Saint Matty 76

Just linked with Alcaraz as well, albeit a horrid source. Would hope we wouldn't entertain anything lower than like £40m for him this Summer, why would we?

It'd make no sense for us to let him go for anything below £25m, which is way more than he's worth. It was somewhat fair to allow Romeu to dictate his future (at our own cost) due to his service to the club. It's not even a remotely similar cause with Tella. We'll be generating a good amount of money through other sales as it is. This shouldn't be one we're desperate for and if they don't give us big money, we've got a great asset for next season.

Completely agree. Not sure how anyone could read that quote and feel bad about it, especially given the SR comments you've mentioned.

Apparent quotes from ESPN Argentina - "To be honest I leave all of that [my future] to my agent. I always try to give my best wherever I go, whether it's in this club or in other country. I know there are a few clubs interested in me, but the truth is, I'm currently very happy at Southampton. Now I'm enjoying my vacation with my family. In July, we'll see what happens. If I have to remain at Southampton, I will, as they were the club that first opened the doors for me and gave me the chance to play in the Premier League. ‘Southampton It's a beautiful club that has always treated me well. So if I have to stay, I’ll do my very best to come back to the Premier League.’’

He'd be a bit silly to do so to be fair if teams like Juventus who were linked yesterday are actually sniffing around. and for this reason alone I don't blame him one bit. Probably couldn't believe the players that were getting starts over him. Does sound like he won't kick up a fuss if we do put our foot down, so hopefully the board intend on doing that with him and Alcaraz given the contracts.

More quotes today -

That’d have us spending £10m+ more on player wages annually than Arsenal, and around the same as Tottenham, so it simply is not correct.

He does have a point. A thread dedicated to ridiculing some teenager supporting Saints is about as bizarre as it gets. He was incredibly annoying when he was pretending to be an ITK but don't see much wrong with his posts now.

We were sniffing around him for a good while weren’t we?

It really would, and it does seem somewhat plausible. Sulemana and Alcaraz both joined very recently, when relegation was already pretty likely, so unless clauses were worked in you'd assume they knew this could've been the case when they signed four year deals with us. Tella is fully dependant on how hard Burnley push, but in either case I think Edozie will have a great year in the Championship as well. Sulemana/Edozie - Alcaraz/Smallbone - Tella/Djenepo The massive worry currently is the 2 players sitting behind those 3.

Strangely underutilised by Selles and a real glimpse of what he can do, albeit far too late for it to really matter. 4 years left on his deal and the player must have been aware when he joined that we had (at best) maybe a 50/50 chance of staying up. Rumours of us loaning him out seem absolutely baffling, and you can't really see another team recuperating what we paid based on what we've seen so far. Unless his agent managed to sneak in a relegation clause of £15m~, you'd really hope we're able to hold on here. Swansea's best run at the end of the season consisted of them largely playing a 4231. If the club are able to show a bit of backbone we could end up with Sulemana, Alcaraz and Tella playing behind Piroe/Armstrong. There should be plenty of money generated from player sales elsewhere and these 3 players all have enough time on their contracts to justify holding on in the hope of immediate promotion.

Yeah, fingers crossed he’s one we stay strong on.

Good for Sulemana but realistically this probably just means someone else takes a punt this Summer now.

Spot on.

Couldn't be fucked to go to this one myself. By the sounds of it Liverpool aren't playing Alisson, Robertson and van Dijk at the very least so maybe we'll be able to enjoy one last day.

Think DCC will be out the door pretty quickly. Could see Stephens, Bednarek, Lyanco and Simeu as the 4 but I also anticipate one of them leaving and us bringing someone fresh in. If I had to guess - LBs would be Manning/Larios and RBs will be Livramento/Bree. The CM situation is a bit scary though. Hopefully we keep hold of Alcaraz and Smallbone comes back, but you'd think we'd need at least 2.

"In addition, we are strengthening our Board of Directors with the appointment of Andy Young as our first independent Director. Andy was previously the Chief Financial Officer of City Football Group, the private owner and operator of some of the world’s top football clubs. Andy will chair our Audit Committee and brings huge experience of operating at the highest level of the football industry." Semmens gone as well.

Thought it’d be worth putting McCarthy in a few months back but he really is just the same as Bazunu without any “potential” to make it worth sticking through. The first was terrible but the third in real time just felt embarrassing. Good day out either way, mainly for the 30 seconds after Walcott scored. I’m sure it’s been said 1000 times on here but I truly cannot wait to celebrate a goal with no worry again.

Fair to assume we’ll be signing Ryan Manning. Swansea LB with 5 goals and 10 assists last season whose contract has just expired. A position we need as well.

At this point we should be desperate for a manager who somebody better than us wants.

Really? I think he's absolutely god awful in possession and just a decent athlete/presser. He's maybe the second I'd want gone with this switch (after Paul).

Ah but if we'd hired Thomas Frank when they did it'd have been "he's only ever managed in Norway, never challenged for the title and has been out a job for two years". Easy saying that now after his success, but Frank's only job before Brentford ended with his chairman abusing him on their version of SaintsWeb so he quit (legitimately).

Gives the fanbase 3 months to talk themselves into being okay with it at least. Talks a really good game and comes across as a nice bloke so I'm sure the PR coming out the club will help over the Summer.

The Athletic just now reporting it's happening.