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Summer 2018 Transfer/HCDAJFU Thread


SuperSAINT

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BREAKING NEWS

Newcastle are prepared to sell Aleksandar Mitrovic this summer and want £20m for the striker, according to Sky sources.

Mitrovic spent the second half of last season on loan at Fulham and scored 12 goals in 20 matches as they secured promotion to the Premier League via the Sky Bet Championship play-offs.

The 23-year-old, who is currently preparing for the World Cup with Serbia, has two years remaining on his contract at St James’ Park.

 

Get in there, Saints!!!

 

You don't think that perhaps this is all designed so that he can move to Fulham permanently.

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The club see survival as justification that this squad is good enough - IMO. Given how long they took to sack MPe and how slow they have been to bring in additions (not now, but in January and the summer too), it does suggest that they do have a slightly increased view of our squad than we do on the outside.

 

We'll see articles bigging up Stephens during pre-season I'd expect. Good lad, but he is nowhere near a PL centre back and someone at the club needs to show some balls and realise that. How we have gone from finishing 5th/6th to where we are now is nothing other than club incompetence and a belief internally that we are better than anyone else, and we will always be better than anyone else.

 

Money shouldn't be an issue. We are in the richest league in the world, we have bumper TV monies, we recieved the largest fee in the world for a CB. There is no reason why we shouldn't be going out into the market and spending £25/30m on players, as we see the likes of Burnley, Everton, Wolves and WHU start to do.

 

Arrogance rules by the sounds of it and that is one of the reasons why my season ticket money is still in my back pocket. I had hoped that last season was a huge wakeup call and a re-adjustment for everyone after the last two disasterous seasons, but the early signs is that nothing is changing any time soon.

 

I agree with most of that but not the bit in bold I think the teams outside the big six are increasingly struggling to get value for money in the transfer market. All the increased TV money seems to have done is inflated player fees, wages and agents fees. Increasingly PL clubs are being forced to spend more and more money on players who really aren't worth it which results in teams filling up their squads with 15-20 million players who only a few seasons back would have been 8-12 million. Mid table PL clubs are having to spend increasing amounts of money, on transfers and wages, just to stand still..

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Weird thinking, no one is good enough unless they sign for x, y, z.

 

Targett was allowed to go on loan, not get sold.

 

He's enhanced his reputation a lot since then, he'd clearly get a premier league move if we let him go now. I guarantee people would be pleased signing a talented young english full back from a high flying championship side if he wasn't ours too.

 

People really seem to underrate our academy players and get on their backs, even when signed players perform terribly. The bar is low at the moment given our form last season. Most academy players won't be Bale or even Lallana but there is some decent talent there.

 

I completely disagree about Targett. He's actually made quite a lot of appearances for us now and he's proven that he doesn't have the pace to cut it in a PL team aspiring to finish in the top half. All the better fullbacks in the league are seriously quick because the demands on that position are so high now, you have to be up and down the pitch non-stop and no matter what he's done at Fulham he isn't going to suddenly find the considerable extra pace that's needed.

 

We have an opportunity this summer to sell him for a decent fee and we should take it.

 

I actually think we should be far more decisive on a lot of the academy players: Reed, Gallagher, Targett can all go and I'd consider selling Stephens and JWP if we got decent offers for them as well (but we won't). Sims needs a season playing every week so get him out on loan if it won't be with us, and the same applies to Hesketh. None of these guys are going to develop any further playing for the U23s and getting 5 mins here and there off the bench.

 

Our squad is too big and needs cutting. We could easily lose 7 or 8 players this summer and bring in 3 quality additions and be much better off. But we will struggle to do that because Les Reed has totally ****ed us with regards to the contracts some of the players are on

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Need to make some proper decisions re some of the homegrown players this summer:

 

JWP

Targett

Stephens

Sims

Gallagher

 

Who is good enough, who isn't. No room for passengers.

 

We’ve currently got 31 players to fit into a 25 man premier league squad so will probably have to be harsher than previous seasons in terms of young player sales, although sims still qualifies as u21 I think

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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We should go in for William Carvalho and Bas Dost and Issa Diop....... Promes if any money left over job done.

 

 

Don't understand all this raving over Diop, he is bang average. People used to rave over Mangala and Yanga Mbiwa as well. Toulouse are an awful side and have no really decent players whatsoever. I suppose Diop's football manager stats must be impressive, wrong but no doubt impressive.

Edited by Window Cleaner
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Sorry, we have utterly fu cked up three, some say four, consecutive transfer windows, with even the manager saying we were too slow to react and land our targets last January.

 

Last January, last summer and the January before that were total car crashes. The summer before that, yes we made signings but of players that markedly did not improve the squad. Missed targets, panic buys, awful selections, boneheaded contract extensions.

 

At points last season we had a subs bench crammed with £10-£20m signings which was farcical.

 

We are not "pretty good at quietly going about our business" we are utterly hopeless at player recruitment these days.

 

Totally agree and each of those windows I made this point only to be lambasted by the 'Clappers'.

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If true then that is simply appalling.

 

Five? Five players in each position? Your average, well-read/well-listened football fan who is capable of a modicum of structured, rational and critical thinking could come up with a list of five names for each position within a single 8 hour day's worth of effort. There is *so much* information available now about football internationally, you almost have to make an intentional effort not to pick up on it.

 

We should have suitably knowledgeable and competent individuals embedded in every country/region globally, whose entire role is to identify players. Not only 'scouting' in the old fashioned sense, but holistically - by being part of the local footballing culture and absorbing the background noise, and using well established analytical techniques that are employed in any other major business sector. Those people should feed in to regional coordinators, who have oversight and autonomy, act as a second pair of eyes, and who then make the necessary recommendations to the centre. The centre's responsibility should be assessing the 'cultural fit' of the player (by this point, their footballing ability should not be a variable). Crucially, assessment should be a continuous, ongoing process - the impact of ephemera either positively or negatively can be huge. Managed in this way, I would expect a 'living list' of at least 50 potential candidates for each position, with 10 or so being 'signed off' for approach and negotiation at any one time.

 

The cost of implementing a worldwide, systematic network would obviously be significant - but when you consider the costs of getting it wrong (eg Carillo, who all told is likely to cost the club in the region of £40million over 3.5 years, and will likely have an amortized value of almost nothing), it's peanuts.

 

It continues to amaze me how, for businesses who turnover in excess of £150million a year, Premier League clubs are so incompetent at actually being businesses. Their commercial acumen has stood still from the days when they were making less than a tenth of that.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Why appalling? I think what LeG was saying was that there's a top five. Not that we only scout five.

 

There are ****ing hundreds of names in each position. But there's likely already some governing criteria that limit that pool. It's not like the list will be Ramos, Hummels, etc.

 

I think five players who have already been screened and deem to be affordable, fit into the club ethos/team dynamic, aren't well past it in terms of years ahead of them, etc. etc. seems like a reasonable number.

 

I wouldn't completely go on a ****ing rant on the basis of a strawman argument against LeG.

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There is certainly something to this but I don't think it's beyond "initial contact".

 

He's been hit and miss at Lazio but I saw him live a few times for Ostend and he was an absolute beast of a player. I would have snaffled him up then.

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Thanks for this. I did indeed mean TOP 5 names. I thought it was obvious that I was referring to a meeting that takes place towards the end of the process. As for players like Guido, Martina, Pied etc It’s just a show of support from the board to manager. Yes, we’ve got it badly wrong and PM was a v big loss, but our recruitment is still v good, especially for a mid table side. The problem that most are referring to is when we stopped buying top players who excelled in their respective leagues (Tadic, Pelle, Mane, VVD, Jrod, Lambert) and started buying bench players from big teams with potential (Hojbjerg, Lemina, Guido) It’s this chance in transfer strategy that has cost us during the last few seasons. (And awful managers)
Any particular reason for the change? I agree, that's been our main weakness.
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Absolutely this. We used to have the courage of our convictions. Top player in a league, and we think they can cut it in the Prem. Buy them. We were really good at that. Then we got seduced by the bullsh1t that if they play for a big club they must be brllliant and ready for the Prem. Ain't always the case. Still hoping PEH and Lemina are beasts next season, Guido feck knows. But the point still stands.

 

Thanks for this. I did indeed mean TOP 5 names. I thought it was obvious that I was referring to a meeting that takes place towards the end of the process. As for players like Guido, Martina, Pied etc It’s just a show of support from the board to manager. Yes, we’ve got it badly wrong and PM was a v big loss, but our recruitment is still v good, especially for a mid table side. The problem that most are referring to is when we stopped buying top players who excelled in their respective leagues (Tadic, Pelle, Mane, VVD, Jrod, Lambert) and started buying bench players from big teams with potential (Hojbjerg, Lemina, Guido) It’s this chance in transfer strategy that has cost us during the last few seasons. (And awful managers)
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The club see survival as justification that this squad is good enough - IMO. Given how long they took to sack MPe and how slow they have been to bring in additions (not now, but in January and the summer too), it does suggest that they do have a slightly increased view of our squad than we do on the outside.

 

We'll see articles bigging up Stephens during pre-season I'd expect. Good lad, but he is nowhere near a PL centre back and someone at the club needs to show some balls and realise that. How we have gone from finishing 5th/6th to where we are now is nothing other than club incompetence and a belief internally that we are better than anyone else, and we will always be better than anyone else.

 

Money shouldn't be an issue. We are in the richest league in the world, we have bumper TV monies, we recieved the largest fee in the world for a CB. There is no reason why we shouldn't be going out into the market and spending £25/30m on players, as we see the likes of Burnley, Everton, Wolves and WHU start to do.

 

Arrogance rules by the sounds of it and that is one of the reasons why my season ticket money is still in my back pocket. I had hoped that last season was a huge wakeup call and a re-adjustment for everyone after the last two disasterous seasons, but the early signs is that nothing is changing any time soon.

 

Excellent post. The retention of Reed, Kreuger, Wilson etc and the "messages" about the squad being good enough are worrying signs that little is being heeded from the past two seasons. It seems that Gao doesn't know enough about the game or the limitations of the management/administration of the Club to make the changes needed.

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With the player exodus from Sporting seemingly going ahead, I hope that we might be quietly sorting out contracts for some of these...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/football/44489158?__twitter_impression=true

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

I imagine that despite the players thinking they can just terminate their contracts its all going to end up in a expensive legal mess might be more hassle than its worth to clubs. If it turns the players can do this it could prove interesting with players and agents using it as a loophole to force moves. ( would an agent be underhanded enough to pay someone to rough up his client in club property I wonder....)

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Excellent post. The retention of Reed, Kreuger, Wilson etc and the "messages" about the squad being good enough are worrying signs that little is being heeded from the past two seasons. It seems that Gao doesn't know enough about the game or the limitations of the management/administration of the Club to make the changes needed.

 

The fact Reed and Wilson have survived last season unscathed is a sad indictment really. It indicates that the club is overcome with complacency, and as for any activity,forget it.

 

Smugness abounds again on Planet Les.

 

Agree that Gao isn't sufficiently aware of the game, and still uses Reed as an adviser.

Edited by Badger
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Excellent post. The retention of Reed, Kreuger, Wilson etc and the "messages" about the squad being good enough are worrying signs that little is being heeded from the past two seasons. It seems that Gao doesn't know enough about the game or the limitations of the management/administration of the Club to make the changes needed.

 

If they think that the squad is good enough to compete in the Premiership, you would think that message would be coming from the manager as well. Hughes doesnt strike me as the kind of guy who would bite his tongue if he thought that the squad was rubbish. When he first arrived he said he was impressed with the quality in the club. I wouldnt be at all surprised to only see the signing of a couple of players this summer. But then a lot depends on who they are prepared to let go, which would be dependent of the size of the bid and the club making that bid. The upside of having such a poor season is that the big clubs arent queuing up to pinch our players this summer. Who would anyone half decent want? Lemina, Bertrand and Soares? That's probably about it at the moment. At best I would expect a possible replacement for Austin up front, a winger and a defender.

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I imagine that despite the players thinking they can just terminate their contracts its all going to end up in a expensive legal mess might be more hassle than its worth to clubs. If it turns the players can do this it could prove interesting with players and agents using it as a loophole to force moves. ( would an agent be underhanded enough to pay someone to rough up his client in club property I wonder....)

 

I imagine anybody would be extremely wary about signing any of this lot. Presumably they are still being paid by Sporting....?

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Sporting seem to exist to provide a daily dose of craziness tbh - the episode when the players were attacked will likely be the main issue but suspensions, reinstatements, corruption claims etc etc fill the sports papers every day. So I agree it is likely to be a legal mess it will probably end with the players moving. As we know from VVD clubs dont have a strong hand and in Portugal there is not the TV money to help, especially as Sporting missed the champions league.

That said I think Martins is the only one I would like us to go for but I suspect he is going to a CL club.

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I imagine that despite the players thinking they can just terminate their contracts its all going to end up in a expensive legal mess might be more hassle than its worth to clubs. If it turns the players can do this it could prove interesting with players and agents using it as a loophole to force moves. ( would an agent be underhanded enough to pay someone to rough up his client in club property I wonder....)

 

They may be able to terminate their contracts, but the Club will continue to hold their registration I think. In other words, they won't come on a free, but Sporting do not have a strong hand.

 

 

I imagine it'll all die down at some point - probably when the players have been offered more money to stay.

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@supersaint get your comfy pants on, grab a beer, pick your fav lube and switch on ITV cos its time for..................

 

#Ziyechwatch

 

Morrocco v Iran its gonna be a classic !!!!!

 

Keep me posted, brother.... I'm stuck clearing out a garage with no tv!

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Just read this, there has got to be a bargain in there somewhere for us ?

 

"Ligue 1 champions PSG need to sell £52.9m-worth of players by the end of June to comply with financial fair play (FFP) rules"

 

I'm sure one of the owners various companies will suddenly sponsor a blade of grass for £52.9m

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Unless you have some information that isn't publicly available, then how are you able to determine it is "likely"? For all we know it is made up press nonsense and isn't at all likely in any way.

 

Well according to Skybet we are favourites for Gibson and we have been heavily linked with Jullien before so I would say so in my opinion of course.

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Well according to Skybet we are favourites for Gibson and we have been heavily linked with Jullien before so I would say so in my opinion of course.

 

Betting odds don't reflect the truth, they reflect the amount of money the public put on different outcomes. The odds for Gibson shortened because the press ran with stories linking him to Saints, which in turn means the public place bets on him after reading newspaper stories and the odds shorten. That does not mean there was ever any truth to it.

Edited by Matthew Le God
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Betting odds don't reflect the truth, they reflect the amount of money the public put on different outcomes. The odds for Gibson shortened because the press ran with stories linking him to Saints, which in turn means the public place bets on him and the odds shorten. That does not mean there was ever any truth to it.

 

Well what do you reckon? Do you think we are looking for a new CB.

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I'm sure one of the owners various companies will suddenly sponsor a blade of grass for £52.9m

 

UEFA look at all the commercial deals done to ensure nothing like that happens. I seem to recall that UEFA took a long heard look at Manchester City and the deal they did with Etihad to sponsor the new ground and the surrounding campus. If they feel it's overvalued then they will reduce it's value to the market value and fine the club if they're still adrift on FPP.

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UEFA look at all the commercial deals done to ensure nothing like that happens. I seem to recall that UEFA took a long heard look at Manchester City and the deal they did with Etihad to sponsor the new ground and the surrounding campus. If they feel it's overvalued then they will reduce it's value to the market value and fine the club if they're still adrift on FPP.

 

UEFA ensuring no underhand financial dealings? Is that not like the Catholic Church checking there’s no peadophile priests?

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UEFA look at all the commercial deals done to ensure nothing like that happens. I seem to recall that UEFA took a long heard look at Manchester City and the deal they did with Etihad to sponsor the new ground and the surrounding campus. If they feel it's overvalued then they will reduce it's value to the market value and fine the club if they're still adrift on FPP.

 

Lol - when have they actually ever reduced the value of a sponsorship deal? They took a long hard look at the Man City deal and did sweet FA as I recall.

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Lol - when have they actually ever reduced the value of a sponsorship deal? They took a long hard look at the Man City deal and did sweet FA as I recall.

 

PSG had a deal with Qatari airlines devalued because it was inflated to ease their FFP about 3 years ago now

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Betting odds don't reflect the truth, they reflect the amount of money the public put on different outcomes. The odds for Gibson shortened because the press ran with stories linking him to Saints, which in turn means the public place bets on him after reading newspaper stories and the odds shorten. That does not mean there was ever any truth to it.

 

This is pretty ridiculous. You seem to be saying that we can't make any remotely fact-based judgements until there's a formal announcement on the official website, or something.

 

Betting odds do indeed reflect the size and scale of bets rather than the truth - but you can place at least some trust in the wisdom of crowds. Something that is 1/5 is generally speaking much more likely to happen than something that is 100/1.

 

Newspapers and websites get a huge number of transfer stories wrong and often rush to publish the thinnest of rumours. But they also get many more stories right than a random story generator would produce. If Saints get linked to a particular player in newspapers, websites and/or with the bookies, that is some reasonable evidence that the player could be coming to Southampton.

 

Guaranteed? No. Overwhelming? Probably not. Compelling? Well, not usually. But reasonable grounds upon which to form on opinion in the absence of any inside intelligence or info? Certainly so.

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Southampton an “interesting transfer option” for Alcacer, but if Griezmann is not going to Barcelona and they don’t sign another attacker, that may mean that Alcacer stays...

 

http://sportwitness.co.uk/southampton-interesting-transfer-option-situation-changes-slightly/

 

Who was it we were linked with a few years ago, I can't remember if it was a player or manager but their agent had allegedly said we were an "interesting option" as well and whoever it was was just totally unrealistic?

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