Summer 2022 Transfer Window

[BotleySaint]

..

Edited 7 May, 2022 by BotleySaint

[BotleySaint]

Wrong thread.

Edited 7 May, 2022 by BotleySaint

[SambaMaverick]

£60m for Prowsey looking a more and more enticing option.

Yes he's irreplaceable, but we need to move to a three man midfield and I think that would probably offset the loss. 

I'd suggest we need 4 X £20m players to have a chance of staying up next season. Can't see Fulham and Bournemouth both going down.

[AlexLaw76]

31 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

£60m for Prowsey looking a more and more enticing option.

Yes he's irreplaceable, but we need to move to a three man midfield and I think that would probably offset the loss. 

I'd suggest we need 4 X £20m players to have a chance of staying up next season. Can't see Fulham and Bournemouth both going down.

if we have to continue to sell big to fund transfers, what was the actual point in the takeover?

Why were SportsRepublic "chosen" to be our new owners?

[S-Clarke]

9 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

if we have to continue to sell big to fund transfers, what was the actual point in the takeover?

Why were SportsRepublic "chosen" to be our new owners?

I would have to agree if that turns out to be the case. Let's wait and see.

[HarvSFC]

16 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

if we have to continue to sell big to fund transfers, what was the actual point in the takeover?

Why were SportsRepublic "chosen" to be our new owners?

The cynic inside of me thinks they may have been chosen as they agreed to keep Semmens/Crocker in their pretty comfortable positions.

[SNSUN]

20 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

if we have to continue to sell big to fund transfers, what was the actual point in the takeover?

Why were SportsRepublic "chosen" to be our new owners?

To make us a feeder club To Ross County. 🤪

[Ex Lion Tamer]

28 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

if we have to continue to sell big to fund transfers, what was the actual point in the takeover?

Why were SportsRepublic "chosen" to be our new owners?

Because Gao wanted to sell and there was no one else offering anything better? SR at least seem to have a plan, although I think a lot of people are seriously overestimating the impact they are going to make

[Matthew Le God]

34 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

if we have to continue to sell big to fund transfers, what was the actual point in the takeover?

Why were SportsRepublic "chosen" to be our new owners?

Because it wasn't a Burnley/Man Utd model takeover with huge debts lumbered on the club due to the takeover and Gao wanted to sell.

[danjosaint]

Speaking to my Pompey season ticket holder mate today and he said that Gavin Bazunu is the best young keeper he's seen, just won players players of year and has been superb also said he's really good with his feet 

[Suhari]

SR want to do the "buy top, young prospects, play them, sell at a big profit, rinse and repeat" model.

That's pretty much a known I think.

I hope, hope, hope that they've got some ££ to kick off the process. Surely that would be part of the business plan? An outlay £50-£70m now should generate £100-£130m in the next few years, if they're as smart as they're meant to be.

Meaning a summer where we get rid of dross, without having to sell our best to reinvest.

Or am I being too optimistic?

[Baird of the land]

3 minutes ago, danjosaint said:

Speaking to my Pompey season ticket holder mate today and he said that Gavin Bazunu is the best young keeper he's seen, just won players players of year and has been superb also said he's really good with his feet 

He may have promise but the last thing Saints need(if they stay in the prem) is a 20 year old with experience of playing in league 1.

[Chez]

1 hour ago, AlexLaw76 said:

if we have to continue to sell big to fund transfers, what was the actual point in the takeover?

Why were SportsRepublic "chosen" to be our new owners?

Point? Gao sold cos he wanted the money. Drago bought, because he knows he knows the price was low and  the value of the club will go up, so long as he can keep them in the top flight. 

[Chez]

22 minutes ago, Suhari said:

SR want to do the "buy top, young prospects, play them, sell at a big profit, rinse and repeat" model.

That's pretty much a known I think.

I hope, hope, hope that they've got some ££ to kick off the process. Surely that would be part of the business plan? An outlay £50-£70m now should generate £100-£130m in the next few years, if they're as smart as they're meant to be.

Meaning a summer where we get rid of dross, without having to sell our best to reinvest.

Or am I being too optimistic?

yes.

Not a chance they will spend that this summer without selling a player like JWP. They might buy before they officially announce that sale. 

[Chez]

27 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

He may have promise but the last thing Saints need(if they stay in the prem) is a 20 year old with experience of playing in league 1.

he has played for Ireland too, which supplements that experience. Get what you mean though. Joe Hart made the jump.

[Suhari]

20 minutes ago, Chez said:

yes.

Not a chance they will spend that this summer without selling a player like JWP. They might buy before they officially announce that sale. 

That is a real possibility of course: early investment, some exciting Tino-style deals, then a late JWP sale to cover the outlay.

We just don't know, and won't until it happens.

Hopefully my original scenario is closer to the mark! Whatever: I think we'll have a very different squad next year.

[Saints foreva]

I make it roughly £55m wasted on shite like Adam Armstrong, Moi and Diallo. Terrible, terrible signings. All Championship players at best. Our signings in the summer have to he starting every week and their replacements should be the squad fodder. 

[Chez]

10 minutes ago, Suhari said:

 

Hopefully my original scenario is closer to the mark! Whatever: I think we'll have a very different squad next year.

Maybe. But keep in mind that we only have three keepers and Long out of contract (plus Broja loan deal ends). So squad change will depend a lot on someone taking our cast offs off our hands. It happened with Vestagaard, but not sure who is taking Djenepo et al.

[The Kraken]

7 minutes ago, Saints foreva said:

I make it roughly £55m wasted on shite like Adam Armstrong, Moi and Diallo. Terrible, terrible signings. All Championship players at best. Our signings in the summer have to he starting every week and their replacements should be the squad fodder. 

You can basically go back to 2016 and highlight a fundamentally terrible summer signing for Saints who cost a lot of money in transfer fee and wages, and who has largely failed. Boufal, Hoedt, Lemina, Carrillo, Elyonoussi, Gunn, Djnepo, Diallo, Adam Armstrong. Thats 9 players who mostly had reported fees somewhere between £12M and £16M, most of those players aren’t at the club any more (and certainly didn’t move upwards when leaving so we didn’t recoup anywhere near the outlay). Those who are still here are not starting XI (barring maybe Moi, and he’s on the fringes).

Our squad is dirt because Ralph has continued an existing trend of not buying well when shopping at the top end of our budget.

 

[Ex Lion Tamer]

These are the limited snippets we currently have available to predict the club's spending power now:

https://www.hampshirelive.news/sport/football/football-news/semmens-sport-republic-southampton-transfers-6661251https://www.givemesport.com/1828492-southampton-transfer-news-exciting-update-emerges-on-saints-spending-power-this-month

[Chez]

We paid £15m on Armstrong last summer?

[Saint_clark]

3 hours ago, The Kraken said:

You can basically go back to 2016 and highlight a fundamentally terrible summer signing for Saints who cost a lot of money in transfer fee and wages, and who has largely failed. Boufal, Hoedt, Lemina, Carrillo, Elyonoussi, Gunn, Djnepo, Diallo, Adam Armstrong. Thats 9 players who mostly had reported fees somewhere between £12M and £16M, most of those players aren’t at the club any more (and certainly didn’t move upwards when leaving so we didn’t recoup anywhere near the outlay). Those who are still here are not starting XI (barring maybe Moi, and he’s on the fringes).

Our squad is dirt because Ralph has continued an existing trend of not buying well when shopping at the top end of our budget.

 

Ive said for a long time that the refusal to spend upwards of £20million was ludicrous. We would be in a much better situation right now if we'd spent £30million on three proven quality players in that time rather than circa £100million on all that crap. 

[Saint_clark]

56 minutes ago, Chez said:

We paid £15m on Armstrong last summer?

I guess it means without needing a sale first. We bought Armstrong for that much after bringing in money from Ings and Vestergaard. Hopefully we can spend £15million without needing to sell first. 

[Saint86]

5 hours ago, danjosaint said:

Speaking to my Pompey season ticket holder mate today and he said that Gavin Bazunu is the best young keeper he's seen, just won players players of year and has been superb also said he's really good with his feet 

Get out! 😆

[Holmes_and_Watson]

From beeb gossip, on some names mentioned...

Tottenham Hotspur are set to sign West Brom and England keeper Sam Johnstone after Manchester United decided not to go ahead with a move. (Mirror)

West Ham are the new leaders in the race to sign Blackburn and Chile striker Ben Brereton Diaz, 23. (Sun)

[ErwinK1961]

23 hours ago, Master Bates said:

Saints are in contract talks with Caballero. 

IMO probably as back up back up and a coaching role.

Oh good, another goalkeeper on the coaching team.

[Saint_clark]

23 hours ago, Master Bates said:

Saints are in contract talks with Caballero. 

IMO probably as back up back up and a coaching role.

What the fuck is wrong with us...

[ErwinK1961]

8 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Ive said for a long time that the refusal to spend upwards of £20million was ludicrous. We would be in a much better situation right now if we'd spent £30million on three proven quality players in that time rather than circa £100million on all that crap. 

Spot on, this is where our comparison with Leicester ended. They sold Maguire for £80m, spent £36.5m on Fofana. We sold Van Dijk for £75m and replaced him with Vestergaard for £18m.

They sold Kante, signed Tielemans for £32m. We sold Mane, replaced him with Redmond for £12m

You get what you pay for.

[Billy the Kidd]

20 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

Spot on, this is where our comparison with Leicester ended. They sold Maguire for £80m, spent £36.5m on Fofana. We sold Van Dijk for £75m and replaced him with Vestergaard for £18m.

They sold Kante, signed Tielemans for £32m. We sold Mane, replaced him with Redmond for £12m

You get what you pay for.

Well, I’m not sure this totally works out - you haven’t factored in that we brought VVD/Mane in the first place. Basically our recruitment has turned a bit shit, and needs to improve, but we have got this model right, and I feel more optimistic of this happening now we have new owners.

[ErwinK1961]

6 minutes ago, Billy the Kidd said:

Well, I’m not sure this totally works out - you haven’t factored in that we brought VVD/Mane in the first place. Basically our recruitment has turned a bit shit, and needs to improve, but we have got this model right, and I feel more optimistic of this happening now we have new owners.

True, I think the point I was making was more the transfer market value of players has moved on, but we haven’t. What VVD would have cost when we bought him would not have been the same two years later.

We were/are still shopping in the same £10-15m bracket, but those types of players that we used to buy are now £20-25m.

[AlexLaw76]

9 minutes ago, Billy the Kidd said:

Well, I’m not sure this totally works out - you haven’t factored in that we brought VVD/Mane in the first place. Basically our recruitment has turned a bit shit, and needs to improve, but we have got this model right, and I feel more optimistic of this happening now we have new owners.

But Mane and VvD examples (compared to when we signed them) are now £20-25m players.  That is the problem (and the point being made I feel)

[S-Clarke]

30 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

Spot on, this is where our comparison with Leicester ended. They sold Maguire for £80m, spent £36.5m on Fofana. We sold Van Dijk for £75m and replaced him with Vestergaard for £18m.

They sold Kante, signed Tielemans for £32m. We sold Mane, replaced him with Redmond for £12m

You get what you pay for.

The sad thing is that we did re-invest that VVD money, almost £70m of it but on absolute crap. Just look at who we signed with his transfer fee...

Carillo - £20m

Elyounoussi - £17m

Gunn - £11m

Vestergaard £22.5m.

So you can't say we went cheap on the replacements, we actually spent a decent amount on the replacements for a club of our size but the fact not one of those has been a success has been a disaster for us, there's not even any sell on profit on any of them. It goes back further than that as well, Boufal, Lemina, Hoedt...all signed for £15m and above fees and each one left on a free. So I don't think we were shipping in the bargain basement, we just overpaid for absolute dross because of some of the worst scouting ever seen at a PL club.

That has now meant we've had to shop in the bargain basement in recent years and hope for rough diamonds we can polish, but that's a gamble of an approach and when you have to sell experience to even do that you get yourself into a crappy position. I think we're getting out of the other side of it now with the new ownership, but it just shows that consecutive awful transfer windows, where we spent a lot and got no results, can kill a club like us for a number of years no matter who is in charge.

We haven't had the finance to mask the mistakes that larger clubs can do. Honestly, we're lucky we're still a PL club after those level of mistakes.

[Teddeer]

On 07/05/2022 at 08:41, Master Bates said:

Saints are in contract talks with Caballero. 

IMO probably as back up back up and a coaching role.

Please tell me this is a joke. We already have 3 goalkeeping coaches none of who seem to be able to improve our current goalies and I accept they don't have a lot to work with. However, it would be pure madness to fork out a salary and take up a spot with yet another goalkeeping coach. If he's better than the existing three then sack them and keep Caballero and bring in some decent outfield coaches including a defensive one because we are a complete shambles in that department.

[S-Clarke]

6 minutes ago, Teddeer said:

Please tell me this is a joke. We already have 3 goalkeeping coaches none of who seem to be able to improve our current goalies and I accept they don't have a lot to work with. However, it would be pure madness to fork out a salary and take up a spot with yet another goalkeeping coach. If he's better than the existing three then sack them and keep Caballero and bring in some decent outfield coaches including a defensive one because we are a complete shambles in that department.

I don't see a problem with him being third choice given that Harry Lewis is off, I just hope the club don't cheap out and keep him as the 'free' 2nd choice keeper with McCarthy returning as number 1.

Edited 8 May, 2022 by S-Clarke

[Chez]

7 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

The sad thing is that we did re-invest that VVD money, almost £70m of it but on absolute crap. Just look at who we signed with his transfer fee...

Carillo - £20m

Elyounoussi - £17m

Gunn - £11m

Vestergaard £22.5m.

So you can't say we went cheap on the replacements, we actually spent a decent amount on the replacements for a club of our size but the fact not one of those has been a success has been a disaster for us, there's not even any sell on profit on any of them. It goes back further than that as well, Boufal, Lemina, Hoedt...all signed for £15m and above fees and each one left on a free. So I don't think we were shipping in the bargain basement, we just overpaid for absolute dross because of some of the worst scouting ever seen at a PL club.

That has now meant we've had to shop in the bargain basement in recent years and hope for rough diamonds we can polish, but that's a gamble of an approach and when you have to sell experience to even do that you get yourself into a crappy position. I think we're getting out of the other side of it now with the new ownership, but it just shows that consecutive awful transfer windows, where we spent a lot and got no results, can kill a club like us for a number of years no matter who is in charge.

We haven't had the finance to mask the mistakes that larger clubs can do. Honestly, we're lucky we're still a PL club after those level of mistakes.

Agreed, but not sure we are out the other side. 

[Chez]

6 minutes ago, Teddeer said:

Please tell me this is a joke. We already have 3 goalkeeping coaches none of who seem to be able to improve our current goalies and I accept they don't have a lot to work with. However, it would be pure madness to fork out a salary and take up a spot with yet another goalkeeping coach. If he's better than the existing three then sack them and keep Caballero and bring in some decent outfield coaches including a defensive one because we are a complete shambles in that department.

I doubt he's signing as a coach. Will be second or third choice keeper. 

[le_tiss]

19 minutes ago, Billy the Kidd said:

Well, I’m not sure this totally works out - you haven’t factored in that we brought VVD/Mane in the first place. Basically our recruitment has turned a bit shit, and needs to improve, but we have got this model right, and I feel more optimistic of this happening now we have new owners.

Leicester brought Maguire from Hull for £12.5m and Kante from Caen for £8m

 

20 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

True, I think the point I was making was more the transfer market value of players has moved on, but we haven’t. What VVD would have cost when we bought him would not have been the same two years later.

We were/are still shopping in the same £10-15m bracket, but those types of players that we used to buy are now £20-25m.

👍

 

52 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

Spot on, this is where our comparison with Leicester ended. They sold Maguire for £80m, spent £36.5m on Fofana. We sold Van Dijk for £75m and replaced him with Vestergaard for £18m.

They sold Kante, signed Tielemans for £32m. We sold Mane, replaced him with Redmond for £12m

You get what you pay for.

👍

[S-Clarke]

Just now, Chez said:

Agreed, but not sure we are out the other side. 

Maybe we're not, but I think we're closer than we have been given that a lot of that dross is no longer at the club (no more contracts etc). Maybe we just need to suck up one more big sale or two and start again? Salisu and JWP would command around £100m for both I'd say, use that to go and rebuild this squad with players in the ilk of Tadic/Mane/Pelle/VVD etc etc.

Part of me thinks that's the only way we're going to see the radical changes we need to see in the playing squad, although I still hold out hope that that takeover is going to improve things.

[Billy the Kidd]

22 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

But Mane and VvD examples (compared to when we signed them) are now £20-25m players.  That is the problem (and the point being made I feel)

May they will be that value, our trick is to still find those gems cheaper, which is why I think we will buy more academy grads from top clubs.

[AlexLaw76]

1 hour ago, Billy the Kidd said:

May they will be that value, our trick is to still find those gems cheaper, which is why I think we will buy more academy grads from top clubs.

These Gems you talk about are now £5m players.  That is not good enough for a premier league club

We did get one in Livramento, but even he fell off a cliff way before his injury......

Edited 8 May, 2022 by AlexLaw76

[S-Clarke]

1 hour ago, Billy the Kidd said:

May they will be that value, our trick is to still find those gems cheaper, which is why I think we will buy more academy grads from top clubs.

I think all clubs should have that approach, but it needs to be balanced with some experienced players as well who will improve the starting 11 from day 1.

The club need to stop singing the Tino trumpet because whilst he has been a huge success at his young age, it's not a common occurrence that young players without any first team football do what he's done in his first season. You can't build a successful PL team solely on the hope of buying 'more tinos', we need to worry more about the here and now and that costs more money.

[The Curse of St Mary's]

If club has any ambition they would buy the following:

New #1 GK

2x CB (sell bednarek)

CDM

2x attacking midfielders (sell moussa and one other)

2x strikers  (say goodbye to Long?

 

 

[Ex Lion Tamer]

1 minute ago, S-Clarke said:

I think all clubs should have that approach, but it needs to be balanced with some experienced players as well who will improve the starting 11 from day 1.

The club need to stop singing the Tino trumpet because whilst he has been a huge success at his young age, it's not a common occurrence that young players without any first team football do what he's done in his first season. You can't build a successful PL team solely on the hope of buying 'more tinos', we need to worry more about the here and now and that costs more money.

The trick is that you buy the Tinos but have last year's Tinos coming to fruition as well, then this year's Tinos can flourish next year, at which point you buy more Tinos

[S-Clarke]

Just now, The Curse of St Mary's said:

If club has any ambition they would buy the following:

New #1 GK

2x CB (sell bednarek)

CDM

2x attacking midfielders (sell moussa and one other)

2x strikers  (say goodbye to Long?

 

 

I think that's a fair expectation, certainly needed. 8 new players is quite a lot though. I can see 5 or 6 maybe.

[Teddeer]

2 hours ago, Chez said:

I doubt he's signing as a coach. Will be second or third choice keeper. 

Just as bad.

[Teddeer]

46 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I think all clubs should have that approach, but it needs to be balanced with some experienced players as well who will improve the starting 11 from day 1.

The club need to stop singing the Tino trumpet because whilst he has been a huge success at his young age, it's not a common occurrence that young players without any first team football do what he's done in his first season. You can't build a successful PL team solely on the hope of buying 'more tinos', we need to worry more about the here and now and that costs more money.

I think the new owners will be instructing us to take the moneyball approach. Identify average players who look to have room for improvement with the right coaching. Whether it will work or not depends upon a) identifying the right players and b) having the right coaches in place. Right now I'm not exactly confident about a) or b). 

[Saint_clark]

Can't find my post from before in this thread, but I'll just say it again...Nketiah would be a superb signing on a free transfer.

[Piran]

I'm not going to bother quoting individual posts above, but I feel that there is an unwelcome trend that suggests that more money spent = better results in the transfer window.

Lukaku yesterday scored for the first time since December. He cost a reported £100m. Jack Grealish had the chance to take Man City to the Champions League final on Wednesday evening, twice, and missed the target. He cost a reported £100m. Harry Kane, reportedly a target for City at £150m last summer, spent the first couple of months of this season struggling...

I'm an old codger now, but I would like to see something like the policy that McMenemy had, bringing in a bit of quality that are maybe towards the end of their career, but could complement the likes of Tino and Broja and even the upcoming youngsters that appear to at the club already. This may, of course, not fit in with the new owners policy...

[Kenilworthy]

1 hour ago, Piran said:

I'm not going to bother quoting individual posts above, but I feel that there is an unwelcome trend that suggests that more money spent = better results in the transfer window.

Lukaku yesterday scored for the first time since December. He cost a reported £100m. Jack Grealish had the chance to take Man City to the Champions League final on Wednesday evening, twice, and missed the target. He cost a reported £100m. Harry Kane, reportedly a target for City at £150m last summer, spent the first couple of months of this season struggling...

I'm an old codger now, but I would like to see something like the policy that McMenemy had, bringing in a bit of quality that are maybe towards the end of their career, but could complement the likes of Tino and Broja and even the upcoming youngsters that appear to at the club already. This may, of course, not fit in with the new owners policy...

I just don't think Lawrie's approach works in modern football. Indeed, he couldn't make it work for Sunderland in 1985. Top quality players don't want to take what they see as a step down any more when they can stay at their club on huge wages and play a bit part role. Only when they are really past it like Cahill do they move on, while others just retire. In 1976, Alan Ball, captain of England only a year earlier and just 31, had to make the choice between Hull and Southampton in the second division. Would that happen now?

[Piran]

1 hour ago, Kenilworthy said:

I just don't think Lawrie's approach works in modern football. Indeed, he couldn't make it work for Sunderland in 1985. Top quality players don't want to take what they see as a step down any more when they can stay at their club on huge wages and play a bit part role. Only when they are really past it like Cahill do they move on, while others just retire. In 1976, Alan Ball, captain of England only a year earlier and just 31, had to make the choice between Hull and Southampton in the second division. Would that happen now?

No, I think you're probably right. It's just me day-dreaming back to the days when I loved following Saints every home game and many away, watching a team to be proud of.

I do still think that there is a place for experience, especially at the back, but there's no doubt it's a different ball-game now, dealing with multi-millionaires.