Dusic

Will find out soon enough as if there is interest from both sides then a firm bid will surely follow. Not unexpected though, he has been consistently good for 2 years and we have a long history of selling at the first signs of sizeable cash. For that reason, if the cash is right we will sell again as we cannog compete financially on fees or wages with Villa and JWP of course knows this. I mean, its a nice thing to stay at one club all your career but surely he must have an interest in trying to better himself, and an eye on the WC squad too.

Heard anything more about the Argentinian lad, Fizzy?

FWIW Nixon says its not true, and he usually has good links with Blackburn. Suprised and disappointed that MLG would post something without knowing the true source. Slipping standards from the lad, thought he was better than that.

Very interesting that all 10 are internal and none of have been signed from elsewhere. Usually we have brought in 3 or 4 from other clubs (often with no real success). Ralph and Crocker have both mentioned a need to improve academy recruitment so that did slightly suprise me. Of course, they could still sign players for the U18s and U23s. Good that Doyle signed. Someone here mentioned he had a few looking at taking him from us.

Yeah of course, every club has those. But the high profile players they have sold they have got big money for because they were protected by long contracts. Chilwell signed a new contract shortly before moving to Chelsea, Maddison already done similar hence the ludicrous fee quoted for him. Same with Grealish. Closer to home I think Callum Wilson signed a new contract every yeat at Bmth for about 4yrs in a row and same with Dunk at Brighton. No easy answer, just an observation seeing as our last few sales and likely ones this summer are for players with just one year left - leaving us with no real power.

Thats true, but if you are confident that you are recruiting the right players then 5 is clearly better than 4, especially for the younger players. For example, Daka and Soumare both signed 5 yrs for Leicester, meaning they have no pressure of needing to think about selling for 3 years, and the players values will be at their highest then. For us, someone like Salisu now has 3 years left, his optimal sale time would be at the end of this season, which is really his first full season. I guess a way around it is to look to extend after a year if these guys do well...but there is little incentive for the player to do that unless the pay rise is significant. Just seems silly as a club that relies on sales so heavily to get backed into a corner so often and end up selling players for less than they are worth when they get to one year remaining. Appreciate in this case it is very premature to think of it, but 4yrs seems to have become a norm at Saints for these type of sjgnings, probably for the reason you say.

Looks good. Slightly suprised its a 4yr deal not 5 though. We seem to frequently get into the issue of them only having a year left and being forced to sell for less than you would ideally like, i.e Clyne, Wanyama, Hojbjerg, Vestergaard, Ings.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/tottenham-transfer-news-takehiro-tomiyasu-b943652.html Suggests we had an interest in this lad, but seemingly no longer. RB/CB would have been an option to replace JV and provide RB cover I guess.

Ricardo Pereira, Timothy Castagne, James Justin, Ryan Bertrand. Proper cover and quality in the full back positions. Leicester are the best team for recruitment in the PL IMO. No real talk, just effective action at sensible prices, usually with huge sell on potential.

Hopefully we can £5m or so for him and both parties can move on, he obviously doesn't have a future at Saints and another loan does no favours.

Tella is definitely seen as a striker. Armstrong is definitely a striker primarily. Would be shocked if we signed him and then intended to play him as a #10.

Disagree re striker. I mean Ings will likely go anyway, in which case his replacement is the most importsnt decision to get right this summer, quite likely with many targets having already moved by the time his situation evolves. Even if he does stay we need one. Reasons: 1. Ings does tend to pick up injuries 2. Tella totally unproven in terms of actually scoring goals 3. Long, Obafemi, N'Lundulu should all be elsewhere this season 4. Walcott and Redmond can do a job if needed but aren't really a goal threat. A player like Armstrong (genuine striker, natural finisher) would add a good option, from the bench initially. Also takes the pressure off slightly if Ings were to leave in Jan or on a free.

Indeed. Considering our signing will need to start pretty much every game when fit due to lack of cover I am happier to bring in Perraud who comes off the back of two seasons playing lots of games rather than someone who hasn't had regular minutes.

https://www.footballinsider247.com/southampton-set-to-beat-leeds-united-to-perraud-signing/ Tier 1 confirmation from the peerless Wayne Veysey.

Yep, wouldn't send a good message. Villa are persistent and that must be having had at least some sign of interest from ESR.

Thanks Marco - how would you describe his game? Strengths/weaknesses etc.

Doubt that, its not so much of a story as a factual statement. All the clubs have known he is available and at what price for ages so you would hope any interest would already have been declared. Reality is, given the size of club we are the deal could be hikacked - until its signed anything can happen. But clearly its very advanced so hopefully gets done shortly as seems a great buy at a good price.

Players doing well in the latter stages of a Euros are going to be well beyond us.

Stig Johansen has told Football Insider that he feels James Tarkowski would be right to leave Burnley this summer.

Perraud not in the France squad for the Olympics which is good news if he does sign.

No point IMO unless there was a tight option to buy. Reality is if a player that highly rated came here and did very well there would be no chance we would sign him permanently. We signed Salisu last summer to a bit of fanfare and he looked good when he played. I think Vestergaard will go and our no1 pairing will be Bednarek and Salisu.

How it started: How its going:

Reports from Portugal suggest Porto are interested in Perraud. Hopefully we have an agreement in place.

Is Phillips better than Bednarek? I haven't seen much to suggest so. If any CB leaves it will be Vestergaard.

So you would be happy to only have three senior full backs, one of whom is only on loan? Guarentee you, as with last season, every other PL club will have four.