Summer Transfer Window 2023

[Fitzhugh Fella]

Football is a predatory business with a dog eat dog, big fish eat little fish mentality. We are seen (hopefully incorrectly) as a vulnerable injured and stricken beast having been comprehensively relegated and vultures are circling looking for bargains. We should not get outraged. Fortunately we do not “need” to sell. No doubt SR know what they want for each player and if the buying club doesn’t stump up they will go without. We have to accept we are no longer a big fish however. No doubt we attempt to rip off League One clubs in a similar fashion. It’s a rat race football and it’s going to get a lot worse now the Saudi blood money is taking effect. 

[SaintsFan86]

Just now, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Football is a predatory business with a dog eat dog, big fish eat little fish mentality. We are seen (hopefully incorrectly) as a vulnerable injured and stricken beast having been comprehensively relegated and vultures are circling looking for bargains. We should not get outraged. Fortunately we do not “need” to sell. No doubt SR know what they want for each player and if the buying club doesn’t stump up they will go without. We have to accept we are no longer a big fish however. No doubt we attempt to rip off League One clubs in a similar fashion. It’s a rat race football and it’s going to get a lot worse now the Saudi blood money is taking effect. 

You'd think once we sell Lavia for around £50Million and then throw in a few more sales adding upto £100M then we can probably keep most of better players due to the fact Lavia demands such a good fee. 
I've been relaxed all window about the transfer activity.

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Football is a predatory business with a dog eat dog, big fish eat little fish mentality. We are seen (hopefully incorrectly) as a vulnerable injured and stricken beast having been comprehensively relegated and vultures are circling looking for bargains. We should not get outraged. Fortunately we do not “need” to sell. No doubt SR know what they want for each player and if the buying club doesn’t stump up they will go without. We have to accept we are no longer a big fish however. No doubt we attempt to rip off League One clubs in a similar fashion. It’s a rat race football and it’s going to get a lot worse now the Saudi blood money is taking effect. 

Where has this myth come from that we don’t need to sell? Perhaps not from a financial position right now but we definitely do need to sell to clear some of the deadwood and want away players to clear the decks for incomings. The problem is that isn’t easy to do but we absolutely do need to sell.

 

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, Turkish said:

Where has this myth come from that we don’t need to sell? Perhaps not from a financial position right now but we definitely do need to sell to clear some of the deadwood and want away players to clear the decks for incomings. The problem is that isn’t easy to do but we absolutely do need to sell.

 

I think the more correct thing to say is that there doesn't appear to be a pressing financial need for us to sell as quickly as possible. There absolutely is a need for us to get in more players and so we need to create space in the squad so it's a different type of pressure. Lets hope Lavia goes this week. 

[S-Clarke]

I think it's fair to say we're in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment, without these moves we simply cannot evolve the squad - not financially, just because of the sheer size of it.

I'm sure we'd love Ronnie Edwards for e.g, but unless Lyanco, ABK and Salisu piss off then we will not be getting a CB in the door. It's a frustrating situation because in respect of ABK and Salisu we can't even count on them as players, they simply won't play - they'll down tools - so we really need to get them gone by hook or by crook.

Similar is true of our full back positions really, it's a massive luxury to be here with Bree, Livramento, KWP, Manning and Larios - there will undoubtably be one of KWP or Livramento out of the door before the end of the window in my opinion, it's all too unbalanced atm. 

I'm sure we'd have expected to have shifted much more than we have by now, especially our 'star players' - but the bids coming in are derisory really. It makes no sense to sell Lavia for any less than £45m (straight cash, no add on nonsense), otherwise we might as well keep him for a year and sell him back to City for the pre-agreed £40m next summer.

It's very frustrating how clubs are happy to offer £70m for Cacedio or £45m for Paulina, yet subject us to sub-£30m bids for our equivalents.

[AlexLaw76]

Has Onuachu gone anywhere yet?

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, Chewy said:

I think this is the crux of it. The fans and media fawn over them as if that list is recent history. It’s over 30 years old. In the last 30 years they’re behind both Manchester clubs (especially funny) and 2 London clubs.

Yet they go around as if they’re football royalty. They only time they bucked that with a league title in 30 years was done on massive credit and now they have to pay it back they can’t compete. Again. Why should the rest of the footballing world subsidise that?

Of course, in their fans view the football world should subsidise them because they’re somehow the victims. Again. 
They’re not - horrible city full of criminal gangs shooting each others kids, moaning about how tough they have it and blaming Thatcher who’s as irrelevant as their 1980s league titles.

And doing all this in the worst accent ever invented. I’d rather be stuck in a lift with a yank, South African, Glaswegian and Ian Paisleys ghost than one scouser.
Horrific accent. Horrible people. Entitled attitude. Victim mentality. And the spitting Jamie Carragher. 
I’ll come back to edit the post when I’ve remembered some more …

This is what i was saying, but better 😍. I'd honestly put Liverpool up there nearly with Portsmouth, certainly my two most disliked clubs.

[Whitey Grandad]

29 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Where has this myth come from that we don’t need to sell? Perhaps not from a financial position right now but we definitely do need to sell to clear some of the deadwood and want away players to clear the decks for incomings. The problem is that isn’t easy to do but we absolutely do need to sell.

 

Not so much that we need to sell for monetary reasons rather that the squad is too big.

[Baird of the land]

12 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I think it's fair to say we're in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment, without these moves we simply cannot evolve the squad - not financially, just because of the sheer size of it.

I'm sure we'd love Ronnie Edwards for e.g, but unless Lyanco, ABK and Salisu piss off then we will not be getting a CB in the door. It's a frustrating situation because in respect of ABK and Salisu we can't even count on them as players, they simply won't play - they'll down tools - so we really need to get them gone by hook or by crook.

Similar is true of our full back positions really, it's a massive luxury to be here with Bree, Livramento, KWP, Manning and Larios - there will undoubtably be one of KWP or Livramento out of the door before the end of the window in my opinion, it's all too unbalanced atm. 

I'm sure we'd have expected to have shifted much more than we have by now, especially our 'star players' - but the bids coming in are derisory really. It makes no sense to sell Lavia for any less than £45m (straight cash, no add on nonsense), otherwise we might as well keep him for a year and sell him back to City for the pre-agreed £40m next summer.

It's very frustrating how clubs are happy to offer £70m for Cacedio or £45m for Paulina, yet subject us to sub-£30m bids for our equivalents.

CB is definitely a position i'd like to see some movement and CM is another where it seems certain we're going to lose both our current starters so you'd like to see good fees done and dusted.

Fullback i'd be happy to keep our luxury and accomodate all 3 of Livramento, KWP and Manning. I'd be interested to see if there's any possibility of playing Livramento in a midfield role. When he was signed there was a lot of talk about his versatility.  I have very low expectations of Larios and muted ones of Bree.

[SuperSAINT]

If stories are true, then £25m for JWP & £35m for Lavia probably puts them both £10m under where they’d be realistic.  Not that far off, really. 

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, Smirking_Saint said:

Not sure if this is a clever PR ploy or what, and I realise that you can’t always read into PR pictures of players for kit releases etc

But its always heavily centred around these three, which leads me to believe they probably aren’t kicking up a stink in the background and maybe we are hoping to hang onto them

I really don't think it's hard to understand tbh. We seem set on making one big money sale. And this will be lavia like as not. If by some miracle someone comes in and offers us north of £45M for JWP or Tino then it will be one of them that leaves instead and we'll possibly even keep Lavia... But people can tell basically everything you need to know about the transfer strategy from the prices we're asking - its a tacit acknowledgement that we can't keep lavia long term and are happy to do a deal now at a decent price, and are then essentially pricing the others out of a move with the intention to build the team around them... If by some miracle no one wants lavia then we'll drop our prices to get that one big money sale. But fundamentally we have owners who at least are making a very good show of being prepared to underwrite financial losses this year, and a bunch of good players on long term deals. I know its a step change to playing the game properly for once, but it is what is happening.

And largely irrelevant to that. We have a vast plethora of bloated shite that has suffered wage drops and wants out of the club and that the club wants to get out... and those players need to be shifted regardless of one of Lavia, JWP, Tino being sold. I'm actually more concerned with how we shift most of our 6CB's and the likes of Che Adams, Aribo, Diallo (gone thankfully - anyone get a price for his move though?), Tall Paul, etc. than whether we get £50M, £45M, or £40M for lavia etc.

Also, media rumours/stories about bids of £35M for Lavia, or £25M for JWP are irrelevant tbh. I read them as PR pieces for those club's fans "look how deluded/unreasonable Southampton are" (groundwork excuses for not getting them - #we tried), to pressure other clubs into sales of their players (we're moving for JWP/Tino etc), or to try and unsettle players via constant noise/attention (though i imagine that is done in the background mainly) - which may work if the club is financially stricken and unlikely to be competitive this year. But all you can read from our board is that we're not operating under financial difficulty and we are intending to win the league... Which is either on the money or a good poker face. 

Edited 25 July, 2023 by Saint86

[Turkish]

11 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Not so much that we need to sell for monetary reasons rather that the squad is too big.

exactly my point, we still need to sell. We aren't going to freshen up the squad with players we need whilst we got, for example, 6 centre backs all of which would think they should be first choice.

[S-Clarke]

23 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

CB is definitely a position i'd like to see some movement and CM is another where it seems certain we're going to lose both our current starters so you'd like to see good fees done and dusted.

Fullback i'd be happy to keep our luxury and accomodate all 3 of Livramento, KWP and Manning. I'd be interested to see if there's any possibility of playing Livramento in a midfield role. When he was signed there was a lot of talk about his versatility.  I have very low expectations of Larios and muted ones of Bree.

Agreed, I'm desperate to see movement at CB as none of the ones we have are either good enough or committed - I guess for the start of the season we'll be going Stephens and Bednarek, but I hope we can shift on Lyanco, ABK and Salisu sharpish so we can get some more progressive CB options (Ronnie Edwards etc)

[Wurzel]

29 minutes ago, Turkish said:

exactly my point, we still need to sell. We aren't going to freshen up the squad with players we need whilst we got, for example, 6 centre backs all of which would think they should be first choice.

Do we need to sell though? Or just get rid?  There's a few I'd be happy just to save on the wage bill and give them away.

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Wurzel said:

Do we need to sell though? Or just get rid?  There's a few I'd be happy just to save on the wage bill and give them away.

Unless we let Onuachu or Lyanco go on a free, 2e need to sell...

[LordHester]

56 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Has Onuachu gone anywhere yet?

Only to put the bins out. 

[Winchester Red]

I think people are a little harsh on ABK.  He's 21 so his body has only just finished growing (if it has) so fitness / injury issues shouldn't be a shock to us, and a defender who gets in the German national squad at that age obviously has undoubtable talent.  There's also no question of his commitment.

Get him fit and get him in the team is my view.

[suewhistle]

Just be thankful we no longer have Diallo, Elyounoussi, AMN and Walcott clogging up the squad. I'm expecting ABK and Salisu to go and probably a full back amongst others but I wonder if we'll have any surprise remainers? Is Martin showing himself to be a competent manager players want to play for after a weary Ralph and a nutty Jones?

Experience says that the same posts will appear on here and that business will hot up as the transfer period gets towards its end, so worrying about it isn't going to help..

 

[SaintsFan86]

3 minutes ago, Winchester Red said:

I think people are a little harsh on ABK.  He's 21 so his body has only just finished growing (if it has) so fitness / injury issues shouldn't be a shock to us, and a defender who gets in the German national squad at that age obviously has undoubtable talent.  There's also no question of his commitment.

Get him fit and get him in the team is my view.

I'd love us to retain ABK, I think a season of playing this way with the ball at his feet would be wonderful, Let's not forget he a fantastic eye for a diagonal ball.. Feeding Manning/Sulemana would be quite lovely.

[saintant]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

I think it's fair to say we're in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment, without these moves we simply cannot evolve the squad - not financially, just because of the sheer size of it.

I'm sure we'd love Ronnie Edwards for e.g, but unless Lyanco, ABK and Salisu piss off then we will not be getting a CB in the door. It's a frustrating situation because in respect of ABK and Salisu we can't even count on them as players, they simply won't play - they'll down tools - so we really need to get them gone by hook or by crook.

Similar is true of our full back positions really, it's a massive luxury to be here with Bree, Livramento, KWP, Manning and Larios - there will undoubtably be one of KWP or Livramento out of the door before the end of the window in my opinion, it's all too unbalanced atm. 

I'm sure we'd have expected to have shifted much more than we have by now, especially our 'star players' - but the bids coming in are derisory really. It makes no sense to sell Lavia for any less than £45m (straight cash, no add on nonsense), otherwise we might as well keep him for a year and sell him back to City for the pre-agreed £40m next summer.

It's very frustrating how clubs are happy to offer £70m for Cacedio or £45m for Paulina, yet subject us to sub-£30m bids for our equivalents.

Agree with most of this. Trouble is, as we all know, it's a game of brinkmanship. Unless a club is desperate to make certain they get one of our 'star' players they will wait until the very end of the window and hope to nick them for a low price. We are then left in a position of either accepting the offer which leaves us little or no time to buy replacements or we decline and keep an unhappy player until the next window.  Neither scenario is ideal but thems the rules I'm afraid.

[AlexLaw76]

Lavia is clearly going....Salisu probably, as with ABKband Adams..

If that was it, would be stunning to not get promoted with the remainh squad 

But suspect we will have to add a few more to the departures...JwP, Sully, KwP....

[saintant]

3 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Lavia is clearly going....Salisu probably, as with ABKband Adams..

If that was it, would be stunning to not get promoted with the remainh squad 

But suspect we will have to add a few more to the departures...JwP, Sully, KwP....

It would not be stunning not to get promoted if Baz remains our number one keeper.

[pimpin4rizeal]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

I think it's fair to say we're in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment, without these moves we simply cannot evolve the squad - not financially, just because of the sheer size of it.

I'm sure we'd love Ronnie Edwards for e.g, but unless Lyanco, ABK and Salisu piss off then we will not be getting a CB in the door. It's a frustrating situation because in respect of ABK and Salisu we can't even count on them as players, they simply won't play - they'll down tools - so we really need to get them gone by hook or by crook.

Similar is true of our full back positions really, it's a massive luxury to be here with Bree, Livramento, KWP, Manning and Larios - there will undoubtably be one of KWP or Livramento out of the door before the end of the window in my opinion, it's all too unbalanced atm. 

I'm sure we'd have expected to have shifted much more than we have by now, especially our 'star players' - but the bids coming in are derisory really. It makes no sense to sell Lavia for any less than £45m (straight cash, no add on nonsense), otherwise we might as well keep him for a year and sell him back to City for the pre-agreed £40m next summer.

It's very frustrating how clubs are happy to offer £70m for Cacedio or £45m for Paulina, yet subject us to sub-£30m bids for our equivalents.

But what good would it do them for ABK or salisu to down tools ?

whilst they may not be happy slumming it in the championship with us they won’t want to ruin their careers . Both have been linked with bigger clubs in the past but the only way to earn those moves is to continue to impress ..I think they have no choice but to be professional about it if they are still here . Much like schneiderlin did 

Edited 25 July, 2023 by pimpin4rizeal

[Danbert]

I thought the club was on record as saying they wanted to raise about 100m from sales this Summer. That sounds like "monetary reasons" to me.

[beatlesaint]

6 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

But what good would it do them for ABK or salisu to down tools ?

whilst they may not be happy slumming it in the championship with us they won’t want to ruin their careers . Both have been linked with bigger clubs in the past but the only way to earn those moves is to continue to impress ..I think they have no choice but to be professional about it if they are still here . Much like schneiderlin did 

Absolutely right. If they want to move to a bigger club or play Premier League football again (here) then they need to get their heads back in the club come September if a move hasn't come off.

[Fitzhugh Fella]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Where has this myth come from that we don’t need to sell? Perhaps not from a financial position right now but we definitely do need to sell to clear some of the deadwood and want away players to clear the decks for incomings. The problem is that isn’t easy to do but we absolutely do need to sell.

 

Yes I agree  - but its not imperative or crucial for us to survive (unlike last time we were relegated is my point). Like you I know from a playing aspect and a planning one too it would be nice to know where we stand with the season starting in 10 days.

[Crouchie's Lawyer]

https://twitter.com/TacticallyMatt/status/1683798833757659137?s=20

 

Says JWP wont be involved against Bournemouth tonight. Doesn't say whether it is an injury or anything else...

Edited 25 July, 2023 by Crouchie's Lawyer

[The Curse of St Mary's]

 

 

[Master Bates]

So he's boycotting too

[SaintsFan86]

 

 

[for_heaven's_Saint]

Just now, SaintsFan86 said:

 

 

He looked like he’d done something when he overstretched trying to keep the ball in against Reading- you can see it on the behind the scenes video. 

[Crouchie's Lawyer]

Is that a *cough cough* slight injury where they don't want to risk a deal on the table which may be progressing in the next few days or a genuine slight injury? Guess there is no way of actually knowing.

[revolution saint]

JWP is made of glass.  He's on the physio table more than the pitch.  Need to shift ASAP.

[Pamplemousse]

6 minutes ago, for_heaven's_Saint said:

He looked like he’d done something when he overstretched trying to keep the ball in against Reading- you can see it on the behind the scenes video. 

Yeah, he definitely come off the pitch carrying a little injury.

[SaintStinger]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Similar is true of our full back positions really, it's a massive luxury to be here with Bree, Livramento, KWP, Manning and Larios - there will undoubtably be one of KWP or Livramento out of the door before the end of the window in my opinion, it's all too unbalanced atm.

Perraud too. Though not heard much about him since his injury at the end lf last season.

[The Curse of St Mary's]

 

 

[skintsaint]

3 minutes ago, SaintStinger said:

Perraud too. Though not heard much about him since his injury at the end lf last season.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=842496457236459&set=pb.100044283376917.-2207520000.&type=3

[SaintStinger]

1 minute ago, skintsaint said:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=842496457236459&set=pb.100044283376917.-2207520000.&type=3

Well I completely missed that, cheers! Good to see him back in training though I wonder if he'll stay or not.

[SuperSAINT]

 

[Saint Matty 76]

1 minute ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

I'd be happy if they just added Downes on top of their apparent £25m offer.

[SuperSAINT]

 

[Bad Wolf]

As long as Downes is part of any JWP deal I'm fine!

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Danbert said:

I thought the club was on record as saying they wanted to raise about 100m from sales this Summer. That sounds like "monetary reasons" to me.

I believe that wording has been used in an article, but I don't think it has been in any official statement or any SFC employee will have been quoted as saying it. I guess it all depends on where you read it and the credibility of the writer. 

[SaintsFan86]

5 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

Good job Wilcox, Pay up Liverpool or do one.

[Baird of the land]

4 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

Isn't that the wrong way round. Shouldn't they be agreeing a fee with us before they spend a month talking to the player.

[Wade Garrett]

1 hour ago, Winchester Red said:

I think people are a little harsh on ABK.  He's 21 so his body has only just finished growing (if it has) so fitness / injury issues shouldn't be a shock to us, and a defender who gets in the German national squad at that age obviously has undoubtable talent.  There's also no question of his commitment.

Get him fit and get him in the team is my view.

Don’t agree.  He doesn’t like it when the going gets tough and hides away.

Would love to get rid of him, Salisu and Lyanco and get some new blood in.

[AlexLaw76]

1 minute ago, Baird of the land said:

Isn't that the wrong way round. Shouldn't they be agreeing a fee with us before they spend a month talking to the player.

Not the way it works though .... Has not been for ages

[Pamplemousse]

25 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

The same ExWHUEmployee who said 2 weeks ago they weren't in for him.

A bit like all the Newcastle ITKs on Tino, all codswallop.

Just need that tit Alex from Twitter to chime in

[once_bitterne]

2 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Not so much that we need to sell for monetary reasons rather that the squad is too big.

We don't need to sell for monetary reasons? Really? We were running at a multi-million pound loss under Gao when our net spend was negligible.  Last season we spent £160m on fees alone to get relegated.  We are now in a league where the ANNUAL revenue for most clubs is no more than 20-30m.

And we are still paying City £10-15m a pop for their kids.  

Of course we need to sell.  Unless we are just doing a Saints Go Wilde v2 and gambling on promotion this season?  And if this fails we could be in the same sort of situation as Blackburn in asking their players to pay for flights back from pre-season games or, worse still, back to the days of fans holding out buckets for loose change.

Without selling a lot of players this season we are f'ked.  The club is being run in a totally unsustainable way and any fan who thinks our current owner will foot the bill is utterly deluded.

[once_bitterne]

2 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

The same ExWHUEmployee who said 2 weeks ago they weren't in for him.

A bit like all the Newcastle ITKs on Tino, all codswallop.

Just need that tit Alex from Twitter to chime in

Why do you think it's codswallop?  It's very likely he will got to West Ham this Summer.