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Transfers (rumours) thread

Glasgow_Saint

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Andy Durman

Andy Durman

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Posted (edited)

This time last year we new of JWP but nobody expected Chambers or Shaw to be so influentially. Who will step up this year? Targett, McQueen? Maybe JWP will play every game? Maybe the academy does have the answers?

Edited by Andy Durman
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OldNick

OldNick

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By all means be underwhelmed if you're impatient for news of signings to replace players departed/yet to depart/those not good enough.

 

It's not unnatural for fans to be impatient, to be nervous of the ambitions of the owner, unsure of the abilities of a new foreign manager to be successful in the Premier League, indeed, unsure of the ability of new players to play in this division when they previously played in what was deemed to be at an inferior level.

 

I'm not content with things yet, or complacent, I doubt that many are. Those are the wrong words. The correct word is patient; happy to wait and see how it all pans out, optimistic that the club has everything in hand, that they will spend that money raised by the sale of those players on quality replacements. There is still time to buy those players before the start of the season and these things can't be rushed. Even if we had anticipated the departures of those players, there are other factors to take into consideration. We are urged to not sell players until we have in place replacement players, and yet presumably we don't expect the selling club to do the same. If they wait until they have replacements signed up before they sell, then logically it means delays, doesn't it?

 

The World Cup has been a fly in the ointment. Some of the players from the latter stages aren't even back at their clubs yet. If we want the better players that you would wish us to sign, then we have to wait and see whether the glory clubs are after them too. If so, our chances of signing them are diminished. But they can only sign so many players for their squads and we are the next level down. As has been hinted, we have players on our radar that may have escaped the attention of other clubs.

 

It is all in the lap of the Gods. But it is still far too early to make rash judgements about the board and their intentions or ambitions. Their actions in replacing Pochettino with Koeman and in turn the level of player he has brought in, is suggestive of ambition, of investment in quality to bring us success, a continuation of the upwards trajectory of our progress. If you can identify anything that you deem to be indicative of a lack of ambition so far, then tell us what it is.

A measured reply. I dont expect top name signings as it seems the club do not believe in making the last step up. The feeling seems to be that we have got to the glass ceiling and have lowered all expectations.

I personally believe Katrina does not have anywhere near the same ambition of her father (her rightful choice) and is clawing back a large chunk of the initial investment, again her prerogative. If this is the case i would rather them be a little more open rather than tell us that we have 35m as well as the funds from player sales, when from where iam it is patently not the case.

I hope Iam wrong and the club dumbfound me and buy some real quality (although the WC stars rarely find the same form in club football,after making a reputation there)

If we are not looking at those 'stars' then i fail to see why we have yet to purchase more decent professionals who have been taken on by other clubs.

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OldNick

OldNick

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Posted
This time last year we new of JWP but nobody expected Chambers or Shaw to be so influentially. Who will step up this year? Tagart, McQueen? Maybe JWP will play every game? Maybe the academy does have the answers?
maybe, we did try it once before, that was a success
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Matthew Le God

Matthew Le God

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A measured reply. I dont expect top name signings as it seems the club do not believe in making the last step up. The feeling seems to be that we have got to the glass ceiling and have lowered all expectations.

I personally believe Katrina does not have anywhere near the same ambition of her father (her rightful choice) and is clawing back a large chunk of the initial investment, again her prerogative. If this is the case i would rather them be a little more open rather than tell us that we have 35m as well as the funds from player sales, when from where iam it is patently not the case.

I hope Iam wrong and the club dumbfound me and buy some real quality (although the WC stars rarely find the same form in club football,after making a reputation there)

If we are not looking at those 'stars' then i fail to see why we have yet to purchase more decent professionals who have been taken on by other clubs.

 

Katharina Liebherr took ownership of the club in League One, Saints under her ownership have risen to 8th in England having brought in £85m+ worth of players and made a £30m upgrade of the training ground. Is that a sign of a lack of ambition?

 

Saints have lost Lallana, Lambert and Shaw to two of the biggest clubs in World football for very large fees and a manager to a bigger club. Why are you using that as evidence of "lowered expectations"?

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Smirking_Saint

Smirking_Saint

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Yes indeed

 

All we are now awaiting for are all the players that Les Reed had said that had already been identified as "targets" for SFC ( Unless he just meant Matty "target" )

 

( You can't count Tadic and Pelle, as Koeman got them )

 

I really cant see the logic in this post...

 

Any logic....... At all ?!?

 

So, to clarify, you believe Reed said we had targets that didnt include the two we have signed ? Koeman just picked them up with his 99p chicken mayo and despite having weeks of transfer window left you believed the signings should have been made imediately ?

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SaintRichmond

SaintRichmond

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Posted
]Katharina Liebherr took ownership of the club in League One[/b], Saints under her ownership have risen to 8th in England having brought in £85m+ worth of players and made a £30m upgrade of the training ground. Is that a sign of a lack of ambition?

 

Saints have lost Lallana, Lambert and Shaw to two of the biggest clubs in World football for very large fees and a manager to a bigger club. Why are you using that as evidence of "lowered expectations"?

 

 

Yes, she did, because, sadly Markus passed away

 

She took on Markus's 5 year project

 

THAT has now finished, she has implemented her OWN project, which, as others have said, is nothing like her Fathers

 

The EX CEO got it, the EX Manager got it, and a lot of our PLAYERS got it Thus the Exodus, which has by no means finished

 

Why can't some Fans on here see it ??

 

( Cue more wrath from CB )

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Smirking_Saint

Smirking_Saint

Posted
Posted
This time last year we new of JWP but nobody expected Chambers or Shaw to be so influentially. Who will step up this year? Targett, McQueen? Maybe JWP will play every game? Maybe the academy does have the answers?

 

I hope tagart becomes our most influentially player personally

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SaintRichmond

SaintRichmond

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I really cant see the logic in this post...

 

Any logic....... At all ?!?

 

So, to clarify, you believe Reed said we had targets that didnt include the two we have signed ? Koeman just picked them up with his 99p chicken mayo and despite having weeks of transfer window left you believed the signings should have been made imediately ?

 

TES, but, even if they were on his Dutch list, I repeat, what has happened to all the other targets he alluded to ??

 

Or was he just concentrating on the 2 from Koeman Country ?

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Smirking_Saint

Smirking_Saint

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TES, but, even if they were on his Dutch list, I repeat, what has happened to all the other targets he alluded to ??

 

Or was he just concentrating on the 2 from Koeman Country ?

 

Have I missed the closing of the transfer window ?!?!

 

Crap I shouldve updated my sun dreamteam

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Matthew Le God

Matthew Le God

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Yes, she did, because, sadly Markus passed away

 

She took on Markus's 5 year project

 

THAT has now finished, she has implemented her OWN project, which, as others have said, is nothing like her Fathers

 

The EX CEO got it, the EX Manager got it, and a lot of our PLAYERS got it Thus the Exodus, which has by no means finished

 

Why can't some Fans on here see it ??

 

( Cue more wrath from CB )

 

Do you not think £100k p/w wage offers from clubs like Liverpool and Man Utd were the reason? Similar with Pochettino leaving for a bigger club.

 

Saints aren't losing players and coaching staff to West Brom or Stoke, we are losing them to larger clubs for large amounts of money. If we were losing key people to the likes of Stoke and West Brom that is the time to be worried, however that isn't the case.

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Kingsland Red

Kingsland Red

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Every time I have visited the Saintsweb forum lately, I find the conversations are still of 'lowered' expectations.

Is 'more realistic' a more succinct description? The NC idea of breaking into the top 4 and staying there, and therefore displacing at least two of five long established globally recognised brands plus Tottenham and Everton was, dare I suggest it, bonkers.

Accepting we are not top 4, we have to allow the top clubs to have their pick of the players before we can get in amongst them, so signings will probably be a lot nearer the start of the season. Nothing new there.

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Lallana's Left Peg

Lallana's Left Peg

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Every time I have visited the Saintsweb forum lately, I find the conversations are still of 'lowered' expectations.

Is 'more realistic' a more succinct description? The NC idea of breaking into the top 4 and staying there, and therefore displacing at least two of five long established globally recognised brands plus Tottenham and Everton was, dare I suggest it, bonkers.

Accepting we are not top 4, we have to allow the top clubs to have their pick of the players before we can get in amongst them, so signings will probably be a lot nearer the start of the season. Nothing new there.

 

At the end of last season it wasn't unrealistic to think we could push on even further with some astute signings and our young players continuing to make progress. I think it is safe to say any Saints fan would be happy with a Top 10 finish as it stands right now. Whilst I agree that the wages on offer from the big clubs will turn players heads regardless I do feel there was focus and momentum that we had previously which just isn't there at the moment.

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Matthew Le God

Matthew Le God

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Posted (edited)
At the end of last season it wasn't unrealistic to think we could push on even further with some astute signings and our young players continuing to make progress. I think it is safe to say any Saints fan would be happy with a Top 10 finish as it stands right now. Whilst I agree that the wages on offer from the big clubs will turn players heads regardless I do feel there was focus and momentum that we had previously which just isn't there at the moment.

 

Why? We appointed Ronald Koeman, not Alan Irvine. There is clearly ambition at the club.

 

If any club outside the elite few in English football is offered £55m and £100k p/w wages for two youth academy products they are going to leave.

Edited by Matthew Le God
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Lallana's Left Peg

Lallana's Left Peg

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Why? We appointed Ronald Koeman, not Alan Irvine. There is clearly ambition at the club.

 

If any club outside the elite few in English football as offered £55m and £100k p/w wages for two youth academy products they are going to leave.

 

Do you believe we will match or even better last seasons finish? Now is the time to put your cards on the table.

 

I agree with the latter statement but then I also think by now we'd have a better squad than we do.

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Cestrian Saint

Cestrian Saint

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At the end of last season it wasn't unrealistic to think we could push on even further with some astute signings and our young players continuing to make progress. I think it is safe to say any Saints fan would be happy with a Top 10 finish as it stands right now. Whilst I agree that the wages on offer from the big clubs will turn players heads regardless I do feel there was focus and momentum that we had previously which just isn't there at the moment.

 

Spot on. I'm just realistic about what a club like Southampton can achieve. I expected us to finish in the lower half of the table last season so we exceeded my expectation. I fully expect us to finish in the bottom half this time. Had we kept the players that took us to an 8th place finish & strengthened in a couple of areas then my expectations would be higher. However, because of all the changes and the rebuilding we're effectively starting a fresh. We're in the same boat as the newly promoted teams and the teams who just avoided the drop, all of whom have to rebuild to survive in the premiership. To lose the manager and a big chunk of the first team and expect us to put in a better finish than last season is simply unrealistic.

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Matthew Le God

Matthew Le God

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Do you believe we will match or even better last seasons finish? Now is the time to put your cards on the table.

 

Its the 18th July, still lots of time for clubs including Saints to have incomings and outgoings so too early for any real predictions. I would say although some clubs below us last season have made some reasonable signings, I find it hard to see that any of them have overtaken Saints as they currently stand.

 

I agree with the latter statement but then I also think by now we'd have a better squad than we do.

 

Again, its the 18th July, still too early to be panicing. We've already got Lamabert and Lallana replacements, yes we do need a few more but its still relatively early in the summer. It would be foolish to think the club aren't currently working on other deals, just because it isn't in the public domain doesn't mean nothing is happeneing.

Edited by Matthew Le God
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Matthew Le God

Matthew Le God

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Spot on. I'm just realistic about what a club like Southampton can achieve. I expected us to finish in the lower half of the table last season so we exceeded my expectation. I fully expect us to finish in the bottom half this time. Had we kept the players that took us to an 8th place finish & strengthened in a couple of areas then my expectations would be higher. However, because of all the changes and the rebuilding we're effectively starting a fresh. We're in the same boat as the newly promoted teams and the teams who just avoided the drop, all of whom have to rebuild to survive in the premiership. To lose the manager and a big chunk of the first team and expect us to put in a better finish than last season is simply unrealistic.

 

A better finish than 8th probably is unrealistic, but to say we are in the same boat as Leicester, Burnley and QPR as you've just done is absurd. How many of their players would you want in our starting XI? Saints have only lost 3 players of a top 8 squad (and already replaced 2 of them), we've still got a lot of players the newly promoted and bottom half sides of last season would love to have.

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Lallana's Left Peg

Lallana's Left Peg

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Its the 18th July, still lots of time for clubs including Saints to have incomings and outgoings so too early for any real predictions. I would say it although some clubs below us last season have made some reasonable signings, I find it hard to see that any of them have overtaken Saints as they currently stand.

 

 

 

Again, its the 18th July, still too early to be panicing. We've already got Lamabert and Lallana replacements, yes we do need a few more but its still relatively early in the summer. It would be foolish to think the club aren't currently working on other deals, just because it isn't in the public domain doesn't mean nothing is happeneing.

 

It's not too early to make predictions, but it is too early to appraise our business this summer. However I'm more than comfortable in saying that thus far our actions have left me concerned. I do not think we will be in any real danger of relegation - far from it - however I do believe that we will regress this season. Here are some facts about what has happened this summer:

 

1. Our Manager, a key aspect of our progress the last 18 months, has left taking all his coaching staff with him. He is also known to be a Manager that the majority of players enjoyed playing for and wanted to stay. They said so publicly.

2. Our starting left-back - possible the best in the league - has left.

3. Our Captain - and best player - has left.

4. Our best striker has left.

5. Our best defender wants to leave.

6. What is now our best midfielder appears open to leave (but is being far more respectable about it)

7. One of our most in form players of last season is out until around Christmas.

8. Last seasons vice captain and starting centre-half, along with one of our more consistent midfield performers, have no signs of a new deal with less than 12 months to run on their contract - yet we know the club are capable of handing out new contracts as Jay Rodriguez has apparently received one.

 

Now in fairness we received good money for the players who have departed. But then the Board told us repeatedly that we'd never sell any of our best players unless we wanted to. And then again, we also sold our players without signing replacements first meaning the whole world and his dog knows we're loaded and any benefit of receiving good fees is now likely wiped out by the premium we'll have to pay for new players ourselves. There is no net gain in my opinion. For example, signing a player from Holland for £11m when he just has a year left on his contract.

 

I fully expect us to sign more players. I also fully expect the amount of change that has occurred at the club to mean we will not hit last seasons heights and we'll have a season of no excitement either end of the table. That's ok of course, but don't tell me your expectations for Saints are not different now to what they were the day after the Man Utd game last season. So if it is quite alright with you I'll express than opinion until this club can prove me wrong.

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Lord Duckhunter

Lord Duckhunter

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At the end of last season it wasn't unrealistic to think we could push on even further with some astute signings and our young players continuing to make progress. I think it is safe to say any Saints fan would be happy with a Top 10 finish as it stands right now. Whilst I agree that the wages on offer from the big clubs will turn players heads regardless I do feel there was focus and momentum that we had previously which just isn't there at the moment.

 

Don't you think man utd, Everton and spurs are going to " push on" as well. Not to mention the top 4 getting even better. Everton and spurs have been top 6/7 for years and man utd are a top 4 team. Where on earth were we going to " push on " to?

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Lallana's Left Peg

Lallana's Left Peg

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Don't you think man utd, Everton and spurs are going to " push on" as well. Not to mention the top 4 getting even better. Everton and spurs have been top 6/7 for years and man utd are a top 4 team. Where on earth were we going to " push on " to?

 

Either a better league position or higher points total. Given lots of our players are wanted by clubs higher than us in the league, do you not think it was possible? I don't subscribe to this Champions League being attainable narrative, but there was still much more to come from this team. If not then someone wants to have a word with all the clubs that want our players.

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Lord Duckhunter

Lord Duckhunter

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Either a better league position or higher points total. Given lots of our players are wanted by clubs higher than us in the league' date=' do you not think it was possible? I don't subscribe to this Champions League being attainable narrative, but there was still much more to come from this team. If not then someone wants to have a word with all the clubs that want our players.[/quote']

 

the higher you go in the premiership the more it becomes a squad game. Just because 5 or 6 of our players are wanted does not alter the fact that we didn't have a top 6 squad. We're never likely to , because top 6 quality players will not come and sit on our bench. Chelsea and man c could probably field a reserve 11 that would finish above us.

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Lallana's Left Peg

Lallana's Left Peg

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the higher you go in the premiership the more it becomes a squad game. Just because 5 or 6 of our players are wanted does not alter the fact that we didn't have a top 6 squad. We're never likely to , because top 6 quality players will not come and sit on our bench. Chelsea and man c could probably field a reserve 11 that would finish above us.

 

And as I said in my original post our squad players were young and will hopefully improve and I also talked about astute signings. There was more to come from our team, I'll maintain that.

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buctootim

buctootim

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the higher you go in the premiership the more it becomes a squad game. Just because 5 or 6 of our players are wanted does not alter the fact that we didn't have a top 6 squad. We're never likely to , because top 6 quality players will not come and sit on our bench. Chelsea and man c could probably field a reserve 11 that would finish above us.

 

The need for a big squad or not depends more on how often you play twice in a week. Be in the CL, Charity Shield and have long FA and Capital One cup runs and it will happen frequently. Saints, based on last year, not so much.

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saint michael

saint michael

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I would be interested to know what level we are really in for now. I am delighted with the two we have already signed and this kind of sets some expectations but am wondering if that will be it for the big signings. It feels like deals are increasingly more difficult to close. We know we have squad gaps that need strengthening and as somebody on here said there have been very few surprises with incoming players so wonder why it's so quiet and lacking any real strong rumours.

 

It feels like that we are willing to wait until exactly the right deal can be done and if not oh well we will go with what we have. Maybe it's just Ronald taking stock after the two friendlies to firm up his targets

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Smirking_Saint

Smirking_Saint

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I disagree. He is every bit good enough for us.

 

He really isnt. It would be a big fee and wages for a guy thats had roughly one decent season for utd, is used primarily off the bench for club and country and is nothing more than a poacher that has a poor return on goals in the last few seasons.

 

He is getting on abit aswell.

 

He isnt good enough and would cost a fair amount

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