Summer Transfer Window 2025/26

[skintsaint]

9 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

It'll be Flynn Downes, you can almost bet your house on it. [1-2 odds]

They couldn't afford him if the FFP rumours are true.

[Danbert]

5 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

They couldn't afford him if the FFP rumours are true.

When have they ever cared about FFP?

[skintsaint]

2 minutes ago, Danbert said:

When have they ever cared about FFP?

True!

[gio1saints]

Flynn Downes is an excellent Championship player. If he joined LCFC makes them stronger. I doubt he’d be received badly. 
Players who might be badly received might be those with a current Midlands connection. Will or Armstrong for instance. Bad Surprises might be Manning or Captain Jack. CA also a possible. Given how important the GK is in Martins game it may well be a loan move for Gav.

[Danbert]

6 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Flynn Downes is an excellent Championship player. If he joined LCFC makes them stronger. I doubt he’d be received badly. 
Players who might be badly received might be those with a current Midlands connection. Will or Armstrong for instance. Bad Surprises might be Manning or Captain Jack. CA also a possible. Given how important the GK is in Martins game it may well be a loan move for Gav.

I hope you're right. We'ren't Leicester rumoured to be in for Downes last summer, or is my memory failing me.

[Saint Neil]

9 minutes ago, Danbert said:

I hope you're right. We'ren't Leicester rumoured to be in for Downes last summer, or is my memory failing me.

Ipswich

[Nolan]

50 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Leicester forums yesterday saying that Martin is 100% done, that they're also trying to sign someone from saints, and that people's heads will fall off (in a bad way) over who that is... It couldn't be Stephens... could it?



Hopefully not Adam Armstrong though...

the only quote I can see doesn't mention where the player is coming from....

and then follows up with "no not a Southampton player"

Edited Thursday at 09:19 by Nolan

[skintsaint]

Lallana as player assistant manager 

[Dman]

53 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

It'll be Flynn Downes, you can almost bet your house on it. [1-2 odds]

 

I don't care how much they offer, under no circumstances should we sell Downes to a Martin side who'll be competing against us next season. We saw first hand how we fell apart when he wasn't in the side. It would be madness to give them a player who is so key to his system. 

They've got Skipp and Winks, both of whom are better than downes anyway. 

[Badger]

1 hour ago, qwertyell said:

Greuther Furth vs Hamburg (who finished 2nd) league game …

…..  and launched a pretty impressive throw in into the box. 

 

Perhaps main reason we’ve signed him. Forget all the which system bollocks we’ve read about Still’s tactical nous. He’s going full on Pulis next season

[Sheaf Saint]

1 hour ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Hardly revolutionary then? Hopefully the lad will be great and God knows we need better. Trouble is it’s difficult to see this signing as better than what we have on the books  already, but it’s certainly too early to write him off.

This is Saintsweb. It's never too early to write anyone off for some posters.

[Turkish]

6 minutes ago, Dman said:

I don't care how much they offer, under no circumstances should we sell Downes to a Martin side who'll be competing against us next season. We saw first hand how we fell apart when he wasn't in the side. It would be madness to give them a player who is so key to his system. 

They've got Skipp and Winks, both of whom are better than downes anyway. 

Yeah i cant see them taking Downes, we'll want a lot of money and they dont have much plus they've got two other players as good if not better. Hopefully Stephens or Manning although he has so much love for them all then no one is safe.

[Saint_clark]

3 hours ago, Nolan said:

as a player who our incoming head of Scouting Tim Lederer has seen a lot of, a signing that he knows very very well could be career defining.

Whoscored base their statistics on pro games (top 3 tiers mainly in Germany), but at Hoffenheim, where he was consistently in the U23 squad was in the fourth tier there. 

Stats sites do have limitiation's. You would hope Tim Lederer will know exactly what we have here.

 

Yeah I'm not writing him off but whoscored I find to be pretty spot on with their assessments of players. Some work to do there then. 

[Viking Saint]

15 hours ago, Pamplemousse said:

Defence needs a major overhaul, he, Edwards and THB (if he stays) would be excellent options there, with Stephens as a decent back up.

Stephens needs clearing out. He's a major part of the malaise we have around the place.

[Farmer Saint]

1 hour ago, gio1saints said:

Flynn Downes is an excellent Championship player. If he joined LCFC makes them stronger. I doubt he’d be received badly. 
Players who might be badly received might be those with a current Midlands connection. Will or Armstrong for instance. Bad Surprises might be Manning or Captain Jack. CA also a possible. Given how important the GK is in Martins game it may well be a loan move for Gav.

He is an excellent Championship player UNDER RM.

He has never proved to be anything other than average under any other managers. He is a system player, and that system is RM's.

[trousers]

45 minutes ago, Dman said:

They've got Skipp and Winks, both of whom are better than downes anyway. 

If a rival has two players that are better than our key midfielder, doesn't that logically indicate that we should be trying to offload him and replace him with better player(s) rather than keep hold of him...?

Edit: just re-read the context of your post and I acknowledge I've somewhat missed the point, but the logic still stands out of context: i.e. we need to be matching or exceeding the quality of players that our rivals have, so we should be looking to upgrade on Downes anyway, if the likes of Leicester have better players in that position 

Edited Thursday at 10:16 by trousers

[saint michael]

4 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Glad it’s not just me. Hope sincerely that this post gets reminded to me later on when he excels and is sold for £30m but this is classic SR again in the sense it’s a single transaction aimed purely at profit and not contributing a fully ready player in the spine of the team for the league we are playing in. Yes, really do not want to see three centre backs again, it vacated the midfield the whole season and ruined THB who was better in a back 4/central 2. 

You don’t often get Championship players who hit the ground running for League One fees and the club isn’t in a ‘one for the future’ place. If Wood is leaving as well Bednarek and possibly THB then as developmental back up it would make more sense. CBs with height and pace are rare but Blackburn had one in Tyler Magloire and he’s now out of contract at Northampton Town.  

I feel the same way. Really hoped we would get a few players in that we know and have the quality we all know will be needed. This feels like them trying to be clever again. 🤞🏻this lad can get going quickly. From some of the reports looks like he didn’t play much for the team he was loaned to 

[saint michael]

2 hours ago, UpweySaint said:

What makes you think this is a data driven signing? I personally don’t get the anti data view but either way surely this signing is a bit more old school as the player has come from the same club as our new chief scout? I would assume he has watched this lads development in person.

There is nothing wrong with using good data to support and help decisions. This does look like data driven as his football record does not stand out and say he’s going to get to the top from what has been seen so far. Speed and effort seem his qualities 

[2Morrow]

The leicester forum person named the player as Josh Windass from Wednesday on a free. Kinda shows how up the creek they are financially

[saint michael]

1 hour ago, Convict Colony said:

Smallbone, ex Stoke

🙏🏻🤞🏻

[sockeye]

Not convinced by this defender but if Wood is going then I suppose it’s an acceptable replacement. Less kids though SR, we really have enough already to work with.

[Wade Garrett]

2 hours ago, UpweySaint said:

What makes you think this is a data driven signing? I personally don’t get the anti data view but either way surely this signing is a bit more old school as the player has come from the same club as our new chief scout? I would assume he has watched this lads development in person.

We’ve never heard of him.  His previous club loaned him because he wasn’t good enough for them.  But he is tall and can run fast.

Data analysis is flawed.  For example - you can judge a midfielder on pass completion without taking into account that he is just a safety first merchant who hasn’t got the ability to play through the lines

It is largely bullshit and is no substitute for good scouting.  

[Turkish]

19 minutes ago, trousers said:

If a rival has two players that are better than our key midfielder, doesn't that logically indicate that we should be trying to offload him and replace him with better player(s) rather than keep hold of him...?

Edit: just re-read the context of your post and I acknowledge I've somewhat missed the point, but the logic still stands out of context: i.e. we need to be matching or exceeding the quality of players that our rivals have, so we should be looking to upgrade on Downes anyway, if the likes of Leicester have better players in that position 

Downes cooked last year in the championship Bro. We should be either keeping him or selling him for big money. Him and Charles will be sick in the championship. Although my sources tell me a premier league club is interested in Charles, i cant say to much but with him in the team they might give a few other team a hammering next year. Make if that what you will. 

[iansums]

2 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Leicester forums yesterday saying that Martin is 100% done, that they're also trying to sign someone from saints, and that people's heads will fall off (in a bad way) over who that is... It couldn't be Stephens... could it?



Hopefully not Adam Armstrong though...

Is there a good way for a head to fall off? 

[trousers]

3 minutes ago, iansums said:

Is there a good way for a head to fall off? 

 

[skintsaint]

8 minutes ago, iansums said:

Is there a good way for a head to fall off? 

[tdmickey3]

2 hours ago, Charlie Wayman said:

It'll be Flynn Downes, you can almost bet your house on it. [1-2 odds]

Runner up will be Ryan Manning. [4-1 odds]

It won't be Gavin………………… [25-1 odds]

 

Of course Sod's Law dictates that Martin's system will come good at last and they will storm the league with maximum points [Evens!]

He can take Stephens, Manning, Smallbone if he likes but he will need to take the forum sop Fabrice 29 as to stand up for him when it all goes to shit

[UpweySaint]

44 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

We’ve never heard of him.  His previous club loaned him because he wasn’t good enough for them.  But he is tall and can run fast.

Data analysis is flawed.  For example - you can judge a midfielder on pass completion without taking into account that he is just a safety first merchant who hasn’t got the ability to play through the lines

It is largely bullshit and is no substitute for good scouting.  

Christ if we only signed players I had heard of it would really narrow our scouting range! 
 

I agree that data can be used poorly and quantifiable data used in isolation is flawed but surely ‘good scouting’ includes the use of data?

[Doctoroncall]

6 hours ago, Oisin said:

We have a desperate need for a defensive leader (better than Jan and Stephens), have some good cbs in the academy (Sanda, Moore, Dobson-Ventura, the 16 year old Man U are interested in), and 5 other cbs in their early 20s (Edwards, THB, Wood, Lawrence, ABK) and our first signing is a 20 year old cb of unknown quality?

Does seem odd to me. Let’s hope he’s good, and at that much it’s not a big gamble. He certainly improves the physicality averages of the squad too! Just an odd area to look at for me.

Clearly some of the above will be off.  I hope so.  It might also indicate a plan to play a back 3. I hope not

Also have Lawrence (22 this year) and Awe (21) as centre backs. 

[James G]

3 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Leicester forums yesterday saying that Martin is 100% done, that they're also trying to sign someone from saints, and that people's heads will fall off (in a bad way) over who that is... It couldn't be Stephens... could it?



Hopefully not Adam Armstrong though...

It's Archer, to replace Vardy. I'm not sure if there is anything to it though and would he want to move

Again, it's one of them, like the overseas fellow who wants to invest. Southampton was suggested to him as a possibility, then it was reported that we have a potential investor. It's people creating their own news lol

 

[Master Bates]

49 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

For the record, it wasn't me...

[saintant]

1 hour ago, saint michael said:

I feel the same way. Really hoped we would get a few players in that we know and have the quality we all know will be needed. This feels like them trying to be clever again. 🤞🏻this lad can get going quickly. From some of the reports looks like he didn’t play much for the team he was loaned to 

The transfer window has not even opened yet so many deals can be expected. This guy is obviously known to the new recruitment guy and likely to be one for the squad who will hopefully improve over time. No need to panic yet.

[notnowcato]

1 hour ago, Wade Garrett said:

We’ve never heard of him.  His previous club loaned him because he wasn’t good enough for them.  But he is tall and can run fast.

Data analysis is flawed.  For example - you can judge a midfielder on pass completion without taking into account that he is just a safety first merchant who hasn’t got the ability to play through the lines

It is largely bullshit and is no substitute for good scouting.  

Good data compliments good scouting

[Dman]

1 hour ago, trousers said:

If a rival has two players that are better than our key midfielder, doesn't that logically indicate that we should be trying to offload him and replace him with better player(s) rather than keep hold of him...?

Edit: just re-read the context of your post and I acknowledge I've somewhat missed the point, but the logic still stands out of context: i.e. we need to be matching or exceeding the quality of players that our rivals have, so we should be looking to upgrade on Downes anyway, if the likes of Leicester have better players in that position 

I guess it comes down to where we want to spend our money. 

For me, Downes has proven to be a top championship player (all be it in 1 system), but not good enough for the PL. Could we do better? probably, but do we need to right now. Personally, I think we have more urgent issues and I'd like to see us replace him next season, rather than this one. 

[coalman]

3 minutes ago, Dman said:

I guess it comes down to where we want to spend our money. 

For me, Downes has proven to be a top championship player (all be it in 1 system), but not good enough for the PL. Could we do better? probably, but do we need to right now. Personally, I think we have more urgent issues and I'd like to see us replace him next season, rather than this one. 

I'm not sure we ever gave Downes a chance in the Premier League. It felt like we set up so he'd be overrun in midfield every single game.

[Weston Super Saint]

5 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

Good data compliments good scouting

Source?

Hasn't been the case for a while for us...

[Pamplemousse]

Joe Lumley to Leicester. They just released two back up goalkeepers so he'll go there as their third choice.

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, saint michael said:

I feel the same way. Really hoped we would get a few players in that we know and have the quality we all know will be needed. This feels like them trying to be clever again. 🤞🏻this lad can get going quickly. From some of the reports looks like he didn’t play much for the team he was loaned to 

Always remember the word "cheap" when getting excited about incoming transfers.

[Saint Fan CaM]

2 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Joe Lumley to Leicester. They just released two back up goalkeepers so he'll go there as their third choice.

If that’s true it means we have the sloppy seconds in Baz and ???.

[Doctoroncall]

4 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Source?

Hasn't been the case for a while for us...

Data and the collection are not the problem, it’s the interpretation of it which is. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

2 hours ago, Turkish said:

Yeah i cant see them taking Downes, we'll want a lot of money and they dont have much plus they've got two other players as good if not better. Hopefully Stephens or Manning although he has so much love for them all then no one is safe.

Oh my word, I’d love it if they took Manning and Stephens. How to weaken one of your main rivals without lifting a finger and getting paid for the privilege! If Carling did transfer window sales…

[beatlesaint]

3 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Oh my word, I’d love it if they took Manning and Stephens. How to weaken one of your main rivals without lifting a finger and getting paid for the privilege! If Carling did transfer window sales…

With that little gobshite Vardy gone I assume Leicester have lost a voice in the dressing room......step forward one Captain Jack Stephens, that incredible beautiful human being (RM words NOT mine 🙂 ) 

[hypochondriac]

3 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Leicester forums yesterday saying that Martin is 100% done, that they're also trying to sign someone from saints, and that people's heads will fall off (in a bad way) over who that is... It couldn't be Stephens... could it?



Hopefully not Adam Armstrong though...

Smallbone or Manning for me. They can have Downes but it will cost them. 

[coalman]

12 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Source?

Hasn't been the case for a while for us...

You'd want data to help identify potential targets along with first hand scouting. Data can help you identify targets you may not have been aware of that you want to scout.

You want first hand scouting to validate what you're seeing in the data. You might also want to sanity check what your scouts are seeing with data.

Doing data without validation is madness. Doing scouting without data is inefficient. A club in our position can afford neither madness or inefficiency (somehow we've managed the worst of both worlds since Sport Republic took over)

However - you should only use data if you have a clue how to interpret it. If you don't you wind up getting excited by anomalies without seeking to understand the why behind them.

[coalman]

3 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Leicester forums yesterday saying that Martin is 100% done, that they're also trying to sign someone from saints, and that people's heads will fall off (in a bad way) over who that is... It couldn't be Stephens... could it?



Hopefully not Adam Armstrong though...

They also said Martin is 100% not happening and it's Rohl instead so 🤷‍♂️

[Midfield_General]

2 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

We’ve never heard of him.  His previous club loaned him because he wasn’t good enough for them.  But he is tall and can run fast.

Data analysis is flawed.  For example - you can judge a midfielder on pass completion without taking into account that he is just a safety first merchant who hasn’t got the ability to play through the lines

It is largely bullshit and is no substitute for good scouting.  

Sorry to come over all MLG (ew), but - 

Quarshie is being signed from Hoffenheim. 

Spors was an analyst, head scout and head of recruitment at Hoffenheim from 2007 - 2015.

A week ago we announced that our new head scout was going to be Tim Lederer, who is/ was Hoffenheim's youth squad planner. 

I think it's fair to say that this is a player that our new scouting and recruitment team know pretty well, and that he will have been properly (e.g. traditionally) scouted and those people will have had eyes on him for some time. 

He's also been picked for Germany at under-18, under-19, under-20 and under-21 level (though he hasn't got into the side for the under-21s yet). So we may not have heard of him, but he's got a pretty decent pedigree for a young player in Germany. 

 

Edited Thursday at 12:40 by Midfield_General

[trousers]

8 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Sorry to come over all MLG (ew), but - 

Quarshie is being signed from Hoffenheim. 

Spors was an analyst, head scout and head of recruitment at Hoffenheim from 2007 - 2015.

A week ago we announced that our new head scout was going to be Tim Lederer, who is/ was Hoffenheim's youth squad planner. 

I think it's fair to say that this is a player that our new scouting and recruitment team know pretty well, and that he will have been properly (e.g. traditionally) scouted and those people will have had eyes on him for some time. 

He's also been picked for Germany at under-18, under-19, under-20 and under-21 level (though he hasn't got into the side for the under-21s yet). So we may not have heard of him, but he's got a pretty decent pedigree for a young player in Germany. 

 

Maybe a similar trajectory / pedigree to Bella-Kotchap...? (Only without the alleged attitude problem, hopefully)

[Turkish]

12 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Sorry to come over all MLG (ew), but - 

Quarshie is being signed from Hoffenheim. 

Spors was an analyst, head scout and head of recruitment at Hoffenheim from 2007 - 2015.

A week ago we announced that our new head scout was going to be Tim Lederer, who is/ was Hoffenheim's youth squad planner. 

I think it's fair to say that this is a player that our new scouting and recruitment team know pretty well, and that he will have been properly (e.g. traditionally) scouted and those people will have had eyes on him for some time. 

He's also been picked for Germany at under-18, under-19, under-20 and under-21 level (though he hasn't got into the side for the under-21s yet). So we may not have heard of him, but he's got a pretty decent pedigree for a young player in Germany. 

 

maybe this Lederer bloke does but Spors left Hoffenheim when he was 10 so unlikely it's one he knows much about. Quick, strong centre back = good, shit tackler = not good. Hopefully not another SR special. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

13 minutes ago, Turkish said:

maybe this Lederer bloke does but Spors left Hoffenheim when he was 10 so unlikely it's one he knows much about. Quick, strong centre back = good, shit tackler = not good. Hopefully not another SR special. 

Crickey, Spors must have had a hard life…you’d hardly believe he’s only 20 years old now! 🤔😉

Edited Thursday at 13:03 by Saint Fan CaM

[Chez]

5 hours ago, qwertyell said:

Greuther Furth vs Hamburg (who finished 2nd) league game from 10 days ago is up in full on the YouTubes if anyone wants a long look at Quarshie, who started for Greuther Furth, against reasonable opposition.

I've done 10 minutes. He's made one block, a really clumsy foul that should've been a yellow card, and launched a pretty impressive throw in into the box. 

And he's just tried and failed to play an attacker offside but recovered to block another shot. 

I'm not watching any more. But I can confirm he A) exists and B) is tall. 

I watched quite a bit of the game. He looked more comfortable on the ball than in his youtube highlights video, but because he is so tall he still looks a little ungainly. I didn't see a rolls royce of a player. What I noticed is that Greuther Furt played two centre backs and both got tight to attackers following them quite high up the pitch, the manager trusting they had the pace to cover back if the ball went over the top. A couple of times, though not exposed, the striker feigned going short, then went long and he was left for dead. The thing I liked most about him was that he was always moving/repositioning in anticipation of something going wrong, which some of our centre backs fail to do.