CSA96

No changes at HT

Ahhh, it's good to have Saints back

Bordeaux 0-1 Saints Dibling forces an own goal

Saints v Bordeaux: Lis, Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Manning, Alcaraz, Charles, Dibling, Amo-Ameyaw, Mara, Robinson

Sunderland Echo say Ipswich and Saints both keen on Jack Clarke but Sunderland’s asking price is £25m, due to a 25% sell-on which is held by Tottenham

Oh nice, that is a good bonus... I was slightly worried that loaning Rak-Sakyi and Brereton-Diaz would block out our chance of getting a solid #1 for the season Thanks CamSaint too. I read that same page and totally missed the national association line

Free to watch as well - will be on the Saints App and website

PL clubs are only allowed a maximum of two loan players in the first-team squad at any one time. So one of Ramsdale/Rak-Sakyi/Brereton-Diaz would need to get done as a permanent to facilitate all three coming in. Although I do quite like the look of that and the numbers don't feel unreasonable. Think we would probably still need another CM and another forward, though

Well, it could have been worse after all

Now a full article from Relevo: https://www.relevo.com/futbol/mercado-fichajes/brereton-acelera-vuelta-inglaterra-negociacion-20240723114552-nt.html Translation Ben Brereton's days at Villarreal are numbered. The talented Chilean striker is working on his return to England and in recent days talks with English club Southampton have intensified. The British club wants the forward and the player knows that he will not have a place at Villarreal this season, so it is a move that could come to fruition. Ben has not had many opportunities in the yellow club to show his worth either, after a start to 2023/2024 in which his participation was very low. In view of this situation, both club and player decided to go back to England on a mid-season loan in which he regained confidence, scoring 6 goals in just 14 games and showing that he has plenty of quality. It was all part of the plan. With that loan, either the doors of Villarreal were opened, or he demonstrated in England that he had enough level to play in the Premier. After the unviable first option, as the player already knows, the way to return to the Premier League is more than open. In fact, although last year he played half a season at Sheffield United, with this team relegated to the Championship, Southampton is the one that takes the lead. They are working on a loan with a purchase option, although at this time even a transfer is not ruled out. The reality is that these are hours of negotiations for a movement that all parties would view favourably. They remain to be finalised, but conversations are currently taking place. The list of suitors for the player is not low, because apart from Southampton, Ipswich Town has shown a firm interest in Ben, but currently negotiations are taking place with Southampton, who have already made Villarreal aware of their intentions and want to get the player before the competition starts.

Relevo in Spain saying Saints and Villarreal are accelerating negotiations for Ben Brereton-Diaz. He likes the idea of coming here, Villarreal are happy to let him go back to England as a loan-to-buy or an outright buy now. Ipswich also interested but sounds like Saints is preferential to the player and Villarreal

Fair point, it's a reasonable argument. I guess Martin and the player obviously believe he is ready now or is very, very near to being ready with some more game exposure. Clubs do get it wrong at times when they hold players back and then they go elsewhere and their trajectory rapidly rises, so let's hope if he comes here then it's one of those

No, no, no. Southampton are plotting a move for West Brom striker Brandon Thomas-Asante, sources have told Football Insider. The Saints have turned their attention to the prolific striker as they work on signing a replacement for Torino-bound Che Adams. 11 in 39 in the Championship last season and 7 in 33 the season before. How is that being dressed up as 'prolific' here?

He wasn't playing in the wide areas though, he was coming infield From watching the games, the majority of the tactical movement up front was that Adams would hustle the centre halves and come deep to draw space open and Armstrong surged inside from wide areas If we look at where he was scoring his goals from, they were all in central, traditional 'striker' positions. He was not cutting in and curling the ball in from the flank (bar the rare occasion) and/or doing the other orthodox things you'd expect from a winger. He wasn't taking his man on, delivering from wide areas, bringing width to the team etc. So it makes total sense that Saints would want to add that variance to the squad and have a natural winger

I think it's more Palace thinking that he needs a loan at a club they aren't going to be in competition with. Which is why they prefer to send him outside the PL. They wanted him involved last season and clearly he and Martin think he is PL ready. They have to go and get Sarr or another bigger name because they lost Olise

Adam Armstrong is not a winger, MLG. If you genuinely think he is a winger then I don't really know what else to say

This sounds like almost word for word what some people said about Ryan Fraser. How does it not make sense to sign an exciting and direct right winger when we have a grand total of zero senior right wingers in the squad at the moment? Sulemana and Edozie both prefer playing from the left and I wouldn't expect both of those to still be here when the window shuts too, as presumably Kamaldeen is heading out the door Palace obviously rate him but the player is pushing his way to Saints, we get to loan him now and avoid payment for 12 months, when presumably we would like to make it permanent but aren't binded into doing so if, for any reason, it doesn't go as JRS and Saints hope

Would assume this has knock-on effects for Rak-Sakyi

Would all depend on the conditions on the option, presumably

https://x.com/southamptonfc/status/1815652146907365490?s=46&t=f0hgNyKSvvOD5qjGLJhsXQ

On trial at Brentford, playing the second 45 today of their friendly at AFC Wimbledon

Haha, go on Rasmus

Club have triggered an option in his contract to add an extra year, meaning he's now out of contract in the summer of 2026 instead. Saves on negotiating a long-term extension, given he will be 32 by the time this deal ends