Saint86

Could have paid him a competitive wage and pushed him more towards the first team. He's a top top talent. You never know how careers turn out with injuries/managers/systems and all that (saggy chops tried to dump bale out of spurs at one point), but i expect him to be one of the best players to ever come from our academy 🤷‍♂️

He deserves a crack in pre season. He isn't going to offer less than Stewart ffs.

Yeah... except Saints won't need to hold it open for the likes of man city 😂

could be a 0-9 incoming here, they need the GD to catch Arsenal.

Financial / PSR?

There is a lot to be said for appointing Rohl - he's got a solid track record in the champ, Wednesday fans love him, and there is a slight air of bringing one of our own back to the club. It will give him a good level of support and soft landing, and create some positivity at the club this summer. Not to say that other candidates won't do that either.

MLG, I think most would agree with what you've said here, but for your own sake - maybe let this one go and stop biting? You don't have to be right all the time, its a football forum not a legal case 😉

It was a Covid loan with a significant/alarming interest rate originally - something like £80-90M with 9% interest or something. (just checked this actually, my recollection not too far off: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/feb/22/sign-of-the-times-how-english-clubs-are-turning-to-high-interest-us-loans#:~:text=Southampton's £78.8m loan,and the club's other properties.) ^^ That article was from 2021. From the echo summary of the accounts (see also my post earlier in the year), last season the club paid of a whopping £23.8M, which only took the loan down to £70M. Someone with more time than me can go through every set of club accounts since 2021 and calculate exactly how much interest we've paid on that loan in 3-4years, but suffice to say its probably horrendous and not something that is sustainable. So when all is said and done: Bringing the loan under a more favourable interest rates is a good thing.

Starmer is going to come in for some flack for that Runcorn loss - Labour missed out by 6seats. Farage went there multiple times to support the Reform candidate, whereas Starmer stayed away (seemingly afraid to be attached to a loss)... but with only 6 seats in it he's got nowhere to hide retrospectively - how can he be afraid to go there and support his candidate when he's only months into a landmark super majority government?!?!

Who are the near certain departures then? Aribo (1 year left on his contract so that will be saints getting minimal fee for him as well.) Bednarek (2 years left and clearly trying to exit) Sulemana (would be worth keeping for the champ for how little we'll get for him, but has seemingly wanted out for years and into his final 2 years) KWP (sadly) Fernandes (much better than championship and will have interest) - maybe the club will put their foot down and make a show of keeping him? Dibling (2 years left on his contract and no sign of a new deal) ABK (1 year left on his contract - bye bye) Probable departures: Ramsdale Armstrong - wants out Onuachu - i would keep him for what we'll likely get for him, but has interest from abroad for years.

Think we will lose Bednarek and ABK at CB. Hopeful of keeping THB. THB, Woods, Stephens, Edwards - that is a decent enough set of CBs for the championship (if we play with 4 at the back)... Preferably we start THB and Edwards from those 2, and i think both can develop into good players for saints. Manning on the left (wellington, and dare i say it, Larios, as backups). Sugarawara and Bree and RB. Its solid if not spectacular. Could it be improved - absolutely, but there are likely to be other areas that need it more. Where we are strongest is in our starting CM for next season i think - excited to see if we can play Charles and Downes as holding and central mids in a 3man central midfield. Hopefully keeping one of Dibling or fernandes to play in front of them. Failing that Aribo, and Smallbone could also play in front of them but obviously we'd like to see some improvements there. Depth wise we'll be a bit weak for that kind of setup however. Have to assume that Sulemana is finally leaving, so wide attackers are weak... Edozie, keep AA? Maybe dibling... Significant improvements needed there at any rate - especially in the depth department. A shame we've let SAA go 😕 Then up front its Stewart, Onuachu, and Archer... Can we get a tune out of them or do we just reset? GK....

Last game at Everton, with specific measure in place to prevent touting and ticket transfers. Will be tough for him to use it.

Wasn't it Barclays reducing the overdraft somewhat harshly that put us under?

Nonsense, we're winning the last competitive game at Goodison - It is written 😇

Re grumbling about price freezes. Surely getting more football/saints per pound spent is a cost saving and a good thing? 😅 Particularly as so many of our fans are adamant that the championship is a better league? 😀🙃

What i would say, is that at least this gives us something unexpected to talk about this summer... as opposed to which players are leaving, kit mock ups, followed by when the actual kit reveal will be and how many stripes will we have on the shirt, where we rank in the UK's worst seaside B&Bs, or how Wrexham/Ipswich/Birmingham/Leicester are having better transfer windows than us... Silver linings and all that.

Putting politics to one side (which should always be the case in football frankly) - I could see him as owner, and actually would be quite happy if it happened tbh. At the end of the day he's from the city, clearly a fan of the club (which would make a change), his wife's family are loaded, and he's got a lot of connections internationally as a former PM and Chancellor - particularly from his role with the Ukraine conflict. He's also not a Chinese criminal or an arrogant hipster Dane who gives Teds talks about how much smarter than everyone else he is... All in all, an improvement on the past few years...

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/8402353.southampton-lawyer-jonathan-fulthorpe-order-to-pay-after-employment-tribunal/

Appoint a pressing manager and watch us crush the hell out of Leicester next year...

Agreed. What the club needs this summer is some positivity and getting some momentum going. Exciting/solid signings (with some strategy behind it), clearing out deadwood from the squad, a good manager appointment etc. Rather than focusing on what should be a strong season in the champ, this has introduced a large wedge of uncertainty into the fanbase and club. And the state of the club and its ambitions / ownership commitment will certainly factor on the minds of players considering potential contract renewals or players signing.

I think the fact they kept it quiet means there is probably something in it. If it was false, the club wouldn't care overly about it being put out there and then make a big deal of rejecting it as part of a summer momentum drive. Its a bad time for a sale frankly - we have a massive rebuild on the cards and players (both existing and signings) will want confidence in where the club is headed.

But would you take 17th place if offered it right now? 🤔

I don't think its definite that they'll all leave. Long contracts in most cases and saints should be in a reasonably strong financial position this time around. At the very least, we can play a game of "put up or shut up" with regards to transfer fees for all of them - so if we do sell THB, Ramsdale etc at a profit then happy days frankly. The exception is dibling, where we will largely be forced to sell under any decent offer due to his contract. I think relegation wage clauses, last season's profit, 2 years now of paying down that loan substantially, and this season's access to the enhanced tv monies, should all stand us in a far better stead than after the 22-23 relegation at any rate. Pretty comfortable that we'll get decent money for our better players - it will just come down to how well we reinvest it.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-14647067/Wrexham-Premier-League-Nathan-Jones-Phil-Parkinson.html 'We'll finish, we'll debrief, we'll breathe a little bit and then we'll move forward with Wrexham. 'It's a bumper game, we have to go to the circus and see what we can get.' Parkinson responded by accusing the former Stoke manager of being disrespectful towards his side. 'It is a lack of respect to our owners, the team, the staff, the supporters and the heritage of Wrexham Football Club. 'But we will just concentrate on what we've got to do.' Jones has since tried to defuse the row and claimed his comments were 'misunderstood'.

https://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/topic/338649-danny-röhl-thank-you/#comments