Saint86

We're going to get promoted don't worry.

Okay sure, if West Ham shove silly money and a player at us then fine, but we're pushing for £50M for JWP and i can't see them offering anything like £40M plus a player - sorry didn't realise we're operating in a world where we get exactly what we want for our players 😄. Reality is we're shoving high prices on them and hoping someone meets one of them so we can keep the rest - and my point is that will be Lavia before its JWP. If we do get £40M plus a good and young champ level CM to replace him then its probably worth it - Although still the debate to be had about continuity and consistency. If we're doing what SR said, and aiming to win the league - we're going to try and keep hold of as many of our best players as we can. Which means as few high value sales as possible, and rebalancing the defence and attack.

And to sign him we'd presumably lose lavia and JWP, whilst still needing to shift 4 expensive wage CB's and 2 attackers. So the point is, would you sell our best player (who will likely play every minute this season and score plenty of goals) for a reduced amount to west ham, to then sign a player they consider to have a lower ceiling, and which will ultimately weaken our midfield significantly over the course of a season - given that we will almost certainly sell lavia and likely don't need to sell them both? Its a bad trade. Think its more likely we shift players to reduce the wage bill / raise funds, then use some city style loans and players like smallbone / tella (and to a lesser extent the likes of Doyle/ballard) to fill out the squad. For example the links to the city kid as a lavia replacement. More than plausible we have a midfield 5 of JWP, Smallbone, Carlos, Sulemana, and Tella this year 🤷‍♂️. You'd still have the likes of Diallo, Edozie, Doyle around that. Would be a very tidy midfield for a possession focussed championship team - Without any signings. Mara, AA and Ballard up top to lead the line and run off the ball, find space etc. Tino/Bree/Larios and Perraud/Manning? as the full/wing backs. Baz in goal. And then you sort out 2 starting CB's from Lyanco, Janny B, ABK, Salisu (leaving), DCC, and Stephens. Isn't Macca now into his last year? Che, Tall Paul etc out the door with Lavia and 4CB's🤷‍♂️. The add some loanees.

He might know that West Ham are interested and that Downes is available. But lets be fair, that isn't really saying much - the whole world knows west ham want central midfielders right now, and equally JWP is a very saleable asset. Reality is that no one knows our stance on JWP or indeed JWP's stance (other than slapping a large price tag on him and putting him front and centre of media campaigns) - and tellingly that rumour doesn't give any info on that which is fair enough. As others have also said, we need to rebalance our squad costs via saving money on wages and through player trading. Within that we have assets that are clearly higher value potential sales - JWP is one. But if we manage to shift the bloat / dead weight elsewhere in the squad, i think it is unlikely we'll then need to shift both JWP and Lavia. We've already shift Orsic, Ely, and theo - and we currently have 6 CB's of which we are likely to shift 4. Its also very unlikely that we end the window with KWP and Adams imo. Tall Paul as well seems like someone destined to leave our wage bill this summer. Also, selling both JWP and Lavia in no way sorts out our issues in defence and in attack, and therefore i think its unlikely to be a priority for us. Given all that, i remain firmly of the view that its unlikely JWP is leaving. Also on Downes, it worries me slightly that he is consistently linked with a move away from West Ham as he should be targeting a lot of minutes there this season. They're a bottom half club with a need for good central mids. If West Ham don't think he's a development target, should we be considering losing our captain and best player to land him?

Exactly this. And anyone can see a breakdown of this in black and white with a 5min google.

Martin's swansea were 24th in the league for dribbles... It will be quite a step change for him to utilise the likes of Edozie and Sulemana.

They've lost circa 150M euros worth of players for a third of their value (see below) and replaced them with two average players. According to the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65622943), their wage bill was £180M last season - which was the highest outside the top 6 and compared to an income of £214M. They narrowly avoided FFP sanctions as of september 2022, and their income is expected to drop from £214M to £70M in the championship (again from the BBC). The article also states that they've also got an outstanding loan for advanced payments on player amortisation and tv revenue - which is secured against future TV money. Now they've been relegated they could well end up having to use the parachute payments to cover this. They are not in a great place.

In all blunt seriousness... His finishing is appalling, and "clearly being our best striker" is not saying much. I like him for his off the ball work and how he leads the line, but if he's not going to sign a new contract we'll likely be forced to sell him. We got relegated because we had Che Adams, Adam Armstrong, Mara, Tall Paul, and Theo as strikers. The one thing we absolutely needed last summer was a striker and this was a huge failure by the club... It really shouldn't be a challenge to spend £120M+ in a season and have better strikers than that!!

Absolute bullshit klaxon! I'm sure the players know what's gone on, and will be interesting to see how many they retain before the season starts. "The likes of Byers, Dele-Bashiru, Johnson, and Windass will be among those that Moore will be desperate to keep hold of while Galvin, Hunt, and Stockdale seem the prime candidates to depart". Talk about self destructing a pivotal summer for your club.

We may not be owned by the saudi's, but that won't stop us snapping up youngster on the side and then shuffling them around...

He needs competition for sure, but i would expect him to get game time this year. Strikes me as remarkably strong mentally (all things considered) and he's got good distribution and positioning as a sweeper keeper. He was a great keeper for league 1 level, he's grown and developed since then, and had a year playing at a very high level. Provided his confidence / headspace is there, we really should be giving him a year to develop at the championship. He was always a development player. What are we going to do, not play him, then get promoted and loan him to another championship side even though we wouldn't use him ourselves? Far better to play him regularly, develop him at a level he should be ready for, and then take that into the prem if possible.

Now this just sounds like Wanyama to me...

I'm going to go out on limb and say we won't be signing 3 defenders from one of the worst defences in the championship last year. If that happens, then i can only assume Sports Republic's entire scouting network lives/eats/sleeps in south wales.

This keeps popping up. Nothing has been said about JWP having or not having a relegation wage clause. What was said was that he didn't have a relegation release clause. Entirely separate things. I think it was rumoured that he has a highest earner clause, and presumably (if he has a relegation wage clause) he'll have a promotion wage clause - so he'll likely be fairly well protected on the wages front whatever happens. Whether his lifestyle can accommodate a 20-40% drop in wages, who knows?!? Its been said before, unless he needs the money or is offered European football, i think he'll give saints another 6months-12months to see how we're doing in the champ. His england career is likely gone without joining a top club and playing regularly, so his choice might basically be between becoming a potential Southampton legend (staying and getting promotion) or playing in a lower half prem club he has no affinity to.

Apparently there are only 23 levels in the formal bleep test?

Signing of the summer if we keep him? 😛

A year playing regularly in a successful championship side might be the making of him to be fair. He's got the technical and physical ability as well as the passion, but he needs to learn a cooler head and improve his concentration - ultimately step up to become a defensive leader. There are plenty of players that have benefited by a step down and taking on a leading role at a lower level - even with saints. Look at the development of Morgan, Lallana, and Fonte as examples. ultimately, if we're going to get promoted with any of our current CB's, the reality is they are going to have to develop and mature this coming season. We currently have 6 on paper good CB's for the champ - Stephens (29), Bednarek (27), Lyanco (26), DCC (26), Salisu (24), ABK (21). I fancy we'll keep Stephens as he's always had the ability to carry the ball, Lyanco similar, and then one of the others - DCC was much hyped for his passing. ABK is an absolute athlete that would do very well for a year of regular playing at this level.

Nah, we'll be automatic. Runners up no doubt - we're the proverbial nearly men after all 😭

Its clear that the club want to keep him (and others) and are putting high prices on our players. This is a good thing. Remains to be seen whether we'll need to accept cheaper offers come the end of the window. But for anything less than £45M i'd keep JWP.

West ham could do a lot worse than Lavia to be honest - They're in Europe, flush with cash, and he should be able to step into their midfield and shine. We could also let him go there with a sell on fee knowing full well that there is a good chance of a profitable move in another 3-5 years. Ultimately we know that Lavia won't be at saints long term, whereas JWP might still end his career here - so out of the two i'd cash in on Lavia and keep Prowsey. Plus we also know that JWP is likely to play a lot more minutes than Lavia this season, and his free kicks may well prove invaluable.

Hard to imagine us getting him without giving them a central midfileder they want in return. We all know Lavia is leaving, so i would see if there is a possibility of selling them lavia with a nice sell on clause and take downes as part of the deal.

In fairness, what we need to sign will be linked to what we let go. We can ship out an awful lot of high wage squad fillers and not need to replace them with anything other than a smattering of academy players... our squad last season was bloated and full of shite.

I sense an undercurrent of panic behind these comments, certainly a lot of concern. We haven't wasted 2-3 months. 3 months ago was March and we were relegated in mid May. Since then we have restructured pretty much the entire management of the club. We've also had our manager identified pretty much since then, nailed on for well over a month, and we've likely had both him and the DoF planning the summer in the background whilst the players have also been on holiday. The transfer window isn't even open! Coady would be a decent championship player sure, agree. But he is also 30years old, couldn't get in a possession focused wolves side, didn't really do that well under Dyche at everton, and is only going to decline as a player. There are plenty of other players to be found, and many that will suit the style of play better - just because we don't sign Coady doesn't mean we'll have bad CB's. Piroe has 1 year left and knows Martin, if we are in for him and he wants to come here, he will come here. Swansea can't afford to let their star striker leave for free... Maresca is a gamble regardless. He's had 14 games as a manager abroad and it was a car crash. To now step up and turn around the mess that is Leicester in the championship (a very competitive league) is not guaranteed. Maresca's experience of english football is the upper echelons of the premier league with a very weighted deck of cards - he's only really had 2 years learning from pep, and they were sandwiched between time at Parma.

Yes, but I don't want diallo playing in the championship (do you?) so is this really saying much?

I want to see the club slapping high valuations on players - its basically a "hands off" unless clubs come in with silly offers. Bodes well if we actually stick to it. What doesn't align is the alleged £40M valuation of Lavia - unless the club are basically facilitating his sale to keep others. We should clearly be asking for more than £40M for lavia!