Summer Transfer Window 2026

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, Colinjb said:

We are above two of them so far, so, let's keep on going.

I don't think we're seriously suggesting that the table after three games is any reflection on the rest of the season or our chances for the year. I'm pretty sure stoke were too of the league after about five games and finished 14th or something like that.

[Pengi]

Panic ye not. There is still the January window to do some tweaks etc. Plus the free agent market. It will take a little bit of time for the newbies to get up to speed and scoring (remember how Mane was slated, and also Finn Azaz when he joined). The bigger worry is what happens to Tonda …

[Colinjb]

5 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I don't think we're seriously suggesting that the table after three games is any reflection on the rest of the season or our chances for the year. I'm pretty sure stoke were too of the league after about five games and finished 14th or something like that.

We managed 4+ point swings on them already. Of course there's a long way to go, but we are, already, competitive with them. 

And it's not just about them looking upwards. Just look at Leicester last season and Sunderland a few years ago. 

Edited 5 hours ago by Colinjb

[SNSUN]

18 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Considering not going up could have been far more damaging. I am as things stand; satisfied.

This is a good point. We could have also lost Jander and Leo, not signed up Peretz and Larin and even lost one of other bigger hitters like Azaz or Downes. Doesn't beat thinking about. As it stands our first team is very strong. 

[saintant]

5 minutes ago, macca155 said:

Problem is people are trigger happy for the slightest mistake. It was the same with Redmond, JWP at times, and irritatingly now Bragg.

We'll need every squad player as the season progresses. Pointless slagging them off. We expect loyalty but don't give it to some players.

I get the feeling that the new defender is already in some people's sights.

It's hardly the slightest mistake in Stephens case. I accept he has good games but so often he makes unforced errors which lead to goals. 

[Colinjb]

Abbot confirmed.

[Saint86]

Just now, Colinjb said:

Abbot confirmed.

Good stuff!

[saintant]

2 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Abbot confirmed.

Welcome Zack. Hoping you'll hit the ground running and stake a claim for a place alongside Schlotterbeck.

[hypochondriac]

7 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

We managed 4+ point swings on them already. Of course there's a long way to go, but we are, already, competitive with them. 

And it's not just about them looking upwards. Just look at Leicester last season and Sunderland a few years ago. 

That's a silly thing to say. By that logic Stoke were competitive with Coventry last season for the brief period they were above them in the table.

[davefizzy14]

4 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Abbot confirmed.

Welcome onboard Zach 😊

[Colinjb]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

That's a silly thing to say. By that logic Stoke were competitive with Coventry last season for the brief period they were above them in the table.

That's just it, at that moment in time they were. So, it's far from a silly thing to say. Form can change, but Stoke were, for a fair while last season, competitive.

[sambosa75]

28 minutes ago, Sir Ralph said:

I’m surprised ramsdale will still be here and that we wouldn’t play him

Why?  Peretz is a better keeper.  Not even close I’d say.

[SNSUN]

2 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Abbot confirmed.

Back to 4 CBs. Highly rated, we can only hope he's a surprise hit. I guess we'll be starting Jack or Nathan for a bit though. 

[PerthshireSaint]

If you’d asked me ( though no one in their right mind would) on the day we got kicked out of the playoffs that this window we’d have kept Tonda, Leo, Caspar etc signed Peretz and Larin and made 60 mil off of an inevitable two out the door I’d have literally bitten your arm off.  Not unhappy at all with business done. 

Edited 4 hours ago by PerthshireSaint

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, Colinjb said:

That's just it, at that moment in time they were. So, it's far from a silly thing to say. Form can change, but Stoke were, for a fair while last season, competitive.

Three games is not a reliable indicator at all. As an example, the team who finished second bottom last year could have played Sheffield Wednesday in the first game, thrashed them and been top of the table. That doesn't make them competitive with the rest of the league after one game, that's a nonsense.

[Midfield_General]

1 minute ago, PerthshireSaint said:

If you’d asked me ( though no one in their right mind would) on the day we got kicked out of the playoffs that this sundown we’d have kept Tonda, Leo, Caspar etc signed Peretz and Larin and made 60 mil off of an inevitable two out the door I’d have literally bitten your arm off.  Not unhappy at all with business done. 

Literally literally?

[StrangelyBrown]

9 minutes ago, saintant said:

It's hardly the slightest mistake in Stephens case. I accept he has good games but so often he makes unforced errors which lead to goals. 

I'm not sure he had "good games" - he has ok games and shocking ones. I certainly can't remember when the last time was that he was the best player on the field, but I can easily remember games when he was the worst.

[Colinjb]

1 minute ago, hypochondriac said:

Three games is not a reliable indicator at all. As an example, the team who finished second bottom last year could have played Sheffield Wednesday in the first game, thrashed them and been top of the table. That doesn't make them competitive with the rest of the league after one game, that's a nonsense.

I agree, it's a small sample rate. But, go from the start of the calendar year we seem to have maybe dipped slightly based on Watford, but havn't entirely broken that trend as yet. Although, that was one game..... Taking your own words we cannot say that our good form has been entirely corrupted from one game either.

You are being too pessimistic. 

[hypochondriac]

Just now, Colinjb said:

I agree, it's a small sample rate. But, go from the start of the calendar year we seem to have maybe dipped slightly based on Watford, but havn't entirely broken that trend as yet. Although, that was one game..... Taking your own words we cannot say that our good form has been entirely corrupted from one game either.

You are being too pessimistic. 

I'm not being pessimistic or optimistic. We may win the league and finish top, I'm just saying that being above two of the promoted teams after three games of the season does not indicate that we are competitive with them. It's much too small a sample size to draw any conclusions.

[saintant]

1 minute ago, StrangelyBrown said:

I'm not sure he had "good games" - he has ok games and shocking ones. I certainly can't remember when the last time was that he was the best player on the field, but I can easily remember games when he was the worst.

He's not my kind of central defender but I think you're being a bit harsh suggesting he never has good games. When he's on it he is more than adequate but, his problem is that the next howler is rarely far away.

[Saint Matty 76]

Shame we’ve not managed to shift some more of these players permanently but happy with where we’re at.

I’d have loved an extra attacking-minded player on loan to wrap it up but I’m delighted to have kept Scienza & Jander.

[Roo1976]

4 hours ago, Turkish said:

PANTS PULLED DOWN AGAIN!

Fulham prem were not ,why would you think wed have gotten him over an established prem club?

[Willo of Whiteley]

Shout out to Sam Edozie who will continue to be a Southampton player after ruling himself out of a move to Barcelona because he was hoping for an offer from PSG

[SuperSAINT]

Ramsdale

[Zorba]

22 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Abbot confirmed.

“I wanted to see a new culture and see what happens elsewhere“

Sounds like he’s brought his binoculars.

[StrangelyBrown]

10 minutes ago, saintant said:

He's not my kind of central defender but I think you're being a bit harsh suggesting he never has good games. When he's on it he is more than adequate but, his problem is that the next howler is rarely far away.

When was his last "good" game? I can remember games where he didn't have to do much defensively and where he didn't slow the game down too much, but a good game I don't recall. Happy to be wrong, but just can't recall one in a long time.

[trousers]

53 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Yawn. If you don't like transfer window rating comments I suggest you ignore them. I tried to point out to you yesterday that a forum is for expressing opinions and passing comments. If you aren't up for that then I wouldn't bother. If I gave the window a 9 or a 10 you said yourself you wouldn't be commenting.

Maybe if you stop taking the bait he/she might stop fishing for a reaction...?

[Bobsmith]

Loaning Archer out weakens us unless someone else comes in. Add the Edozie situation on top and we're light on the wing too. Like everyone's been saying, we're one Larin injury away from struggling for goals.

[Saint_clark]

I see we've sent one of our youth players to Boro on a scouting mission. 

[Saint Scott]

7 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

Ramsdale

Surely will end up on loan in Turkey with their window not closing today 

[benjii]

Prince Willie on the bench, so I guess he's the Larin back-up.

[saintant]

1 minute ago, Bobsmith said:

Loaning Archer out weakens us unless someone else comes in. Add the Edozie situation on top and we're light on the wing too. Like everyone's been saying, we're one Larin injury away from struggling for goals.

Whilst I agree your point it is tricky for a Championship to sign a striker who can score goals but is happy to sit on the bench.  Ideally we'd have kept Stewart although he is not exactly racking up the minutes for Swansea and not in their squad again today.

[CSA96]

1 minute ago, saintant said:

Whilst I agree your point it is tricky for a Championship to sign a striker who can score goals but is happy to sit on the bench.  Ideally we'd have kept Stewart although he is not exactly racking up the minutes for Swansea and not in their squad again today.

Yeah, if you look around the league, teams that play one up front generally don't have 3/4 good striker options. It's two and then youth or a veteran

[Saint86]

52 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Isn't part of the issue that we have to compete with the relegated teams (and overturn a 4 point deficit over the season)? If automatics is the aim as stated then in my opinion you'd be looking at one or two more to really give us that depth and quality.

Hypo mate, honestly i mean this in the best way possible - I hope you can relax and enjoy this season in the coming weeks! I get it - its been a shite end of season / summer, but i don't think we could have done much better on transfers from where we were... Scienza, peretz, larin, azaz, jander are all still here. Thats fantastic. I think pretty much any thread going into the summer transfers was basically predicting we're lose 2 of "the core" as a minimum - and frankly Charles and THB are the most expendable of them. We've banked £60M for a squad player and a CB... a £30M CB is a ludicrous luxury for the championship - its not a necessity for promotion.

Then we've added JWP for 800k - personally i think that is great business for any championship side, let alone saints. He isn't charles... okay... but charles was a squad player for us. JWP will bring a great engine, consistency, stamina, experience/quality/control, and arguably the best set piece delivery in the division / country.

Schlotterbeck is a very tidy addition for the money... Stats wise he's a very similar player to THB (a player that, as above, i considered a luxury rather than a necessity). And Abbot is a very promising youngster.

Mubama is a good addition up front as depth for Larin, although i share the concerns that we are a larin injury away from basically gambling on him doing the business. But then i guess, we have money to spend now in january if needed.

Also worth considering - we have Larin in early doors and with a preseason (and therefore good fitness levels) behind him. Not like january when he came in unfit and having to be very carefully managed. Equally, Eckert showed us last year that he is very good at rotating players and managing minutes to maintain fitness through one of the most congested fixture run in's i've ever seen (post final international break).

I really don't think we could reasonably have expected the club to have done much more. No one in this league is going to want to play us. And injuries and tonda ban aside, this is a team that (on paper) has what it needs to continue 2026's incredible form (which was the best of any division in england - and we haven't been promoted like Lincoln) and a run that was at 2.46ppg and 113points in a season. People should be looking at us in the championship like they do at Arsenal in the prem. We are a fluke with respect to quality - we shouldn't be in this league this year. We need to not be unlucky with injuries or Tonda, but outside of that this should be a great season... (touch wood!!! ';.;')

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Saint86

[Bobsmith]

Just now, saintant said:

Whilst I agree your point it is tricky for a Championship to sign a striker who can score goals but is happy to sit on the bench.  Ideally we'd have kept Stewart although he is not exactly racking up the minutes for Swansea and not in their squad again today.

I'd have preferred a loan in the Larin mould, someone with pedigree who wasn't getting minutes, or a younger lad out of Germany like Jander. Either way I'm not convinced loaning Archer was right, not without a replacement lined up.

[St Chalet]

If Ramsdale doesn't leave today, he'll be the best #2 in the Champ and also keep Peretz on his toes. Basically like having a Ferrari and a Porsche but can only drive one and you are overdrawn.

[AlexLaw76]

amazed Ramsdale has not (yet) even got a loan deal.

 

[manji]

Tonda mentioned in an interview after Saturdays game he expects goals from defence and midfield on a regular basis. He specially mentioned Sclotterbeck and JWP , makes sense particularly the way we have started.

[sfc4prem]

Just now, AlexLaw76 said:

amazed Ramsdale has not (yet) even got a loan deal.

 

Crazy, really.

[Saint NL]

What's the betting that Larin does his hamstring tonight? 

[sfc4prem]

1 minute ago, Saint NL said:

What's the betting that Larin does his hamstring tonight? 

Not sure there's a market for that bet, mate.

[Saint86]

Just now, Saint NL said:

What's the betting that Larin does his hamstring tonight? 

Whats the betting Spors will be watching the game with a list of replacements to hand, just in case.

[saintant]

3 minutes ago, Bobsmith said:

I'd have preferred a loan in the Larin mould, someone with pedigree who wasn't getting minutes, or a younger lad out of Germany like Jander. Either way I'm not convinced loaning Archer was right, not without a replacement lined up.

Yeah, you'd have thought we could have sorted a loan deal out.

[West end Saints]

I am happy. Think we are in much better position than last season.

When Dobbin signed the club specifically said he was chosen as he can play all forward positions, some reports I have read said he was best last season playing as CF.

Dobbin scored 11 last season, same as Stewart.

Mubama scored 5.

Larin is much stronger than when we signed him.

 

[Secret Site Agent]

3 hours ago, Ken Tone said:

Not as addictive as crack cocaine. Easy to give up. In fact I've given up  looking at this thread 3 times today alone 😉

Aahhh but you still come back!!!!!

 

None of us can resist the dark mother of deadline day.

 

[bugenhagen]

20 minutes ago, benjii said:

Prince Willie on the bench, so I guess he's the Larin back-up.

Nah, that would be Mubama. The Prince is the backup to the backup 😉

[Thripp87]

That Miller for Hull has gone Birmingham on loan I hear on commentary. He would have been a good option, scored a Premier league winner at the weekend and a mate for Larin. 

[Saint Pete]

46 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Whats the betting Spors will be watching the game with a list of replacements to hand, just in case.

What's he gonna do if Larin does his hamstring in the next game once the window is shut then?

[trousers]

...

Edited 3 hours ago by trousers

[SNSUN]

2 minutes ago, Saint Pete said:

What's he gonna do if Larin does his hamstring in the next game once the window is shut then?

Hope Mubama a) doesn't get injured or suspended and b) scores goals. We don't seem the sort of club to offload a load of dross all summer only to sign someone from the free agent list, although March may be the exception to that as we have been linked. But unless something late happens tonight I think we're looking at Larin, Mubama and Ehibhatiomham.