UpweySaint

It’s a fair reflection. The context is important as it’s a long way from a competitive championship game but there is no need to deride him. The hope is it can translate. If he can add composure and utilise his physicality he could be a useful part of the squad. All “ifs” though but I suppose a big part of preseason is players like Downs being given a chance to demonstrate to Tonda if they are worth persevering with as a squad option for the season.

Good for Tonda to get a look at BBD and, to some extent, Downs to see if either are players he feels he can work with.

Could Tonda be punished by being sent on a speed awareness course? They are enough to bore anybody half to death - punishment enough in my book 😅

Interesting to see how they do. They’ve lost Hackney and Fry so two pretty big holes to fill. Shame we didn’t get Lankshear, he may well prove his worth but it’s a big gamble at that price tag.

I thought Ipswich would. I expected an Ipswich Leicester one two before a balls was kicked. West Ham should have enough about them to win this time around but I guess they may need to add to their squad. I’m not 100% sold on Nuno but he did amazing with Forest so it’s probably my own bias. All that being said I think we’ll be in the mix. My only major worry is losing/struggling to replace THB and the Stewart shaped hole up top - may resolve soon!

QPR have signed Lamptey on a free, he did his ACL last year so hard to know how he has recovered but he looked good at Brighton. If he’s fit that’s a good bit of business for QPR - on the whole they do seem to be getting some good value in their dealings.

Very much this. Styling ourselves as a place for those sort of players to get first team minutes and develop was a sound idea especially when we had Shields who had knowledge of, and relationships with, the players we were targeting. There were always going to be hits and misses. The problem comes when you put too much weight on them coming good. If they force their way into an established side, brilliant. The way our side is now I wouldn’t be opposed to us getting one or two of that ilk in should we go up.

I expect we could find some deep level stats that break down his impact on our attacking play to give us more definitive answers. Short of that happy to go by eye. I don’t think you’re alone in questioning the end product but my sense is he contributes a lot to the overall build up play and our attack seems much more potent when he plays (for the most part). I’m hoping with a Tonda preseason we could see even more from him next season.

It’s not the end of the world and we could pull another rabbit out of the hat but there are no guarantees the next ‘can off the rank’ has the same impact as Leo. He must have a good length of time on his contract so I don’t see why we would be selling unless the offer was too good to turn down and/or we have any sense he would down tools if we didn’t accept - he doesn’t seem like that sort of character though.

I get a bit narky about player values. They have a pure accountancy book value but beyond that value is wholly subjective. I’m not digging you out because I think your point is more 30-35 mil does not reflect ‘market value’ given things like Leo’s age and limited top level experience - which is fair. My big however is, his value is absolutely defined by at what price we are willing to sell and somebody meeting it. If I were a Como fan and the club spent £30mil or more on Leo I would be concerned. But from a Saints perspective Leo may genuinely be so important to us we would only want to sell for a fee that is above a perceived ‘market value’. IMO Leo has X factor on the pitch that is really hard to replace especially without the offer of premier league football. His attitude off the pitch is also brilliant and I would suggest contributes to the strength of character the team showed in our run last season. He’s also well loved by the fans - I think a fan connection with the team is important and helps though it’s a hard one to quantify. if the club sold Leo for £25 mil I would be disappointed but understand. Though I can see a world where we refuse to sell this year unless the money is OTT.

It depends on finances for me. if Wellington attracted a reasonable fee and Targett was up for joining to compete with Manning without wanting top whack then yeah, sure. Manning has his moments but he was an important part of the way we played under Tonda, Wellington I’m still not sure about either way.

Impressive stats in a middling side. The summary is helpful, thank you.

It’s one of those where we were both probably right. He clearly needed first team minutes to see if he could cut it and he wasn’t getting them with us. Can’t blame us for wanting to keep him on the books with a loan or him for wanting some permanency.

Here you go https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2026/jun/08/mens-transfer-window-summer-2026-all-deals-from-europes-top-five-leagues scroll down to 30th June, he’s gone to Venezia

Just spotted Armel Bella Kotchap has moved this summer, £7mil fee. No idea if we had a sell on, if we did I don’t expect we’ll see much even if we did given the relatively low fee.

I expect so. 25-30 up front with lots of add ons would be my best guess.

The thing is I am struggling to see who is going to put down the sort of fee we would want for THB. Maybe Leeds now they have sold Strujk? I expect we value him pretty highly and I would be curious if anybody in the prem is willing to match it as he’s not yet proven himself in the prem so represents a modest risk - fwiw I think he is more than capable of playing at that level. If he does go it will be interesting to see how we replace him. It will be tough to replicate his leadership and experience as much as the playing ability. Hoping Spors can pull a European rabbit out of the hat.

I think he’s worth persevering with. He seems like a confidence player and I would back Tonda to get more from him. I liked him at WBA and his slaloming runs early in the season showed a glimpse of the type of player he could be. Just isn’t a bad shout though if we want another option - perhaps if Edozie moves on?

His assist record for West Brom would suggest otherwise.

This feels low but if Tonda doesn’t see a role for him there is probably a deal to be done to get him off the books.

Game of opinions I guess. He is still relatively young and does need more consistency but I think he has every about him to be top class. I would caveat this with the fact that I’m still waiting for Broja to be a top quality all round number nine 😅

Chelsea aside, which is a basket case of a football club/henge fund poss up, he’s not really failed to make the grade anywhere. He didn’t smash them in for Hull but looked okay and it was a development loan. Are you implying you wouldn’t have him at saints if offered?!

Pretty much this. I expect a back up keeper will be on the list, I can’t see Ramsdale or Bazunu being here at the end of the window.

That’s the one. I think 😅 I remember the young Irish lads too. I don’t follow the 21s and 18s enough to know how they’re all getting on and who has the potential to make a breakthrough. I thought we would see more of Sesay this year but he seemed to fall behind Williams and Bragg/had a shift of position. It will be interesting to see if any of them get a look in at preseason- hopefully we get to see more of Oyekunlu (sp?) too. Hopefully Robinson come crack on a bit too after stalling a little. I’ve gone a bit sideways. Tenuous link - an academy gem would be like a new signing?

It’s not the same but I feel like we signed a young player last summer from Scotland. We’ve also been linked with a few here and there, there was a lot of talk about Lennon Miller being a target IIRC