goodymatt

I’m inclined to agree. We were also linked with Max Johnston, but reports have suggested he might have doubts. I think Suguwara is decent going forward and should be less of a defensive liability in the championship. Still’s system should suit him better. Bree is also solid enough and both have decent crossing that is more important to Still. I’m ok to go with what we have in the FB positions.

Signings like Downes, THB, Archer were out of the Ipswich book of signing players that might make the step up but if we go down put us in a great position to return immediately. I see O’Shea, one of the best CBs in the champ (if not the best) has extended his deal at Ipswich. Keeping these players that were bought with relegation in mind is important, otherwise we are starting Quarshie and Edwards instead of THB and Bednarek and to me that seems a big risk, when we know how good they can be at champ level. Appreciate this might just be the reality of relegation but some difficult decisions to be made.

Only breaking even on a player that has won promotion from the championship last 2 times of asking and has potential still to realise would be very disappointing for me. Exactly the quality and experience we need to go straight back up and a player that we should be looking to make money on. Hard to judge how PL ready he really is given the way we played as a whole last season, spending half the season playing out into trouble. He was top of the errors leading to goals charts but I’ve always thought he looked better in a back 4. I’d keep unless someone comes in with a £25-30m fee. Porto are not in the CL next season, they finished third and will play Europa.

Just the 1 week after saying on Sky he wants to be in the PL and the only way to do that is getting promoted with us.

Looked like a good signing but perhaps we will stick with our current FB options?

This would suggest he was the ‘unnamed striker’ we were confident of signing from the Solak interviews.

Agree Edozie’s end product also concerns and not saying he will be the answer, more just using him as an example that Sulemana will not be difficult to replace, given his contributions. Edozie doesn’t feel a downgrade on Sulemana for me, which speaks volumes.

Edozie cost €8m and has more output than Sulemana. We don’t need to buy an £18m player to replace him. Appreciate the gamble type signing concerns, SR have got it wrong most often but we can only hope Spors is making more informed and better suited decisions.

I’m hoping Downs is better suited to Still’s football than Onuachu, who although would score goals at championship level in certain systems, is not a high intensity, pressing target man. We are trusting our new director of football and his team to identify the right players. At least it is a market they know very well, which makes it feel less speculative. Sulemana has potential (will it ever arrive?), but that’s a decent fee on a player that we’ve given plenty of opportunities to, but hasn’t delivered. I’d rather cash in on him than some of our other desired players. Even though our new direction/style would have suited him more. End product/final decision making always seemed to be lacking for me.

Damion Downs always felt like the target from Alfie’s chat with Solak. Spors and Lederer pick, just like Quashie. Gold cup means we can’t do the medical until it’s over, so makes sense that it’s dragged on. This quote makes it sounds like he’s keen to join: Personally I like that we are signing a player that could be starting in the Bundesliga but isn’t a guarantee, so that opens the window for us to get him. His goals looked well varied from the Bundesliga website highlights. Have to hope it’s a gem rather than speculative signing. That’s where we are relying on Spors and Lederer’s knowledge of the German market.

You’ll be fine for home games, normally fine for aways but I did miss out on Birmingham and Leeds away games last time in the championship.

Decent signing, I’d be happy if Saints brought him in. Birmingham are going to be up there, could be a very competitive promotion race: Ipswich, Saints, Sheffield United, Leicester (without points deduction) and Birmingham all will be strong.

The media had Rohl as our first choice for some time and reaffirmed that post Juric sacking. He clearly ‘was’ our first choice. I agree that it is possible that when Still became available, we felt we had to go for it and it could have completely changed our direction. News reports suggested that we stepped away from Rohl due to high compensation fee, I doubt we envisaged he’d become available for nothing? So it does beg the question, who actually was our preferred target this summer. For what it’s worth I like the Still appointment, it’s just an observation really that Leicester seem to land on their feet and have beaten us to a few targets in the past, Maresca and Maddison being the big ones.

I understood we had exercised that additional year and so his contract now runs until summer 2027. So this time next year, he will have 1 year left and be worth less, having only played at championship level in the meantime. To keep him I think we will need to go up this season and hope he wants to stick around, can’t see him not moving on before the close of the 2026 summer window latest.

Telegraph saying not Dyche. Rohl seems to be their first choice. Quite how they can sit still on RvN all summer and then get our supposed first choice for free (if Rohl does negotiate an exit) is a bit confusing. I’m assuming Still became available and we didn’t want to wait around and Rohl had more potential options then. Like with Maresca, are Leicester getting our first choice target?

Did he like some spurs stuff on instagram too when linked to them? We’ve been trying all season to get him to sign and he hasn’t. My concern is does next season at championship level do anything to increase his transfer value, not sure it will. Plus he will have 1 year left next summer. If he won’t commit we probably need to sell this summer to maximise the benefit. Sad really.

Guido Carrillo

I think the club agree, as they are trying to sign a new striker. Stewart will be on the bench and if he can stay fit (big if), then he will be a useful squad player. Nobody is going to sign him this summer so we might as well see how it goes.

Sounds like we will bring in another striker but Stewart has played 8 games in a row without injury and we have a full pre season to come, it’s hoped he can play a part but I think he will be 2nd choice for that main striker role.

I’d agree he’s most likely to stay, £20m is a high fee given how he performed last season. He’s a top CB in the champ though, could make it 3 promotions in 3 consecutive seasons if we go back up. Fernandes is the superstar and that’s why he won’t stay, sadly.

Getting circa £25m in combined for Sulemana and Onuachu, it’s a loss on fees, profit on PSR and hopefully with SAA (£8.5m) and the academy player (£1m) off to United, that money helps reduce pressure to sell some of the players we would like to keep. I’m not sure we will lose all of THB, Dibling and Fernandes, perhaps 1 stays? Assuming we sell Ramsdale for £20m, that’s £54.5m without selling the two prize jewels.

Pretty sure we went for Sulemana over Semenyo, we were linked to both heavily that window. Although Bournemouth were reportedly ahead of us for Jackson so maybe we were outbid on wages? Either way, we backed the wrong horse!

Works both ways when referring to a small sample size. I do agree that his strengths are better suited to a Still style over Martin but I’m not convinced he would choose the right final action. For the fee paid, he was raw, not always fit and available and his output wasn’t good enough. Edozies output is slightly better: 63 games - 6G 3A. and he was €8m not €25m.

24/25: 26 apps - 1G 1A 23/24: 25 apps - 0G 3A (Championship!) All games for Saints: 74 apps - 4G 7A For a £22m record signing, I wouldn’t say that is enough end product. Perhaps you can educate me what it means? Of his 4 goals, 2 of them were in that dead rubber end of season game vs Liverpool. In that United game he missed some good chances and picked the wrong pass, despite destroying Yoro.