SNSUN

I don't think £12.5 million for a striker that was their top scorer with 17 goals last season is bad valuation but apparently Trabzonspor are offering 3 million euro less - their alternative according to one report is Oli McBurnie! I think there is a deal to be done there though - we need the money and the player off our books.

Yep, positive. I guess it depends on injuries but at the moment my list of the 7 players that will get cut is: Trafford Quansah Dunk (or Guehi, undecided but Guehi is more versatile which we may need) Wharton (he looked promising yesterday but I don't think Southgate takes him yet). Jones Gordon I'm glad I'm not the one making the decisions though! Gordon I chose to omit over Bowen - his time might yet come but Bowen is the more experienced option with goals in him if it comes down to use needing him (and Bowen can also play as a striker if something happens to Watkins or Kane. There are also arguments as to whether Toney goes over Watkins but I think I'd take Watkins as the other striker. I tried to make the argument to take all 3 strikers but it would mean leaving o ne of Eze or Maddison out and I favour taking them over a 3rd striker (with Bowen as the possible 3rd striker if needed). Put it this way - we're lucky the squad was extended to 26 players as cutting another 3 from that would have been REALLY difficult!

Whatever happens next season, we somehow got out of one of the toughest Championship leagues of all time, meaning we (most likely) keep our best players in KWP and now THB. The Prem may be tough next season but the other alternative was losing the play off final, losing any chance we had of keeping our best players and rebuilding. We should attract players this summer that we wouldn't have dreamed of had we still been in the Championship. Points deductions of other teams will help us but I reckon we're in a better place next season than we were in our last Prem season. It's exciting times.

So shoehorning Stephens in worked! 😀 I'm happy for us to keep using 3 CBs but they need to be 3 good CBs but we need a new CB and that CB must be first choice. As mentioned in recent reports, Joe Rodon would be perfect. Then we'd have THB, Rodon (or first choice other), Bednarek, Stephens and Charles or Lawrence as a 5th choice. Does ABK fit into that? I'd rather not due to his injury record but it would save us money - but I do think we'll bring in one new CB. The only issue with 3 CBs is it blunts our attack more - we need two good wing backs to help with that formation so a new LB/LWB would be perfect. (Not that I think we'd go for him necessarily but Sessegnon would fit the bill). That said perhaps grinding out wins like we did against Leeds next season is the best way for us to stay up.

Maybe if we'd got Mbappe on a free but now he's going to Real I think Jude will want to stay there.

Money well spent. Who knows what our budget is this summer - I do know I'd rather spend, say, £120 million on 4 good £30 million players that would improve the team than on 6 £20 million players. Not that I think our budget will be anywhere close to that without shipping players off, that's just a hypothetical.

That's so weird, I was literally just reading about Red Star Belgrade on Wikipedia as I just signed a CB called Strahinja Erakovic from them (Or Crvena zvedza as they're known in the game). Who is additionally my upgrade to Lyanco. Spooky. (I'm also trying to sign Vinicius Jr on a free but he doesn't want to know for some reason...)

Yep, although thankfully it coincided with one of our best transfer windows of all time thanks to the appointment of Koeman.

Yes to all 3 personally - we have been loosely linked with Rodon: https://the72.co.uk/2024/05/31/leeds-united-joe-rodon-southampton-target/ who was excellent for Leeds all season. Would be an excellent addition at CB giving us 4 good options there. For £15 million odd I hope that's one that happens.

More chance of signing Robbie Coltrane. And he's been dead for two years so our medical team would have a job on their hands.

At some point it seems Everton will go down - it's just a matter of when. Annoyingly Dyche was the right manager for them at the right time but even he would struggle to get a points deducted Everton safe... surely! (Cue Everton surviving AGAIN)

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.