Summer Transfer Window 2024

[SaintsFan86]

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise we don't have money to spend until we shift Wages and actually get money in for players we want out.

[goodymatt]

With O’Riley, it’s just a case of understanding what Celtic will accept and if he wants to come, can we match that? The idea of bidding £25m a week or two ago would not have guaranteed anything. This moving fast concern isn’t valid if we are keeping close to all parties. It will come down to where he wants to go and if we can match the highest fee. All takes time, as we are seeing. It could be that this is one we have moved on from due to the price being too high, as Martin alluded to in his post match interview last night.

[Pwoite]

35 minutes ago, DT said:

Looking forward to us taking two more weeks to go in with an offer of 35p and a packet of Twiglets for O’Riley. This low-balling approach looks like a half hearted attempt to say we have ambition without actually spending anything. Disappointing. 

ITK?
 

How do any of us know the conversations behind the scenes? Equally, if we can get the deal we want for 35p, good luck to us, figuratively speaking. However, if we don’t have the cash, or are going to put ourselves in the position of overspending and facing a points deduction, do you really want that?

 

We all want the best in life, homes, cars, clothes, holidays, but the logic is that we only pay what we can afford. The EPL isn’t a computer game!

[Patches O Houlihan]

26 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

SR really are shit at transfers aren't they

For every Bazunu there's a Lavia

We kept KWP and Bednarek in the Championship. Have loaned and then signed Flynn and THB. Edwards at £3m looks like a huge bargain. Sugawara is a player that looks like he will fit right in. Stuart Taylor is doing OK so far, and arrived early like the others, and didn't cost the earth either. 

Honestly some of our fans want the moon on a stick.

IN CASE YOU HADN'T REALISED REAL LIFE ISN'T FAIR, AND DOING OUTSTANDINGLY WELL AT IT IS MUCH HARDER THAN FOOTBALL MANAGER.

If you haven't absolutely smashed your career personally perhaps be a little more charitable to those who have made it to compete in the upper echelons, against similar high achievers. 

Edited August 8 by Patches O Houlihan

[revolution saint]

18 minutes ago, Chez said:

Sure. But £24m feels quite a long way from our opening bid. Obviously it's an opening bid, but are our valuations of players just considerably less than the sellers...or are we just going through the usual horse trading?

Who knows?  To be honest I don't really look at the figures of supposed bids - they're probably way off and the things are complicated by so many clauses, percentage up front etc etc.  I doubt actual specific details get leaked anyway so about the only thing I take away is that we probably have made a bid.  You'd like to think that things wouldn't progress to an actual bid unless the purchasing club figured they could get in the same ballpark.

[SambaMaverick]

11 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

For every Bazunu there's a Lavia

We kept KWP and Bednarek in the Championship. Have loaned and then signed Flynn and THB. Edwards at £3m looks like a huge bargain. Sugawara is a player that looks like he will fit right in. Stuart Taylor is doing OK so far, and arrived early like the others, and didn't cost the earth either. 

Honestly some of our fans want the moon on a stick.

IN CASE YOU HADN'T REALISED REAL LIFE ISN'T FAIR, AND DOING OUTSTANDINGLY WELL AT IT IS MUCH HARDER THAN FOOTBALL MANAGER.

If you haven't absolutely smashed your career personally perhaps be a little more charitable to those who have made it to compete in the upper echelons, against similar high achievers. 

More like for every Lavia, there's a Bazunu, Larios, Edozie and Charles.

Sorry, but I'm not impressed. 

[Patches O Houlihan]

1 minute ago, SambaMaverick said:

More like for every Lavia, there's a Bazunu, Larios, Edozie and Charles.

Sorry, but I'm not impressed. 

I agree there have definitely been some serious f**k ups; particularly Jan 2023. But as time has progressed the transfers have improved. Judge them on the last 2 or 3 windows and things look better - they appear to be learning. It would be lovely if they were faultless out of the gate, but it would have been a big ask.

[Saint Scott]

So, Adam Blackmore suggested we should expect some movement in and out by the end of the week.

You'd think for this to happen something would likely break today. It seems the cards are falling in to place for Brighton with Buonanotte loaned to Leicester, Undav returning to the Bundesliga and funding any move for O'Riley.

[Convict Colony]

just for my understanding, whose in charge of the knives so we can all slit our wrists when o'riley signs for Brighton.

 

[Stu Man Do]

7 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

I agree there have definitely been some serious f**k ups; particularly Jan 2023. But as time has progressed the transfers have improved. Judge them on the last 2 or 3 windows and things look better - they appear to be learning. It would be lovely if they were faultless out of the gate, but it would have been a big ask.

Last 2 or 3? Orisic? Onuachu? ABK who had potential but is made of glass, Bazunu! We’ve had huge luck with Lavia coming off and even he missed significant amounts of football in the last 2 years which badly affected us. Also selling Romeu? Mad.

[Convict Colony]

5 minutes ago, Saint Scott said:

So, Adam Blackmore suggested we should expect some movement in and out by the end of the week.

You'd think for this to happen something would likely break today. It seems the cards are falling in to place for Brighton with Buonanotte loaned to Leicester, Undav returning to the Bundesliga and funding any move for O'Riley.

Just regarding him according to dutch press us and celtic were in for him as well "Algemeen Dagblad reported last Monday that Feyenoord had to memorize Buonanotte's arrival. The Rotterdammers faced a lot of competition in the battle for the signature of the young Argentinian. Celtic and Southampton in particular also preyed on the midfielder of Brighton."

Edited August 8 by Convict Colony

[Dusic]

4 minutes ago, Saint Scott said:

So, Adam Blackmore suggested we should expect some movement in and out by the end of the week.

You'd think for this to happen something would likely break today. It seems the cards are falling in to place for Brighton with Buonanotte loaned to Leicester, Undav returning to the Bundesliga and funding any move for O'Riley.

I don't think he knows to that level of detail, I mean its kind of obvious that we want ins and outs every week now until the window shuts.

From RM comments about moving on from targets and how much Downes/THB cost etc I thinknwe can rule out O'Riley - he will simply cost too much which is ironic given the club briefed to Alfie House earlier in the summer that agreeing a fee with Celtic would be the easy bit!

GK a big concern but surely a loan better than spending another £10m on potentially a short term option?

Attack should be the focus of the cash we have left - we just dont nearly have the quality or depth to have a chance as it stands.

Taking Lallana out, its scary how few PL goals we have in our squad.

[Convict Colony]

33 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

For every Bazunu there's a Lavia

We kept KWP and Bednarek in the Championship. Have loaned and then signed Flynn and THB. Edwards at £3m looks like a huge bargain. Sugawara is a player that looks like he will fit right in. Stuart Taylor is doing OK so far, and arrived early like the others, and didn't cost the earth either. 

Honestly some of our fans want the moon on a stick.

IN CASE YOU HADN'T REALISED REAL LIFE ISN'T FAIR, AND DOING OUTSTANDINGLY WELL AT IT IS MUCH HARDER THAN FOOTBALL MANAGER.

If you haven't absolutely smashed your career personally perhaps be a little more charitable to those who have made it to compete in the upper echelons, against similar high achievers. 

Thought he retired

[pimpin4rizeal]

56 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

With O’Riley, it’s just a case of understanding what Celtic will accept and if he wants to come, can we match that? The idea of bidding £25m a week or two ago would not have guaranteed anything. This moving fast concern isn’t valid if we are keeping close to all parties. It will come down to where he wants to go and if we can match the highest fee. All takes time, as we are seeing. It could be that this is one we have moved on from due to the price being too high, as Martin alluded to in his post match interview last night.

Yeah I think it’s pretty obvious he would come  we just need to agree fee with Celtic and this could have been done ..

unfortunately we are doing exactly what trabzonspor  are doing to us with tall pall , the differance is other clubs are interested in oriley so keep messing around and you find out 

Edited August 8 by pimpin4rizeal

[Bad Wolf]

42 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

For every Bazunu there's a Lavia

We kept KWP and Bednarek in the Championship. Have loaned and then signed Flynn and THB. Edwards at £3m looks like a huge bargain. Sugawara is a player that looks like he will fit right in. Stuart Taylor is doing OK so far, and arrived early like the others, and didn't cost the earth either. 

Honestly some of our fans want the moon on a stick.

IN CASE YOU HADN'T REALISED REAL LIFE ISN'T FAIR, AND DOING OUTSTANDINGLY WELL AT IT IS MUCH HARDER THAN FOOTBALL MANAGER.

If you haven't absolutely smashed your career personally perhaps be a little more charitable to those who have made it to compete in the upper echelons, against similar high achievers. 

That's the weird thing, not even FM works like that anymore.

No idea why people think you just pay a flat fee for a player and then the selling club have the amount to just spend willy nilly.

[Give it to Ron]

5 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Yeah I think it’s pretty obvious he would come  we just need to agree fee with Celtic and this could have been done ..

unfortunately we are doing exactly what trabzonspor  are doing to us with tall pall , the differance is other clubs are interested in oriley so keep messing around and you find out 

Are we or without sales can we afford £25m as I think the case is answer is no.

Big difference from size of fee too for Onauchu and their offer €5m is taking the piss an offer of £18m for O’Riley isn’t.

Edited August 8 by Give it to Ron

[Patches O Houlihan]

11 minutes ago, Stu Man Do said:

Last 2 or 3? Orisic? Onuachu? ABK who had potential but is made of glass, Bazunu! We’ve had huge luck with Lavia coming off and even he missed significant amounts of football in the last 2 years which badly affected us. Also selling Romeu? Mad.

1) June-August 2024: Going OK

2) Jan 2024: Loaned Brooks (Good) & Rothwell (OK ish), Loaned out Charley to Juve (could have worked). Mason Holgate returned to Everton (Ideal)

3)  

During the Summer 2023 transfer window, Southampton FC made several signings, sales, and loans:

Signings

1. Shea Charles - Signed from Manchester City U21 for £10.78 million. (OK)
2. Ross Stewart - Signed from Sunderland AFC for £8.184 million. (Unlucky with 2nd injury, would have been twice the price without injury and unaffordable)
3. Ryan Manning - Joined on a free transfer from Swansea City. (Good for free, if only to teach our players how to play Russball)
4. Joe Lumley - Joined on a free transfer from Middlesbrough FC. (meh)
5. Taylor Harwood-Bellis - Arrived on loan from Manchester City. (Astounding and completely unexpected bearing in mind how much of a hole we were in)
6. Mason Holgate - Joined on loan from Everton FC. (Woeful)
7. Flynn Downes - Joined on loan from West Ham United. ("A cheat code for the Championship" RM)
8. Ryan Fraser - Joined on loan from Newcastle United. (Excellent)
9. Samuel Amo-Ameyaw - Promoted from Southampton FC U18. (Good)

Departures

1. James Ward-Prowse - Transferred to West Ham United for £30 million. (Maybe we could have got £35m but who would the buyer have been?)
2. Roméo Lavia - Transferred to Chelsea FC for £54.648 million. (This was our return after Man City's cut. sale was ~£70m)
3. Tino Livramento - Transferred to Newcastle United for £32.736 million. (Pretty good considering injury history, contract length and purchase price)
4. Mislav Orsic - Transferred to Trabzonspor. (Deadwood moved out)
5. Mohamed Elyounoussi - Transferred to FC Copenhagen. (Deadwood moved out)
6. Ibrahima Diallo - Transferred to Al-Duhail SC. (Deadwood moved out)
7. Theo Walcott - Released.
8. Willy Caballero - Retired.
9. Nathan Tella - Transferred to Bayer Leverkusen. (£25m. Ideally we wouldn't;t have sold him, but at least they got a good price: Better than Burnley would have paid)
10. Mohammed Salisu - Transferred to Monaco. (Didn't want to be here. Judging by Adam Blackmore's comments may well have been a troublemaker)
11. Moussa Djenepo - Transferred to Standard Liege. (Deadwood moved out)

Southampton's net transfer balance for the 2023/24 season was £137.94 million, with a total of £18.964 million spent on player purchases and £156.904 million received from player sales

Those are the windows I was suggesting have seen an improvement

[Patches O Houlihan]

41 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

Thought he retired

Charlie Taylor 😁

Edited August 8 by Patches O Houlihan
To add: I love that gif :D I miss the days when our comms department was world class, even if the team on the pitch wasn't

[gio1saints]

4 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

1) June-August 2024: Going OK

2) Jan 2024: Loaned Brooks (Good) & Rothwell (OK ish), Loaned out Charley to Juve (could have worked). Mason Holgate returned to Everton (Ideal)

3)  

During the Summer 2023 transfer window, Southampton FC made several signings, sales, and loans:

Signings

1. Shea Charles - Signed from Manchester City U21 for £10.78 million. (OK)
2. Ross Stewart - Signed from Sunderland AFC for £8.184 million. (Unlucky with 2nd injury, would have been twice the price without injury and unaffordable)
3. Ryan Manning - Joined on a free transfer from Swansea City. (Good for free, if only to teach our players how to play Russball)
4. Joe Lumley - Joined on a free transfer from Middlesbrough FC. (meh)
5. Taylor Harwood-Bellis - Arrived on loan from Manchester City. (Astounding and completely unexpected bearing in mind how much of a hole we were in)
6. Mason Holgate - Joined on loan from Everton FC. (Woeful)
7. Flynn Downes - Joined on loan from West Ham United. ("A cheat code for the Championship" RM)
8. Ryan Fraser - Joined on loan from Newcastle United. (Excellent)
9. Samuel Amo-Ameyaw - Promoted from Southampton FC U18. (Good)

Departures

1. James Ward-Prowse - Transferred to West Ham United for £30 million. (Maybe we could have got £35m but who would the buyer have been?)
2. Roméo Lavia - Transferred to Chelsea FC for £54.648 million. (This was our return after Man City's cut. sale was ~£70m)
3. Tino Livramento - Transferred to Newcastle United for £32.736 million. (Pretty good considering injury history, contract length and purchase price)
4. Mislav Orsic - Transferred to Trabzonspor. (Deadwood moved out)
5. Mohamed Elyounoussi - Transferred to FC Copenhagen. (Deadwood moved out)
6. Ibrahima Diallo - Transferred to Al-Duhail SC. (Deadwood moved out)
7. Theo Walcott - Released.
8. Willy Caballero - Retired.
9. Nathan Tella - Transferred to Bayer Leverkusen. (£25m. Ideally we wouldn't;t have sold him, but at least they got a good price: Better than Burnley would have paid)
10. Mohammed Salisu - Transferred to Monaco. (Didn't want to be here. Judging by Adam Blackmore's comments may well have been a troublemaker)
11. Moussa Djenepo - Transferred to Standard Liege. (Deadwood moved out)

Southampton's net transfer balance for the 2023/24 season was £137.94 million, with a total of £18.964 million spent on player purchases and £156.904 million received from player sales

Those are the windows I was suggesting have seen an improvement

Summer 2023 Didn’t we also sign Russell Martin & co? 

[Patches O Houlihan]

2 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Summer 2023 Didn’t we also sign Russell Martin & co? 

Yes. They've done OK too even if they have hair designed in Denmark 😉

Edited August 8 by Patches O Houlihan

[Convict Colony]

6 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

1) June-August 2024: Going OK

2) Jan 2024: Loaned Brooks (Good) & Rothwell (OK ish), Loaned out Charley to Juve (could have worked). Mason Holgate returned to Everton (Ideal)

3)  

During the Summer 2023 transfer window, Southampton FC made several signings, sales, and loans:

Signings

1. Shea Charles - Signed from Manchester City U21 for £10.78 million. (OK)
2. Ross Stewart - Signed from Sunderland AFC for £8.184 million. (Unlucky with 2nd injury, would have been twice the price without injury and unaffordable)
3. Ryan Manning - Joined on a free transfer from Swansea City. (Good for free, if only to teach our players how to play Russball)
4. Joe Lumley - Joined on a free transfer from Middlesbrough FC. (meh)
5. Taylor Harwood-Bellis - Arrived on loan from Manchester City. (Astounding and completely unexpected bearing in mind how much of a hole we were in)
6. Mason Holgate - Joined on loan from Everton FC. (Woeful)
7. Flynn Downes - Joined on loan from West Ham United. ("A cheat code for the Championship" RM)
8. Ryan Fraser - Joined on loan from Newcastle United. (Excellent)
9. Samuel Amo-Ameyaw - Promoted from Southampton FC U18. (Good)

Departures

1. James Ward-Prowse - Transferred to West Ham United for £30 million. (Maybe we could have got £35m but who would the buyer have been?)
2. Roméo Lavia - Transferred to Chelsea FC for £54.648 million. (This was our return after Man City's cut. sale was ~£70m)
3. Tino Livramento - Transferred to Newcastle United for £32.736 million. (Pretty good considering injury history, contract length and purchase price)
4. Mislav Orsic - Transferred to Trabzonspor. (Deadwood moved out)
5. Mohamed Elyounoussi - Transferred to FC Copenhagen. (Deadwood moved out)
6. Ibrahima Diallo - Transferred to Al-Duhail SC. (Deadwood moved out)
7. Theo Walcott - Released.
8. Willy Caballero - Retired.
9. Nathan Tella - Transferred to Bayer Leverkusen. (£25m. Ideally we wouldn't;t have sold him, but at least they got a good price: Better than Burnley would have paid)
10. Mohammed Salisu - Transferred to Monaco. (Didn't want to be here. Judging by Adam Blackmore's comments may well have been a troublemaker)
11. Moussa Djenepo - Transferred to Standard Liege. (Deadwood moved out)

Southampton's net transfer balance for the 2023/24 season was £137.94 million, with a total of £18.964 million spent on player purchases and £156.904 million received from player sales

Those are the windows I was suggesting have seen an improvement

where are those transfer amounts from ? they are incredibly precise and i like that 

[Patches O Houlihan]

1 minute ago, Convict Colony said:

where are those transfer amounts from ? they are incredibly precise and i like that 

Perplexity AI - I took a leaf out of your book! 😁

[Convict Colony]

Just an aside where have marseille and athletico got all their money from all of a sudden ?

[lambtiss]

59 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

More like for every Lavia, there's a Bazunu, Larios, Edozie and Charles.

Sorry, but I'm not impressed. 

You have weakened your argument with your examples. Edozie, in 32 appearances last season, scored 6 goals and had 3 assists, many of those appearances from off the bench: a very good return for a then 20-year-old.  Similarly, this was Shea Charles' first season as a senior professional and was only 19 on his debut.  I think the majority would agree that he started very brightly, dipped in the middle of the season and then came again towards the end of the season. Definitely, not one to write-off by any means.  It is impossible for anyone to judge Larios because he only made 2 or 3 appearances before getting injured. 

[SambaMaverick]

2 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

You have weakened your argument with your examples. Edozie, in 32 appearances last season, scored 6 goals and had 3 assists, many of those appearances from off the bench: a very good return for a then 20-year-old.  Similarly, this was Shea Charles' first season as a senior professional and was only 19 on his debut.  I think the majority would agree that he started very brightly, dipped in the middle of the season and then came again towards the end of the season. Definitely, not one to write-off by any means.  It is impossible for anyone to judge Larios because he only made 2 or 3 appearances before getting injured. 

I really haven't because three of those four were brought in for the Premier League, were nowhere near being ready and we were relegated. Charles wasn't even trusted to play in the Championship and it will be no different in the Prem.

I understand they are young and can't be written off, but if they aren't trusted to play - then what was the point of signing them?

Edited August 8 by SambaMaverick

[Hodgey]

The Charles transfer was utter madness , you can’t say that’s an ok signing - a championship club spending over £10m on a complete novice who couldn’t get in the team. Thankfully it was a one off but at that time they still hadn’t learnt the very costly lesson of the season before. The Jan relegation window was a complete disaster where we totally lost our heads and due to FFP are still paying the price.

Honestly I’m still extremely unconvinced by our recruiting team. To my mind it was Martin who got us HB and Downes (and Manning and Fraser) rather than our recruitment team. They seem incapable of spotting a player, particularly a gk or striker and I’m not sure we’d be any worse off if we just shut the entire team down and let Martin do it.

Agree that whomever did the selling last year did well and got good prices, but for good players, we still can’t get rid of a lot of the dross.

Edwards looks to be a solid piece of business and I think we are doing some sensible business at the moment with money we have, but Martin in right - all we’ve done so far is get back to the level we finished last season (4th in the championship)

 

[lambtiss]

9 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

I really haven't because three of those four were brought in for the Premier League, were nowhere near being ready and we were relegated. Charles wasn't even trusted to play in the Championship and it will be no different in the Prem.

I understand they are young and can't be written off, but if they aren't trusted to play - then what was the point of signing them?

Personally. I prefer to think that Larios and Edozie were bought for their potential. I dont think SR expected two teenagers to save Saints season the PL. There were other much glaring mistakes that season, such as letting Romeu go too early, trusting Bazunu, shocking managerial appointments, not buying a central striker and then spunking too much cash on Sullemana and Tall Paul in the January window. 

I

 

 

 

[Fitzhugh Fella]

People question as to why Brighton are able to outbid us but that's simply because over the last few years they have made some good investments while we have made some poor ones. That's the bottom line. We are having to shop in the bargain basement for at least another couple of windows and hope we can avoid relegation in the meantime.

Recruitment is so important for clubs like Southampton who do not have a bottomless pit when it comes to funds.

 

[lambtiss]

4 minutes ago, Hodgey said:

The Charles transfer was utter madness , you can’t say that’s an ok signing - a championship club spending over £10m on a complete novice who couldn’t get in the team. 

 

Charles had 32 appearances last season. Not bad for someone who couldn't get in the team. So yes, that was an OK signing. 

[Patches O Houlihan]

2 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

Charles had 32 appearances last season. Not bad for someone who couldn't get in the team. So yes, that was an OK signing. 

Plus I thought he did pretty well last night. There were times when he was receiving the ball from the defence with an opponent tight to him, and he was able to turn them and play a forward ball. This is a key skill, that will have been taught at Man City. Even JWP used to struggle with it. He's not the finished article, but he seems to be a good egg, and seems to be improving.

Realistically we don't have the funds to stump up for a spare 6 in case Flynn eats Chicken gizzards again. Fingers crossed Shea pushes on.

[Hodgey]

Just now, lambtiss said:

Charles had 32 appearances last season. Not bad for someone who couldn't get in the team. So yes, that was an OK signing. 

We’re going to have to disagree on that one. To me we got incredibly lucky - that £10m could have gone on a capable understudy for Downes rather than us losing whenever he didn’t play. 

if we were a comfortable prem team maybe, but we needed every penny and essentially blew it all so I’d say not a good signing. Yes he made a fair few appearances but so did Mara and Sulimana and I’d say they were equally bad buys.

[CSA96]

Aside from Joel Piroe, then Shea Charles was the most expensive Championship signing made across the league last season. It's impossible to argue he's been decent or a success, when you had the manager not even including him in the 20-man matchday squad on numerous occasions and playing Stephens/Smallbone in the DM role instead

And I'm not saying this to shit on Charles. I think he's got something and could be good in the long run, but you can't not have him in the questionable business category at this stage, based on last season and the manager's apparent perception of his ability/readiness

Edited August 8 by CSA96

[OldNick]

2 minutes ago, Hodgey said:

We’re going to have to disagree on that one. To me we got incredibly lucky - that £10m could have gone on a capable understudy for Downes rather than us losing whenever he didn’t play. 

if we were a comfortable prem team maybe, but we needed every penny and essentially blew it all so I’d say not a good signing. Yes he made a fair few appearances but so did Mara and Sulimana and I’d say they were equally bad buys.

When was Charles signed? Were we in the Championship when he did?

[Saint Scott]

1 hour ago, Dusic said:

I don't think he knows to that level of detail, I mean its kind of obvious that we want ins and outs every week now until the window shuts.

From RM comments about moving on from targets and how much Downes/THB cost etc I thinknwe can rule out O'Riley - he will simply cost too much which is ironic given the club briefed to Alfie House earlier in the summer that agreeing a fee with Celtic would be the easy bit!

GK a big concern but surely a loan better than spending another £10m on potentially a short term option?

Attack should be the focus of the cash we have left - we just dont nearly have the quality or depth to have a chance as it stands.

Taking Lallana out, its scary how few PL goals we have in our squad.

I think you'd be surprised, he has been the media mouthpiece for the club for a number of years which has benefitted his knowledge.

Of course, the club could say the same thing behind closed doors. Making it happen is a completely different thing

[lambtiss]

8 minutes ago, OldNick said:

When was Charles signed? Were we in the Championship when he did?

Yes

[lambtiss]

16 minutes ago, Hodgey said:

We’re going to have to disagree on that one. To me we got incredibly lucky - that £10m could have gone on a capable understudy for Downes rather than us losing whenever he didn’t play. 

if we were a comfortable prem team maybe, but we needed every penny and essentially blew it all so I’d say not a good signing. Yes he made a fair few appearances but so did Mara and Sulimana and I’d say they were equally bad buys.

Let's leave this to a better judge of a central midfielder than either of us .....

 Downes wishes he was 'as good' as teammate at 20 years old | Daily Echo

[Patches O Houlihan]

13 minutes ago, OldNick said:

When was Charles signed? Were we in the Championship when he did?

Last summer (2023) he was signed.

Man City - 1 appearance

Northern Ireland - Broke into the team aged 18 1/2, has made 17 appearances.

Besides defensive midfield he can also do a job at centre back and right back.

He is not 21 until November. Yes it would be great if he was a rock star. But so far he's about par with JWP at that age isn't he? 

Edited August 8 by Patches O Houlihan

[OldNick]

2 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

Last summer (2023) he was signed.

Man City - 1 appearance

Northern Ireland - Broke into the team aged 18 1/2, has made 17 appearances.

He is not 21 until November. Yes it would be great if he was a rock star. But so far he's about par with JWP at that age isn't he? 

thanks

[gecko]

15 minutes ago, Hodgey said:

We’re going to have to disagree on that one. To me we got incredibly lucky - that £10m could have gone on a capable understudy for Downes rather than us losing whenever he didn’t play.

Not to sound too pedantic, but surely an "understudy" would be someone that is: young, inexperienced etc. Tell me why a 19y/o Shea Charles, who has come from one of the best academies in the world and was already capped internationally, isn't a good fit for a Downes understudy on paper?

My issue with him, was him being shoe-horned into CD at the start of the season, making numerous match-losing cock-ups. Once he was actually playing midfield I'd say he was far less concerning - ignoring our horrible results w/o Downes - for a youngster who is likely to get much better with a guy like Downes now in the team.

[Patches O Houlihan]

8 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

Let's leave this to a better judge of a central midfielder than either of us .....

 Downes wishes he was 'as good' as teammate at 20 years old | Daily Echo

https://archive.is/IReWF

[Midfield_General]

26 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

Realistically we don't have the funds to stump up for a spare 6 in case Flynn eats Chicken gizzards again. Fingers crossed Shea pushes on.

There was a link to Skipp floating about yesterday, but who knows how much truth there is in that

[HarvSFC]

1 hour ago, Hodgey said:

Honestly I’m still extremely unconvinced by our recruiting team. To my mind it was Martin who got us HB and Downes (and Manning and Fraser) rather than our recruitment team. They seem incapable of spotting a player, particularly a gk or striker and I’m not sure we’d be any worse off if we just shut the entire team down and let Martin do it,

 

Point still stands, but I'd have put Wilcox down as the one who got Harwood-Bellis.

But yeah, a lot of our signings last season had links to either Martin or Wilcox. Manning and Downes, managed by Martin at Swansea. Charles, from the City academy where he worked with Wilcox. Stewart, Martin wanted to sign him for MK Dons. Fraser, former international teammate of Martin's. Brooks, from the City academy with Wilcox.

Then you have Holgate, Rothwell and Lumley, who were all pretty poor.

This summer, our main target has been O'Riley, who Martin managed at MK Dons, we've signed Wood who Martin managed at Swansea and Lallana was a nostalgia signing, although there are rumours it's to keep his son in our youth system.

No obvious links between Taylor, Edwards, Sugawara and Brereton Diaz with the leadership at the club and we've of course signed four players for Goztepe in Matsuki, Juan, Welington and Takaoka.

Time will tell if there may have been better alternatives to these across the globe when the season kicks off in 9 days time.

[Chez]

3 hours ago, SambaMaverick said:

More like for every Lavia, there's a Bazunu, Larios, Edozie and Charles.

Sorry, but I'm not impressed. 

Could be worse, it could be for every Bree there's an Alcaraz, Onuachu, Sulemana and Orsic. I'll let you reorder as you see fit.

[Patches O Houlihan]

19 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

No obvious links between Taylor, Edwards, Sugawara and Brereton Diaz with the leadership at the club and we've of course signed four players for Goztepe in Matsuki, Juan, Welington and Takaoka.

Charlie Taylor was at Burnley and played alongside THB

BBD played with Arma at Blackburn - there's another link somewhere too. Can't think of it right now. [RM last night > "Flynn played for England with him as a kid"]

Sugawara was quite likely recommended by Yoshida when he was training with us.

There is a credible argument that the quality recent signings have come from personal contacts rather than a 'black box'. Fine by me as long as it doesn't all fall apart if Russ gets headhunted as so many of our good managerial team seem to.

Edited August 8 by Patches O Houlihan
extras

[Chez]

2 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Yeah I think it’s pretty obvious he would come  we just need to agree fee with Celtic and this could have been done ..

unfortunately we are doing exactly what trabzonspor  are doing to us with tall pall , the differance is other clubs are interested in oriley so keep messing around and you find out 

Messing around?

We have made a substantial bid. We have discovered Celtic want a lot more.  What's your solution to that conundrum? If we have say £30m in the current budget, do we use it all today on O'Riley (and ignore the need for a keeper, winger and striker) or do we look at trying to get two or three players out of that budget? Tell me what your approach would be? 

[S-Clarke]

2 hours ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

1) June-August 2024: Going OK

2) Jan 2024: Loaned Brooks (Good) & Rothwell (OK ish), Loaned out Charley to Juve (could have worked). Mason Holgate returned to Everton (Ideal)

3)  

During the Summer 2023 transfer window, Southampton FC made several signings, sales, and loans:

Signings

1. Shea Charles - Signed from Manchester City U21 for £10.78 million. (OK)
2. Ross Stewart - Signed from Sunderland AFC for £8.184 million. (Unlucky with 2nd injury, would have been twice the price without injury and unaffordable)
3. Ryan Manning - Joined on a free transfer from Swansea City. (Good for free, if only to teach our players how to play Russball)
4. Joe Lumley - Joined on a free transfer from Middlesbrough FC. (meh)
5. Taylor Harwood-Bellis - Arrived on loan from Manchester City. (Astounding and completely unexpected bearing in mind how much of a hole we were in)
6. Mason Holgate - Joined on loan from Everton FC. (Woeful)
7. Flynn Downes - Joined on loan from West Ham United. ("A cheat code for the Championship" RM)
8. Ryan Fraser - Joined on loan from Newcastle United. (Excellent)
9. Samuel Amo-Ameyaw - Promoted from Southampton FC U18. (Good)

Departures

1. James Ward-Prowse - Transferred to West Ham United for £30 million. (Maybe we could have got £35m but who would the buyer have been?)
2. Roméo Lavia - Transferred to Chelsea FC for £54.648 million. (This was our return after Man City's cut. sale was ~£70m)
3. Tino Livramento - Transferred to Newcastle United for £32.736 million. (Pretty good considering injury history, contract length and purchase price)
4. Mislav Orsic - Transferred to Trabzonspor. (Deadwood moved out)
5. Mohamed Elyounoussi - Transferred to FC Copenhagen. (Deadwood moved out)
6. Ibrahima Diallo - Transferred to Al-Duhail SC. (Deadwood moved out)
7. Theo Walcott - Released.
8. Willy Caballero - Retired.
9. Nathan Tella - Transferred to Bayer Leverkusen. (£25m. Ideally we wouldn't;t have sold him, but at least they got a good price: Better than Burnley would have paid)
10. Mohammed Salisu - Transferred to Monaco. (Didn't want to be here. Judging by Adam Blackmore's comments may well have been a troublemaker)
11. Moussa Djenepo - Transferred to Standard Liege. (Deadwood moved out)

Southampton's net trGooansfer balance for the 2023/24 season was £137.94 million, with a total of £18.964 million spent on player purchases and £156.904 million received from player sales

Those are the windows I was suggesting have seen an improvement

Good post, well summarised.

The jury for me is still out on our perm signings, although I think Downes and THB will clear that issue.

Not sure in what universe Ross would have ever been worth double what we paid though, he'd only ever paid 13 games above L1 level. We overpaid at £8m by some distance.

[S-Clarke]

2 hours ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

People question as to why Brighton are able to outbid us but that's simply because over the last few years they have made some good investments while we have made some poor ones. That's the bottom line. We are having to shop in the bargain basement for at least another couple of windows and hope we can avoid relegation in the meantime.

Recruitment is so important for clubs like Southampton who do not have a bottomless pit when it comes to funds.

 

Well said, people do miss this point quite a lot. A few good transfer windows and you're set for a few years (in terms of sales/profit etc), a few bad ones....and you're screwed for many, many years. We're still reeling from those mental Hoedt, Lemina, Carillo, Boufal utter wastes of money.

Signing Ross Stewart last summer for £8m didn't help either.

I do think our big signings this year are THB and Downes, they will be supplemented by really good loans towards the end of the window - that's how I see it going and why we've not used any of our loan spaces yet.

[Luke SkyWalker-Peters]

I think Charles had a decent season last year, but Martin managed him poorly.

Smallbone was clearly far worse than Charles at DM, but Martin would repeatedly put Smallbone there when Downes was out and it would hurt us. With Smallbone starting at DM our record was 1W, 2D and 4L over 7 games in the league. With Charles at DM our record was 3W, 1D, 2L (games where he played >45mins).

Martin hooked Charles twice at halftime in the league vs Bristol and Stoke. The Bristol game was where, in my opinion, his misevaluation of both Charles and Smallbone's abilities was most evident:
 

We had a midfield 3 of Charles, Smallbone and Rothwell. We go into the half at 0-0. Martin decides that this is all Charles' fault and hooks him at halftime. Smallbone goes to DM, Stu comes on at CM... we then concede 3 goals in the next 45 minutes ending our unbeaten run.

Martin doesn't seem to like Charles because he isn't the passer or metronome that Downes and Smallbone can be, but I think he played well last year when given opportunities. I don't think playing Smallbone at DM was the right call, when Charles consistently performed better in that role. I don't think hooking him at halftime helped his confidence either when both times seemed to have no positive effect on the team.

I like Skipp, but in reality he is a very similar player to Charles, just a few years older and a bit ahead of schedule in that regard. They really have the same strengths and weaknesses, so I see no benefit in bringing Skipp in. Charles has had a year in the system and could develop into a better player than Skipp. I think going to Celtic would probably be better for Charles's career, but not for us.

[revolution saint]

12 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Well said, people do miss this point quite a lot. A few good transfer windows and you're set for a few years (in terms of sales/profit etc), a few bad ones....and you're screwed for many, many years. We're still reeling from those mental Hoedt, Lemina, Carillo, Boufal utter wastes of money.

Signing Ross Stewart last summer for £8m didn't help either.

I do think our big signings this year are THB and Downes, they will be supplemented by really good loans towards the end of the window - that's how I see it going and why we've not used any of our loan spaces yet.

Not so sure, we've been linked with loan moves for Rak-Sakyi and the Brighton lad.  I know they're unlikely now but I think that could give an indication of what we're looking for in the loan market and it ain't exactly stealing a march on the rest of the league.

[SambaMaverick]

2 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Not so sure, we've been linked with loan moves for Rak-Sakyi and the Brighton lad.  I know they're unlikely now but I think that could give an indication of what we're looking for in the loan market and it ain't exactly stealing a march on the rest of the league.

Hopefully we can be clever at get at least one from abroad on a loan plus obligation if we stay up, in addition to the two PL loans