Summer Transfer Window 2026

[Midfield_General]

2 hours ago, Saint Scott said:

Celtic makes sense for Bazunu, with Kasper Schmeichel now retired they look very light at GK. 

I think he could do okay there, hopefully he can rejuvinate some kind of form

Jesus, Celtic could realistically qualify for the Champions League. 

They'd be the whipping boys anyway, but can you imagine the carnage if they lined up against PSG and Real Madrid with Baz in goal? 

Given that their fans are not exactly known for their patience and tolerance, I'd be genuinely concerned for his welfare. 

[SouthWalesSaints]

11 minutes ago, Rebel said:

We need a No. 8 replacement for Shea Charles ASAP - but even with Charles, Jander, Downes and Bragg we were a bit short in midfield last season which is why they signed Romeu in January.  It didn't work unfortunately but we still need a big physical No. 6 to give us cover for Downes and Bragg and someone who can come one and help us close out games. 

Didn't he come in after Still left, was definitely before Jan. 

[Baird of the land]

2 hours ago, HarvSFC said:

I do find it a bit bizarre regarding the midfielder situation and "nothing being imminent". Shea Charles needed replacing and his sale didn't come as a surprise.

Depressing that they seem to have slipped back into incompetence mode in regards transfers.

 

[Saint NL]

If Archer goes to Preston then we've basically just swapped him for Dobbin.

Let's hope it's an upgrade

[LuckyNumber7]

4 hours ago, Saint86 said:

I wonder if we might be able to get  Emmanuel Emegha on loan from Chelsea. Very talented young CF, they signed him from Stasbourg this summer (so they obviously think there is a good player there) but he hasn't featured so far, which suggest he might be available on loan. 6ft 5", good in the air, pacey, and good finisher...

 

Absolutely no chance. Even if he were available for loan he wouldn't go to the Championship.

[sadoldgit]

9 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

Depressing that they seem to have slipped back into incompetence mode in regards transfers.

 

Perhaps wait until the transfer window slams shut before you slag off the business in this window? Surely it is better to get the main target in, even if we have to wait a while?

[hypochondriac]

4 minutes ago, Saint NL said:

If Archer goes to Preston then we've basically just swapped him for Dobbin.

Let's hope it's an upgrade

Only if we fail to sign anyone else. If BBD and Downs go as well I would be very surprised if no one else came in. 

[VectisSaint]

9 minutes ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

Didn't he come in after Still left, was definitely before Jan. 

He was certainly a Still target even if he actually signed after Still left (there had been talks going on long before he joined us). He wasn't signed as backup for Jander, Charles, Downes and Bragg, and I don't think we were ever light in that area, quite the opposite in fact which allowed us to rotate the central 4 so effectively. 

[Charlie Wayman]

20 minutes ago, Rebel said:

We need a No. 8 replacement for Shea Charles ASAP - but even with Charles, Jander, Downes and Bragg we were a bit short in midfield last season which is why they signed Romeu in January.  It didn't work unfortunately but we still need a big physical No. 6 to give us cover for Downes and Bragg and someone who can come one and help us close out games. 

It is doubtful that was the main reason for bringing in Romeu last season. My guess is that his value was as a mentor to the likes of Bragg and Jander. It'll be interesting to see if their performances drop off this season. Certainly Bragg seemed to lack a bit of composure and authority in his play at Watford. Early days.

[Saint NL]

Piroe gone to West Ham, loan with obligation. 

[Chez]

4 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

It is doubtful that was the main reason for bringing in Romeu last season. My guess is that his value was as a mentor to the likes of Bragg and Jander. It'll be interesting to see if their performances drop off this season. Certainly Bragg seemed to lack a bit of composure and authority in his play at Watford. Early days.

Romeu rejoined soon after Saints diagnosed the Shea Charles hamstring injury (which kept him out for almost three months).

[Holmes_and_Watson]

24 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Jesus, Celtic could realistically qualify for the Champions League. 

They'd be the whipping boys anyway, but can you imagine the carnage if they lined up against PSG and Real Madrid with Baz in goal? 

Given that their fans are not exactly known for their patience and tolerance, I'd be genuinely concerned for his welfare. 

We saw what Rangers fans thought of a system that was a best fit for Baz. Sending him to Celtic would end badly. Sending him on loan to Suspend Your Keeper Above A Shark Tank FC would be a better option than that.

[Chez]

19 minutes ago, Saint NL said:

If Archer goes to Preston then we've basically just swapped him for Dobbin.

 

Not quite. I suspect Preston won't be chucking anywhere near £10m our way.

[Chez]

33 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Jesus, Celtic could realistically qualify for the Champions League. 

They'd be the whipping boys anyway, but can you imagine the carnage if they lined up against PSG and Real Madrid with Baz in goal? 

Given that their fans are not exactly known for their patience and tolerance, I'd be genuinely concerned for his welfare. 

Ramsdale would make more sense in terms of presence. With no PL sides seemingly interested, I wonder if the finances could ever work for that move to happen?

[Bakovnetski]

3 hours ago, revolution saint said:

5ft 7" injury prone midget that hasn't played above L1 level.  Sounds just what we need.

We are nothing but consistent in our sh*t scouting team

[skintsaint]

The keeping situation is such a mess at the moment, three big earners on the books and we can't shift two of them. Ties up a decent amount of finances.

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, skintsaint said:

The keeping situation is such a mess at the moment, three big earners on the books and we can't shift two of them. Ties up a decent amount of finances.

Sounds like Bazunu could be on the move soon. Ramsdale most likely a loan sadly. 

[pingpong]

Pogba on the move. (MLS probably)

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, Saint NL said:

If Archer goes to Preston then we've basically just swapped him for Dobbin.

Let's hope it's an upgrade

I like Archer and would prefer him to stay over the other less favoured players rumoured to go, I have no idea about Dobbin, can’t say I’d really heard of him before we signed him and he hasn’t done much so far. Let’s hope he delivers. 

[Badger]

14 hours ago, Sir Ralph said:

Just out of interest where was this published please?

Couple of linked articles further up the thread

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, sadoldgit said:

Perhaps wait until the transfer window slams shut before you slag off the business in this window? Surely it is better to get the main target in, even if we have to wait a while?

I can’t speak for the poster you are responding to, but personally my jitters are based on Dragan’s apparent over promising and the belief that we didn’t have time to faff about given our starting league position and the seemingly more competitive nature of the championship this season. 

[Badger]

18 hours ago, goodymatt said:

 

 

14 hours ago, Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd said:

Ratkov has already said that he doesn't want to come to Southampton. 

 

Hadn’t heard of the bloke until about a week ago, so open minded about it.

Pros: seemed promising from time in Salzburg. And matches the profile for a Stewart replacement (Dobbin and Muamba don’t)

Cons: pretty unimpressive time at Lazio to now be surplus. Has already rejected the option of the move.
(Last signing from Lazio I think was poor - surely he’s not the Wesley Hoedt of strikers).

Can’t see this happening the more I think about it. Having declined us once it seems an unlikely u-turn. Gut feeling is that having not made it in Italy he’ll look to head back to Serbia (perhaps seeing it as a safer option). Aren’t Red Star Belgrade the glamour  team for most Serbs (unless you support Partizan)?

Hope Saints don’t wait on this too long.

(Having said this, watch the fucker being announced this evening). 

 

[revolution saint]

7 minutes ago, Badger said:

 

Hadn’t heard of the bloke until about a week ago, so open minded about it.

Pros: seemed promising from time in Salzburg. And matches the profile for a Stewart replacement (Dobbin and Muamba don’t)

Cons: pretty unimpressive time at Lazio to now be surplus. Has already rejected the option of the move.
(Last signing from Lazio I think was poor - surely he’s not the Wesley Hoedt of strikers).

Can’t see this happening the more I think about it. Having declined us once it seems an unlikely u-turn. Gut feeling is that having not made it in Italy he’ll look to head back to Serbia (perhaps seeing it as a safer option). Aren’t Red Star Belgrade the glamour  team for most Serbs (unless you support Partizan)?

Hope Saints don’t wait on this too long.

(Having said this, watch the fucker being announced this evening). 

 

 Definitely unlikely all the time we've got Archer, BBD and Downs still hanging around and probably not the best idea to try and convince someone who's already apparently rejected you once. 
Shame though as he does look to be exactly the kind of player we should have been signing to replace Stewart.

[Pengi]

4 hours ago, Saint Scott said:

Celtic makes sense for Bazunu, with Kasper Schmeichel now retired they look very light at GK. 

I think he could do okay there, hopefully he can rejuvinate some kind of form

Portsmouth makes sense for Bazunu 🙂

[Badger]

4 hours ago, CSA96 said:

Transfer update from Alfie House on the Echo site just now:

- Celtic and Dinamo Zagreb looking at a move for Gavin Bazunu
- Damion Downs has two clubs in MLS who want him, most likely he moves to the USA
- Yuki Sugawara wanted by Werder Bremen and two other Bundesliga clubs
- No active interest or offers for Harwood-Bellis since the rejected Benfica bid, but club expects further interest
- Central midfielder is top priority for Spors and Eckert but nothing is imminent
- Unlikely that they make another expensive attacking signing but they are open to using the loan market

Mostly positive news, except no mention of BBD. 

[Dan Johnson]

Could THB be on the list to replace Konsa at Villa, or are we expecting them to sign someone more established at European level.

[Turkish]

3 hours ago, Saint Scott said:

For a team thats going to dominate 95% of their games he'll be fine

Fine for the Scottish League, yes?

[Challenger]

4 hours ago, CSA96 said:

Holding on for their top target vs taking someone else who is further down the list, I guess. Probably waiting for another club to get their replacement lined up or to allow the player out in the final week of the window. It's a bit annoying the window works in this way when the league games are already underway but it's the reality of things

" We really hoped he would join but in the end we couldn't quite get the deal across the line. The tightness of the remaining time meant moving on alternatives was not possible ".

 

[revolution saint]

7 minutes ago, Challenger said:

" We really hoped he would join but in the end we couldn't quite get the deal across the line. The tightness of the remaining time meant moving on alternatives was not possible ".

 

Think that tended to be more of a feature under Semmens when we identified players like Gakpo and Ramos despite never really having much of a chance to sign either. 

Sports Republic seem to have the opposite problem in that they've often signed the players they've identified - I'm not sure anyone would really have minded missing out on BBD, Archer or Downs.
To be fair Spors hasn't really had too many misses though.

[CSA96]

36 minutes ago, Challenger said:

" We really hoped he would join but in the end we couldn't quite get the deal across the line. The tightness of the remaining time meant moving on alternatives was not possible ".

 

When have they said this? Certainly not last summer when Azaz, Jander, Fellows and Scienza were all signed in the final week of the window

[Patches O Houlihan]

1 hour ago, Toussaint said:

I can’t speak for the poster you are responding to, but personally my jitters are based on Dragan’s apparent over promising and the belief that we didn’t have time to faff about given our starting league position and the seemingly more competitive nature of the championship this season. 

The transfer window follows the same patterns every year...

Let's say we have £10m to spend on one player for one specific position. As the window develops we end up in a situation where:

a) We can buy 'Player A' for £9m four weeks before our first game

OR

b) There is a 90% chance we can land 'Player B' who is 20% better than 'Player A'.
B plays for a club that needs to sell but they don't want to be sat on a pile of money for weeks otherwise they will overpay for his replacement. So there is a verbal agreement, but things are kept on the down low until Player B's team is happy that his replacement is secured.
We then pay £10m for Player B. We had to be patient and B didn't get a detailed pre-season but we got a better player with greater potential for a lucrative sale at the end of his time with us.

Or alternatively would you rather we bought anther BBD or another Scienza?!

[sadoldgit]

1 hour ago, Toussaint said:

I can’t speak for the poster you are responding to, but personally my jitters are based on Dragan’s apparent over promising and the belief that we didn’t have time to faff about given our starting league position and the seemingly more competitive nature of the championship this season. 

Are we faffing about though? That is just an assumption because we haven’t signed a Charles replacement immediately. There are all kinds of reasons that hasn’t happened. Isn’t it more likely that other clubs are waiting to see what happens with their own targets before they release players? Or maybe the players themselves are waiting to see if better options come along? Sadly the nature of the transfer window means that the further down the food chain you are, the harder it is to do the business that you would like to do when you would like to do it. Yes, it is possible that Spors and his staff are sitting on their hands waiting for the last few days of the window to get busy. I think it is more likely that the phones are ringing off the hook and red hot with texts and emails while us and everyone else in the football world are trying to get their ducks in a row before the window slams shut.

[Midfield_General]

2 hours ago, Chez said:

Ramsdale would make more sense in terms of presence. With no PL sides seemingly interested, I wonder if the finances could ever work for that move to happen?

He'd definitely be a better fit, but even with CL I'm not sure Celtic are paying anyone £100k+ p/w any time soon. 

Robbie Keane is their top ever earner I think, and he was on £65k (though admittedly a few years ago now) 

Though if its getting near deadline day and we're getting desperate to get him off the books, you could maybe see a loan with us covering some of the wage. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Midfield_General

[saintant]

7 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

The transfer window follows the same patterns every year...

Let's say we have £10m to spend on one player for one specific position. As the window develops we end up in a situation where:

a) We can buy 'Player A' for £9m four weeks before our first game

OR

b) There is a 90% chance we can land 'Player B' who is 20% better than 'Player A'.
B plays for a club that needs to sell but they don't want to be sat on a pile of money for weeks otherwise they will overpay for his replacement. So there is a verbal agreement, but things are kept on the down low until Player B's team is happy that his replacement is secured.
We then pay £10m for Player B. We had to be patient and B didn't get a detailed pre-season but we got a better player with greater potential for a lucrative sale at the end of his time with us.

Or alternatively would you rather we bought anther BBD or another Scienza?!

This sounds like a clue on 321

[Patches O Houlihan]

3 minutes ago, saintant said:

This sounds like a clue on 321

321 must be some serious highbrow television then.

[HarvSFC]

Without giving too much credit to Middlesbrough and their board, they got their Hackney and Rogers money and then improved various other parts of their squad sharply and quite significantly with many tipping them for promotion based on their signings. Also allowing them a pre-season.

Do we start every season slowly because we're cursed, play minnows in pre-season, or does leaving transfers until the last minute every year play some impact? Starting the first two Premier League games with Alex McCarthy between the sticks certainly didn't help us get off to a good start.

[CSA96]

14 minutes ago, sadoldgit said:

Are we faffing about though? That is just an assumption because we haven’t signed a Charles replacement immediately. There are all kinds of reasons that hasn’t happened. Isn’t it more likely that other clubs are waiting to see what happens with their own targets before they release players? Or maybe the players themselves are waiting to see if better options come along? Sadly the nature of the transfer window means that the further down the food chain you are, the harder it is to do the business that you would like to do when you would like to do it. Yes, it is possible that Spors and his staff are sitting on their hands waiting for the last few days of the window to get busy. I think it is more likely that the phones are ringing off the hook and red hot with texts and emails while us and everyone else in the football world are trying to get their ducks in a row before the window slams shut.

Yeah, exactly. We are stuck in our part of the chain waiting on the clubs before us in the chain to make decisions and be willing to do business or willing to agree to different terms from their previous stance, in the same way that the likes of Derby, Preston, WBA are waiting on us to see if they can sign Archer / BBD in the last few days of the window on terms that work for them

Edited 2 hours ago by CSA96

[Wade Garrett]

17 minutes ago, saintant said:

This sounds like a clue on 321

Hope that doesn't mean we'll end up with Dusty Bin.

[Wade Garrett]

13 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

Without giving too much credit to Middlesbrough and their board, they got their Hackney and Rogers money and then improved various other parts of their squad sharply and quite significantly with many tipping them for promotion based on their signings. Also allowing them a pre-season.

Do we start every season slowly because we're cursed, play minnows in pre-season, or does leaving transfers until the last minute every year play some impact? Starting the first two Premier League games with Alex McCarthy between the sticks certainly didn't help us get off to a good start.

To be fair, we tied up Larin and Peretz quickly.

[OldNick]

Perhaps the club have waited and signed Peretz and Larin later in the wondow that may have appeased some of their next transfer fix

[jrobsbigshorts]

3 hours ago, Rebel said:

We need a No. 8 replacement for Shea Charles ASAP - but even with Charles, Jander, Downes and Bragg we were a bit short in midfield last season which is why they signed Romeu in January.  It didn't work unfortunately but we still need a big physical No. 6 to give us cover for Downes and Bragg and someone who can come one and help us close out games. 

I disagree, we have 2 very good no.6s in Bragg and Downes we don't need another , I thought we  probably had the best midfield in the league last season 

Edited 1 hour ago by jrobsbigshorts

[SNSUN]

With Sheffield United in potential trouble, it may be that they can't afford Anel which is good for us. 

[Draino76]

5 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

With Sheffield United in potential trouble, it may be that they can't afford Anel which is good for us. 

Maybe its that fact they've had Anel before is why they're in trouble now.

[Baird of the land]

2 hours ago, Toussaint said:

I like Archer and would prefer him to stay over the other less favoured players rumoured to go, I have no idea about Dobbin, can’t say I’d really heard of him before we signed him and he hasn’t done much so far. Let’s hope he delivers. 

I don't like dobbin signing, may suddenly turn into an immediate goal machine. However Smacks of going back to a signing for future potential sell on (downs/quarshie) rather than immediate impact. Especially egregious spending there when we knew we were going to have a massive immediate need at cm8 very soon.

Edited 1 hour ago by Baird of the land

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, Baird of the land said:

I don't like dobbin signing, may suddenly turn into an immediate goal machine. However Smacks of going back to a signing for future potentialdowns/quarshie) rather than immediate impact. Especially egregious spending there when we knew we were going to have a massive immediate need at cm8 very soon.

I agree with some of your post but not that bit. He was successful last year in this league as opposed to Downs and Quarshie who were not. He's also been played out wide which Preston fans told us was where he goes missing. Where I agree with you is that if we get to the end of the window and have lost a couple more key players and replaced with cheaper and slightly less good alternatives, I would argue that 9 million pounds is a fairly large amount that may have been better spent strengthening weaker areas of the time than stocking us with two players who are must comfortable in attacking midfield.

[2Morrow]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

I agree with some of your post but not that bit. He was successful last year in this league as opposed to Downs and Quarshie who were not. He's also been played out wide which Preston fans told us was where he goes missing. Where I agree with you is that if we get to the end of the window and have lost a couple more key players and replaced with cheaper and slightly less good alternatives, I would argue that 9 million pounds is a fairly large amount that may have been better spent strengthening weaker areas of the time than stocking us with two players who are must comfortable in attacking midfield.

 

5 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

I don't like dobbin signing, may suddenly turn into an immediate goal machine. However Smacks of going back to a signing for future potential sell on (downs/quarshie) rather than immediate impact. Especially egregious spending there when we knew we were going to have a massive immediate need at cm8 very soon.

 

[hypochondriac]

18 minutes ago, jrobsbigshorts said:

I disagree, we have 2 very good no.6s in Bragg and Downes we don't need another , I thought we  probably had the best midfield in the league last season 

The reason we signed Romeu was because we weren't considering Bragg. Then it turned out he was decent so Romeu became surplus to requirements.

[hypochondriac]

9 minutes ago, 2Morrow said:

 

 

Why have you tagged me in this post? Edit: I assume you're agreeing with me?

Edited 1 hour ago by hypochondriac

[hypochondriac]

29 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

To be fair, we tied up Larin and Peretz quickly.

That's true and they do deserve credit for bringing them in permanently but that doesn't really improve us from last year given that they were already playing for us. I read an interesting article from Adam yesterday that was quite pessimistic but argued that there is a danger that the players aren't going to be mentally up for going through hardship once again with the manner of missing out last year. I suppose that's an argument for a bit more change in the squad but the only way to answer that is to win games.

Edited 1 hour ago by hypochondriac

[Convict Colony]

Guys there is levels to this. 

Just configured my ai to send me a daily report at 7.30am of all incoming southampton fc rumours globally.

I look forward to posting the results tomorrow, prompt below if your interested.

"You are my daily Southampton FC incoming-transfer briefing.

Every run, research the last 24–48 hours only and produce a short, high-signal update on players who might JOIN Southampton. Ignore outgoing rumours unless they directly change an incoming need (e.g. a sale that creates a vacancy).

How to research

- Start with these sources in this order of trust: Daily Echo / Alfie House, Fabrizio Romano, Sky Sports, BBC Sport, then The Athletic or other named journalists including worldwide news sources (germany, france, latin america etc).

- Also check r/SaintsFC and recent X posts (search: Southampton transfer, SaintsFC, plus any named targets).

- Use current date. Do not recycle stories older than 48 hours unless there is a genuine new development.

- Distinguish: confirmed, advanced talks, “initial contact / interest”, or just fan/forum chatter.

Context you already know (update if it changes)

- Championship side targeting promotion.

- Shea Charles sold to Fulham (~£26-30m). Central midfield is the stated remaining priority; Daily Echo said nothing was imminent as of 19 Aug 2026.

- Recent named incoming links: Anel Ahmedhodžić (Feyenoord CB), Imran Louza (Watford CM). Also earlier striker/full-back names that may have gone cold after Dobbin + Mubama arrived.

Output format (keep it tight, under 350 words)

**Southampton incoming transfer update — [today’s date]**

**Priority need:** one sentence.

**What’s new today**

- Bullet each live rumour: player, club, position, fee talk if any, who reported it, how strong it looks.

**Cooling / no movement**

- Anything that was hot yesterday and has gone quiet.

**Other whispers**

- Only include if they appeared in a decent source in the last 48h.

**Bottom line**

- 2–3 sentences: are they close to anyone, or still waiting?

Rules

- Be honest about quality. “Romano said contact” is not the same as “deal agreed”.

- If there is genuinely nothing new, say “Quiet day. No credible new incoming links.” and stop.

- No fluff, no recap of already-completed signings unless relevant.

- English, concise, slightly informal."