Rebel

My first game at St Mary’s since early 2019. Gave up my season ticket after the season of Puel and then only went to 3 or 4 games a season during Pelegrín’s and Hughes’s and only saw bad losses. Partly due to how bad the football was and the increasing costs - but also family circumstances. Even gave up watching Saints on TV at the end of last season we were so bad. Im a little bit excited and nervous about today - but I have missed match days. have to confess though I bought a ticket last minute as I was starting to worry it might be last chance to see a home win for a while with our ever decreasing team hoping Adams gives us one more game and starts up front - but apart from that the first 11 picks itself as we are looking a bit thin with outgoings, incomings not match ready and injuries. Bazunu KWP Stephens Bednarek Manning Charles Alcaraz S Armstrong A Armstrong Edozie Adams

I am pretty sure Holgate has been signed to replace KWP as someone who can pass the ball and move forward into midfield as an inverted fullback. With Bree as the back up. I think Woods will be the replacement for Lyanco and I am hopeful that when ABK leaves Taylor Harwood-Bellis replaces him. Maybe I am wrong and it’s 2 players in to replace 3 outgoing in KWP, Lyanco and ABK.

I don’t see how we will get a better Championship striker than Adams or Piroe with a record of c20 goals in a season. It looks like Adams is off and we missed out on Piroe who was his most obvious replacement. We also missed out on Cameron Archer and Chuba Akpom and we’ve just let Tella go. We all seem to have given up on Mara - and I have a feeling he will be heading back to France sooner rather than later. We’ve been linked with Duk from Aberdeen who scored 16 goals in the Scottish Premier League - so League 1 level in reality. I’d be happy with either him or Mioviski as one of our strikers but not as the top gun. I am fully prepared to be surprised by Martin and Wilcox pulling a star player out of the hat - but I am not hopeful. Maybe there is some truth in the Ings on loan rumours.

I’d add Aribo, Mara, Bree, Perraud and Sulemana to that list, I don’t get all the hype around Sulemana. He’s scored 5 goals in 2 years at Rennes in Ligue 1 and 2 goals in 18 appearances for us. We massively overpaid for him. From what I have seen of him he’s another Djenepo - maybe with a bit more pace but smaller - but still with no end product. He will score the odd wonder goal and make some amazing runs but mostly there will be no end product with no pass or cross or no shot on target. Also don’t really see how he fits Martin’s pass move and pass football.

Tella, Smallbone and Alcaraz should have been the 3 untouchables this summer - they should all have been told they were going nowhere from the very start. I can’t imagine any of them are on massive wages.

I am guessing its one it and one out in terms of striker for us - and with both the Ounachu and Adams moves seeming to fall part we couldn't close the deal for Piroe whereas Leeds could. If that's the case Sports Republic should have taken the temporary financial hit and signed Piroe and then done their best ship out Ounachu and Mara. I have the horrible feeling we are going to be stuck with them this season - and neither one judged good enough to play. Looks like Holgate is being brought in to replace KWP at right back and provide some cover at CB - with Bree being the cover at right back and another one we are stuck with.

Please tell me Moussa Djenepo is leaving - still can't believe he was nearly out of contract last year and they gave him 2 more years. It looks like he's a nice person and he has some talent with the football - and he works hard - but he has no end product and no football brain. Aribo is another one I hope leaves - is lack of effort and movement is just terrible. I don't think we'd replace either one if they left. We just wouldn't miss them. And please let it be Sulemana that is off - not Tella.

Hopefully Pantsil is off to Everton or somewhere else - which means Genk will have the money to bring 'Tall Paul' home.

Ryan Fraser is a big no from me. He will be a toxic signing for most fans which is reason enough not to sign him - even more so if he replaces Tella. He is too small for English football and 5ft4 - and he relied on his pace which has probably gone now he's 29. Pus his attitude stinks and he played for a Bournemouth team that seemed to hate us for some odd reason. The only light in this tunnel is Sulemana is off and we are cashing in on him before other people realise he's another Djneppo. Even then I'd rather rely on one of the youth team over Fraser.

I would be less than happy if we end up we end up selling Adams and signing Shankland - the definition of a journeyman footballer - from the Scottish Premier League which is equivalent to League 1 at best. it’s alright signing potential from there in the form of a young player but not a 28 year old. I’d take a risk on Duk for example but not as our main striker. does Stu count as young when signed him? Van Dijk certainly did. no more Aribos or McCann’s please. I don’t get the Sulemana appreciation - he’s scored one wonder goal - but so has Djneppo. His track record and end product are terrible.

Sports Republic want the money they put in to the club back before its too late. Its that simple - they are not going to throw more good money after bad. Once they have that moneyback guaranteed by player sales and/or parachute payments - and they are probably fine with getting it back in instalments over the next 2 or 3 years - any additional money we make from player sales or the parachute payments we can probably spend on strengthening the team. And give us a shot at promotion. They bought the club to make money - and buy selling players - being in the Championship doesn't fundamentally change that. Its not like the Premier League TV money made us profitable anyway is it. Unless you are a big six (or is it 7 now) club all the TV money you make and commercial revenue you generate gets eaten up by players wages and transfer fees. If you are lucky you make some money on selling players - but if you don't spend it all - and more - on buying new players you get relegated. I don't really see why anyone would buy a mid table premier league football club to make money.

looks like the problem is we need to shift players - because of wages - before we can bring players in. I have a feeling despite relegation clauses and pay cuts Saints wage bill is still much bigger than we can really afford in the Championship - even with the parachute payments. That and the fact Sports Republic want the £150M or whatever it was they put in to the club before relegation back and that is where most of the money made from selling players will be going. Saints are going to have to pay the money back to Sports Republic out of transfer revenues and then be self financing out of the parachute payments, normal revenue and any additional transfer funds. With Sports Republic wanting a slice of that as well. Remember its a business - they aren't here to win things - or lose money. We probably needed to sell one of Adams, Onuachu or Mara before we could make a bid for Piroe. Ideally I think they probably wanted to keep Adams, sell the other 2 and bring in Piroe. Even if we keep Adams and Adarma we still need another striker as we can't rely on Onuachu or Mara to provide cover by the looks of it. It looks like it a similar situation at centreback where we will need to shift one or both of Lyanco and ABK before we bring anyone else in. Which - as we know you can't rely on those two - leaves us very short at the back. The biggest disappointment of the window so far has not been that we haven't kept our better players - at this level - such as Alcaraz, Smallbone, Bazunu, Stephens, Bednarek, Adams, Adarma, Stu. Its that we haven't been able to shift the players like Onuachu, Lyanco, McArthy, ABK, Djneppo, Mara, Sulemana and Airbo and replace them with better players. I always expected the stars - JWP, Lavia, Tino, KWP - to leave. It really leaves us with a first 11 that more or less picks itself but not really any depth or quality beyond that.

I am guessing Che got a pay cut as part of the relegation fallout but even then I expect he’s still earning more money than we really want to pay a player in the Championship. I expect we have been planning to sell him and replace him with a younger and cheaper player for most of the summer. My money would be on Duk from Aberdeen - but I don’t think they will sell him with Europa football this season Saints are first and foremost a business run by investors who want to make money on buying and selling players.

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/weekly-wages-southampton-fcs-top-10-highest-earners-ranked/ This makes depressing reading - so much paid for so little endeavour. If these are accurate we really need to shift a few more players. I’m hoping they don’t take any relegation clauses or salary cuts in to account. But even then we need to shift Djneppo and Aribo. I can see us following a similar rumoured approach to McCarthy with some of these - giving them away on frees to get rid of their wages - step forward Lyanco, Aribo and Djneppo.

Sports Republic are always going to say promotion back to the premier league is the aim. But we all know their priority is to make money. And the model seems to be to make money from signing players from top 6 academies, improve them and flip them for a profit - and to develop players from the Saints academy and sell them on - and move young players from abroad through the Sports Republic network of clubs and sell them. They are not going to say it but none of that really needs Saints to be in the premier league - and maybe it’s easier if we are in the Championship as although the revenue goes down so does the cost basis. And players are easier to sell to a bigger market of premier league clubs and not just the top 6.

With Lavia on 'gardening leave' and JWP on his way to West Ham we look more than a bit threadbare in midfield. Jo Tessem commented on Shea Charles performance at Gillingham in the new 'Journey home' pod cast with Blackmore. Basically said he looked miles off a first team role and he was less than impressed - and that was against Gillingham. Now there is mitigating factor in the that he was playing in a team full of the C squad players but it doesn't bode well. You'd have think we'd have learnt as a club not to throw are youngsters in to the firing line with only the 'fringe' players to protect them and learn from. Basically it leaves us with a midfield of Stu Armstrong, Smallbone and Alcaraz - so it picks itself as we don't really have any alternatives. But none of them are defensive midfielders by trade - although Smallbone did a good job there against Sheff Weds - they are 8s or 10s. And there is still a question mark over whether Stu can last the full 90 mins nowadays. I kind of discount Aribo as he was so bad last season - the invisible man on and off the pitch. At best he replaces Stu when he runs out of steam. If we sell KWP before Saturday we will really will have problems. For me the team more or less picks itself - as apart from left wing (Edozie) we don't really have any alternatives right now. And I don't think its a game to play the kids (apart from Baz as the alternatives are worse) - we really need a win to build on the Sheff Weds result, plaster over the Gillingham cracks and create some sort of feel good factor at St Marys. Bazunu KWP Bednarek Stephens Manning Smallbone Stu Armstrong Alcaraz Tella Adarma Adams

I am not sure we had/have 10 good players to sell. I see it more as selling the 3 or 4 really good players we had/have (Lavia, JWP, KWP, ??) to raise much needed cash - and allow Sports Republic to get most of the money they put in to the club back. And then trying to get rid of the players we don't want or need - some because they are just bad, others because they have a bad attitude or simply don't want to be here - as we need to drastically reduce our wage bill (Orsic, DCC, Oanahcu, Salisu, ABK, Sulemana, Perraud, Lyanco, Aribo, McCarthy, Djneppo, Mara + ??). If we get decent fees for some of these all the better as it will give us the extra money we need to rebuild the team. I was hoping we keep a core of 'good' players (at this level) together to build around (Smallbone, Bednarek, Stephens, Tino, Tella, Edozie, Bazunu + ??) and add some more good players like Manning, Grimes and Piroe - plus give the youngsters like Ballard, Amo-Ameyaw, Dibling, Doyle and Meghoma a chance to come through. I was feeling fairly positive about it all - in a realistic way - until the car crash that was the Gillingham game and the unexpected sale of Tino. Now I am more than a little bit apprehensive about what's going to happen over the next few weeks. Right back is worrying me as despite selling Tino, I still expect KWP to go and Bree looks far from being good enough. Aarons would have fixed that problem - I just hope they have another solution for that position lined up. I also wouldn't be surprised if we lose both Che Adams and Adam Armstrong before 1st September. If we let Tella or Smallbone leave then I will start to worry. I'd feel better about things if we made some actual signings other than a free transfer and another kid from an academy. Or if at least they were some solid transfer rumours.

We really need to get a move on and shift some players out and bring some in People keep saying we are not in financial problems but I am not sure that is the case. I don't think we are going to go bust tomorrow but we have a bloated squad and a heavy wage bill. I would think we need to reduce our wage bill fairly heavily before the transfer window closes if we are going to avoid financial problems in the mid or long term. Plus we have the pay-offs / wages for Ralph and Nathan Jones to cover. I am also sure Sports Republic will also want to clawback some of the money they have put in to the club to sign players. It also looks like we need to sell players to generate transfer funds - but even if we do that it looks like we still need to shift more players to reduce the wage bill before we can bring any more players in. I am pretty convinced Lavia and JWP will follow Tino out of the door - but I am not convinced that until we get players like Lyanco, Tall Paul, Sulemana, Djneppo, Mara, Bree and Perraud off the wage bill we will be able to bring other players in. Unfortunately I think we are more likely to sell ABK, KWP, Che Adams and Adam Armstrong as they are the players other clubs will actually want. We have a good first 11 at the moment - but that about it. I think last night proved that.

Everton want to pay us £25M for Sulemana - we should take the money and run. He's just another Djneppo - the odd wonder goal, but no football brain, lots of dead ends and roads to nowhere. People are getting blinded by the 'wonder' goal he scored in the last of game of last season. His actual goal scoring and assists stats aren't exactly good - XG for players like him and Djneppo can be very misleading. I think he is a case of Ankersen thinking he's cleverer than everyone else again.

It was mistake playing that team tonight for 2 reasons. Firstly we needed to create a winning culture, build upon the first game of the season, start a long run of winning games. Secondly how are we going to sell these players - Djneppo, Mara, etc - if we put them in the shop window and everyone sees how bad they are.

they get loyalty bonuses at the end of each season - simply for staying at the club for another season - or so it seems. Which is why players don't want to move before the end of the season - i.e. before the start of July. Players contracts are in effect fixed term contracts - so if you want to get rid of them you have to pay-up the contract - unless there is a redundancy clause which defeats the object of a fixed term contract. It's why players wanting to leave clubs are often reluctant to put in a transfer request as that normally means the contract won't get paid up. The contracts would normally be paid-off as a lump sum - or maybe instalments for tax reasons. Its also why players often get signing-on bonuses to compensate them for the money lost by 'walking away' from the contract at the previous club. Normally the transfer fee from the buying club would be used to pay-off the contract and hopefully leave the selling club with a profit as well. But when you've got players on large and long term contracts that they are not worth they are hard to get rid off. So you send them out on loan and pay a % of their salaries until what's left of their contracts is small enough that you can sell them. Hoedt, Carillo and Lemina are all bad examples of this for Saints. The devil is in the detail of each contract though - and although there are standard clauses like loyalty bonuses there are probably differences in each contract as well. With football players its a case of 'never has so few been so overpaid by so many'

Reading this it was really a permanent deal for Caleta-Car. It was a clever loan deal to get around their financial restrictions. https://sportwitness.co.uk/club-convinced-southampton-clever-deal-bypass-financial-scrutiny-saints-will-get-money-eventually/ Supposedly Lyon paid Southampton €1.54m up front for the loan, which will be used by Saints to pay Caleta-Car’s wages. And, no new salary appears on Lyon’s yearly bill. This is accompanied by a 'compulsory' option to buy of €3.59m, as well as a bonus of €2.1m. Which means Saints more or less get the €5m for him. Hopefully this means we didn't pay-off his contract either.

Its a good summary but you missed out the money paid to players to leave - or in other words pay-off their contracts. I'd expect any money made from selling Diallo was used to pay-off the final year of his contract - so I doubt we made much from his sale in anything. And I 'd say that was probably more true of the Orsic deal as well. Hopefully we made a bit of money on selling Salisu but the balance is probably closer to £10M than £20M once you figure in the contract pay-offs. I imagine salary was the reason DCC has gone out on loan rather than a permanent - but hopefully it means we don't have to pay a % of his salary.

I'll be disappointed in Saints and in Tella if he leaves - with his goals and experience of the Championship he should be a key player for us this year. We sent him out on loan so he could get game time and improve - which is what he has done. So to sell him now makes no sense unless Burnley have offered a Gyorekes sized fee for him that was just too good to turn down. I will still be disappointed though as Tella is a proven goal scorer at this level - and I don't see who we could replace him with that is also a proven goal scorer at this level. But the Burnley Chairman's 'share' of that video on social media suggests its a done deal. If not that is very unprofessional on his part. Perraud was rumoured to be off before he got his injury at the end of last season - I think that has just delayed things. I still think he will leave. Also think Sulemana will be off - but probably at a small loss for us. Got the impression he thinks a lot of himself and that he's too good for the Championship. But if you look at his stats he is all style and no real substance - he has virtually no end product - just a younger version of Djneppo. So I wouldn't be too upset by that. KWP is probably out of sorts as he wants to leave - but I suspect there have not been any offers for him as yet. He was pretty bad for us least season and that has probably come back to bite him now.

and lets not forget Maitland-Niles - although he was only on loan to us we've also lost Caleb Watts, Kegs Chauke and Dan N'Lundulu who were all out on loan last season