Summer Transfer Window 2025/26

[Lee On Solent Saint]

3 hours ago, Chez said:

With the Onuachu to Trabzonspor deal going the usual path - them offering bobbins, us saying no - the latest rumour is that Rennes are interested.

Meanwhile it looks like Braga want €11m for Simon Banza, and that is beyond Trabzonspor (he scored 19 goals for them while on loan), hence Besiktas being the club likely to sign him. If we still want a similar amount for Onuachu, then he wont be going to Trabzonspor.

Shame we couldn't persuade Galatasary to take him. Sane on a free transfer going there. Perfect player for all those crosses he can get his head on. 

[DT]

Cracking transfer window that. We are going to smash the league.

[Farmer Saint]

15 hours ago, sockeye said:

10 million for a striker who plays in the Swiss League. Right.

Underwhelming is an understatement.

Edit: Idiocy from myself

Edited Thursday at 11:14 by Farmer Saint

[Wade Garrett]

16 hours ago, sockeye said:

10 million for a striker who plays in the Swiss League. Right.

Underwhelming is an understatement.

More clever-bollocky from the laptop brigade.

[washsaint]

7 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

A bit like Max Alleyne to Man City a few years ago then.

Ive never actually hear of this kid going to Man United, nor do I imagine many have on here.

Seen a few on social media give it the old “disgraceful by the club”, I’m pretty confident they’d never heard of him either.

People forget he is 15/16 years old, there’s on a very select few that go on to make it higher up after signing for bigger teams at a young age. Some never fulfill their potential.

See Jimmy-Jay Morgan who wanted £10K supposedly at the age of 17 to stay at Saints and is now plying his trade in constant loans in League 2. 😂

Thing is Morgan is 18 (maybe 19 now?) and will be a top, top player.  He was banging them in for the Chelsea U21s and was successful in his loan spells.  Whether he will ever play for Chelsea is another matter entirely........

[swannymere]

16 hours ago, Master Bates said:

Thought we knew this back in May? Done deal.

 

Your spunk is a weird colour, see a doctor.

[Matthew Le God]

43 minutes ago, washsaint said:

Thing is Morgan is 18 (maybe 19 now?) and will be a top, top player.  He was banging them in for the Chelsea U21s and was successful in his loan spells.  

Only 2 goals in 16 League Two games suggests otherwise. He is older than Dibling and Dibling impressed in the Premier League. 

[davefizzy14]

Yes please!

[skintsaint]

1 minute ago, davefizzy14 said:

Yes please!

Is this the geezer who scored the lobbed goal last season in one of the European Cups?

[hypochondriac]

12 minutes ago, davefizzy14 said:

Yes please!

Lol. 0% chance we pay 30 million euros for anyone. We didn't even pay that in the prem. 

Edited Thursday at 14:44 by hypochondriac

[sockeye]

19 minutes ago, davefizzy14 said:

Yes please!

Piroe was a much better shout two years ago and he cost about half that. This guy has hit double figures only one season in his career.

[revolution saint]

14 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Lol. 0% chance we pay 30 million euros for anyone. We didn't even pay that in the prem. 

Link says 20M euros doesn't it?  We won't pay that either though.  I looked out for him a fair bit the last time we were linked and I thought he looked pretty decent and would have been a good fit for us.  Surprised he hasn't really kicked on though and 5 goals in 22 starts isn't great for last season.  Apparently Ipswich had a 22.5M euros bid turned down last summer so I guess they may be more inclined to reduce the price a bit but still unrealistic.

[Saint86]

48 minutes ago, davefizzy14 said:

Yes please!

Judging by the fact the same account is saying we've made a 30m euro offer, and then references a post saying it will take 20m euros... It doesn't seem the most reliable link i've come across 😅

[skintsaint]

2 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Judging by the fact the same account is saying we've made a 30m euro offer, and then references a post saying it will take 20m euros... It doesn't seem the most reliable link i've come across 😅

The 30m offer bit was from a tweet in 2024. 2025 tweet says 20m (not that I believe we will spend that)

Edited Thursday at 15:24 by skintsaint

[hypochondriac]

5 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

The 30m offer bit was from a tweet in 2024. 2025 tweet says 20m (not that I believe we will spend that)

If we do spend that amount then it has to really be a sure thing. 

[Saint86]

2 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

If we do spend that amount then it has to really be a sure thing. 

I think he'd be a great signing. Surprised we could land him in the championship. He'd be a proper CF for us tbh - he got a good mixture of strength and control, his movement and link play are pretty solid, and his finishing is decent. Would be a good fit for the way Will Still's sides have played. But i am sceptical we would be an attractive enough move for him, let alone if we can afford him. Think he'd make a very tidy partnership with Armstrong playing in and around him.

Edited Thursday at 15:32 by Saint86

[skintsaint]

3 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

I think he'd be a great signing. Surprised we could land him in the championship. He'd be a proper CF for us tbh - he got a good mixture of strength and control, his movement and link play are pretty solid, and his finishing is decent. Would be a good fit for the way Will Still's sides have played. But i am sceptical we would be an attractive enough move for him, let alone if we can afford him.

Scored against Lens and Will Still last season as well, so Still has first-hand experience of him (albeit over two games only).

[hypochondriac]

21 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

I think he'd be a great signing. Surprised we could land him in the championship. He'd be a proper CF for us tbh - he got a good mixture of strength and control, his movement and link play are pretty solid, and his finishing is decent. Would be a good fit for the way Will Still's sides have played. But i am sceptical we would be an attractive enough move for him, let alone if we can afford him. Think he'd make a very tidy partnership with Armstrong playing in and around him.

Average goalscoring record for potentially 20 million is an absolutely huge amount of money. 

[CB Fry]

Ioannidis woah oh

Ioannidis woah oh

He loves his feta cheese

He fucking hates Pompey

[Saint Scott]

21 hours ago, Chez said:

I forgot about Stewart. So we spent £18m in that window then. Perhaps a similar amount this summer?

It's also worth noting that we spent upwards of £50m in the January window (22/23) on Sulemana, Onuachu, Alcaraz, Orsic and Bree.

So there may be a bigger budget this summer, but departures will play a big part again

Edited Thursday at 18:06 by Saint Scott

[Oh no Mick Mills]

Looking at his record last season he scored his 5 league goals and 1 assist in the last 11 games. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

The Saints Centre Twitter account was called out last year for completely making shit up by a couple of journos.

Whoever runs the account deactivated it briefly last summer after a ton of abuse.

If you’re believing anything on that you must be incredibly gullible. 🤣

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

59 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

The Saints Centre Twitter account was called out last year for completely making shit up by a couple of journos.

Whoever runs the account deactivated it briefly last summer after a ton of abuse.

If you’re believing anything on that you must be incredibly gullible. 🤣

didn't you know he word gullible has been removed from the Oxford English dictionary

[LeBizzier69]

3 hours ago, CB Fry said:

Ioannidis woah oh

Ioannidis woah oh

He loves his feta cheese

He fucking hates Pompey

He loves to smash some plates

he fucking hates the skates

[Chez]

2 hours ago, Saint Scott said:

It's also worth noting that we spent upwards of £50m in the January window (22/23) on Sulemana, Onuachu, Alcaraz, Orsic and Bree.

So there may be a bigger budget this summer, but departures will play a big part again

£150m sold last time to allow us £20m to spend. There will need to be some significant sales to give us much of a budget.

 

 

[ally_uk]

Can't see it happening but would be a statement of intent, good player 👏 

[EBS1980]

I’m hoping we have scouts all over the U21 tournament currently. Some good options there for us surely 

[Pwoite]

9 hours ago, EBS1980 said:

I’m hoping we have scouts all over the U21 tournament currently. Some good options there for us surely 

Bearing in mind the last minute.com nature of so many transfers, adding to the difficulty of shifting some of our over paid, under performing, squad members, I don’t relish the task of the recruitment team this summer. They certainly won’t be able to move players on before bringing fresh blood in, and with thirty ‘senior’ players already on our books, I can see a logistics nightmare in terms of pre-season training and matches.

I wonder whether a dozen or so players have, or will, be told that they are not part of the plans for next season, and therefore won’t be training with the first team. If so, what impact on morale and team spirit will this create? Equally, if such information gets out, it reduces the price, and therefore club’s income, on those players.

I don’t think we should underestimate the difficulty facing the club in reducing our squad size and wage bill, whilst looking at bringing in those players vital to next season’s campaign.

 

[Hatchy]

11 hours ago, Golac's Cunning Stunts said:

didn't you know he word gullible has been removed from the Oxford English dictionary

No it hasn't

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, Pwoite said:

Bearing in mind the last minute.com nature of so many transfers, adding to the difficulty of shifting some of our over paid, under performing, squad members, I don’t relish the task of the recruitment team this summer. They certainly won’t be able to move players on before bringing fresh blood in, and with thirty ‘senior’ players already on our books, I can see a logistics nightmare in terms of pre-season training and matches.

I wonder whether a dozen or so players have, or will, be told that they are not part of the plans for next season, and therefore won’t be training with the first team. If so, what impact on morale and team spirit will this create? Equally, if such information gets out, it reduces the price, and therefore club’s income, on those players.

I don’t think we should underestimate the difficulty facing the club in reducing our squad size and wage bill, whilst looking at bringing in those players vital to next season’s campaign.

 

Whilst i agree, we have to be in far better place this window than after the previous relegation. Wage wise, all players should have relegation clauses in their contracts (allegedly not the case previously), and on top of that, a lot of our main squad earners will be the same as the last season in the championship - THB, Downes, Aribo, Armstrong, Charles, Manning, Bree, Sulemana (to be sold), Stewart, Edozie, Baz, Bednarek (to be sold), KWP (will leave), Onuachu (to be sold), smallbone, Taylor (assume will leave), Fraser (probably stuck with him), Dibbling (low wages or high fee if sold), ABK (should leave). I'm aware some of those were also loaned out previously. We're pretty much got the last promotion winning side already on the books without such a major financial shock and requirement to shift players, plus there will be young players coming through that we can use to supplement it, and there will be loan options again i suspect (i.e., minimal transfer costs for some positions).

Ramsdale and Fernandes are the two bigger money additions since last time around - personally i would love to see the club keep both of them.

I think we're also sat fairly pretty under PSR as well - Are allowable 3-year loss under PSR will be £61M at the end of the coming 25/26 season. We turned a profit last year, and you would like to think we may have turned a small profit (or at least not accrued a huge loss) this season just gone.

PSR 3-year window:

25/26 - TBC

24/25 - unknown (but prem broadcast money available)

23-24 - £5.7M profit

------------------------

22-23 - £87M loss

The major point here, is that we shouldn't have to sell to balance the "PSR" books this time around (i.e., to counter that £87M loss in SR's first season) to avoid sanctions.

Also, just for reference:

Parachute payments

25/26 - we receive 55% of the premier league's equal share broadcast revenue (circa £48M).

26/27 - we receive 45% of the equal share.

27/28 - crucially we won't receive a 3rd year of parachute payments as we were only in the league for 1 season.

As above, you would like to think that most of the players have relegation wage clauses of circa 50% (or similar) this time around, and fundamentally, most of our core squad next year are the squad from the previous championship promotion season - which all in will mitigate the need to do so much forced/rushed transfer dealing.

I would like to think we're in a much stronger position to go for promotion this time around, but equally i think it will be very tough league - expecting Ipswich to bounce unless they lose McKenna. Sheffield united should be very strong as they've already had any relegation shocks and have Wilde (for now), and Birmingham have a very strong squad assembled in league 1 without the same PSR rules.

 

Edited yesterday at 08:57 by Saint86

[spyinthesky]

1 hour ago, Saint86 said:

Whilst i agree, we have to be in far better place this window than after the previous relegation. Wage wise, all players should have relegation clauses in their contracts (allegedly not the case previously), and on top of that, a lot of our main squad earners will be the same as the last season in the championship - THB, Downes, Aribo, Armstrong, Charles, Manning, Bree, Sulemana (to be sold), Stewart, Edozie, Baz, Bednarek (to be sold), KWP (will leave), Onuachu (to be sold), smallbone, Taylor (assume will leave), Fraser (probably stuck with him), Dibbling (low wages or high fee if sold), ABK (should leave). I'm aware some of those were also loaned out previously. We're pretty much got the last promotion winning side already on the books without such a major financial shock and requirement to shift players, plus there will be young players coming through that we can use to supplement it, and there will be loan options again i suspect (i.e., minimal transfer costs for some positions).

Ramsdale and Fernandes are the two bigger money additions since last time around - personally i would love to see the club keep both of them.

I think we're also sat fairly pretty under PSR as well - Are allowable 3-year loss under PSR will be £61M at the end of the coming 25/26 season. We turned a profit last year, and you would like to think we may have turned a small profit (or at least not accrued a huge loss) this season just gone.

PSR 3-year window:

25/26 - TBC

24/25 - unknown (but prem broadcast money available)

23-24 - £5.7M profit

------------------------

22-23 - £87M loss

The major point here, is that we shouldn't have to sell to balance the "PSR" books this time around (i.e., to counter that £87M loss in SR's first season) to avoid sanctions.

Also, just for reference:

Parachute payments

25/26 - we receive 55% of the premier league's equal share broadcast revenue (circa £48M).

26/27 - we receive 45% of the equal share.

27/28 - crucially we won't receive a 3rd year of parachute payments as we were only in the league for 1 season.

As above, you would like to think that most of the players have relegation wage clauses of circa 50% (or similar) this time around, and fundamentally, most of our core squad next year are the squad from the previous championship promotion season - which all in will mitigate the need to do so much forced/rushed transfer dealing.

I would like to think we're in a much stronger position to go for promotion this time around, but equally i think it will be very tough league - expecting Ipswich to bounce unless they lose McKenna. Sheffield united should be very strong as they've already had any relegation shocks and have Wilde (for now), and Birmingham have a very strong squad assembled in league 1 without the same PSR rules.

 

 

[spyinthesky]

Just now, spyinthesky said:

 

Good info.
Re the relegation clause in players contracts, a few years ago I used to get my hair cut at by barber who was best mates with one of the Saints players. He told me that his mate had a 50% reduced wages  clause in his contract. Whether that applies to all players I'm not sure but I would hope that it does.
I remember years ago, prior to the Premier League, I think, Bristol City got promoted and then relegated in short order but they had to continue paying top wages to their players and that caused all sorts of financial issues which took years to overcome.

[lambtiss]

1 hour ago, spyinthesky said:

Good info.
Re the relegation clause in players contracts, a few years ago I used to get my hair cut at by barber who was best mates with one of the Saints players. He told me that his mate had a 50% reduced wages  clause in his contract. Whether that applies to all players I'm not sure but I would hope that it does.
I remember years ago, prior to the Premier League, I think, Bristol City got promoted and then relegated in short order but they had to continue paying top wages to their players and that caused all sorts of financial issues which took years to overcome.

Can you book a haircut for the latest gossip, please

[Doctoroncall]

1 hour ago, spyinthesky said:

Good info.
Re the relegation clause in players contracts, a few years ago I used to get my hair cut at by barber who was best mates with one of the Saints players. He told me that his mate had a 50% reduced wages  clause in his contract. Whether that applies to all players I'm not sure but I would hope that it does.
I remember years ago, prior to the Premier League, I think, Bristol City got promoted and then relegated in short order but they had to continue paying top wages to their players and that caused all sorts of financial issues which took years to overcome.

May have been Sunderland with Jack Rodwell and his £70k a week contract with no relegation clause. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 hour ago, lambtiss said:

Can you book a haircut for the latest gossip, please

Bet it was Stuart Armstrong. Guy had fantastic hair!

[Chez]

3 hours ago, Saint86 said:

I think we're also sat fairly pretty under PSR as well - Are allowable 3-year loss under PSR will be £61M at the end of the coming 25/26 season. We turned a profit last year, and you would like to think we may have turned a small profit (or at least not accrued a huge loss) this season just gone.

PSR 3-year window:

25/26 - TBC

24/25 - unknown (but prem broadcast money available)

23-24 - £5.7M profit

------------------------

22-23 - £87M loss

The major point here, is that we shouldn't have to sell to balance the "PSR" books this time around (i.e., to counter that £87M loss in SR's first season) to avoid sanctions.

 

 

We only made a £5.7m profit in a season we sold £150m worth of player and spent £18m. Last season the net spend on transfers was about £70m. Obviously not all of that will be paid in that financial year, but I'd be surprised if we didn't make a loss rather than the small profit you suggest. I hope you are right. The more we have to spend the better, obviously.

Over the three year period 2022-25, what it the total loss we are permitted? Is it £93m? That would allow us roughly a £12.3m loss in the 2024/25 season just gone. 

I'd be very surprised if we didn't have to sell to balance the books. Clever accounting can only get you so far. At some point we will have to pay for last season's failure.

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

We only made a £5.7m profit in a season we sold £150m worth of player and spent £18m. Last season the net spend on transfers was about £70m. Obviously not all of that will be paid in that financial year, but I'd be surprised if we didn't make a loss rather than the small profit you suggest. I hope you are right. The more we have to spend the better, obviously.

Over the three year period 2022-25, what it the total loss we are permitted? Is it £93m? That would allow us roughly a £12.3m loss in the 2024/25 season just gone. 

I'd be very surprised if we didn't have to sell to balance the books. Clever accounting can only get you so far. At some point we will have to pay for last season's failure.

Agreed, and yes £93M (essentially every year in the champ you deduct £22M off the £105M allowable 3-year loss for the premier league). I haven't deep dived in to specifics on wages. Fully acknowledge that we made that profit through extensive transfer sales - but sales are only part of the picture - and we did cut a huge amount of the wage bill (especially if we didn't have a lot of / key relegation clauses.

From Gemini (so I've not checked this) but our wages in 22/23 were £107M. For 23/24 it was "around £50M". Our revenue in 23/24 was £85M - down from £145.5M (so a 60M saving required). Ignoring the outstanding debts (for which we know the interest payments were significant, and the has now been restructured), the wage to turnover restructure wasn't far off what was required.

Just looking at player changes across the seasons:

Notable exits (i.e., off the wage bill) between the previous prem relegation season and this summer:

• Alcaraz
• Mara
• Lyanco
• DCC
• Perraud
• Stu Armstrong
• Che Adams
• Lavia
• Livramento
• JWP
• Tella
• Djenpo
• Orsic
• ABK (i assume he will be off or loaned again next season - i.e. not on our books).
• Onuachu - ditto
• Diallo
• Walcott
• Caballero
• Salisu
• Elyounnoissi

Notable replacements in that time (and lets make the assumption that this lot will be on collectively far lower wages / have relegation wage clauses):

• THB (starter)
• Downes (starter)
• Fraser (😐)
• Ramsdale (key player obviously) - Added this season - Assume of all of them he's probably on a fair packet but will surely have relegation wage (and likely release) clauses.
• Archer (champ starter) - Added this season
• Fernandes (key player) - Added this season
• BBD (😐) - Added this season
• Suga (probably a good champ player?) - Added this season
• Edwards / woods / Sanda (Suspect one of these will be a starter) - Added this season - assume all on comparatively very low wages anyawy
• Taylor (😐) - Added this season 
• Wellington (good squad player as a minimum for the champ) - Added this season
• Manning - starter
• Stewart (😐) - calling him a squad player and lets see if he can manager to stay fit ey?

So i think its clear that that "firesale" resulted in a serious amount of wages that have been cut, especially if even a small number didn't have relegation clauses, and its left us with the basis for a competitive championship promotion team. And this probably isn't an exercise we need to repeat (at least not significantly). Especially when you consider the players that are likely to leave this summer that overlapped the the previous championship season (ignoring Fernandes/dibbling/Ramsdale).

• Onuachu - played no part and was on loan, expect him to go this summer.
• Sulemana - essentially played no part, expect him to go this summer (wage saving)
• ABK - played no part and was on loan, expect him to go this summer.
• Macca/Lumley - both can go for all i care, with a replacement coming in (surely on less than macca).
• Bednarek - Has he already been replaced? Eitherway, will be wage saving.
• KWP - must be one of our highest earners - Needs to be replaced but will be a significant wage saving
• Aribo - Rumoured to be one of our highest earners - Needs to be replaced but will be a significant wage saving.
• Brooks - "available" wages from within that £50M champ budget 
• Rothwell - "available" wages from within that £50M champ budget

All in, i really don't think we're in a bad spot and certainly should be able to improve on the team we had in the 23/24 promotion season 😊

Edited 21 hours ago by Saint86

[CamSaint]

Does anyone know when the players report back for pre-season training? That will be Still's first opportunity to look at the squad at first hand, which will presumably influence some of our transfer dealings. I assume those on international duty will come back later than the others.

[skintsaint]

8 minutes ago, CamSaint said:

Does anyone know when the players report back for pre-season training? That will be Still's first opportunity to look at the squad at first hand, which will presumably influence some of our transfer dealings. I assume those on international duty will come back later than the others.

3rd July last year, might be a week or so earlier this year as the season kicks off sooner.

[CamSaint]

37 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

3rd July last year, might be a week or so earlier this year as the season kicks off sooner.

Thanks. As you say, it could be earlier as the Eastleigh friendly is July 12th.

[Doctoroncall]

U21 euro champ ends on the 28th June so Edwards likely to miss some preseason if England get to the semifinals/final. 

[Chez]

4 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Agreed, and yes £93M (essentially every year in the champ you deduct £22M off the £105M allowable 3-year loss for the premier league). I haven't deep dived in to specifics on wages. Fully acknowledge that we made that profit through extensive transfer sales - but sales are only part of the picture - and we did cut a huge amount of the wage bill (especially if we didn't have a lot of / key relegation clauses.

From Gemini (so I've not checked this) but our wages in 22/23 were £107M. For 23/24 it was "around £50M". Our revenue in 23/24 was £85M - down from £145.5M (so a 60M saving required). Ignoring the outstanding debts (for which we know the interest payments were significant, and the has now been restructured), the wage to turnover restructure wasn't far off what was required.

Your figures are not quite right.  Total club wages for 2023 were £122m, and in 2024 they were £81m (93.5% of turnover).

Wages for 2025 will have risen a fair amount, but you would imagine not to the 2023 level. However, we offloaded a lot of players and wages when we were relegated. If we don't do that again, the reduction won't be as high. 

Losing KWP, Ramsdale and maybe someone like Bednarek would save a lot.

[Hawkswood]

3 hours ago, skintsaint said:

3rd July last year, might be a week or so earlier this year as the season kicks off sooner.

Any particular reason for that ?

[skintsaint]

9 minutes ago, Hawkswood said:

Any particular reason for that ?

Championship season starts earlier than the PL.

[spyinthesky]

9 hours ago, lambtiss said:

Can you book a haircut for the latest gossip, please

No hair nowadays due to the stress of watching Saints

[Chez]

Tanganga has a £1.2m buyout clause but looks like PL sides are interested.

 

[Chez]

Poku's move to Birmingham seems to have hit the skids. An opportunity for us? 

[lambtiss]

57 minutes ago, Chez said:

Tanganga has a £1.2m buyout clause but looks like PL sides are interested.

 

Sounds a bargain at that price

[gio1saints]

Just a thought after reading that Matt o’reilly has been linked with Roma after a disappointing first year at Brighton : 

He’s not been played in his favoured position (8), apparently, and has said he’s unhappy. And apparently open to a move. 

He cost them £21m - so we are not paying that ( well I’m 90% confident we are not!) -  but given our strong interest last year it does not sound totally mad to suggest he might be somebody we would love to have on loan if available - and of course would be a guaranteed starter - especially given Mateus and Tyler employment status at SMS may be changing. 

I think he’d be a fantastic fit at Saints if he took up the challenge but I suspect there’s a lot better and wealthier clubs than us would take him as a loan- or even as an attacking midfielder punt - and that’s if Brighton even let him go. 

[Dusic]