Rebel

KWP's big problem is he can't really defend. He doesn't have the stature or physicality to cope with big forwards or high balls. And his positional sense defensively is woeful. He is great going forward in an attacking team that dominate the ball - and could play as an inverted full back or wing back for a team like that. But as a straight full back he's not in the elite category. Plus he's not really that good playing on the left - it reduces him to a one trick pony going forwards - cutting in and passing the ball inside. And he was even worse defensively on the left. If he could defend or was two footed and could really play on the left we would have easily sold him 2 years ago when we last got relegated for £25-30M or more but no one came close to offering that because of the holes in his game. I think the closest offer we got was £15M which the club thought was too little. I think they made a mistake there - they should have accepted it and replaced him with a full back that was better at defending - but probably not so good going forwards. He would probably be best as a wide right midfielder in a 'wingless wonders' team.

and Besfort Zeneli is a cool name - he sounds like he should be really good!

I get the feeling we are going to sign more the one striker this summer - a tall centre forward and an inside forward. Which suggests to me that Armstrong and BBD will probably be the ones that are going to leave - although I would happily swap out all of our strikers (Stewart, BBD, Archer and Armstrong) this summer. And if we are chasing a new right back I would probably cash in on Bree with a year left - and keep Sugwara. Firstly I think Suga will be great in the Championship and secondly keeping him will help Matsuki and Takoaka settle in. Also with one eye on replacing Suga if/when we go back up to the Premier League. At the moment our transfer strategy does seem to be following our normal line of buying young players with potential and more 'importantly' resale value - but I think we could do with a bit of maturity and leadership on the pitch if we are going to push for promotion. I'd like to see us add a few players in the their mid to late twenties to the squad at least.

Damion Downs looks ok as as back-up centre forward - but I still feel we need a starting centre forward. We can't rely on Stewart with his injury record and BBD, Adarma and Archer are all second strikers or wide/inside forwards.

now if they'd said Rangers and Martin are talking to Ross Stewart and Ryan Fraser it would've been a bit more believable.

I have figured out our new transfer strategy..... ....its to sign players with names similar to the names of existing or old players! So far its: Quashie = Quarshie and going forwards its : Downes = Downes O'Brien Whitmarsh = O'Brien who else is out there!?

if we are not in for Kesler-Hayden at that price it suggests to me that Sugawara is staying with us this season.

I think we will start to see a lot more movement in the transfer market from this week onwards - partly because for us July is the month that players with relegation clauses in their contracts get a pay cut - and also players are coming back from their holidays and ready to move on. I fully expect players like Bednarek and Aribo to quietly leave in the next week or so. Its also the crossover period for PSR which I think will also make a big difference to a lot of clubs.

I read it here - https://saintsmarching.com/stunning-three-way-striker-swap-could-be-on-the-cards-for-southampton - but I am not sure its a reliable source. Well I am pretty sure Sargent will leave Norwich for Leeds or somewhere abroad. I can see Norwich replacing Sargent with Armstrong if they pay us a good fee for him - but he's not really the same type of striker - Sargent is a 6ft 1 centre forward although probably not good enough for the premier league - Armstrong is a 5ft 8 (according to Wikipedia -he looks a lot shorter than that to me) inside forward. He's not going to fill the hole left by Sargent if he does leave Norwich. As for Piroe - I am not sure he would want to leave premier league Leeds for championship Southampton. He a 6ft 1 second striker really so we would still need a centre forward. I wouldn't say no but only if we get a centre forward as well.

I guess its assumed by people that one of Sugawara or Bree will leave and we'll need to replace them in that case

and some American player called Freeman but wasn't it one of the three positions that came out of the Solak interview as one we had budgeted to spend on before selling players

If we are looking at signing a right back it must mean either Sugawara or Bree is leaving. My guess would be Sugawara for a club in Italy. Bednarek is also off by all accounts and you would also hope that we can get rid of ABK to some lower end Bundesliga team. I think Aribo will also be off with just a year left on his contract - probably to one of the big Turkish clubs - for a last big payday. Ramsdale has to go with his wages - but I'd rather we just sold him than sent him on loan somewhere. Once Newcastle buy Trafford or someone else and Villa sell Martinez I think we will see the goalkeeper dominoes fall quite quickly and Ramsdale will be gone. Part of our transfer strategy should be buying the best players from the other Championship clubs (we already have 2 in Charles and Edwards). Signing players like Kesler-Hayden, Johansson, Rudoni, Lewis O'Brien and Ben Sheaf (only has a year left on his contract at Coventry), Maja (same at WBA) is a double hit really.

I am guessing the need was for a left footed centre back. None of the existing centre backs are left footed whereas Quarshie is supposedly two-footed. Maybe the other requirement was height - at 6ft 5 Quarshie is taller than any of our existing centre backs - Bednarek, Wood and Harwoord-Bellis are 6ft 2, Lawrence, Kayi Sanda and Stephens is 6ft 1, Edwards 5ft 11 and ABK 6ft 3 And I am willing to bet the other requirement was pace - none of the existing centre backs are particularly fast across the ground It also looks like ABK, Bednarek and THB will all be leaving Saints this summer. Kayi Sanda will probably play a role in cup games and the U21s and Nico Lawrence will probably go on loan again. Personally I wouldn't be against bringing in another left footed centre back so we have cover on both the left and right of central defence.

We should stop kidding ourselves - we desperately need a first choice centre forward and have done for a long long time. I mean a 6ft 3 / 6ft 4 striker with pace and power - and ideally more than one so we have a backup as well. I would quite happily sell all of our current strikers - Armstrong, Archer, BBD, Ounachu and Stewart - in exchange for just one player like that. They scored just 6 or 7 goals or something like that for us this season between them all. Romulo from Goztepe would fit the bill perfectly it seems - and if we don’t end up with him or someone like him I just don’t see any point to this multi club model or the one way relationship we have with Goztepe.

if Ings is buying a house outside Winchester which needs a load of renovation / building work it doesn't necessarily mean he is planning to live there next year. It could be a long term plan to live in Winchester once he finally retires from playing football which makes sense given he's originally from there. For all we know it could take a year more to do all the work on the house he has just bought and he is planning on buying or renting somewhere to live wherever he ends up playing next season

We should sign Lewis O’Brien just to go with O’Brien-Whitmarsh and there was the opportunity to sign Coventry’s Ben Sheaf to match our Ben Sheaf but I think we released ours this summer

I think the problem was in the Championship Downes is capable of playing as a 6 or defensive midfielder but also acting as a playmaker and getting forward - but in the Premier League he was really only capable of being an 8 or box-to-box midfielder. He lacked the physicality and was overwhelmed by the quality and physicality in the premier league midfields we came up against. We really needed a CDM to play alongside him - and should always have played 2 in central midfield.

I think we all know which route we are going to take! But really it should be a combination of all of them

I would agree with you to some extent - but I don't think any bottom end premier league team or top end Championship team would really want him - firstly he is nowhere near good enough for the premier league and has proved that twice over with us. Secondly after he 'bad spell' on loan with West Brom I don't think any top team in the Championship will be clamouring to sign him. He was supposedly on £60K a week last season - hopefully that drops to £30K after relegation. But his value is probably nearer £5-6M than £12M right now. If we did sell him on anywhere if would probably have to involve us paying of his contract to some extent, plus a signing on fee from the club he joined to bridge any gap in wages. or maybe it would have to be a straight loan with us paying half the wages. With the 49ers investing in Rangers they are going to have more money to spend than they have had for quite a while - but you are probably right we are more than likely stuck with him. But its no impossible. Its about the only place I could see him going. I never understood why we gave him a new contract last summer - when he only had a year left - that was the time to sell him to a top end Championship club for £12M.

I would let Armstrong move on if we get an OK offer for him - they are better centre forwards and better wingers - right or left - out there. He is only really effective as an inside forward - but I'd rather have a forward who is a bit more versatile than that. And I am not sure he will suit the way Still will want to play. I could see him being a good signing and a success at Rangers under Martin. Lets hope Russell feels the same.

It was always talked about as a 2 year loan deal to Göztepe when he signed for us last summer - hopefully that was wrong or there is a break clause as I’d think he’d be good for us in the Championship this coming season

Basingrad or Chavingstoke - take your pick

I think we will be very busy this summer both buying and selling players. For one thing our squad is too large at over 30 players so we need to reduce the size of it. But a lot of players - those who think they are too good for the Championship and those who don't want to take a cut in wages - will be off (Ramsdale, THB, Dibling, Fernandes, ABK, Suelmana, Sugawara, Archer, Aribo, Onuachu). Plus we need to shift a lot of deadwood (Fraser, Stewart, Taylor, Larios, Bazunu, Lumley) and refresh/rebuild the team. Plus Lallana, KWP and Gronbaek will probably all be gone as well. I wouldn't be surprised if Bednarek decides he needs to find new club either and heads off to Italy or somewhere else in Europe. Personally I don't think any of our strikers (Archer, Armstrong, Stewart, BBD, Onuachu) are good enough so I would get rid of the lot of them and bring in two or three with pace and power - so at least they will give us some presence up front and a physical threat.

So which premier league players could we got on loan or should we go for? Am I right in thinking we are allowed 5 loan players from premier league clubs? Jaysun Rak-Sakyi? Sam Iling-Junior? Luis Guilherme? Armand Broja? Callum Doyle?

They will lose Liam Delap and Leif Davis to premier league teams I would think - plus they have quite a few players on loan like Encisco, Godfrey, Cajuste and Phillips who will nearly all go as well. Luongo and Tzunabe are out of contract as well and will probably leave. Burgess is as well but I think he will stay. The squad that's left look a bit weak in central midfield but I would think they will be contenders for promotion once they spend a bit of money on replacements. Unfortunately with Ipswich, Leicester and us going down and Birmingham and Wrexham coming up to the championship and clubs like Sunderland, Coventry and Middlesbrough it will be a tough league next season. Leicester look like they could be in trouble due to their finances so maybe they will implode and count themselves out. They will probably have to cash in on players like Hermansen, Ndidi, Soumare, Faes and El Khannouss, Plus Oedoaurd and Buonaatte are on loan and Vardy is out of contract. We really need a good summer transfer window and a good manager if we are to be in the running next season though.