Chez

You get what you pay for. If I was looking for a Rice replacement, then I'd be looking at Lavia, not JWP. Get him interested? I am pretty sure Lavia would be more than happy to move to West Ham, getting a huge pay rise in the process no doubt, rather than stay at Saints in the Championship.

name me one player in the Chelsea squad you wouldn't want playing for Saints.

Agreed. In general all the leading Championshio clubs get several loans from the major Prem sides. We should not miss out.

a damn sight more than Orsic and Onuachu.

Wouldn't West Ham (and Brighton) be better off spending the money on Lavia?

They were idiots. The pace and power was obvious in the friendly. Hopefully we gave it a good go to sign him, although perhaps Sulemana was the actual target.

Brighton is a good shout, although not at £50m. Wolves might be an option too.

yeah, gone to Sunderland.

wages

Perhaps we should be considering him as this summer's Gibbs White (£25m up front and a shed load of add ons), with huge potential and a price tag to match? Burnley may not have been big spenders in the past, and fair play to them for doing that, but they earn the same money as every other Prem side, so if they want him they need to break their transfer record to get him. Obviously they will have a limit and they go can elsewhere, but you are absolutely right, we hold the cards and let them (Burnley) come to us to try and prize him away.

We failed to agree a new contract while we were in the Prem, I suspect because he wanted too much money. I can't imagine we are in a position to offer him more now, so there's no chance of him signing a new contract this summer.

Is this the kind of 'experience' some on here want us to sign? Big ball winner at the back, a strong 'ugly' CF and a little bit of creativity in midfield.

According to the Swansea fan we had on here it would cost about £12m for 20 goal a season Piroe. About the same money we might get for Che.

Villa offered £25m in 2021. Maybe that was their maximum budget at the time, but not exactly a ringing endorsement. He's had two `impressive' seasons since in terms of goals.

they need a replacement for Ashley Barnes. Che would fit that bill. Don't think it has any bearing on Tella.

I was careful to say `score goals and get us promoted' in relation to Che, because as you say, it's his decent hold up play that makes him stand out compared to our other forwards - and we will need that to be an effective team, in addition to some goals of course. I'm a Mara fan and do wonder, whether given 46 games in the Championship, he'd score plenty of goals, lead the line and help us put a promotion challenge together. He has got talent, but could he become a real quality Championship striker? The biggest issue is that I am not sure he leads the line well enough. He needs some proper guidance and coaching in that department. He needs to stop trying to nutmeg people on the half way line and save that for when he's in the opposing box.

Can you see us selling for anything more? I guess I am struggling to see him as a premium Prem player and thus don't see us getting £50m. But maybe he is that (a premium Prem palyer), or close enough to justify that huge price tag? ...I am struggling to convince myself as I type this. I wonder what fans of other Prem sides think of him and value him. When Liverpool, Newcastle, Wolves, spurs or West Ham fans see themselves linked with him, do they think, `Brilliant player. He'll improve us. £50m seems about right. Get him in quick'?

Lincoln City left back Sean Roughan is now out of contract (they have offered him a new one and he's yet to take it). He had a week long trial at Saints a couple of years ago (while under contract at at Lincoln) and we have no doubt followed his progress since. He has just had a good season and got an Ireland call up. God knows what our left back plan in next season. I guess it depends on what kind of offers Perraud attracts, Larios fitness/progress and the clubs evaluation of Small's loan.

That is the concern. He ain't great, but if your life relied on Mara, Armstrong, Onuachu and Che to score 20 goals/get us promoted next season, Che would have to be the guy and the other three would have you workin through the bucket list pretty damn quickly. Whether we could sell for say £15m and reinvest in a striker that might deliver similar, Piroe perhaps, I am not sure. However, you'd think that is what is going to be required, as he will want to stay in the Prem (they all do). Not a huge number of options though. Perhaps Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton? Everton were interested last summer, but are they still keen?

Only if no Prem clubs buy him this summer would he consider a `horizontal' move, all be it maybe we could pay him a bit more than Bristol City should we sell a shed load of players and have available funds.

my point was, that if he walks on a free, we would then have £0m to invest on a new striker to help us go up in the second season of parachute payments. Football clubs don't like players walking on frees. It won't happen here, unless the offers are less than £10m.

What if we don't go up?

Not easy to compare. That deal was agreed in advance. Having got him, if Brentford were asked to sell him, what would they want for him? £30m?

Not seen that published, but equally I think there has just been a blanket statement that players have a 40% cut and there could be exceptions. I doubt it in JWP's case. No way are Saints tying themselves to a £100k+ a week contract through 2026 without a relegation clause.

Can't see liverpool waiting until the end of the window to see if they can get JWP on the cheap. If they seriously want him, they will look to get the deal done asap.