HarvSFC

There's far too much common sense and good negotiating going on this summer. Doesn't feel like Saints.

Heard he didn't change his name for Chile, but he actually added Diaz in order to attract Saints into adding him to the double barrelled quota.

Bizarre isn't, think we've got another bargain here, alongside Edwards and Sugawara, certainly aren't being quoted Premier League prices. One scored 8 in 31 Championship matches last season for a play off chasing side, while the other scored 6 in 14 in the Premier League for a relegated club who won just 16 points. Only four years between the two as well. Delap has the Man City tax though, which we've been stung with a few times before.

Romano's Tweeted it, £7m. That's a good fee for someone who bagged six league goals in an awful Sheffield United side from January last season. We've got a couple of bargains this season with Edwards already. Means we haven't had to spend a huge amount to replace Adams either, giving us more movement in the O'Riley negotations.

Nketiah was a player I looked at a couple of weeks back for a possible striker acquisition given my lack of knowledge of world football. But, he does have a few negatives around him - Main ones are cost - He's on £100k+ a week at Arsenal, as the top clubs do with their squad players, which is expiring in 2027. Arsenal will also want £20m+ for him. Then his age, he's 25, so not really that young anymore and you'd have expected to have seen a bit more from him by now. 5 goals in 27 and 4 in 30, his last two Premier League seasons.

I'm not sure Lallana, or Aribo are DM's. Neither have got the legs or energy for it.

Yes, he's back! Love it.

O'Hare's the one from Coventry. He's signing for Sheffield United.

Getting Flynn Downes this early is huge, big signing. Our team fell apart when he wasn't in the eleven last season. I feared with him being a West Ham fan that it may drag on a bit, but Martin's obviously a huge draw for him and he must have really enjoyed his time on loan here. Note to Burnley on how to get a deal done for a loan star. Now, a goalkeeper, Downes backup, playmaker and a proven scorer in Europe like Pelle would be ideal. We need the striker equivalent of Sugawara, whoever that is.

Closed down the Bath Academy too, which I found to be a disappointing decision. Surely the positives outweighed the negatives. We may not have seen the next Gareth Bale come through it. But, in recent years Max Alleyne, Kamari Doyle and Tyler Dibling have all come from it. Indeed, two aren't with the club anymore and Dibling had a brief time away, but shows that we're still getting in some talent before other Premier League clubs get to them and if we had a bit more focus on the academy and pathways they could still be here.

Same initials as Gaston Ramirez, South American, appears to be highly rated. This is the 2024 version.

Don't know too much about Sugawara, but we have dodged a bullet in Max Aarons, who is really poor defensively.

The Delap stories are coming from a reputable source in Ornstein, but I'm not going to lose much sleep around missing out on him. He's a punt with the hope of turning a profit due to his age and nationality. We've made two similar punts in Edwards and Wood at centre-back, but we have Stephens, Bednarek and THB already at the club. Upfront we have barely anything with Adams gone, Armstrong struggling in the Championship as a centre-forward, Stewart picking up knocks whenever he steps out onto the pitch and the failed punt in Mara. Meaning we'd be over reliant on Delap, like we were Broja when he was on loan. I know most signings are punts, but since the initial links to Delap two summers ago he has had three loans in the Championship which haven't exactly been eye catching in terms of goal output. Stoke and Preston considered two failed loans. Last summer was the time to bring Delap in, on a loan deal, giving him a season long trial in the team and seeing if he can be the success those at the club clearly believe him to be, but we went for the more experienced and a better scoring record in Stewart. Hopefully we now do the same this summer as Delap's too much of a risk, especially at £20m, his value hasn't dropped since we last decided not to spend that on him.

Has links to Barcelona and was linked to Everton earlier in the window. Could be a coup, or could be an agent trying to speed up a Barca move, who will play all the tricks in the book if they do want him.

Trained on his own last summer too, if I'm remembering correctly.

Not good enough for the Turkish league, so not good enough for the Premier League anymore. Hopefully not true.

They give us a £50m loan fee.

Could be one we send out to Goztepe/Valenciennes. We have loads of left-backs with the signing of Taylor and can't see us discarding Manning even if it is the right thing to do.

Hojbjerg's passing is atrocious, so hope it isn't him. He's a Jose Mourinho style player, disruptor in the middle. Not a Martin midfielder. He's been linked with Saudi Arabia in the last two transfer windows, anyway.

If we sandwich a defence of THB - Bendarek - Stephens between the right personnel then it is serviceable in the Premier League. I think the team has three more important concerns, where the majority of the budget needs to go, so I'm not wholly against some cheap development centre-backs. Key areas to improve this summer are goalkeeper, CDM (Downes, or Downes equivalent) and a striker. If we were relying on Adams, A. Armstrong, Mara and Stewart who picks up a knock every time he steps on the pitch for goals then I don't think that's workable in this league and we'd be relegated. I believe the same would/will happen if we're relying on McCarthy, Lumley and eventually Bazunu to keep the goals out as they simply aren't good enough. Downes is also key as we saw how open our team was without him in the second tier. The three centre-backs however have at least played a part in keeping us and Stephens helped keep Bournemouth in the league last time he was up here. They just need a quality stopper and a defensive midfielder helping them so that their limitations aren't also picked up on by having a weak defence around them. On O'Reilly, he'd have been a luxury signing, but we need to spread the budget elsewhere. Lets see what today has in store for us.

Braithwaite threw his toys out of the pram last summer. Knuckled down after not getting a move, but not the type of character profile we should be looking at.

Another fun day. 62 to go. Wood, as I mentioned yesterday is a bit underwhelming, but a good price, so in a sense risk free and still got room for development. Hopefully allows us to free up funds for the three main positions - Goalkeeper, Downes and a striker. Could even allow us to go a bit higher for O'Reilly too. Never seen Ronnie Edwards play, but his name has been mentioned on here for a few years now. So was Caleta-Car's and he was crap, but again, hopefully an English mentality and team spirit at the club makes up for any lack of talent. Again, a good price also with room for development. A couple of young England internationals, not too bad and THB as well, we could have the future England backline in the making. Recreate the Rodriguez, Shaw, Lallana, JWP and Lambert picture. Shame to see the two youngsters go. But, there's a food chain at the youth level, like the seniors now and anyone who looks decent will get snapped up, like the seniors. Unfortunate we hadn't tied them down to their first pro deals, as the market values them at £15m+ these days. The rest of the Premier League must be wishing they were us this summer. Shows you don't have to be one of the big six to get deals in early like we were told for so many years.

What a fun day. Only 63 more to go. This time two years ago we had already signed Bazunu, Lis and ABK, so we're currently 3-3 on senior signings with THB, Lallana and Taylor. 3-0 up on last summer with the first senior signing coming in the form of Ryan Manning on July 11th. The days of us spending all summer waiting for a signing under Gao are well and truly done.

I was intrigued by what our transfer strategy was going to be this summer, as always. No doubt Martin had a big influence on transfers last summer with him having managed Manning and Downes previously, Fraser being a former teammate and apparently he tried to sign Stewart at MK Dons, also got the Scottish link. Worked at Championship level and we also clearly targeted British players with no one joining from overseas. Now, at Premier League level, it doesn't look as glamorous. Wood's a bit of a worry for me in that he didn't standout for the right reasons at the level below. The Premier League is ruthless and won't allow for him to learn on the job. But, we have also thrown a lot of money on foreign flops in recent years, especially in the CB position. ABK, DCC, Lyanco, Hoedt and Vestergaard to name but a few. You would at least hope Wood has the mentality to make up for a possible lack of talent with a bit of graft and fight, which the former five didn't have as when the going got tough a lot of the time they went missing and into hiding and they were meant to be our back line. Now, ideally we would have a good recruitment team, but who knows with that anymore. At the very least you'd hope we have a more focussed plan this summer than Joe Shields' scattergun mess, which he has continued at Chelsea. Up the Brexit Saints?

I don't think there's actually any credible links between us and Delap, but if we were to hypothetically sign him, the only way we should be signing him is on loan. We've thrown away too much money on the Manchester City academy and can't keep throwing money down on "potential". Would be stupid from the club to spend a good amount of money on a player we wouldn't have taken any notice of if he wasn't connected to Manchester City and wasn't a relation of one of our former players. Loan spots are also a premium in the Premier League, so even that may be wasted on Delap. Even his record in the England youth set up above Under-17 level is pretty mediocre.