Summer Transfer Window 2021

[Saint Shenton]

22 hours ago, SuperSAINT said:

It will certainly be telling.

I read that he might go out on loan & sign a contract extension. 
 

 

 

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

We certainly seem to be shipping out those we don't want or don't expect to be getting much game time this season. I hope this is a prelude to some proper additions to give us a much stronger pool of players to use otherwise we're just making the original pool into a puddle.

[SNSUN]

I think we may be seeing more of Smallbone and Caleb Watts this season, on top of Tella who is pretty much already established. That’s 3 youngsters in the midfield and attacking midfield positions. My worry is the lack of youngsters we have coming through up top and in defence. We even sent Ramsey out on loan so we definitely need to strengthen more, and now N’Lundulu in attack. I’d be wary of letting Obafemi go now. 

 

I wonder where Long will end up! ☺️

[VectisSaint]

15 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

I think we may be seeing more of Smallbone and Caleb Watts this season, on top of Tella who is pretty much already established.

Unfortunately there is no evidence that Smallbone is involved in training so far (unless someone can tell me different). Was hoping that he would have a full pre-season, because it was quite clear that he had stepped up to the level required, especially in the game when he picked up the injury. His availability is sort of crucial to our plans, not because he is crucial as such but because we need to know whether he is going to play a decent part, unlike the situation that developed with poor Sam McQueen, where we found ourselves short (at full back) because his recovery went Pete Tong.

[woodsaint1]

A player we've been linked with in the past. Coming off another excellent season for AZ.

Wonder if another CM/AM is a target for us this window given that we've let Jankewitz go and Lemina will likely follow suit. Also its still not clear when Smallbone will return.

On another note, we often find ourselves linked with the same players as Rennes/Atalanta (Salisu and Maehle come to mind).

[BotleySaint]

For a squad that was desperately thin last year, we seem to have lost even more so far...

[S-Clarke]

13 minutes ago, BotleySaint said:

For a squad that was desperately thin last year, we seem to have lost even more so far...

I think we needed to shed the players not good enough tbh. That should allow us the space to replace those with better, so hopefully...if all goes to plan, we'll have a better more rounded squad next season. Still 7 or so weeks to go, but I think we need at least one big sale before we can do what we really need to. But shedding the players not good enough is step 1 of creating the wage space.

Edited 14 July, 2021 by S-Clarke

[whiteleySaint30]

10 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I think we needed to shed the players not good enough tbh. That should allow us the space to replace those with better, so hopefully...if all goes to plan, we'll have a better more rounded squad next season. Still 7 or so weeks to go, but I think we need at least one big sale before we can do what we really need to. But shedding the players not good enough is step 1 of creating the wage space.

Yeah, that approach worked really well in January when we got rid of both back up full backs only to be left scrambling around at the last minute and failing to bring any in. 

[S-Clarke]

14 minutes ago, whiteleySaint30 said:

Yeah, that approach worked really well in January when we got rid of both back up full backs only to be left scrambling around at the last minute and failing to bring any in. 

Hey, just trying to be positive! I think the club have learnt their lessons from January and I doubt they'll put us in that position again.

The only reason to feel a little nervous is if we are truly skint beyond what we even believe, but we'll find out.

[Lighthouse]

17 minutes ago, whiteleySaint30 said:

Yeah, that approach worked really well in January when we got rid of both back up full backs only to be left scrambling around at the last minute and failing to bring any in. 

Actually we got rid of them because they were no where near Premier League quality and there was nothing to lose in letting them go. Clearly those who’ve analysed their performances in training and in matches decided we were no worse off with JWP, Stephens, Bednarek or Salisu filling in if needed.

[badgerx16]

Damn, Messi looks like he is staying at Barca after all.

[Verbal]

1 hour ago, badgerx16 said:

Damn, Messi looks like he is staying at Barca after all.

Only for the next five years though.

[VectisSaint]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

Actually we got rid of them because they were no where near Premier League quality and there was nothing to lose in letting them go. Clearly those who’ve analysed their performances in training and in matches decided we were no worse off with JWP, Stephens, Bednarek or Salisu filling in if needed.

One of them is back, training with the first team after completely disappearing off the radar while he as Brum. So is he good enough now? And what happened to him at Brum?

[woodsaint1]

13 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

One of them is back, training with the first team after completely disappearing off the radar while he as Brum. So is he good enough now? And what happened to him at Brum?

No idea what went on at Birmingham, sometimes its difficult for players joining on loan midway through the season to garner the managers faith, particularly given that they were firmly in a relegation battle. What I can judge Valery on is his performances in a Saints shirt and he falls way short of what we should expect as a first team squad full back. He had that run during the 18/19 season and looked decent, but his performances since then have tailed off badly (off field issues could be a factor, who knows). While we had 11 shockers in the 9-0 defeat to Leicester, his performance was abysmal. Defensively weak, which for some full backs can be countered by good attacking qualities, but not the case with Valery. Can see him being sold to a French team and we could a few mill for him.

[Saint Billy]

How can Messi ignore us once again? 

[skintsaint]

13 minutes ago, Saint Billy said:

How can Messi ignore us once again? 

Hard to see how he will survive on his new 60m a year contract to be honest.

[Lallana's Left Peg]

11 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Hey, just trying to be positive! I think the club have learnt their lessons from January and I doubt they'll put us in that position again.

The only reason to feel a little nervous is if we are truly skint beyond what we even believe, but we'll find out.

We're very skint, that's why we operate around the £10m for signings and no-one of any interest to any other club signs a new deal with us.

£10m is peanuts in the Premier League.  As a way of comparison:

1. It got Aston Villa one season of Ross Barkley

2. It's a quarter of what Manchester United spent on a teenager with no senior appearances

3. It's just over a third of what good Championship players cost

4. Most Premier League teams (but not all to be fair) don't even spend that on players for depth - and it's what we spend on first teamers

 

Until the club has a takeover we have to hope that others don't get it right when they spend money and the clear decay in the quality of our team can be slowed as much as possible so we're still in this league.

[rooney]

1 hour ago, Saint Billy said:

How can Messi ignore us once again? 

Because we all sang a derogatory song about him when we had Lallana with us.

[nta786]

13 hours ago, BotleySaint said:

For a squad that was desperately thin last year, we seem to have lost even more so far...

Yeah agreed it does feel like that. This is currently how the squad looks then:

GK - McCarthy, Forster 

RB - KWP, [Valery]

CB - Vestergaard, Bednarek, Salisu, Stephens (need 1x CB if JV leaves)

LB - Perraud

CM/No. 6s - JWP, Romeu, Diallo, [Lemina] (need a new CM in my opinion)

RM - Armstrong, Walcott

LM - Redmond, Djenepo, [Elyounoussi]

ST - Ings, Adams, Tella, [Obafemi], [Long]

The blue is players I'm not sure if they are in Ralph's plans. On paper, currently and inc. the blue, except for fullback we do have basically 2 players for every position. 

 

[qwertyell]

7 minutes ago, nta786 said:

RM - Armstrong, Walcott

LM - Redmond, Djenepo, [Elyounoussi]

God that's so weak. Armstrong and a past it mascot, two nothing players, and a total flop.

And it doesn't even look like an area of the team we're prioritising strengthening. 

[TWar]

3 minutes ago, qwertyell said:

God that's so weak. Armstrong and a past it mascot, two nothing players, and a total flop.

And it doesn't even look like an area of the team we're prioritising strengthening. 

I think Redmond is probably seen as a striker and we will look for another attacking mid. Or A. Armstrong who apparently can play both roles and will alternate. Would be very surprised if we don't have reinforcements in that position come start of season.

[MarkSFC]

2 minutes ago, TWar said:

I think Redmond is probably seen as a striker and we will look for another attacking mid. Or A. Armstrong who apparently can play both roles and will alternate. Would be very surprised if we don't have reinforcements in that position come start of season.

So what part of less than 40 senior goals in around 330 appearances makes Ralph think he is a striker???

Jeez....if that's the case we truly are in a mess. 

His poor scoring record is the main reason I would be happy to see him move on.

[TWar]

2 minutes ago, MarkSFC said:

So what part of less than 40 senior goals in around 330 appearances makes Ralph think he is a striker???

Jeez....if that's the case we truly are in a mess. 

His poor scoring record is the main reason I would be happy to see him move on.

He'll probably be demoted to 4th choice striker as Tella develops. But yeah, he was our first back up striker last season when Ings was out and played there over Adams a fair bit too so I think he probably is seen as mainly a striker now who played more than expected at AM due to the Walcott injury, a couple of Armstrong injuries, Minimino not hitting the ground running, and Djenepo being injured or poor most of the season.

Also, as a striker he got 3 goals and 3 assists in 11 starts, which is actually pretty reasonable to be fair to him. Not going to start for us hopefully but can probably do a job and fill in when needed.

[Saint_lambden]

28 minutes ago, nta786 said:

Yeah agreed it does feel like that. This is currently how the squad looks then:

GK - McCarthy, Forster 

RB - KWP, [Valery]

CB - Vestergaard, Bednarek, Salisu, Stephens (need 1x CB if JV leaves)

LB - Perraud

CM/No. 6s - JWP, Romeu, Diallo, [Lemina] (need a new CM in my opinion)

RM - Armstrong, Walcott

LM - Redmond, Djenepo, [Elyounoussi]

ST - Ings, Adams, Tella, [Obafemi], [Long]

The blue is players I'm not sure if they are in Ralph's plans. On paper, currently and inc. the blue, except for fullback we do have basically 2 players for every position. 

 

Depressingly short of depth in some key areas. I'm sure we'll add one or two more but if it remains like that I'd be inclined to go with 3/5 at the back to negate the lack of quality in RM/LM positions. 

--------------------------------Forster-------------------------------

------------Bednarek--------Vestergaard-------Salisu---------------

---KWP---------------------------------------------------Perraud---

----------------Romeu-------JWP-------Armstrong-----------------

-----------------------Ings------------Adams-----------------------

 

[TWar]

31 minutes ago, Saint_lambden said:

Depressingly short of depth in some key areas. I'm sure we'll add one or two more but if it remains like that I'd be inclined to go with 3/5 at the back to negate the lack of quality in RM/LM positions. 

--------------------------------Forster-------------------------------

------------Bednarek--------Vestergaard-------Salisu---------------

---KWP---------------------------------------------------Perraud---

----------------Romeu-------JWP-------Armstrong-----------------

-----------------------Ings------------Adams-----------------------

 

I suspect our first choice starting 11 will be:

 

--------------------------------Macca-------------------------------

-----------------Bednarek-------------------Salisu------------------

---KWP---------------------------------------------------Perraud---

-------------------------Romeu-------JWP--------------------------

------------Armstrong-------------------------NewPlayer-----------

-----------------------NewPlayer------------Adams-----------------------

With a bench of Forster, NewFullback, NewCB, Stephens, Diallo, Tella, Redmond, Walcott, Djenepo

I'm sure I've missed someone too.

Sales of Ings, Vestergaard, Elyounoussi, Lemina, and a couple more youngsters sold or loaned. Bringing in starting AM, starting striker (probably Armstrong), depth CB, and depth fullback.

Edited 15 July, 2021 by TWar

[VectisSaint]

15 hours ago, BotleySaint said:

For a squad that was desperately thin last year, we seem to have lost even more so far...

As things stand what have we lost so far? Minamino? We all knew that we had to get rid before we could bring in new players and at the moment we seem to have done that. We have replaced Bertrand with Perraud which was the massive hole we had to fill. I would say that right now we are just about exactly where we were at the end of last season, except now we have some players out of the door and wages saved, opening the way for a few to be brought in. There are also still a few to leave, such as Long, Redmond and Forster. Work in progress but basically things seem to be going to plan, just wish we could get a few more in now so that they have an almost full pre-season.

Edited 15 July, 2021 by VectisSaint

[Hodgey]

I think that is the big issue - we are basically where we were, remember where we were was worst points in league in 21. It’s also looking likely that we will lose 2 first team players, one who basically wins half our points and things look very bad. Plus we’ve got no money !

Despite our horrific defensive record I think even without Vest our gk / def / defmid is just about good enough to stay up. Without Ings our attack looks distinctly championship standard. Lots of work to do still - for me playing the loans system well is absolutely key.

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, qwertyell said:

God that's so weak. Armstrong and a past it mascot, two nothing players, and a total flop.

And it doesn't even look like an area of the team we're prioritising strengthening. 

...but apart from that?

[DT]

Tom Barclay on Twitter

Doing PL previews (already) for Brighton & Southampton.

 

Imagine #bhafc fans are more optimistic than ever this season? Seemed to click at start of year, so many good young players even if BW/YB leave, good⚽️...

 

But #saintsfc fans are probably a bit nervous at present...

 

--

Got that right...

[max_saints]

Not sure who else is interested but @ 8.5m, HCDAJFU

 

https://theathletic.com/news/liverpool-transfer-news-ozan-kabak/AwQWdKH31vXk

https://liverpooloffside.sbnation.com/liverpool-fc-transfer-news/2021/7/14/22577353/liverpool-fc-transfer-news-reject-chance-sign-ozan-kabak-8-5m-schalke (if athletic is behind paywall)

Edited 15 July, 2021 by max_saints

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Just seen that West Ham have had a bid rejected for Johnstone. Apparently they are looking for closer to £20m. Wish we had a spare £20m floating around!

[SuperSAINT]

10 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Just seen that West Ham have had a bid rejected for Johnstone. Apparently they are looking for closer to £20m. Wish we had a spare £20m floating around!

Pretty sure any GK changes will happen next summer. FF out of contract then.

[SuperSAINT]

Roughan staying put for now

Young defender Sean Roughan has been attracting Premier League interest, having had trials at Chelsea and Southampton at the end of last season.

However, it is understood those will clubs will not be taking their interest in the player any further.

Meanwhile, any potential move elsewhere is on hold as the teenager is recovering from an ankle injury picked up on Ireland U21 duty.

Michael Appleton has suggested Roughan needs to playing first-team football for him to stay at the club.

That looks unlikely with the Imps well-stocked for defenders and another one potentially on the way.

[igsey]

Still a full month until the PL starts up again, can we hold off on the doom-and-gloom "our squad is terrible" talk for another few weeks please?

[woodsaint1]

People commenting that Guehi to Palace is great business. Didnt look up to much in the playoff final and will cost up to 20 million. 

Palace have lost half their team, Eze is out for a long part of the season, Zahas future still in doubt and Vieira is unproven in management at this level. Can only see them struggling at the moment

[SuperSAINT]

 

[Suhari]

11 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

Presumably Obafemi?

Wonder if Moi would fancy it.

[TWar]

12 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

The plural of players is interesting. Obafemi and Long maybe, or Obafemi and Valery?

[Chez]

16 hours ago, VectisSaint said:

One of them is back, training with the first team after completely disappearing off the radar while he as Brum. So is he good enough now? And what happened to him at Brum?

As I said at the time, Brum already had a decent right back in Maxime Colin, who is well liked there. Colin lacks a yard of pace, otherwise he'd be in the top flight. I think he was slightly injured, when Valery first arrived, which allowed him to get a couple of chances, but he didn't take them. They signed him for competition, cover and to give them greater flexibility in terms of going to wing backs (which Colin is perhaps not suited to) but Valery offered so little, they just stuck with Colin. Two Brum ST holders I know said he was "rubbish" and reenforced my own opinion that he is too passive, laid back and doesn't really dominate an opponent. 

I have no idea what has happened behind the scenes in terms of his fitness and health, but maybe that has held him back and possibly he can kick on from here...but that may be me clutching at straws.

[Chez]

57 minutes ago, TWar said:

The plural of players is interesting. Obafemi and Long maybe, or Obafemi and Valery?

reasonable assumptions. Not sure how they would afford Long's wages though.

[Saint Keef]

34 minutes ago, Chez said:

reasonable assumptions. Not sure how they would afford Long's wages though.

Only a guess, but if they're getting £10m plus replacements for Armstrong, some of that £10m would be used to supplement those wages, Just a thought.

[SKD]

1 hour ago, TWar said:

The plural of players is interesting. Obafemi and Long maybe, or Obafemi and Valery?

Suspect it’s probably an option of a few players were trying to shift. 
 

From what I know, I’ll be amazed if Long moves back up north. 

[Roo1976]

21 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Hey, just trying to be positive! I think the club have learnt their lessons from January and I doubt they'll put us in that position again.

The only reason to feel a little nervous is if we are truly skint beyond what we even believe, but we'll find out.

They shouldn't have needed to learn lessons, these are well paid professionals in charge of millions of pounds business.

[Badger]

2 hours ago, Saint Keef said:

Only a guess, but if they're getting £10m plus replacements for Armstrong, some of that £10m would be used to supplement those wages, Just a thought.

Could that be the way round smoothing out the 40% of the transfer fee they are obliged to pay Newcastle ?

[suewhistle]

What's the situation with Crystal Palace, they seem to have as few players under contract as Portsmouth..? I had a Newcastle United article come up on my feed and they haven't signed anyone yet, are said to have a budget set by Ashley of £10m and have lost Willock who made such an impact for them on loan from Arsenal last season.

So whilst I share the general concern about Saints at least there are fans from other clubs similarly worrying!

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

Origi?

[SuperSAINT]

13 minutes ago, Ivan Katalinic's 'tache said:

Origi?

Not sure how ITK Graeme Bailey is, but it's always worth looking at the fringe talent of the top clubs.

Liverpool have around 8-10 of them they'd probably want to shift at the mo.

[davefizzy14]

23 minutes ago, Ivan Katalinic's 'tache said:

Origi?

Yes Origi would be a quality signing.

[Dusic]

44 minutes ago, davefizzy14 said:

Yes Origi would be a quality signing.

Really? Always strikes me as a physical player with poor technical ability.

Certainly not someone I could see combining well with Adams or Tella.

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, SuperSAINT said:

Not sure how ITK Graeme Bailey is, but it's always worth looking at the fringe talent of the top clubs.

Liverpool have around 8-10 of them they'd probably want to shift at the mo.

Think he’s usually pretty spot on to be fair. I remember he was spot on about the Van Dijk situation despite what the club was telling us