Chez

Like you say, good chance we need the services of more than two fullbacks over the course of the season. No reason why he couldn't be first choice left back. we are not obligated to pick Perroud and who knows how he will turn out.

If Ings had three years on his contact and there was no talk of him leaving, would we be looking to sign another striker? Or in other words, does this bid mean that Ings is almost certainly departing this summer, hence we are (smartly) looking to buy a replacement before we sell? Or do we need another striker even if Ings stays?

It does feel like he has been on his way out for a long time now. They (Brighton) signed a DM called Caicedo back in January, but he's quite young, so perhaps isn't ready and thus this latest signing.

I like the sound of that rumour.

we don't `risk of getting nothing for them' if we make them see out their contracts. It is certain that we will get nothing for them. Also, there is no assurance that we stay up even if they do both stay. What makes you think he will a) "cream of money from their sale"? b) fees not being ploughed back in? He needs a premier league club if he is to recoup most of the money he spent buying us. If you sell two first team players and spend nothing to replace them, you put that league place at severe risk, and he's not an idiot, is he?

very good point. You can add in his ability to bring the ball down, composure on the ball and willingness to play rather than smack it clear. Slow as fuck, but if he had pace he's be worth £80m. Salisu is a completely different type and doesn't have any of that.

clutching at straws a little I think. By not signing a new deal, and by the sounds of things, negotiations ending, he's basically saying that he don't wanna be here. He wants to be at a bigger club and is confident one will come in for him. But you never know...

Spurs come in on the last day with £28m bid. Tough to turn it down, even if it places us in a bind. However, if Spurs are leaving it that late, then we start to gain the upper hand and can possibly keep pushing the price up. No matter what, we need to be talking to strikers' agents and have deals ready should our reserve price be met.

Good news. Every million will matter.

Firstly, what happened last summer or previous summers matters little. Covid will have decimated our finances and you don't take a £70m loan out at 8% if you have cash to spare on transfers. Whatever we spend will be determined by the size of the offers for Ings and Vestergaard. I think your valuations seem fair, but I've no idea if anyone really wants Vestegaard. The rest however, I have massive doubts. The Gunn deal is £2.5m with add ons. And that's from a Premiership side. That's how little money there is swilling around the game at the moment. Whether City see a percentage of that, I am not so sure. An important factor here is that I can't see many championship sides spending money this summer. Maybe the odd club, (Swansea spent a massive £1m on a striker last week) but realistically which championship club this summer (with the covid crippling them) is (and only championship sides are gonna look at him) buying Obafemi for £5m? You wont get a penny for Nlundulu, Long and Valery. We will be paying some of Long's wages to shift him and Valery too. Seriously, who is giving us money for Forster and Elyounoussi? On the wages they are on, we'd need to allow them to go for free to tempt anyone. Celtic loved Forster but didn't have the finances. Who does? We might get something for Lemina, possibly £5m at a stretch, but if I was a Prem side looking at him, I'd just offer a loan to us and then if he works out sign him next summer. If I was a betting man, that's what will happen. My maths makes that £2.5m of income, perhaps rising to £5m, possibly. We've probably spent exactly that on the first years' payment for Perraud.

...so a strange decision to call time on Saints negotiations. Always worth having us as fall back you'd of thought.

For me its a clear advert from the agent - negotiations are over with Saints, come and talk to me. Strange that he has to do that. Everyone knows he has one year left. You'd of thought if a club fancied him, they'd of been talking to him by now.

buy another striker now and then another next summer...with what funds? We have fuck all money. We took out a £70m loan to keep the wolves from the door and that debt will rise to £100m in five years time without repayments. If we keep spending and never start paying it off, where does it end? I know as fans we should just concentrate on the football and let the club worry about the finances...

fair enough, but like you say, we've spent money on Perraud - so a small net spend already. How much do you think we have to spend this summer? What fringe players are you thinking we can get income from? Lemina, maybe?

we get him and his goals for another season, but when he goes the following summer on a free, financially its a shit show. Question. If he was going this summer on a free (instead of next), who realistically would we sign as his replacement?

I am not a great scout, but from what little I have seen of Patson, I could have lived with that deal. He's a pacey, extremely confident two footed finisher. I think Leicester may have got a gem there. We shall see. It's going to be a gamble no matter who we sign to replace Ings, and as we have seen you can easily waste millions, but having money in your pocket does broaden the number and type of players you can go for.

personally I'm not even thinking about the possibility that he might not score goals this coming season. I'm looking at next summer and having zero to spend on his replacement. But you make a fair point. No club wants a player to leave on a free. Sometimes its out of their hands, but its just terrible business and as the world keeps on telling us fans, `football is a business these days', so with that in mind you just cant allow assets to depreciate from £20m (or whatever) to nothing in just 12 months (when you can avoid it).

So next summer, when he leaves on a free, then we are `probably fucked', right? You may well be right (losing talent doesn't make you better thats for sure) and the current set up may well spunk the money we get for him up the wall, but if they don't get any money how can they/we hope to replace him? Kicking the can down the road is not a plan. This is the summer to have money as it will go long way. Many teams are on their knees financially. If we have a few quid in our pocket we should be able to get some talent.

agree with that too, but not really sure why he wants to leave Spurs in the first place, so not sure what he is looking for.

Putting my football heart to one side. It's very bad business to allow him to walk next summer. It would b eOK, if you had a never ending supply of money from an oil rich owner, but not if you are being run on a self-financed basis as we are. On a pure business level, we simply must replace him now using whatever monies we can get for him this summer. 12 months down the line, we will still need to replace and have £0 monies coming in to help fund that replacement. Kicking the problem down the line, is not a good option. It's all very well saying his goals will keep us up, but what about next season? We are just delaying the inevitable. The club know this and the buying clubs know this. Our poker face is gonna have to be amazing otherwise he's gone for a snip as Hoj was. I'm not sure what that means in terms of his actual resale value right now, but it's gonna be much less than we (on here) all hope. If we keep him, what is that solution next season? Is Amstrong gonna still be at Blackburn and then available on a free next season? If we'd sold him for £25m and spent it all on say Patson Daka, it may have been a seamless transition. It may not have worked, but at least it would have been an attempted solution.

if we got him on a free, then we could probably stomach the £100k a week wages he probably will expect - if not, then I don't see us interested.

isn't that what a football business should be doing? The debt we have saddled ourselves with, all be it covid induced means that in the coming years, we need to make a profit to enable us to pay that rising debt off.

is that because he went to Spurs, instead of signing for us, or because he isn't the player he was?

how has he played for Spurs last season? Has his form, pace etc. dropped off a cliff, or is he still the player we had before, but in a faltering side? Two years left on his contract, so Spurs still hold some cards, and £100k a week by all accounts, will limit suitors.

The windows opens July 1st. Players will always leave on and after that date, because they cant before. Are you saying the the club should not sell and do promotion for season tickets until after the summer transfer window closes? Or should they sell the players earlier? What if players are sold in January, is the club still conning fans when they don't say something back in May? If your ST purchase depends on Saints keeping our star players then maybe you are supporting the wrong club. Check our history and where we are in the pyramid. We sell players, simple as.