Chez

If they could attract the quality of player to sign that is `deserving' of a £200k a week contract, I'm sure they will. Right now, they just can't attract that guy, so don't need to offer that wage. At some point they are going to have to sign a Robino and overpay to break that seal. At the moment (f they follow the City model) they are in the Lescott et al signing phase, which would make JWP a good option.

if we get Delap in on loan from City, his Dad will no doubt pop down to watch him play, so we can use the opportunity to pick his brains.

The club state Stephens signed his contract during the 21/22 season, yet the Athletic reported he agreed a four year deal back in the summer of 2020. Seeing as the Athletic were spot on with McCarthy, and the Long statement has been questioned by his wife, maybe they are the more reliable source: https://theathletic.com/news/exclusive-jack-stephens-agrees-new-long-term-southampton-contract/bo8LfBeiblPj/

if it means no more god damn terrible green shirts, then that's great.

I think there might be a slight backlog. We've only just announced the Stephens contract signed back in 2020...

We signed two strikers last summer, so we can do that again this summer. I think we will all be a nervous if we just go with Che, Long and Armstrong.

I guess you could argue Che and Armstrong were both Championship talents, but not sure either was in the class of Lallana, Sessegnon, Carvelho, Spance or Brennan Johnson. We shall see. I guess Armstrong could come good and Spence may not be the real deal...

This is the annoying thing. These big clubs are not just buying £60m talent from Europe, they are also cleaning up the genuine talent from the championship. Fabio Carvelho was the guy to get, but we had no chance.

the only way it works is if we pay the difference in wages, say £1m a year for three years, which you could just knock off the asking price and then Boro can pay him the same wage. Not sure its as simple as all that though. Whatever happens, we ain't getting the £15m back.

its been five years since Boro spent that kind of money on a player, and when they did they fucked it with £15m Assombalonga, however that transfer was funded by selling De Roon and Rhodes, so if Spence does bring in £20m, maybe their will be funds. Ralph seemed to have very confidence in him in the second half of the season, but he did make noises at the end of the season to suggest he would be here next season.

Boy, I bet that elite team of scouts circling the globe watching keepers every week are laughing among themselves about all those wasted air miles.

I presume you are now happy to accept that McCarty and Stephens were indeed offered new deals and signed them, as was revealed in The Athletic a year ago? As mentioned, journalists don't write stories about such benign subjects unless they are true - no point. Salah to Barca/real etc., sure, Stephens gets new three year deal at Saints, nah. Why the club didn't announce them at the time I will never know.

I wouldn't take that phrase at face value. My guess is `contract offer' is a broad term used to describe the limbo status of a player - not gone, but not signed. So, an offer may yet to have even been discussed.

Wonder if an actual offer has to be made or (more likely) the club just is indicating that it's in talks.

no idea. I fucking hope not, but you don't have a £114m wage bill unless you pay these chumps a shed load more than some imagine.

Hmm. Or it could just be that the second use of the word `contract' is superfluous.

game is played on the pitch. Why pay a cheerleader £70k a week?

yep, weird. Good news though. We need some goals to go with all the offsides.

He's certainly been here a while, but great servant?

Long to get a new deal. Called it months ago. It was obvious and with no chance of Broja returning, leaving us with two strikers, the club just don't have the money, bottle and/or maybe scouting ability to replace him. No holds barred my arse. When they said there wouldn't be a revolution they meant it.

it was such as shame. Steve Baker was an absolute gentlemen. He always turned up at Tyro presentation evenings, charity events and the like. He seemed to love Southampton, gave everything when he played, but THAT game was not the game to have a nightmare. I'd be really interested to hear his thoughts on that game and the effect afterwards. I hope he is well.

Actually, I do include him. He scored those 19 goals, but he did absolutely fuck all else (yeah I know how that sounds), which impacted our all round game. I totally understand the counter argument to this - a headless chicken running around but not scoring would be worse, but I just had no love for Stern and don't feel he `saved us from relegation'. I felt he was very much part of the problem. I guess it was similar to the Ronaldo situation at United last season. I appreciate my view might not be shared, but I went to and suffered pretty much every fucking game for my sins, and that view has long since been burnt into my Saints supporting soul, so nothing is going to change my mind a decade or so later.

I think that look is typically used when you find out that you have to pay for parking at the Stadium when buying a ticket.

Here are the transfer fees paid once they got back into the Prem to build the side that won the league Shinji Okazaki 1.FSV Mainz 05 £9.90m N'Golo Kanté SM Caen £8.10m Gökhan Inler SSC Napoli £6.30m Yohan Benalouane Atalanta BC £6.30m Daniel Amartey FC Copenhagen £5.94m Demarai Gray Birmingham £4.59m Robert Huth Stoke City £3.78m Leonardo Ulloa Brighton £9.09m Andrej Kramaric HNK Rijeka £8.10m Danny Simpson QPR £2.25m Tom Lawrence Man Utd U21 £1.13m Riyad Mahrez AC Le Havre £450Th.

Maybe not transfer rumours, but the Beano can tell you who we should sign: https://www.beano.com/posts/fed-up-with-footie-transfer-deadline-day-find-out-who-your-team-should-have-signed