SNSUN

True enough, although I think it's prudent to be wary that next year we could be back in the Championship wishing we had lower earning or squad players to fall back on - similar to how Stu became key this year, Aribo, Bednarek, Stephens, etc were all fringe players (or loaned out) last Premier League season and yet were first teamers this season just gone. If we go down we will probably lose KWP, Downes (potentially), THB, maybe AA and Bednarek etc and suddenly those squad players become important again. Although I agree we should get rid of non-playing big earners if possible. I'm not saying we should prepare to fail but it should be in the back of our minds, at least for this season when staying up is the main aim.

Ramsden would be a brilliant signing, I bet he'd Saveloy-t of goals going in. Ok that was so awful I'm banning myself from Saintsweb for 24 hours.

Hell I said it last summer... I'd take Dubravka for year or two for experience sake. Bet he gets into a few scraps...

Fair enough. I do see your point but, IMO, If he hadn't been injured and he had scored the goals to get us out the Championship, then we'd all be excited to see how he would get on in the Premier League. Whilst we'll never know of course but I don't think it's beyond feasible to think he's in the manager's plans next season. We will also have a tight budget to deal with and a lack of striking options (especially if Mara and Adams leave) so I think some of the players already on our books will be utilised next season - I'd be surprised if Stewart isn't one of them.

Loan with an option I'd take him but Chelsea seem to want top dollar for him (their prerogative i suppose). At least on loan he can show he he's about and we've secured the option if he does achieve it. And if not, he can go back. But he'd be one of two strikers I'd want to bring in though as he also has the injury record both with us and Chelsea. With Ross Stewart's injury record being less than favourable we need options.

Just look at the players Arsenal hope to ship out: Zinchenko, Tierney, Ramsdale, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Partey, Nketiah, Viera... All would walk into our team and they expect to raise around £200 million from those sales.

And Maatsen who is about to play in the Champions League final for Dortmund.

Contract is up next summer so doubtful we'd get that.

He scored 10 in 13 in the Championship before his injury at Sunderland so that suggests he would have done very well without the injury (and we probably wouldn't have got him as cheaply as we did) and if Rickie Lambert is anything to go by (admittedly he was a rarity), there would be little reason why he couldn't have stepped up to the Premier League. However a) he did get injured so we'll never know and b) we've proven that signing high scoring Championship strikers doesn't always equate to doing well in the Premier League. I guess we'll have to see - he's 28 soon so he should be in his peak as a footballer but hasn't really played since he was 26, so I have more questions about his fitness than I do over his talent. However we aren't exactly blessed with strikers right now so I wouldn't loan him out, I'd keep him and AA and add one (or even two) strikers.

Leandro Bittencourt, aka Bitty.

If our first 4 games are City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, that probably wouldn't be a bad start! 😀 But yes I hope we have the bulk of our business done before the season starts. It wasn't long ago we were concerned about whether this team would do well in the Prem and, as lovely as promotion via the play-offs was, those concerns do remain, especially as it wasn't long ago we were losing to the like of Bristol City and getting spanked by promotion rivals Leicester. If the Bittencourt transfer is true then it does indicate that we are looking to do early business this summer, which is promising.

We may have Bitten off more than we can chew

I know nothing of him but Wikipedia says he's 5'7'' which will enhance our vision to create the World's smallest men's professional football team of all time.

Ooh good spot. Either way I'd take a 17th place season next season with bells on.

Just reading North Stand chat and there seems to be some uncertainty about the future there, about the fact the don't seem to have a managerial target in place (despite being the "well run" club they are and planning for every eventuality) and that players they have could want out. They also have some ageing players in Welbeck, Milner, Dunk, Gross and Veltman so I can see why they'd be uneasy. As you say (and as we found out), you're only a couple of bad transfer windows (or the wrong managerial appointment) away from relegation in the Premier League unless you're one of the big seven.

I believe Man City are 25-1 which is crazy for a team that just won 4 Premier Leagues in a row. I guess the Bookies figure that even if they got a points deduction they'd still have the quality to be well clear of relegation by the end of the season.

Leicester City - 4/9. Everton - 10/11. Ipswich Town - 10/11. Nottingham Forest - 7/4. Southampton - 7/4. Wolves - 7/2. Brentford - 4/1. Fulham - 5/1. We are, somewhat surprisingly, only 5th favourites to get relegated next season according to the Bookies. Leicester are obviously favourites because of their impending points deduction, I assume Everton likewise.

Probably the only way we'd keep him. I know the game is about money these days and the club might be tempted to sell him before his value disappears but he's one I'd absolutely keep for the season and happily lose on a free next year (if we can't get him to sign a new contract). He's rarely been anything but excellent since the day we signed him and I still can't believe he stuck around in the Championship with us for a year without any complaining. We have been very lucky to have a position filled for so long without having to worry about it. KWP and Bree means RB is not a priority this summer. (Awaits dodgy transfer business from Saints and bringing in 3 new RBs and no strikers...)

Similar to us having a throw in specialist in Rory Delap and not realising it until it's too late.😀 As for the rest of the Premier League, I don't think we're going to see much movement for a while yet, although there always seems to be one club that likes to get in there early with their transfer business. Apparently Enzo Maresca to Chelsea is done.

He's 22 in July. He may be a late developer and I do think there's a player in there but I've seem very little from him last season to show that he's going to be of use for us next season. I do think he should be loaned out and retained in case we end up back in the Championship but I'm dubious of whether he'll ever reach his potential but a loan spell away will give us all the information we need. We currently have Stewart and AA next season assuming we lose Adams and Mara so IMO we need two strikers to come in. That is unless the club need to budget and just bring one striker in, in which case I could see them wanting to retain Mara.

Rangers linked with Ben Johnson, Crystal Palace linked with Ronnie Edwards. Weak link to O’Hare https://www.givemesport.com/southampton-interested-in-callum-ohare/

We're Southampton, we're more likely to get

Ah hail Loom Tuna. We're in a weird situation where we should be building towards being a Premier League team but keeping one eye on making good signings that would bode is well in the Championship in a year's time should the worst happen next season. As mentioned by others, players like O'Hare on a free might be good acquisitions for the longer term either way. I suspect we'll renew our interest in Ban Johnson too as he's OOC and available and we've previously been interested.

Personally I'm not a fan of bringing back players that used to play for the club, even if both Lallana and Ings did very well for us at the time. I can understand Ings more than Lallana in a way but right now neither fill me with confidence that the club knows what direction they want our transfer dealings to go in. If we were still in the Championship I would have taken both happily. In the Prem? A 36 year old with an injury history and a nearly 32 year old with an even worse injury history? Hmm.

He has definitely improved. I said the other day I notice similaries with JWP, works hard, excellent passing, positionally good and usually available, just without the JWP engine. He's not the quickest and I don't think he's a particularly good tackler but that's why he's better playing further forward. When Downes was out and we sat Smallbone back - that's not his position and we perhaps should have had more faith in Charles but ultimately I think he's earned his place in the Premier League. He's in my first XI over Aribo to start next season.