Summer Transfer Window 2021

[Wade Garrett]

Has the first XI been improved?  Not sure to be honest.  

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

The one position we don’t need so think it’s a no goer 

🚨 21-year-old right-back Djed Spence ‘could be a late departure’ for Championship side Middlesbrough; Southampton & Leicester are keen #saintsfc [@GraemeBailey]

To be fair it would be just like Southampton to go from 1 right back, to 4 of the buggers.

Edited 31 August, 2021 by S-Clarke

[stevy777_x]

1 minute ago, Give it to Ron said:

The one position we don’t need so think it’s a no goer 

🚨 21-year-old right-back Djed Spence ‘could be a late departure’ for Championship side Middlesbrough; Southampton & Leicester are keen #saintsfc [@GraemeBailey]

Chris we look like the England squad this summer, too many right backs not enough central midfielders.

[Badger]

20 minutes ago, SaintLondon said:

I know it’s not going to happen but wouldn’t it be great if we just pulled one out the hat that nobody knew about. Would be great. Won’t happen. 

Just in time for last orders at The Potters Heron. 

[Viking Saint]

20 minutes ago, SaintLondon said:

I know it’s not going to happen but wouldn’t it be great if we just pulled one out the hat that nobody knew about. Would be great. Won’t happen. 

It's the hope that kills you. It has happened before, mind, and wonder if that Obafemi fee will give us some extra loan spending money?

[FarehamSaintJames]

No GK and no CM, could rue these missed opportunities to get someone in come the winter.

A decent keeper could give us an extra ten+ points.

 

A good window, some good signings, nice to shift some deadwood. Would’ve liked a marquee CB signing and a dependable GK.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

Makes you wonder if we have a specific keeper in mind who's available next summer. Madness otherwise.

[hypochondriac]

Not a bad window but not a great one either. Our defence and defensive midfield is a bit of a gamble to leave it like it is and to hope that they can start getting some clean sheets. Seems like we've pulled some gems out of the bag at fullback and I'm pleased with the Armstrong signing to replace Ings. It's the centre of defence and midfield that will dictate how our season goes this year you would think. Let's hope that Romeu can play the majority of the season, that Stephens can show some consistency for a change and cut down on errors and that we grab enough points for lower mid table. 

[LGTL]

Financially, it’s probably a 7/8 out of 10.

Player wise, it’s more a 4/5 for me. Not sure we’ll have enough, but guess there’s sod all we can do about that now. 

[DT]

3 minutes ago, LGTL said:

Financially, it’s probably a 7/8 out of 10.

Player wise, it’s more a 4/5 for me. Not sure we’ll have enough, but guess there’s sod all we can do about that now. 

Agreed. Poor on the real need. The spine. A big gamble. 

[DT]

32 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

Has the first XI been improved?  Not sure to be honest.  

It has not. 

[beatlesaint]

1 minute ago, DT said:

It has not. 

Agreed, of course it hasn’t

[Viking Saint]

Daniel Jebbison, linked with a move to us, joins Burton Albion on loan - bit of a comedown for him

[DT]

Would we have pushed the boat out just that little bit more without the point at St James’? We will never know

[HarvSFC]

15 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

Has the first XI been improved?  Not sure to be honest.  

This is my thinking.

We lost Bertrand, we replaced him with Perraud.

We lost Ings, we replaced with Armstrong.

We lost Vestergaard, we replaced with Lyanco.

No complaints there, other than, we could have looked for a more proven centre-back to partner Salisu. Depending on Bednarek recapturing previous form and hoping Stephens learns to finally eradicate his mistakes is risky and they can both be improved upon.

The other signings of Walcott, Simeu, Small and Broja are squad fillers with the one first 11 improving signing in Livramento, who plays at RB, the one of few positions we were solid in when KWP was fit last season. Hopefully he can be pushed up to RW, as then that would be a real improvement.

So, overall, we've replaced bodies and made one first team improvement, while fleshing out the overall squad depth. Considering, one of our benches against Liverpool last season consisted of McCarthy, Salisu, Ramsay, Djenepo, Diallo, Ferry, Jankewitz, Obafemi and N'Lundulu, I've been much more impressed with our early benches this season. I'm also clinging to the fact that we were top of the league at one point last season and one of the form teams of 2020, before injuries crippled us, so it wasn't just a blip. However, we have also won just five league games in 2021, and all we've done to address the rest of the first eleven, who remained here is sign a right-back.

Overall, it looks like we went into the transfer window with a budget of £0. Hoedt, Gunn, Jankewitz, Lemina and Slattery paid for Perraud. Ings paid for Armstrong and Livramento. Vestergaard paid for Lyanco and Small. Worrying. The net spend table looks promsing once again, as Grealish, Willock, White, Tomori, Abraham, Zouma, Wilson, Harrison, James and Buendia are the only Premier League, or former players to have been sold for over £10m and we sold two.

I know that we have good football people at the top of the club now in Crocker especially, who has worked very smart this summer. But, he's still working with his hands tied behind his back and the sooner we can get some more investment/new owners, the better, as the only players who could command figures of over £20m+ next summer being JWP, A. Armstrong (won't take a loss) and Livramento. With possible shouts to KWP and Adams.

[CB Fry]

To me it feels like we have done the absolute minimum and not much more. Replacing Ings and Bertrand well,  and Tino is a great prospect.

Beyond that we have not addressed our fundamental flaws of defensive and mental frailty and on pitch leadership.

All could have been resolved by signing an appropriate front line, first choice central defender. We did it with Virgil and Lovren (and tried it with £16-8m spent on Hoedt and then Vestergaard). We brought in decent funds and cut the wage bill, so money was there.

It remains baffling to me that we went for a back up rather than front line CB. 

Secondly if Romeu gets injured, we're fucked. 

Lastly the goalies are shit. So we go into this half of the season with the spine of a jellyfish from CM to GK.

Armstrong is going to need to score a hell of a lot of goals to keep us up.

 

[hypochondriac]

31 minutes ago, DT said:

It has not. 

I'd say it has at fullback. Not really anywhere else though. 

[hypochondriac]

28 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

This is my thinking.

We lost Bertrand, we replaced him with Perraud.

We lost Ings, we replaced with Armstrong.

We lost Vestergaard, we replaced with Lyanco.

No complaints there, other than, we could have looked for a more proven centre-back to partner Salisu. Depending on Bednarek recapturing previous form and hoping Stephens learns to finally eradicate his mistakes is risky and they can both be improved upon.

The other signings of Walcott, Simeu, Small and Broja are squad fillers with the one first 11 improving signing in Livramento, who plays at RB, the one of few positions we were solid in when KWP was fit last season. Hopefully he can be pushed up to RW, as then that would be a real improvement.

So, overall, we've replaced bodies and made one first team improvement, while fleshing out the overall squad depth. Considering, one of our benches against Liverpool last season consisted of McCarthy, Salisu, Ramsay, Djenepo, Diallo, Ferry, Jankewitz, Obafemi and N'Lundulu, I've been much more impressed with our early benches this season. I'm also clinging to the fact that we were top of the league at one point last season and one of the form teams of 2020, before injuries crippled us, so it wasn't just a blip. However, we have also won just five league games in 2021, and all we've done to address the rest of the first eleven, who remained here is sign a right-back.

Overall, it looks like we went into the transfer window with a budget of £0. Hoedt, Gunn, Jankewitz, Lemina and Slattery paid for Perraud. Ings paid for Armstrong and Livramento. Vestergaard paid for Lyanco and Small. Worrying. The net spend table looks promsing once again, as Grealish, Willock, White, Tomori, Abraham, Zouma, Wilson, Harrison, James and Buendia are the only Premier League, or former players to have been sold for over £10m and we sold two.

I know that we have good football people at the top of the club now in Crocker especially, who has worked very smart this summer. But, he's still working with his hands tied behind his back and the sooner we can get some more investment/new owners, the better, as the only players who could command figures of over £20m+ next summer being JWP, A. Armstrong (won't take a loss) and Livramento. With possible shouts to KWP and Adams.

JWP next summer surely? Should get us a fair amount. 

[HarvSFC]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

JWP next summer surely? Should get us a fair amount. 

Yeah, we may only need to make the one sale next summer, if it is JWP, as he could net us £50m+, but I don't want to think about that. 🙁

[SNSUN]

GK: McCarthy, Forster, Lewis

RB: KWP, Livramento, Valery

LB: Perraud, Small, McQueen

CB: Salisu, Bednarek, Stephens, Lyanco, 

CM: JWP, Romeu, Diallo, Smallbone

AM: Armstrong, Elyounoussi, Redmond, Tella, Djenepo, Walcott,

Str: Adams, Armstrong, Broja, Long

 

That's the squad (excluding young players like Watts, Chauke, Olufunwa, etc). 27 players with a couple probably due out on loan to knock it down to 25. Personally I think it has been a decent window for a team that has it's financial hands tied behind it's back. Yes we are unsure on Armstrong being an able replacement for Ings and yes we don't know much about Lyanco but we definitely have more strength in depth, especially at full back which cost us heavily last year. The biggest worry is the unknown quantities of player we've signed but we will see in due course.

 

I think we will still see Valery and maybe Long go out on loan if we can find someone to take them, and obviously McQueen will probably be gone in the new year, but overall it should be enough, at the very least, to stay up.

[austsaint]

11 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

To me it feels like we have done the absolute minimum and not much more. Replacing Ings and Bertrand well,  and Tino is a great prospect.

Beyond that we have not addressed our fundamental flaws of defensive and mental frailty and on pitch leadership.

All could have been resolved by signing an appropriate front line, first choice central defender. We did it with Virgil and Lovren (and tried it with £16-8m spent on Hoedt and then Vestergaard). We brought in decent funds and cut the wage bill, so money was there.

It remains baffling to me that we went for a back up rather than front line CB. 

Secondly if Romeu gets injured, we're fucked. 

Lastly the goalies are shit. So we go into this half of the season with the spine of a jellyfish from CM to GK.

Armstrong is going to need to score a hell of a lot of goals to keep us up.

 

Yes, there's a whiff of wing and prayer about this window, even allowing for the constraints Semmens and co. are working with.    GK, defensive midfield and CB are clear soft spots.    Cannot understand why someone like Caleta-Car wasn't brought in.   Squad depth is definitely stronger and one cause for optimism is the possibility that players like Small, Simeu and Broja may step up quickly......and then again they may not.

Quietly confident that Armstrong will make the grade and score goals.    Club have rolled the relegation dice again though.

[Ralph Fastenbüttl]

14 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

To me it feels like we have done the absolute minimum and not much more. Replacing Ings and Bertrand well,  and Tino is a great prospect.

Beyond that we have not addressed our fundamental flaws of defensive and mental frailty and on pitch leadership.

All could have been resolved by signing an appropriate front line, first choice central defender. We did it with Virgil and Lovren (and tried it with £16-8m spent on Hoedt and then Vestergaard). We brought in decent funds and cut the wage bill, so money was there.

It remains baffling to me that we went for a back up rather than front line CB. 

Secondly if Romeu gets injured, we're fucked. 

Lastly the goalies are shit. So we go into this half of the season with the spine of a jellyfish from CM to GK.

Armstrong is going to need to score a hell of a lot of goals to keep us up.

 

That's not necessarily true. Armstrong could have a single-figure season and we could still hope for returns from Adams, Tella, JWP and Broja. Perhaps even S Armstrong and Moi.

It's probably hard to argue that our starting XI is much improved, but our squad depth most certainly has - and that was the weakness that properly fucked us last season. Of course I'd have liked a new keeper and another CM option, but the window probably delivered more than I would have predicted in the summer.

[S-Clarke]

I think we've undoubtedly improved depth in the striking positions and full back, but the question marks are around the quality and experience now missing.

We can't go out and replace an Ings with an ings, otherwise we'd have kept Ings - so we had to be shrewd with that one and hope that Armstrong can hit similar levels in time. I think it's clear he has a similar playing style, but the jury is out on the quality. He has been good though, involved in every goal we've scored this season more or less.

Lyanco is one I'd have liked us to have gone a bit bigger on, used the opportunity to upgrade on Bednarek - but I think we've gone a bit cheap and just filled a hole in the squad. I think we missed a trick there. Maybe we didn't have the funds, who knows.

Would have loved a new goalie, but I think the reasons are pretty clear on why that's not a goer.

Overall - a 6/10. Definitely added more depth, but reduced the immediate experience and replaced with potential. It's a huge, huge gamble. Personally I predict a big, big struggle. I think we'll see some really good displays but you'll see us come up short in the key moments due to a lack of experience. 

Financially we are in a bad place and I think the model the club has followed this window is all we can do, and they deserve credit for getting some of the young talents over the line.

[DT]

Next few fixtures and this inactivity will hit home. Bad goalkeepers. Too weak midfield. Equals skirting with relegation all season. 

[hypochondriac]

13 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I think we've undoubtedly improved depth in the striking positions and full back, but the question marks are around the quality and experience now missing.

We can't go out and replace an Ings with an ings, otherwise we'd have kept Ings - so we had to be shrewd with that one and hope that Armstrong can hit similar levels in time. I think it's clear he has a similar playing style, but the jury is out on the quality. He has been good though, involved in every goal we've scored this season more or less.

Lyanco is one I'd have liked us to have gone a bit bigger on, used the opportunity to upgrade on Bednarek - but I think we've gone a bit cheap and just filled a hole in the squad. I think we missed a trick there. Maybe we didn't have the funds, who knows.

Would have loved a new goalie, but I think the reasons are pretty clear on why that's not a goer.

Overall - a 6/10. Definitely added more depth, but reduced the immediate experience and replaced with potential. It's a huge, huge gamble. Personally I predict a big, big struggle. I think we'll see some really good displays but you'll see us come up short in the key moments due to a lack of experience. 

Financially we are in a bad place and I think the model the club has followed this window is all we can do, and they deserve credit for getting some of the young talents over the line.

Yep. I reckon we will have some great performances but my worry is actually getting results. 

[SaintJackoInHurworth]

A lot of people seem to be very much glass half-full here, especially in relation to Lyanco. I think he may turn out to be better than some of you fear. I also think that suggestions that he will not be used in defensive midfield may be incorrect. From what I saw on the videos he looked very much like a player who would fit well in that position fulfilling a similar role to Romeu. Since we have not signed anyone else to fulfil that role, I think Lyanco may well have to be the one who covers for Romeu if he is injured.

However, I also think that he could produce decent competition for Salisu in the left hand central defensive role and I would not be too surprised if he even manages to jump ahead of Salisu in the pecking order - at least for some games.

We now have a squad with at least two players (and in some cases more) in every position plus several youngsters who also have the potential to begin to challenge for a place in the first team. We can be confident that this season we will not be seeing Saints struggling to put together a side with enough cover in every position.

[verlaine1979]

2 minutes ago, SaintJackoInHurworth said:

A lot of people seem to be very much glass half-full here, especially in relation to Lyanco. I think he may turn out to be better than some of you fear. I also think that suggestions that he will not be used in defensive midfield may be incorrect. From what I saw on the videos he looked very much like a player who would fit well in that position fulfilling a similar role to Romeu. Since we have not signed anyone else to fulfil that role, I think Lyanco may well have to be the one who covers for Romeu if he is injured.

However, I also think that he could produce decent competition for Salisu in the left hand central defensive role and I would not be too surprised if he even manages to jump ahead of Salisu in the pecking order - at least for some games.

We now have a squad with at least two players (and in some cases more) in every position plus several youngsters who also have the potential to begin to challenge for a place in the first team. We can be confident that this season we will not be seeing Saints struggling to put together a side with enough cover in every position.

Bizarre. There is no way Lyanco is replacing Salisu. The other two half-wits he may well do, but Salisu already looks a different class and will be more or less the first name on the team sheet after JWP this year.

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, SaintJackoInHurworth said:

A lot of people seem to be very much glass half-full here, especially in relation to Lyanco. I think he may turn out to be better than some of you fear. I also think that suggestions that he will not be used in defensive midfield may be incorrect. From what I saw on the videos he looked very much like a player who would fit well in that position fulfilling a similar role to Romeu. Since we have not signed anyone else to fulfil that role, I think Lyanco may well have to be the one who covers for Romeu if he is injured.

However, I also think that he could produce decent competition for Salisu in the left hand central defensive role and I would not be too surprised if he even manages to jump ahead of Salisu in the pecking order - at least for some games.

We now have a squad with at least two players (and in some cases more) in every position plus several youngsters who also have the potential to begin to challenge for a place in the first team. We can be confident that this season we will not be seeing Saints struggling to put together a side with enough cover in every position.

I agree that we have more depth, there will be less shoe-horning of players etc - so that's a massive positive.

My fear is the removal of quality and goals with Ings. His goals kept us up last season and the season before that. We are basically asking for Armstrong to replace his numbers, or at least get Redmond, Moussa, Theo etc hitting 5+ each themselves. 

We don't seem to have any player who can do something out of nothing like Ings. He pulled us out of the mire against Burnley at home last season, pressured Mee, beat him to the ball and from nowhere it was 1-1. Or the audacious flick over the Liverpool keeper when we won 1-0. It's those moments I don't think we've replaced or can really for the money we have available, and that will probably cost us around 5-10 points.

That's why maybe we should have gone a bit harder on an established centre back to strengthen one of our biggest weaknesses last season, so we don't have to rely on scoring 2 or 3 goals a game. Not judging Lyanco myself until I've seen him, but I don't believe he's been brought as an immediate starter.

[GarrettIvo]

I don't think scoring goals will be a major problem. Armstrong has certainly put himself in the right spots to get some. We'll never know if he would have scored against Newcastle if he hadn't been taken out by Lascelles. 

 

Keeping them out will again be our issue. A bit less gung-ho and a bit more game awareness would go along way.

 

[skintsaint]

5 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I agree that we have more depth, there will be less shoe-horning of players etc - so that's a massive positive.

My fear is the removal of quality and goals with Ings. His goals kept us up last season and the season before that. We are basically asking for Armstrong to replace his numbers, or at least get Redmond, Moussa, Theo etc hitting 5+ each themselves. 

We don't seem to have any player who can do something out of nothing like Ings. He pulled us out of the mire against Burnley at home last season, pressured Mee, beat him to the ball and from nowhere it was 1-1. Or the audacious flick over the Liverpool keeper when we won 1-0. It's those moments I don't think we've replaced or can really for the money we have available, and that will probably cost us around 5-10 points.

That's why maybe we should have gone a bit harder on an established centre back to strengthen one of our biggest weaknesses last season, so we don't have to rely on scoring 2 or 3 goals a game. Not judging Lyanco myself until I've seen him, but I don't believe he's been brought as an immediate starter.

Well at least you have only given Armstrong 3 whole games, where he has scored, assisted and won a pen when about to score. Not enough from him so far then. Looking at his goals at Blackburn he has the ability to hit good goals so lets give him more than 3 games eh.

Edited 1 September, 2021 by skintsaint

[StrangelyBrown]

6 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I agree that we have more depth, there will be less shoe-horning of players etc - so that's a massive positive.

My fear is the removal of quality and goals with Ings. His goals kept us up last season and the season before that. We are basically asking for Armstrong to replace his numbers, or at least get Redmond, Moussa, Theo etc hitting 5+ each themselves. 

We don't seem to have any player who can do something out of nothing like Ings. He pulled us out of the mire against Burnley at home last season, pressured Mee, beat him to the ball and from nowhere it was 1-1. Or the audacious flick over the Liverpool keeper when we won 1-0. It's those moments I don't think we've replaced or can really for the money we have available, and that will probably cost us around 5-10 points.

That's why maybe we should have gone a bit harder on an established centre back to strengthen one of our biggest weaknesses last season, so we don't have to rely on scoring 2 or 3 goals a game. Not judging Lyanco myself until I've seen him, but I don't believe he's been brought as an immediate starter.

You've forgotten that ings was dreadful for a number of games last season - he looked like he couldn't be arsed and consequently it was like we were playing with 10 men. Yes he could win games for us when he was on form, but he also contributed nothing when his head wasn't in the right place (his shit spell started in January if I remember right). Ralph's way of playing suits players who are committed and a little less "special" more than someone who just doesn't turn up when they aren't in the mood.

[CB Fry]

57 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Well at least you have only given Armstrong 3 whole games, where he has scored, assisted and won a pen when about to score. Not enough from him so far then. Looking at his goals at Blackburn he has the ability to hit good goals so lets give him more than 3 games eh.

I think both things can be true. Armstrong is as good a replacement as we were ever going to get, and perfectly capable of scoring 12-15 goals and I think he will.

But Ings did offer more in the way of creativity/something out of nothing which with the best will in the world Armstrong doesn't have that yet and he won't this season.

In the rest of the side we have pace but not huge amounts of creativity, and with Ings gone much less creativity than last year.

So I think it is fair comment to say that Armstrong is s good signing but also that we will still miss Ings ability to create something out of nothing and change games. We haven't replaced that (and I don't think anyone thought we would). 

Peter Crouch was a great signings and scored 16 goals and a good replacement for Beattie but that wasn't enough to keep us up.

So I think S-Clarke is saying our inability (maybe impossibility) to replace that side of Ings game should have meant more focus on our other main weakness, which is in defence and conceding goals. Using the same three games we've already conceded six so it remains a significant area of concern. Bafflingly the club have not appeared to see it as a worry so did the bare minimum.

[Turkish]

The trophy is back home

 

[Dorchester Saint]

Draw with Manchester United, draw away to Newcastle United, both fixtures we lost last season…..but suddenly in a few days, we haven’t improved the squad and it’s all doom & gloom. Classic Spazweb! 

[JRM]

9 minutes ago, Turkish said:

The trophy is back home

 

😍 beautiful,  I'm sure Semmens will be printing that and waving it around the office as an achievement, we're back. 

[Daft Kerplunk]

10 minutes ago, Turkish said:

The trophy is back home

 

If we stay up, that’ll be a perfect season 👍🏼

[CB Fry]

The Athletic write up is unfailingly positive this morning. "A bloody good window" indeed.

[Cartman]

13 minutes ago, Turkish said:

The trophy is back home

 

According the site you got that from, Lyanco and Livramento were free transfers, so... yeah.

[Fitzhugh Fella]

Should have signed someone in the Jimmy Case mould. We lack leadership and mental strength which in the PL are vital commodities. 

[Shroppie]

27 minutes ago, JRM said:

😍 beautiful,  I'm sure Semmens will be printing that and waving it around the office as an achievement, we're back. 

What is an achievement is getting 15 players off the wage bill and signing some real young potential.

[Barsiem]

I for one am disgusted that Saints are being run on a prudent basis... selling players for their maximum value when we could have let them leave for free in a years time, whilst only signing highly rated youngsters when the likes of Messi and Ronaldo were available, and committing our best player and captain to a new long term contract.  

Gao out (or something...)

[Alain Perrin]

To be fair, we could have signed Messi, Kane, Busquests last night plus a last minute Deal sheet that brings Keegan back out of retirement.... and the forum would still find fault.

Looks fairly positive to me.  Still some positions to strengthen (Stephens is a mixed bag for me) but good work in a number of areas. 

I don't get the clamour for a new GK either - FF and McCarthy were our keeper for our strongest finishes in the PL.  

[Billy the Kidd]

The other thing the net spend table doesn’t do is demonstrate wage savings - i would think you could add an additional £10m this year at least on wages saved.

I think the outgoings this window have been good and long overdue, but still disappointed with CM and GK, although I get why the latter wasnt resolved.

Also was hopeful of Long going on loan, but stuck with him for another 9 months or so.

Still think we have enough to stay up, and looking forward to this season and next summer window. I wonder if we try to get Sam Johnston on a free then…

[CB Fry]

26 minutes ago, Alain Perrin said:

To be fair, we could have signed Messi, Kane, Busquests last night plus a last minute Deal sheet that brings Keegan back out of retirement.... and the forum would still find fault.

Pretty stupid comment. By the same token we could have signed a large black pudding with a face drawn on and hand tied to a broom handle as our Danny Ings replacement and some on this forum would be saying "let's give him a chance, I can't believe you people are knee jerk writing him off already without seeing him play, its a disgrace,this is exactly what happened to Mane, call yourselves a supporter etc etc etc"

[egg]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

The trophy is back home

 

Good. We're skint and needed to refresh our squad, shift players off the wage bill, and not spend money that we don't have. We've done well. 

PS. That graphic is bollox. The net spend wasn't - £25m.

[egg]

1 hour ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Should have signed someone in the Jimmy Case mould. We lack leadership and mental strength which in the PL are vital commodities. 

Indeed. I was surprised to see Danny Drinkwater end up at Reading. Unless he's gone right downhill, I'd have thought he'd have given us a bit of no how and leadership. 

[hypochondriac]

2 minutes ago, egg said:

Indeed. I was surprised to see Danny Drinkwater end up at Reading. Unless he's gone right downhill, I'd have thought he'd have given us a bit of no how and leadership. 

Completely unrealistic. 

[tajjuk]

Yeh that table is wrong, transfermarkt has it as + £18 million without the fee for Small or Simeu, which likely adds another £7 million or so and they also seem to have the Ings and Vestergaard fees higher than reported. 

So it's less £10 million. 

[Daft Kerplunk]

5 minutes ago, tajjuk said:

Yeh that table is wrong, transfermarkt has it as + £18 million without the fee for Small or Simeu, which likely adds another £7 million or so and they also seem to have the Ings and Vestergaard fees higher than reported. 

So it's less £10 million. 

I doubt the fees for those players will be that high yet…might be with add ons. The accounts will definitely look healthier though with a positive net spend, some players with values that should increase, big wage savings and with investments in the hospitality experiences made as well as players, things will be better on the P&L/cash flow and balance sheets. A little debt paid off too maybe, which is good for the business overall. Then hope the players, manager and the back room staff can keep us up in the Premier League to make sure next season is equally self-sustaining and maybe pays down more debt. 

[hypochondriac]

15 minutes ago, tajjuk said:

Yeh that table is wrong, transfermarkt has it as + £18 million without the fee for Small or Simeu, which likely adds another £7 million or so and they also seem to have the Ings and Vestergaard fees higher than reported. 

So it's less £10 million. 

And the Obafemi fee.