Dusic

Guessing we have chosen Wood over Edwards, or at least its been the one thats easier to do. RM likes going for players he has worked with before so will trust his judgement. Wood has played for Eng U21s of late so clearly seen as a player of high potential and if RM thinks he is a good character too then for £7m or so it seems a worthwhile addition.

Thanks for sharing. You could post the link to where you take your info from as well like most of us do - as lots of people want to know the source and take a look themselves. E.g: https://x.com/TheSaintsFCBlog/status/1807426350602424732?s=19

Of course it might, but its still obvious what they are doing better and doesnt show too much sign of stopping. For example right now in Rushworth they have a GK who they could probably sell for £20m who has barely played a single game for them, if at all. He is probably better than all our GKs. They also know they can probably get way over £50m for Mitoma, Ferguson, Joao Perdo, Verbruggen, etc and haven't spend much of the cash rhey got for Caicedo as yet. And all clubs certainly don't have this cycle. A lot never really have and it doesnt happen by accident - its having strong and experienced leadership (like Paul Barber), an excellent recruitment team and a long term view rather than for example wasting £20m on a targetman for a manager you sack about 3 weeks later. Good signs we have learned and are adapting - recruitment (in and out) really is the no1 key for a club of our size.

Ideally you have an excellent recruitment team that identify players before they are known, develop them (whether at Saints or out on loan) and then take advantage when the rich and reckless come in for them. Easier to do that when to have a.) a settled recruitment team (we haven't) b.) a defined style of play to recruit for (we do now and did for some of RH tenure) Our issue for the last 6 or 7 years has been that we haven't found enough of these players, consequently haven't sold anyone for big money in a long while (Lavia aside) and because we havent had a strong enough core of PL players whenever we have had a potential gem they have largely struggled in a poor team. I know people hate comparison clubs but look at how Brighton have used the loan market to develop their players (White, Mitoma, Caicedo etc) - its light years away from what we have done largely because they planned ahead and have signed a lot of players they havent needed to throw straight into their squad before they are ready. Our only recent recruitment pattern seems to be allowing our better players to get to one year left on their contracts, being forced to sell under value for £15m - £20m and then replacing (sometimes) with players who cost the same but have no experience or proven quality. KWP this time around, previous examples include PEH, Ings, Vestergaard, Clyne, Wanyama. Suprise, suprise it caused a gradual decline because the replacements needed time they didnt have to adjust to the PL and in some cases were just not good enough. British players tend to have a better market to sell even to the Championship for those that dont quite make it, so that focus makes sense but now we are part of a multi club setup and Goztepe are back in the Super Lig - lets use it to our advantage and try to recruit better in other markets...like Brighton have done in South America.

Yeah its a great deal for Brentford if they manage to pull it off. Good player who is only likely to increase in value. Certainly a better use of £35m than Sulemana and Onuachu. With Brighton signing Minteh for upwards of £30m too it shows that even potential starts with a 3 these days. Our record fee is probably the smallest in the league by a decent distance now, Ipswich aside.

Ridiculously the next few days could prove quite important in the fight to stay up as seems a few near the bottom including at least Leicester and Forest still have significant PSR concerns, with further points deductions possible if sales don't take place. Crazy that June 30th is almost becoming a mini deadline day of its own!

Funny to read posts about KWP being a defensive liability when just a month ago everyone was rightly pointing out that he kept the Championship Player of the Year in his pocket for 3 games. I know its a defence mechanism but its ok to just be honest and say it how it is: disappointing to lose KWP who has been great for us both defensively and going forward. Probably our best player. Whilst I'm on the topic of bad takes...these posts with lineups for next season are absurd for two reasons: 1. There is zero chance we will only sign frees and loans and end up with starting front 3s as weak as Ghoddos, Arma, Fraser so its a waste of time doing lineups at this point before we have done any proper business (we know the market hots up in July/Aug because its the same every single year) 2. Most of those lineups wouldnt get 20 points...its only been a year but some seem to have forgotten how strong and ruthless the PL is.

Strange one as he doesn't fit the way the manager wants to play. Don't think he is good enough/suited enough to be a successful #1 and Lumley isn't good enough to be a #2 so we have a problem in this position. Bazunu an irrelevance for this season as he won't be fit for the vast majority - but clearly a factor in why we are not seemingly signing a new #1.

I read it as being that we would pay a fee for Downes as the two deals would be separate of each other (there are never genuine swap deals for accounting reasons).

Get that Manning isn't highly rated but I do think he is slightly different in that he is still the best LB we currently have, played majority of games last season and therefore would need directly replacing before letting him go. The others I agree just seem easily surplus to requirements.

Bree is probably the most obvious player we have that isn't good enough for PL level. Anyone who was fit last season and started relatively few games is clewrly not going to suddenly boss it in the PL. Imagine he will be able to get a Championship loan easily enough in August.

I get that to an extent but feel we always seem very slow off the mark on it and I have lost count of the amount of players we have ended up being forced into selling for fairly modest fees because they end up with 1 year left. You can pretty much tell after 6 months whether a player is going to be really good for us or not so would hope we look to reward those types with a pay rise and add another year on. Bournemouth did this recently with Solanke and now he has supposedly a 65m release clause that puts them in the driving seat. Brighton before they were established gave Dunk a new contract pretty much every season. Its definitely possible to be more proactive in this regard and I think its cost us quite a lot of cash over the last 10 years. We end up having players like KWP who prove themselves as v good PL players, in their prime, who we end up then having to sell for the same kind of cash it costs us to sign a replacement who is usually totally unproven and also has no time to adapt. That isn't a recipe for either financial or on field success.

Not suprised. From his perspective its a good move, pay increase, back in London and a good chance of being a first choice. Can't fault him for staying last season and being totally committed - nice way to leave a club with good memories rather than staying another season and quite possibly being relegated again. From a Saints perspective we cannot lose a £20m asset for free so if he won't sign an extension then little choice. We do seem particularly bad and getting out best players tied down sooner - others show it is possible even if just means getting a bigger fee the following year.

He got this pretty right, clearly a fan of RM. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/23824420.peterborough-owner-makes-bold-prediction-defends-russell-martin/

Edwards is short for a centre back (5'11) which is seemingly the reason he has been hyped for ages but nobody has moved for him. As a fourth choice to effeectively replace Holgate from last season he could be a decent option that would likely retain value even if he doesn't make it at PL level. THB, Bednarek, Stephens, Edwards (hypothetically). Not the best pool for PL level but mix of youth and experience plus the ones we already have are at least good, committted professionals. That said, its Crook so likely Saints aren't in for him.

Has the suggested Sugawara talks been reported anywhere else? The Dutch media are usually pretty ITK about what happens in their bigger clubs so if anything were that advanced I would imagine they would be mentioning it. Maybe the fact the likes of Alfie House havent said its not the case make it more likely. Not to say there isn't truth to it. And he seems like the type of signing thats probably realistic for us.

One thing for sure re Alcaraz - zero point loaning him out again.

Edson Alvarez (WHU midfielder) picked up an injury for Mexico last night that didn't look great...possibly not ideal re Downes.

Exactly, the Turkish clubs know we will end up giving them Onuachu on loan at the end of the window so pretty sure thats exactly what will happen.

If we target some good value PL experience and know-how e.g free transfers and loan with option etc and it then gives a bit more financial power for 2 or 3 difference makers then I think thats a sensible approach.

I'm not sure you can anymore. It was 10 years ago that we signed Tadic and Pelle. Whilst we are still looking for those £12-15m signings, players of their quality/record cost probably 3 times that now and I don't think we will pay it. In reality we are looking at trying to get players either before they have been hyped or proven (Lavia, Edozie, Sulemana, Bazunu type signings), players who are talented but unwanted (KWP, maybe Downes) or players who are past their best but with something still to offer. Outside of that our best market by a mile is the EFL where we know there is talent and the likes of Wharton, Eze, Watkins etc show that. Scotland unless its a top player from Celtic or Rangers its a no as its such a poor league.

Wouldn't suprise me if Meghoma really pushes ahead of Manning with a good pre season. Agree a starting XI signing there is an absolute must.

Ings best two attributes are movement and finishing ability. Finishing he won't have lost, movement potentially but a lot of it is in his head and as far as I am aware at WH he has been fit and available almost 100% of the time but just not really suited to Moyes style. If we think his fitness is still at PL level then can see why there would be interest - he is about as a proven a PL goalscorer as we would be able to sign. My main concern would be that his best work always seems to be as part of a front two and its unlikely we will operate with that.

Pretty well balanced set of fixtures with no absolute horror runs (on paper). Statistically the 3rd kindest start so need to be picking up points across those first 6 games. Of a quick check of likely bottom third teams wouldnt say anyone has a really bad run in except maybe Bournemouth.

El Hadji Diouf syndrome