won't be easy for City to sign him I don't think and Levy isn't a pushover. Probably depends whether Kane is prepared to ruin his image and be an arse.

Like Armstrong, yes. I can see him at Spurs, probably the best chance of getting in the England squad would be to forge a good partnership with Kane. Spurs will probably offer £10m in installments. Saints will brief that they reluctantly want £30m. Then he will go for £20m with Spurs briefing it was £15m and Saints that it was closer to £25m. We never sign replacements before the sale so feels like Ings departure, and probably Vestergaard's is key to being able to make signings. Can anyone see Ings in today's training pics? I couldn't.

https://theathletic.com/2715736/2021/07/19/chelsea-face-losing-bate-livramento-peart-harris-premier-league-transfer-window?source=user-shared-article Bate: West Ham or Leeds Peart-Harris: Brentford Livramento: Most likely Brighton Saints not mentioned at all. Would be astonished if some of these weren't players we had an interest in, unless the prices are too high even for players with barely any pro apps.

The question that you have not answered is what happens the season after, when Ings leavea for free except we don't have money to replace him? We know we have to replace him either this year or next so surely replacing him with the benefit of £20m is preferable to replacing him with zero. If you look beyond one season there could be a massive difference in the replacement we could afford.

I really doubt that we would be offering Forster a new deal. We need him to leave so we can sign a new keeper and have a refresh of a stale position. If someone comes in for Forster on loan and we can make that happen this summer then great. If not it will be next year. I am still assuming we will sign a new 3rd choice GK with Lewis getting some much needed game time in L2 or non-league.

Imagine we may have been interested in Gray at that kind of price...have certainly been keen before. Everton don't really have many wide players, but not sure this will have been what they expected at the start of the summer!

I think its clear they wanted Perraud and another full back early on. That means whilst the quality of the squad can be debated we at least have cover in all positions. As it stands we are one injury, covid test or illness away from Stephens starting the first game at full back. Surely we will at least sort that before the first game. But it certainly doesnt look like the change Ralph hinted at will happen.

Of course, and players develop at different rates so its not an exact science, but sure they would be disappointed not to spot the potential of a £50m player.

Second biggest ever fee for a Saints Academy prospect, Ben White. Only Bale (Spurs to Madrid) has cost more. Will surely be some at Saints with major regrets at releasing him. Oh how we could use a £50m injection to our transfer budget. Instead a direct rival has it.

According to nearly all reports Blackburn want approx 20m. According to all reports Saints have offered approx £10m. Saints offers were never going to be accepted so its hardly a statement of intent to having Ings and Armstrong at the same time!

Not until Ings has gone. I reckon Ings will go, Armstrong will be his replacement and then we will just keep Obafemi alongside Tella, Walcott & Redmond as the backup to Adams and Armstrong.

Really? Always strikes me as a physical player with poor technical ability. Certainly not someone I could see combining well with Adams or Tella.

Anyone else find that without our other Intls back you see all the photos and it really hits home how thin and lacking in real PL quality the squad is? Of those currently training only really KWP, Romeu, JWP, Ings, Walcott and Redmond have any really proven PL pedigree, certainly of the outfield players. Of those one is leaving, one is way past his best and one is very inconsistent.

Once they decided to loan him out, the new contract (likely still on low wages), was an obvious move. If he does well, then we have some bargaining power to get a decent fee for him - be that £500k or £5m. If he does very well then he becomes a first team option again in future. If he is ultimately L1 level then I'm sure we can loan him out and cover most costs for the remaining two years. Far worse than loaning him out, him doing well and then being able to leave for free as he is out of contract. This summer Sims and Hesketh both of whom played first team football left for free. If eventually we sell N'Lundulu for £500k that probably pays for 5 academy signings or various coaches for a year. We need to get better at selling the players who are good but not quite good enough. Re the Crocker comments, you have to consider each individual situation. N'Lundulu has made the first team without going on loan and by playing in the U23s and training with the first team. He isn't at this point quite ready for first team level and isnt going to benefit from playing PL2 as he is that bit older. A loan is then an obvious step. How he does then shapes whether he comes back or is sold/loaned again. Seems sensible if they aren't comfortable with letting him go permanently just yet.

I understand this, but if we are going to be different to pretty much every other PL team in history and go with just 3 full backs rather than 4 then surely, knowing this has been a need for approx 2 years, we could use our scouting to find a player for a reasonable fee (less than £10m) who can do that job for us? For example, Coufal cost West Ham about £5m, Brighton bought Lamptey for about £2m and Veltman for 800k. Its not like we are searching for a plauer who is 5th choice, whoever we sign will likely get a decent amount of minutes and quite conceivably could end up starting the majority of games were either of ours to pick up a mid severity injury. If we end up paying a lot for Williams and have him for just one season that seems a bit shortsighted to me unless they are confident they could sign him permanently for a reasonable fee following the loan.

Given Ralph's comments at the end of the season I did think we would have done a bit more by now. Essentially we have swapped one LB for another. Re Williams - we have been speaking to Utd about him for at least a year so would hope we knew what it would take to get him and whether it would be worth it or not. As ever, its all driven by outgoings. By letting Bertrand leave for free and spending 12m on his replacement we probably don't have much to spend until Vestergaard and Ings go, and both of those situations will probably rumble on. Hope to be suprised, but I am not expecting much this summer, and imagine once we have lost the players who will leave our squad will likely be weaker in terms of quality than it was last year.