Summer Transfer Window 2023

[Chez]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

That's how I see it, I think Leicester are in the position where they have to sell - they can't just keep players for the sake of it. With us I think it's more of a case of us not standing in the way of a player if a good offer comes in, but we aren't under the same pressures to ensure a sale happens.

This is why I'd be surprised to see us letting Sullemana or Alcaraz go in this window, they're 6 months into pretty long contracts and they're not going to be avaliable for under £25m - and I can't see many clubs, on the basis of 6 months inconsistent PL football, being prepared to pay what we want - therefore they stay.

It's not unheard of either. You'd have put money on Sheffield United having to sell Berge, Watford having to sell Pedro and Sarr etc - but they stayed and performed at this level. In respect of Berge it benefited him massively and I think he's a much better player for it, hopefully Alcaraz and Sullemana can see the same path.

I think you are kidding yourself that we are in a different position to Leicester and do not need to sell. We absolutely do need to sell. If the JWP and Lavia moves don't happen, the finances will be under real pressure. That doesn't mean we will/need to sell Sulemana and Alcaraz, but it will be reliant on getting the prices we want for JWP and Lavia and Salisu and/or ABK and KWP.  Sheffield United's wage bill was small compared to ours and they weren't carrying the debt we are when they went down. Not sure about Watford, but I'd guess it was the same.  

[Chez]

30 minutes ago, Raging Bull said:

All valid points, and I didn’t know Tielemans was out of contract. 
It just goes to show how fine the margins are and the importance of the right coaching set up. 

£30-40m of talent walks for nothing. What a nightmare for them, neither getting the big money or retaining their Premiership place.

[Crab Lungs]

Average wage bill in the Champ IIRC is about £14m.

Watford had the highest last year at just shy of £34m.

We 100% have to sell.

Edited 31 May, 2023 by Crab Lungs

[Chez]

16 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

Leicester seem to be in quite a good position.

lots of players out of contract they can shed simply. A few they can get big money for.

If they can get recruitment right like burnley did(who were in similar position)

 

We are up to our necks in mediocre players with poor attitudes, that we have to somehow find away to get rid of.

Good point. Tielemans, Tete, Amarty, Soyuncu, Mendy, Evans, Bertrand and Perez are all out of contract, which will help them cut the wage bill a lot. Not sure they lose a lot of quality there either, Tielemans apart. 

They are similar to us in that they have two players, Barnes and Maddison that possibly will bring in £70-80m. After that, I would say they have a load of mediocre players, like us, that won't be in huge demand and will be earning more than is affordable in the Championship, even with wage cuts. 

I wonder if they will have to pay Vardy the full £150k a week in the Championship?

[S-Clarke]

42 minutes ago, Chez said:

I think you are kidding yourself that we are in a different position to Leicester and do not need to sell. We absolutely do need to sell. If the JWP and Lavia moves don't happen, the finances will be under real pressure. That doesn't mean we will/need to sell Sulemana and Alcaraz, but it will be reliant on getting the prices we want for JWP and Lavia and Salisu and/or ABK and KWP.  Sheffield United's wage bill was small compared to ours and they weren't carrying the debt we are when they went down. Not sure about Watford, but I'd guess it was the same.  

The latest statement from our owners paints a different picture, where they rather candidly (maybe somewhat naively) proclaim we will be the best resourced team in this league, somewhat supplemented by player income, but not all.

[SuperSAINT]

#LaviaWatch 

 

[Smirking_Saint]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

Leicester is a strange story really, I've looked at them over the last few years as a pretty classy club - getting recruitment right and with an attractive style to go with it. I don't think anyone could have envisaged the drop off from Soyuncu and Ndidi though - they were quality on their day, but both have seemingly forgotten how to play football this year.

They tried to replace Vardy but didn't really give those Vardy replacements the time to learn the league, they just had the odd appearances here and there. I know Leicester fans are very, very frustrated iheanacho didn't get more game time - and Daka, in my opinion, is class - but he never got the game time and they stuck with a tiring Vardy until it was too late.

Realistically they are almost a carbon copy of us but at different levels

Upwardly mobile club that loses their rich owner who was central to feel good feeling in the club etc… replaced by family members who do not have the same bug, finances begin to tank and the club starts replacing stars with younger imports that don’t work out

[Smirking_Saint]

24 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

#LaviaWatch 

 

He’s not going to City

[saint lard]

I’d be bloody delighted if Alcaraz stayed.

[Smirking_Saint]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

I think you are kidding yourself that we are in a different position to Leicester and do not need to sell. We absolutely do need to sell. If the JWP and Lavia moves don't happen, the finances will be under real pressure. That doesn't mean we will/need to sell Sulemana and Alcaraz, but it will be reliant on getting the prices we want for JWP and Lavia and Salisu and/or ABK and KWP.  Sheffield United's wage bill was small compared to ours and they weren't carrying the debt we are when they went down. Not sure about Watford, but I'd guess it was the same.  

Im not kidding myself, Im saying what Ive heard and that is, to an extent, backed by the actual noises coming out of the club/athletic… that we are comfortable with not only the debt but with the cost of relegation

Debt - I believe the situation is that this is factored into the purchase of the club, the reason its not been cleared is due to the early repayment fee applied when it was restructured 

Relegation - We have significant relegation clauses in many contracts, up to as much as 40% that will significantly reduce the impact, we are also, committed to bouncing back at the first opportunity and so will likely spend to replace whoever we lose

To be honest we’re likely to lose JWP, Lavia, Salisu, Perraud, KWP, Ely, ABK at the very least and we aren’t at Leicester’s levels of being financially crippled so need a firesale (not just because of relegation btw, their ownership is skint) and as such thats likely 120m / 350k p/w savings at very modest calcs

If course, if we fail at the first attempt we’ll have to start having hard conversations as a club but not yet

Watford, Norwich, Burnley (to a level), Newcastle etc all didn’t need to have huge firesales… nor do we

[Appy]

21 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

He’s not going to City

Think he means it’s a space at Chelsea opening up for him. 

[Crab Lungs]

5 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

Im not kidding myself, Im saying what Ive heard and that is, to an extent, backed by the actual noises coming out of the club/athletic… that we are comfortable with not only the debt but with the cost of relegation

Debt - I believe the situation is that this is factored into the purchase of the club, the reason its not been cleared is due to the early repayment fee applied when it was restructured 

Relegation - We have significant relegation clauses in many contracts, up to as much as 40% that will significantly reduce the impact, we are also, committed to bouncing back at the first opportunity and so will likely spend to replace whoever we lose

To be honest we’re likely to lose JWP, Lavia, Salisu, Perraud, KWP, Ely, ABK at the very least and we aren’t at Leicester’s levels of being financially crippled so need a firesale (not just because of relegation btw, their ownership is skint) and as such thats likely 120m / 350k p/w savings at very modest calcs

If course, if we fail at the first attempt we’ll have to start having hard conversations as a club but not yet

Watford, Norwich, Burnley (to a level), Newcastle etc all didn’t need to have huge firesales… nor do we

Yep… With the outgoings you mentioned above, that should defo move us into the £30m-£40m salary bracket which for our first season down, is most likely manageable.

We definitely can’t afford not to sell though, with loan servicing to be taken into account.

[Smirking_Saint]

3 minutes ago, Appy said:

Think he means it’s a space at Chelsea opening up for him. 

Ahh yeah, definitely possible

[Smirking_Saint]

4 minutes ago, Crab Lungs said:

Yep… With the outgoings you mentioned above, that should defo move us into the £30m-£40m salary bracket which for our first season down, is most likely manageable.

We definitely can’t afford not to sell though, with loan servicing to be taken into account.

Yeah I think there is a need but a lot is because our squad is ridiculously bloated

It was more aimed at those that thought we’d have to have a huge cut price firesale.. we won’t, we’ll likely get decent money for anybody that leaves, it’s unlikely we’ll be forced into a sale for anybody that doesn’t down tools imo

JWP we’ll let leave… for the right price, Lavia has plenty of suiters. Salisu is possibly the only obvious cut price deal due to his contractual situation 

[Whitey Grandad]

6 hours ago, Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan said:

Having watched the "Pitchside Unseen" video the club put out, it looked like Caballero was pushed to the front to take applause from the crowd after the game, the same as Walcott and Ely who are also definitely on the way out.

Interestingly, Caballero was wearing training gear with his initials on it, the same as coaches, rather than with his squad number like the rest of the players

He’s out of contract at the end of June.

[Chez]

22 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

Yeah I think there is a need but a lot is because our squad is ridiculously bloated

We ain't selling Lavia because we have too many players.  

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, Crab Lungs said:

Average wage bill in the Champ IIRC is about £14m.

Watford had the highest last year at just shy of £34m.

We 100% have to sell.

Quick thoughts:

The linked article to that one states our wages are between £50M-£60M.

The included interview states that we made £115M from TV money in the prem last season.

It states that we'll receive £41M in parachute payments next year, and an average of £8M for championship TV monies - so circa £50M in tv money for the first year in the championship.

So fundamentally, we'll be short circa £65M in comparative income between the two.

On the wages front, we know straight away that Theo and Ely are leaving, going out on a limb i will say that is easily £120k per week (or circa £6M off the wage bill) - leaving lets say £55M annual wages left.

Lets assume the average relegation wage reduction clause is 20% of that £55M (the rumoured value is closer to 40%), therefore saving a further £11M. (Total saving so far being £17M of that £65M shortfall, £48M left.

Say we sold JWP for £40M and cleared £100k per week (£5.2M) off the wages, that would effectively offset the reduction in income for the first year? Or switch out JWP and equate that to Salisu and KWP leaving? And the reality is we know we'll be losing far more than that with all the dead wood / bloat... Every player that leaves (assuming an average of £50K per week is £2.5M off the wage bill - let alone transfer fees.

I don't think we're in that bad a position frankly 🤷‍♂️. We'll be looking at fairly significant fees for the likes of JWP, Lavia, KWP, Salisu, ABK, Alcaraz, Sulemana, Adams if they leave, plus large wage reductions. We've got the likes of Smallbone and Tella (hopefully) to come into the side, as well as academy prospects like Doyle and Ballard. We'll shift a lot of bloat to balance debts and restructure the team, and we'll likely sell 1 or 2 gems because the deals work out well enough for the club and the player. But regardless, we should have adequate funds to push on in the championship and not worry too much financially i'd have thought.

Is this wildly out?

Really aggressive owners would underwrite some of the loss and keep a very strong team 🤷‍♂️.

(i know i've ignored matchday revenue in the above, but i can't see it as being overly significant compared to wages and tv money.)

 

Edited 31 May, 2023 by Saint86

[Smirking_Saint]

17 minutes ago, Chez said:

We ain't selling Lavia because we have too many players.  

No… we’re selling him because next year he can go to City for about 35m so makes sense to cash in now

[Chez]

1 minute ago, Smirking_Saint said:

No… we’re selling him because next year he can go to City for about 35m so makes sense to cash in now

Does it? 

 

17 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Quick thoughts:

The linked article to that one states our wages are between £50M-£60M.

The included interview states that we made £115M from TV money in the prem last season.

It states that we'll receive £41M in parachute payments next year, and an average of £8M for championship TV monies - so circa £50M in tv money for the first year in the championship.

So fundamentally, we'll be short circa £65M in comparative income between the two.

On the wages front, we know straight away that Theo and Ely are leaving, going out on a limb i will say that is easily £120k per week (or circa £6M off the wage bill) - leaving lets say £55M annual wages left.

Lets assume the average relegation wage reduction clause is 20% of that £55M (the rumoured value is closer to 40%), therefore saving a further £11M. (Total saving so far being £17M of that £65M shortfall, £48M left.

Say we sold JWP for £40M and cleared £100k per week (£5.2M) off the wages, that would effectively offset the reduction in income for the first year? Or switch out JWP and equate that to Salisu and KWP leaving? And the reality is we know we'll be losing far more than that with all the dead wood / bloat... Every player that leaves (assuming an average of £50K per week is £2.5M off the wage bill - let alone transfer fees.

I don't think we're in that bad a position frankly 🤷‍♂️. We'll be looking at fairly significant fees for the likes of JWP, Lavia, KWP, Salisu, ABK, Alcaraz, Sulemana, Adams if they leave, plus large wage reductions. We've got the likes of Smallbone and Tella (hopefully) to come into the side, as well as academy prospects like Doyle and Ballard. We'll shift a lot of bloat to balance debts and restructure the team, and we'll likely sell 1 or 2 gems because the deals work out well enough for the club and the player. But regardless, we should have adequate funds to push on in the championship and not worry too much financially i'd have thought.

Is this wildly out?

Really aggressive owners would underwrite some of the loss and keep a very strong team 🤷‍♂️.

(i know i've ignored matchday revenue in the above, but i can't see it as being overly significant compared to wages and tv money.)

 

Southampton FC 2022 accounts: "wages are 75% of turnover (which was £150m) - that's £112.5m not £50-60m.

[Crab Lungs]

On a nutshell I do agree with both points of view. 

we will sell out of necessity for financial reasons but also some players will go because they want to.

i don’t think we’ll be dellboying every asset we have out of the club to bridge a huge financial black hole but we do have to align ourselves with the level we’re at the longer we stay down there. 
 

We might not feel the pinch the first season but we will from the second assuming we don’t get promoted.

Edited 31 May, 2023 by Crab Lungs

[Smirking_Saint]

18 minutes ago, Crab Lungs said:

On a nutshell I do agree with both points of view. 

we will sell out of necessity for financial reasons but also some players will go because they want to.

i don’t think we’ll be dellboying every asset we have out of the club to bridge a huge financial black hole but we do have to align ourselves with the level we’re at the longer we stay down there. 
 

We might not feel the pinch the first season but we will from the second assuming we don’t get promoted.

Pretty much

If we miss promotion then there are genuine financial conversations that need to be had, although naturally I think we’ll again lose more through agents/players wanting out

Miss it two years in a row and we’ll need sales or investment 

[Saint86]

3 hours ago, Chez said:

Southampton FC 2022 accounts: "wages are 75% of turnover (which was £150m) - that's £112.5m not £50-60m.

Figures from Kieran McGuire in fairness 🤷‍♂️.

 

[Saint Matty 76]

4 hours ago, Chez said:

Does it? 

 

Southampton FC 2022 accounts: "wages are 75% of turnover (which was £150m) - that's £112.5m not £50-60m.

That’d have us spending £10m+ more on player wages annually than Arsenal, and around the same as Tottenham, so it simply is not correct.

[benjii]

3 hours ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

That’d have us spending £10m+ more on player wages annually than Arsenal, and around the same as Tottenham, so it simply is not correct.

All staff wages were 75% of turnover. Turnover was 150m. Therefore our total wage bill is 112m.

It is in the accounts so if you're saying it can't be true you'd better have a word with our auditors.

https://assets.ctfassets.net/qtmbc4zcgkle/52YumvNvXtZwIPjCnLeB8o/5a07069b86d67deb4dcd5b7bb961eeaf/St_Marys_Football_Group_Ltd_Financial_Statements_2022.pdf

 

[Nolan]

48 minutes ago, benjii said:

All staff wages were 75% of turnover. Turnover was 150m. Therefore our total wage bill is 112m.

It is in the accounts so if you're saying it can't be true you'd better have a word with our auditors.

https://assets.ctfassets.net/qtmbc4zcgkle/52YumvNvXtZwIPjCnLeB8o/5a07069b86d67deb4dcd5b7bb961eeaf/St_Marys_Football_Group_Ltd_Financial_Statements_2022.pdf

 

 

Mens team player wages for 2022 are stated in the accounts.

"Year on Year player renumeration for the mens team decreased slightly to £87 million from £89.3 million. (58% of turnover)"

but that was a year where we had reportedly a lot of high wages on the books (Forster etc)

 

A contracted 40% reduction of first team wages has already been reported, which would put wages in the £50-55 million bracket for next year

 

Edited 1 June, 2023 by Nolan

[wild-saint]

10 hours ago, Smirking_Saint said:

No… we’re selling him because next year he can go to City for about 35m so makes sense to cash in now

You are assuming Man city want him next year. 

[Weston Super Saint]

11 hours ago, Crab Lungs said:

Yep… With the outgoings you mentioned above, that should defo move us into the £30m-£40m salary bracket which for our first season down, is most likely manageable.

We definitely can’t afford not to sell though, with loan servicing to be taken into account.

Which is all well and good for our 'existing' players, but in order to get to that figure we'd need to sell on a lot of players.  The ones we will need to bring in to replace them are presumably going to add to the wage bill....

[Fabrice29]

1 hour ago, wild-saint said:

You are assuming Man city want him next year. 

When talking about Lavia people seem to forget that City sold him last year.

[SotonianWill]

13 hours ago, saint lard said:

I’d be bloody delighted if Alcaraz stayed.

In that league could be the highest scoring midfielder we’ve had for a good long while 

[Smirking_Saint]

1 hour ago, wild-saint said:

You are assuming Man city want him next year. 

This is true, but the point still is, we stand to lose him for £35m (of course if City want him) when we could potentially sell for £40m+ this year

An offer at £50m and its a definite sell imo, I suppose there is a conversation to be had around £40m ? Do we ask him to stay a year ? Can we get a years loan back in the deal ?

[Nolan]

20 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

This is true, but the point still is, we stand to lose him for £35m (of course if City want him) when we could potentially sell for £40m+ this year

An offer at £50m and its a definite sell imo, I suppose there is a conversation to be had around £40m ? Do we ask him to stay a year ? Can we get a years loan back in the deal ?

Man City could have a sell on Clause

That would mean for a £40 million sale we may have to give £5 million to Man City and end up with £35 million anyway.

[Dusic]

59 minutes ago, SotonianWill said:

In that league could be the highest scoring midfielder we’ve had for a good long while 

Would be amazed if he stayed. Has shown he can be a big PL asset immediately and has potential to further improve. At least one PL club will be keen on him and for him it would be a no brainer financially and career wise to move. Quite likely he will get in the Argentina squad if he is a PL player next season.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

16 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Would be amazed if he stayed. Has shown he can be a big PL asset immediately and has potential to further improve. At least one PL club will be keen on him and for him it would be a no brainer financially and career wise to move. Quite likely he will get in the Argentina squad if he is a PL player next season.

 

[sfc4prem]

He'll stay with us. If we don't get promoted on the first attempt, I'd imagine he'd then agitate to leave. 

[The Kraken]

It would be a hell of a thing to keep him. Sadly I think his ‘preference’ will be tested if/when his pay decrease kicks in and there’s offers to up his wages elsewhere.

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Smirking_Saint said:

This is true, but the point still is, we stand to lose him for £35m (of course if City want him) when we could potentially sell for £40m+ this year

An offer at £50m and its a definite sell imo, I suppose there is a conversation to be had around £40m ? Do we ask him to stay a year ? Can we get a years loan back in the deal ?

It's been widely reported that the buyback is £40m. Not sure why you are saying it's £35m. It has also been widely reported that City have a 20% sell on clause. 

In other words, in terms of income to Saints, a £50m sale to Chelsea today is the same as a £40m sale to City next summer.

However, City may not want him next year, so you'd take the bird in the hand.

What if neither want him? There are not many teams with the funds to spend £40m on a player.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 minute ago, The Kraken said:

It would be a hell of a thing to keep him. Sadly I think his ‘preference’ will be tested if/when his pay decrease kicks in and there’s offers to up his wages elsewhere.

Understand that. But even with his reduction he is still probably picking up more than he did before his move from Argentina. 

[skintsaint]

Sort of player Spurs will try and pay 20m for. Hope we don't sell him cheap.

[SambaMaverick]

Coady would be a statement of intent imo. Get it done

[bangkoksaint]

6 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

Coady would be a statement of intent imo. Get it done

Think I read somewhere that he wants to stay in the north unfortunately. 

[Smirking_Saint]

35 minutes ago, Chez said:

It's been widely reported that the buyback is £40m. Not sure why you are saying it's £35m. It has also been widely reported that City have a 20% sell on clause. 

In other words, in terms of income to Saints, a £50m sale to Chelsea today is the same as a £40m sale to City next summer.

However, City may not want him next year, so you'd take the bird in the hand.

What if neither want him? There are not many teams with the funds to spend £40m on a player.

My understanding is, the sell on clause is already active but the buy back isn’t until next year

So… the point I was making is if we were only offered a maximum of 40m this year the landscape doesn’t change much… so do we try to keep him for a promotion push knowing the fee’s would be largely the same next year ? Or do we cash in ?

A lot depends on finances and player agitating too of course

Id say he’s pretty well sought after, there just isn’t too many young DMs showcasing his level of ability

Edit - Im saying £35m because it will be the 20% on top of the £40m buy back, which makes it £32m (but im not sure on the sell on clause)

Edited 1 June, 2023 by Smirking_Saint

[FarehamSaintJames]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Lavia stayed for a year more. I think Alcaraz will do the same. I imagine they’ll leave this summer if stupid offers come in, if not it wouldn’t surprise me if they gave it a year.

If we don’t get promoted they’ll leave then.

Onuachu, Caleta-Car, Lyanco I imagine will be loaned out.

Stu Armstrong, Diallo, McCarthy will be sold at cut price due to their wages and a year left on their contracts. Orsic I think will only be a cut price deal too due to his wages.

[Dman]

28 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if Lavia stayed for a year more. I think Alcaraz will do the same. I imagine they’ll leave this summer if stupid offers come in, if not it wouldn’t surprise me if they gave it a year.

If we don’t get promoted they’ll leave then.

Onuachu, Caleta-Car, Lyanco I imagine will be loaned out.

Stu Armstrong, Diallo, McCarthy will be sold at cut price due to their wages and a year left on their contracts. Orsic I think will only be a cut price deal too due to his wages.

Lavia isn't playing in the championship. Especially not in a season where there is a euro's at the end of it. Its why JWP wont stay either. 

[Saint86]

Dream scenario (given where we are) is that we keep most of our key players whilst rebalancing the squad by shifting squad players or high wage players - i.e. we shift all the average, short contract, or limited long term resale value players (KWP 😭, Salisu, Diallo 🤷‍♂️, two of Lyanco/DCC/Stephens 🤷‍♂️, Onuachu , Adams (likely lets be honest 😰), Perraud (if he does want out?), Macca, etc

Would leave us with a slimmed down side including the likes of:

GK - Baz, Lis, + new?

CB - "Janny B", ABK, someone retained + others

LB - Perraud/new starter, and Larios, Small

RB - Tino and Bree

CM - Lavia, JWP, Smallbone, Doyle, Sam Amo-Ameyaw?

Wingers or AMs - Stu, Tella, Sulemana, Carlos, Edozie, 

Attackers - A.Armstrong, Ballard, New signing

Compared to our last championship team, that would be pretty strong?

 

Edit - Its still a shit show that we're in the championship and in a position where the likes of JWP, KWP, Salisu, ABK, Sulemana, Alcaraz etc could be poached off of us 😄, but at least something like the above would be a sign of intent and a chance to reset, build something for the future.

Edited 1 June, 2023 by Saint86

[CSA96]

Part 3 of the Sport Republic sit down with the Echo - focusing on transfers - is now up: https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/23560359.southampton-owners-reflect-january-recruitment-outline-plans/

Key quotes from Ankersen:

 

“January is always very tough, it is tough from a financial perspective. Nobody wants to lose their best players in January, players need to hit the ground running – it’s tough when there is no pre-season, so there is always a risk on recruitment.

 

“I think a couple of the players like Alcaraz and to an extent Sulemana have done well, but there have clearly been some mis-hits where the players haven’t had an impact for one reason or another.

 

"There will be some turnover because the squad is too big but there are some very talented players in that group which we will be intending to keep. I think it’s more an exciting job for the manager and director of football, if I was the manager that looked into the dressing room, I wouldn’t be too worried.”

 

“We are not going to go back in (the Premier League) and compete on money, we will invest, but that is why we are building the club network we are – to try and get the players into our system before they cost £30million. Time will tell whether that will be successful or not but I think there is some good evidence from other clubs that it is possible to do.

 

“There is also a lot of talent there in our squad that can improve, hopefully we can get a good pre-season, play some exciting football, entertain fans and win football matches.”

[Ex Lion Tamer]

New GK

Tino | Stephens | Bednarek | Perraud

New DM | Smallbone

Alcaraz

Tella | A Armstrong | Sulemana

Would be pretty strong at this level 

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Smirking_Saint said:

My understanding is, the sell on clause is already active but the buy back isn’t until next year

So… the point I was making is if we were only offered a maximum of 40m this year the landscape doesn’t change much… so do we try to keep him for a promotion push knowing the fee’s would be largely the same next year ? Or do we cash in ?

A lot depends on finances and player agitating too of course

Id say he’s pretty well sought after, there just isn’t too many young DMs showcasing his level of ability

Edit - Im saying £35m because it will be the 20% on top of the £40m buy back, which makes it £32m (but im not sure on the sell on clause)

Yeah, if we sell to Chelsea/Liverpool/Arsenal/Newcastle today for £40m, we'll get £32m (£8m will go to City). If we sell to City today for £40m, we'll get £40m. If we sell to City next summer for £40m, well get £40m. 

I'm all for keeping him by the way, and I do wonder if others see him as £50m player. That is a very big price. Teams like Dortmund haven't spent that kind of money before, so the pool of big money buyers is small. I have no doubt teams will be very interested - he's a very good player, but realistically, who is spending £50m on him? I think Chelsea were the ones, but they have possibly moved on with the Enzo signing. There is no guarantee that City want him next year either. It will be hard for them to assess his progression/value if he spend a season with us in the Championship.

Maybe he stays. If that happens, there may be greater pressure to sell others, like Sulemana.  

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Dman said:

Lavia isn't playing in the championship. Especially not in a season where there is a euro's at the end of it. Its why JWP wont stay either. 

Sure, he won't want to be play in the Championship, but someone still has to buy him though. And they have to meet our asking price, whatever that is.

[Smirking_Saint]

30 minutes ago, Chez said:

Yeah, if we sell to Chelsea/Liverpool/Arsenal/Newcastle today for £40m, we'll get £32m (£8m will go to City). If we sell to City today for £40m, we'll get £40m. If we sell to City next summer for £40m, well get £40m. 

I'm all for keeping him by the way, and I do wonder if others see him as £50m player. That is a very big price. Teams like Dortmund haven't spent that kind of money before, so the pool of big money buyers is small. I have no doubt teams will be very interested - he's a very good player, but realistically, who is spending £50m on him? I think Chelsea were the ones, but they have possibly moved on with the Enzo signing. There is no guarantee that City want him next year either. It will be hard for them to assess his progression/value if he spend a season with us in the Championship.

Maybe he stays. If that happens, there may be greater pressure to sell others, like Sulemana.  

No I believe the Sell on fee stacks. Atleast thats what Ive seen reported before by the Athletic for instance, so if he goes to City for a £40m fee they ‘get’ 20% (or whatever the agreed fee is)

Of course Id like to keep him, but realistically 50m isn’t a huge sum for a player of his talents, Ive said before, with modern tactics there are very few clubs at the highest of tables that can function without an elite No.6 and Lavia is on his way to being one

Casemiro transformed Utd for instance

Fabinho’s regression has had a huge impact on Liverpool 

Arsenal/Chelsea are just not the same without Partey/Kante

Lavia will likely be a top level no.6 if he carries on this trajectory, and I think he’ll have a few suiters. Namely Chelsea, Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and possibly abroad

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Saint86 said:

 Perraud (if he does want out?)

Where has the `Perraud wants to leave' stuff come from? There was a post on here a while back saying that's what they heard, can't recall from who, but his social media post suggests he will be here next season:

“The season is over for me today.Really disappointing to finish this way but it's football. A difficult season where I learned a lot. I will give everything to support my teammates for the next four games. Thank you for your support Saints fans see you soon.”