Defectors Watch

[Midfield_General]

On 17/01/2026 at 08:24, East Kent Saint said:

JWP to Burnley (says the Sun )

JWP joins Burnley on loan until end of the season. He could be a perfect fit for them, he will run all day and if ever there was a side that values a set piece delivery, it’s them. Might be too little too late though, as they do look pretty much doomed already. 

Edited January 28 by Midfield_General

[qwertyell]

Alejandro Rodriguez gets his first senior goal for Lyon in the Europa League, aged 17. 

Think he'll be a better player than Ballard over the longer term.

Not for us, of course. Don't be silly. 

 

[OldNick]

On 28/01/2026 at 19:58, Midfield_General said:

JWP joins Burnley on loan until end of the season. He could be a perfect fit for them, he will run all day and if ever there was a side that values a set piece delivery, it’s them. Might be too little too late though, as they do look pretty much doomed already. 

God they are dull enough under Parker let alone with a crab who just recycles the ball lol.The best he did for me was when Nathan played him forward and he scored a couple, then for some reason he was pushed back again 

[SaintTex]

On 28/01/2026 at 13:58, Midfield_General said:

JWP joins Burnley on loan until end of the season. He could be a perfect fit for them, he will run all day and if ever there was a side that values a set piece delivery, it’s them. Might be too little too late though, as they do look pretty much doomed already. 

his last freekick goal was nearly 3 years ago (18 Feb 2023)

 

Edited January 30 by SaintTex

[CB Fry]

 

 

 

[badgerx16]

Not quite a "defector" yet; BBD gets a goal and an assist as Derby win 5-0 away at Bristol City

[Sheaf Saint]

Nathan Redmond has left Sheff Weds after joining them as a free agent in the autumn and having played a grand total of 137 minutes. 

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Nathan Redmond has left Sheff Weds after joining them as a free agent in the autumn and having played a grand total of 137 minutes. 

Sheffield Wednesday are using this window to clear their decks and save as much money as they can. No real news on any takeover that I can read, sad times for them.

I can't see how they win another game this season.

[bpsaint]

19 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Sheffield Wednesday are using this window to clear their decks and save as much money as they can. No real news on any takeover that I can read, sad times for them.

I can't see how they win another game this season.

Fret not, they’ve got us at home soon 🤣

[Kenilworthy1959]

1 hour ago, bpsaint said:

Fret not, they’ve got us at home soon 🤣

Pile on your money on Wednesday beating us. Its not gambling its investment

[East Kent Saint]

Adams scores the only goal in a home win .

[goodymatt]

 

[sfc4prem]

Looks old for 32. Poor chap.

[Willo of Whiteley]

James Ward-Prowse not in the squad for Burnley on Saturday. Scored a good free kick for the U21’s during the week, although the opposition keeper chose to set himself fifteen miles away.

[bangkoksaint]

🚨🤔 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫-𝟐𝟏 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐨𝐧: 

“I’d be thinking I better get my finger out and show the manager what I was really all about.

“The one thing is Tyler has got on his side is that he is young and he is a quite a quiet boy who might take more time to settle in. 𝑀𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡. But he needs to show when he gets the opportunities.

“I think there are just little glimpses of him just beginning to get angry, which I am enjoying, just beginning to be someone who might have to get angry in order to show what he wants to do.

“What we want from him is being direct, taking people on, committing people, Jack Grealish does it in a way where he drags the ball and brings people to him and find a way of not releasing.

“It doesn’t need to be all one way, but he needs to get a way of becoming that player who we bought that we thought would be creative. Are you going to get us some assists, are you going to score some goals? He is just showing little signs that he is heading towards that a bit better.

“I think Tyler is more angry with himself. He is quite a quiet boy, but I think he is angry with himself because I think he is realising that if I don’t get my finger out than I am going to get pushed aside here.

“He has more competition but that is what happens in football. If you want to be at the elite end of football then the competition is stiff and you have to live with that.”

[Tommy Mulgrew]

Tall Paul continues to find the back of the net in Turkey; he scored twice at the weekend.

Yan Valery leaves the Owls on loan to Young Boys.  He left us what seems a long time ago yet is still only 26.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c8d5p3gev00o

[Sheaf Saint]

3 hours ago, Tommy Mulgrew said:

Yan Valery leaves the Owls on loan to Young Boys.  He left us what seems a long time ago yet is still only 26.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c8d5p3gev00o

They should have thought a bit harder about this headline 😬

[Saint Neil]

Almost as good as

[suewhistle]

Naughty sub-editor..!

[goodymatt]

 

[goodymatt]

Steven Davis will be visiting St Mary’s soon!

[SNSUN]

8 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

Steven Davis will be visiting St Mary’s soon!

I really want Blackburn to improve and make the relegation battle interesting. You'd think Oxford will probably join Wednesday but after that you have Blackburn, WBA, Leicester and Pompey all within dropping distance. 

[goodymatt]

2 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

I really want Blackburn to improve and make the relegation battle interesting. You'd think Oxford will probably join Wednesday but after that you have Blackburn, WBA, Leicester and Pompey all within dropping distance. 

Agent Steven Davis 😇

[SNSUN]

3 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

Agent Steven Davis 😇

Hopefully!

I'm torn. I'd rather Pompey dropped of course but l do think Leicester or WBA dropping would be the bigger story. I think WBA may just get out of it anyway with their players so it'll be between Pompey, Leicester and Blackburn. Charlton are far from safe either but you'd think they may already have enough points and are still winning games. 

[Dr. Kucho]

12 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

Hopefully!

I'm torn. I'd rather Pompey dropped of course but l do think Leicester or WBA dropping would be the bigger story. I think WBA may just get out of it anyway with their players so it'll be between Pompey, Leicester and Blackburn. Charlton are far from safe either but you'd think they may already have enough points and are still winning games. 

If we don’t go up I would like to see Pompey stay up. The matches against them are ones I looked forward to most this season.

Would like to see Leicester go down. 

[SuperSAINT]

[bpsaint]

Taken me 34 minutes before I realised Armstrong was on the pitch for Wolves.

I played Sunday league on better pitches than this.

[AlexLaw76]

Arma given the ball by the opposition keeper, about 15 yards out, blazes it over 

[coalman]

4 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Arma given the ball by the opposition keeper, about 15 yards out, blazes it over 

He's fine for the FA Cup against Grimsby.

[coalman]

1 hour ago, bpsaint said:

Taken me 34 minutes before I realised Armstrong was on the pitch for Wolves.

I played Sunday league on better pitches than this.

Armstrong "inspires" Wolves to victory over Grimsby. We're totally getting Wolves in the next round of the cup.

[Totton Saint]

Armstong played quite well for Wolves last night.

[swedish dave]

On 13/02/2026 at 20:41, SuperSAINT said:

Now there's a player who Saints missed out on and all down to Nicola Cortese's lack of footballing "nous".

We had MA on loan from Reading and he was in the team that won JPT trophy 2012 and he even scored,

but when Reading wanted a measly 2 million to buy him, Cortese lost interest.. instead listened to "his Euro

contacts" and bought ...Gaston Ramirez and Dani Osvaldo....at a combined cost of 27 million, and then

they were signed on 4 year contracts with huge salaries.  Both proved to be disasterous deals and almost 

bankrupted the club again. Antonio wasn't a defector, he might have stayed ..if NC had the b*lls to sign him.

 

[VectisSaint]

21 minutes ago, swedish dave said:

Now there's a player who Saints missed out on and all down to Nicola Cortese's lack of footballing "nous".

We had MA on loan from Reading and he was in the team that won JPT trophy 2012 and he even scored,

but when Reading wanted a measly 2 million to buy him, Cortese lost interest.. instead listened to "his Euro

contacts" and bought ...Gaston Ramirez and Dani Osvaldo....at a combined cost of 27 million, and then

they were signed on 4 year contracts with huge salaries.  Both proved to be disasterous deals and almost 

bankrupted the club again. Antonio wasn't a defector, he might have stayed ..if NC had the b*lls to sign him.

 

Not sure Gaston was disastrous.

[ChrisPY]

…

Edited Thursday at 12:36 by ChrisPY

[Kenilworthy1959]

I would have loved us to sign Antonio, but was he willing to join Saints though? At the time - 2010 - he was a Reading player in a higher division, possibly on higher wages than we might have paid in League One. When we were signing Ramirez in 2012, Antonio had just signed for Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship. His career didn't seem to be going anywhere there or at Forest later and he didn't get to the Premier League until he signed with West Ham until 2015.

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, Kenilworthy1959 said:

I would have loved us to sign Antonio, but was he willing to join Saints though? At the time - 2010 - he was a Reading player in a higher division, possibly on higher wages than we might have paid in League One. When we were signing Ramirez in 2012, Antonio had just signed for Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship. His career didn't seem to be going anywhere there or at Forest later and he didn't get to the Premier League until he signed with West Ham until 2015.

Too expensive if I recall at £1m

[goodymatt]

6 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Too expensive if I recall at £1m

If I remember correctly his purchase price doubled with interest from championship clubs and so we either missed out/walked away. He didn’t get going for a few more years but what a player he became. Shame he couldn’t have done that journey with us like many did.

[swedish dave]

1 hour ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Too expensive if I recall at £1m

I remember a Sky Sport interview with ..Alan Pardew, who said that Cortese was shocked at

" his target sighing", and he asked him.." do you really want to spend a million pounds on him ? "

(that time around the player in question was...... Rickie Lambert).

Cortese's judgment on players was doubtful to say the least, Ramirez and Osvaldo weren't his only "flops"

 

[Winnersaint]

6 hours ago, Totton Saint said:

Armstong played quite well for Wolves last night.

.... and Sam Edozie's brother Tom got the Wolves equaliser.

[swedish dave]

On 30/01/2026 at 22:21, SaintTex said:

his last freekick goal was nearly 3 years ago (18 Feb 2023)

 

statistically correct - Which leaves him just one goal behind David Beckham's Prem. record tally,  

and the last time I checked no other Prem. player was even in double figures for free kick goals.

(Interestingly, in his last season - Prowsey was Saints' top scorer with 10 goals) 

 

He was a Prem. player for Saints in almost 12 years, in which time he played for around a

dozen managers and topped over 400 apps. whilst scoring 55 goals (that included 17 free kicks) 

plus a few penalties, and an un-named number of "assists".  In his career with Saints he was long

term absent from the squad just once 10 weeks with a fractured foot, and 3 games after a red card.

He played every minute of every Prem. game for Saints during the period of his last 2 seasons,

and regularly clocked the most distance covered in every game.

I fail to see how so many people can claim his only contribution to the club was his free kick goals.

[bpsaint]

7 hours ago, swedish dave said:

Now there's a player who Saints missed out on and all down to Nicola Cortese's lack of footballing "nous".

We had MA on loan from Reading and he was in the team that won JPT trophy 2012 and he even scored,

but when Reading wanted a measly 2 million to buy him, Cortese lost interest.. instead listened to "his Euro

contacts" and bought ...Gaston Ramirez and Dani Osvaldo....at a combined cost of 27 million, and then

they were signed on 4 year contracts with huge salaries.  Both proved to be disasterous deals and almost 

bankrupted the club again. Antonio wasn't a defector, he might have stayed ..if NC had the b*lls to sign him.

 

I’m not sure signing Ramirez 2 years after Antonio left us counts as Cortese preferring to sign Gaston tbf, likewise signing Osvaldo another year later.

Edited Thursday at 19:28 by bpsaint

[swedish dave]

On 19/02/2026 at 13:03, VectisSaint said:

Not sure Gaston was disastrous.

depends how you are calculating it.  GR  signed a 4 year contract in October 2012 . Cost 13 million..

When asked why he signed for Saints, he said... I couldn't believe how much they would pay me.

(later revealed to be 65 K / week.... in 2012 !!!! )  He may have had a few good games, but in those 

4 years, he played - just 55 games scoring 8 goals. Yes, he had a few injuries, but never fitted in

and during that time Ronald Koeman couldn't decide if he really wanted him - or not. 

Finally GR was loaned for half season to Hull ( I think), then last part of his contract to Midd'boro

who then signed him on a free transfer in the following season.  The Echo later calculated that

the whole deal (transfer fee + salary) had meant.. a loss of  21 million for Saints. 

 

A year later, another piece of " Cortese magic"  was bringing in Dani Osvaldo (similar fees and salary)

except that DO left after playing just  13 games and scoring 3 times, before nutting Jose Fonte in a

practice session before being suspended by the club, and never played for us again.

The outcome was made worse in that (having just be promoted twice) Saints were still  "a poor club", 

and Cortese had subsequently borrowed the money for these deals ...at a very high rate of interest.

(One might assume that a similar loss of income was accrued on the Osvaldo deal.)

 

In the final analysis , it's hard to say who had the overall responsibility for these two deals.

Was it Pochettino who wanted to bring DO in ? , or Cortese who approved the deal despite 

that it was a known fact that Osvaldo had previous .. " issues with his temperament".   

and so Vectis ..I rarely disagree with your posts, but I think we should agree to disagree on that one.

[BarberSaint]

19 hours ago, swedish dave said:

depends how you are calculating it.  GR  signed a 4 year contract in October 2012 . Cost 13 million..

When asked why he signed for Saints, he said... I couldn't believe how much they would pay me.

(later revealed to be 65 K / week.... in 2012 !!!! )  He may have had a few good games, but in those 

4 years, he played - just 55 games scoring 8 goals. Yes, he had a few injuries, but never fitted in

and during that time Ronald Koeman couldn't decide if he really wanted him - or not. 

Finally GR was loaned for half season to Hull ( I think), then last part of his contract to Midd'boro

who then signed him on a free transfer in the following season.  The Echo later calculated that

the whole deal (transfer fee + salary) had meant.. a loss of  21 million for Saints. 

 

A year later, another piece of " Cortese magic"  was bringing in Dani Osvaldo (similar fees and salary)

except that DO left after playing just  13 games and scoring 3 times, before nutting Jose Fonte in a

practice session before being suspended by the club, and never played for us again.

The outcome was made worse in that (having just be promoted twice) Saints were still  "a poor club", 

and Cortese had subsequently borrowed the money for these deals ...at a very high rate of interest.

(One might assume that a similar loss of income was accrued on the Osvaldo deal.)

 

In the final analysis , it's hard to say who had the overall responsibility for these two deals.

Was it Pochettino who wanted to bring DO in ? , or Cortese who approved the deal despite 

that it was a known fact that Osvaldo had previous .. " issues with his temperament".   

and so Vectis ..I rarely disagree with your posts, but I think we should agree to disagree on that one.

Can you do the same please?

 

For Orsic, Carrillo, ABK, etc. I think a top 30 will be fine.

 

Cheers.

 

 

[swedish dave]

On 19/02/2026 at 20:27, bpsaint said:

I’m not sure signing Ramirez 2 years after Antonio left us counts as Cortese preferring to sign Gaston tbf, likewise signing Osvaldo another year later.

After Antonio's loan, Pardew wanted to keep him and the player wanted to stay, but Cortese refused to  pay the

2 mill. fee  demanded, and MO returned to Reading. Cortese was very "thrifty"  at the start and the squads that

won TWO promotions were built (firstly) by Pardew and later Adkins, and cost LESS THAN 6 million.   

In between time we had loaned both Papa Waigo (who also scored in the JPT final) and later Guly do Prado.

 

At this point in time, Cortese (who on his own admission knew very little about English football) was conned into 

the two deals mentioned above (presumably by his foreign contacts who he seemingly trusted more).

I won't repeat the stats. from my first post, but the net. loss on the two deals was approaching 45 million.