Saint86

A year playing regularly in a successful championship side might be the making of him to be fair. He's got the technical and physical ability as well as the passion, but he needs to learn a cooler head and improve his concentration - ultimately step up to become a defensive leader. There are plenty of players that have benefited by a step down and taking on a leading role at a lower level - even with saints. Look at the development of Morgan, Lallana, and Fonte as examples. ultimately, if we're going to get promoted with any of our current CB's, the reality is they are going to have to develop and mature this coming season. We currently have 6 on paper good CB's for the champ - Stephens (29), Bednarek (27), Lyanco (26), DCC (26), Salisu (24), ABK (21). I fancy we'll keep Stephens as he's always had the ability to carry the ball, Lyanco similar, and then one of the others - DCC was much hyped for his passing. ABK is an absolute athlete that would do very well for a year of regular playing at this level.

Nah, we'll be automatic. Runners up no doubt - we're the proverbial nearly men after all 😭

Its clear that the club want to keep him (and others) and are putting high prices on our players. This is a good thing. Remains to be seen whether we'll need to accept cheaper offers come the end of the window. But for anything less than £45M i'd keep JWP.

West ham could do a lot worse than Lavia to be honest - They're in Europe, flush with cash, and he should be able to step into their midfield and shine. We could also let him go there with a sell on fee knowing full well that there is a good chance of a profitable move in another 3-5 years. Ultimately we know that Lavia won't be at saints long term, whereas JWP might still end his career here - so out of the two i'd cash in on Lavia and keep Prowsey. Plus we also know that JWP is likely to play a lot more minutes than Lavia this season, and his free kicks may well prove invaluable.

Hard to imagine us getting him without giving them a central midfileder they want in return. We all know Lavia is leaving, so i would see if there is a possibility of selling them lavia with a nice sell on clause and take downes as part of the deal.

In fairness, what we need to sign will be linked to what we let go. We can ship out an awful lot of high wage squad fillers and not need to replace them with anything other than a smattering of academy players... our squad last season was bloated and full of shite.

I sense an undercurrent of panic behind these comments, certainly a lot of concern. We haven't wasted 2-3 months. 3 months ago was March and we were relegated in mid May. Since then we have restructured pretty much the entire management of the club. We've also had our manager identified pretty much since then, nailed on for well over a month, and we've likely had both him and the DoF planning the summer in the background whilst the players have also been on holiday. The transfer window isn't even open! Coady would be a decent championship player sure, agree. But he is also 30years old, couldn't get in a possession focused wolves side, didn't really do that well under Dyche at everton, and is only going to decline as a player. There are plenty of other players to be found, and many that will suit the style of play better - just because we don't sign Coady doesn't mean we'll have bad CB's. Piroe has 1 year left and knows Martin, if we are in for him and he wants to come here, he will come here. Swansea can't afford to let their star striker leave for free... Maresca is a gamble regardless. He's had 14 games as a manager abroad and it was a car crash. To now step up and turn around the mess that is Leicester in the championship (a very competitive league) is not guaranteed. Maresca's experience of english football is the upper echelons of the premier league with a very weighted deck of cards - he's only really had 2 years learning from pep, and they were sandwiched between time at Parma.

Yes, but I don't want diallo playing in the championship (do you?) so is this really saying much?

I want to see the club slapping high valuations on players - its basically a "hands off" unless clubs come in with silly offers. Bodes well if we actually stick to it. What doesn't align is the alleged £40M valuation of Lavia - unless the club are basically facilitating his sale to keep others. We should clearly be asking for more than £40M for lavia!

Its effectivley just the saudi's transferring a load of money between their two clubs whilst we get a nice bit on the side. Not that big a deal surely? And if it is an issue, can't they just top up Newcastle's kitty by signing a Newcastle player for one of their 4 Saudi domestic sides for like £20M... FFP is dead for the Saudi clubs 🤣

The media seem desperate to flog our players as cheaply as possible, and then to print mock outrage at how much we are asking. Makes me want to speculate that we are actually driving a hard bargain on the basis that otherwise we'd be reading a lot more stories about deals being accepted etc. Also ties in with the tough line we took with Swansea. The fans won't accept players being sold for perceived cheap prices. Equally this is something of a litmus test for SR's business model of trying to maximise player trading profit.

You don't understand Hypo... regrettably we've signed an agreement with all potential suitors of Lavia that his price is £40M and we cannot possibly ask for a penny more 🙄

Thanks Mozz, thats interesting. I knew there was an improved TV deal for the champ etc. this year, but didn't know the specifics. Might see quite a lot of saints on tv depending on how well we do.

Went to Gillingham / Medway twice for work. Accurate. 😄

He isn't moving to Fulham 😂

Maybe he isn't available? 🧐

Agree with this.

Surely you realise where you've gone wrong if your on here looking for this? Also yes, i agree with you.

Not so much directly related to Martin, but playing devils advocate - are you saying Swansea have better players than Saints? I think our central midfield will likely be made from JWP, Smallbone, Alcaraz, and then either plus Diallo or some new purposefully chosen signing (grimes mentioned) - also some academy players. Good chance our wide AM will at least be 2 of Sulemana, S.Armstrong, Edozie, and Tella. So i think all in all, that is a decent midfield for a championship team. Defence, Tino will be class at this level if fit. Perraud is a very competent wing back for the championship. Who knows what CB's we'll keep, rumours are all of them are up for sale... But DCC could certainly play the required way in a possession side and we could do a lot worse than him and ABK. I think Martin would have to do poorly for us to not be at least amongst the playoff sides - and in fairness to the man, he took over MK Dons when they were shite and did well (modest resources/squad), and with swansea he had limited resources and injuries and still made a good stab at it - namely ending with a good run and showing progress across his time there. In fact his short managerial career does demonstrate progress throughout. If he is well backed by the club (uncertain given the amount of turmoil and transfers/restructuring that needs to be physically done) he'll do alright here, and potentially well. There is something to be said for us actually keeping hold of possession and maintaining our shape instead of going yolo and being cut apart by simple direct passing... We've got a potential selection of very talented AMs at this level, good championship strikers (previously), and the best Set peice specialist in world football... in all seriousness we should be able to take our time with teams at this level.

Another way of phrasing this, is that since he left MK Don's they've been relegated (actually starting with Wrexham) to league 2. FWIW, i think Martin will do well here. He's going to have one of the better sets of players/resources at his disposal, and he's joining a club as a breath of fresh air after a terrible season and with no hang ups associated with that. In a lot of ways he's going to benefit from the "he's not Nathan Jones" effect with the fans. But, if he sits there and does ineffective Claud Puel crab football along the back 4 he'll not last long.

Presumably there will be more surity in the championship games as there is less need to move fixtures around for the European "big teams", and less TV coverage in general.

Soft landing for some: And these are Leeds' opening fixtures for context:

Wish him good luck and could be a good move for him, although aren't they in all sorts of financial problems?

Well, we'll know where we are come start/end of September. Looks a tough start on paper - But if we want promotion we should be winning those. Thoughts Wednesday have just sacked their manager/coaching setup, which for a newly promoted team that needs momentum and to strengthen efficiently seems a poor decision. Norwich at home will be a good test - one we shouldn't lose and you would hope we win (but manager needs time yada yada) I think Plymouth (A) will be tough. Good manager, great atmosphere around the club, carrying a lot of momentum and confidence in how they play. QPR are not very good - this is a great chance for a win 😄 Sundarland (A) will be very tough, and a promotion contender 6 pointer to boot. Leicester (H) - Promotion favourite at home, if they live up to their billing that's a must win. Ipswich (H) - Promotion favourite at home, if they live up to their billing that's a must win. Boro (A) - another that will be very tough, and a promotion contender 6 pointer to boot. Leeds (H) - What a run? just going to predict a win here for the hell of it. Then finally, Stoke (A) and Rotherham (H), and relax. Reality is we have to start hot in August (very un saintsy) and then carry that into a very tough run of games in September. Martin does know the league in all fairness, and if we can be in touching distance after Leeds we should be setup nicely for the rest of the season.

I'd quite like The Gas away myself.