Who was the last signing that genuinely got you excited?

[Saint Garrett]

Gaston Ramirez
Alderweireld
Osvaldo

Mighy just have been the time, but genuine international known quality when they signed. 

All relative but THB last season too, exactly what we needed. 

Still looking for that bit of class we haven’t had since the days of Tadic/Mane/Pelle.

We’d never be able to afford players like that these days. 

[Maggie May]

It’s a strange one on paper but I think the first signing that genuinely excited me was Rory Delap for £4million. 

We’d unearthed a few gems in the 90s, notably Beattie, Pahars, and Richards, for relatively small beer but seeing us break our transfer record in the summer we were moving to St Mary’s seemed like the club was ready to establish itself as a side serious Premier League side, rather than perennial strugglers. 

[Paulwantsapint81]

Obviously SRL as it proved St Markus meant business 

Was exited by Charlie Austin & really excited after his cameo at Old Trafford 

[austsaint]

Excited by the signing of Mane, and the early Saints career moment he drew a penalty against Arsenal  hinted at what was to come.            Might sound strange but the loan and subsequent permanent deal for KWP was exciting too.  Found it satisfying that sourpuss Mourinho in particular and even Poch missed a trick in underrating and offloading the lad - to our great benefit.

[Kristian Loekkegaard]

1 hour ago, austsaint said:

Excited by the signing of Mane, and the early Saints career moment he drew a penalty against Arsenal  hinted at what was to come.            Might sound strange but the loan and subsequent permanent deal for KWP was exciting too.  Found it satisfying that sourpuss Mourinho in particular and even Poch missed a trick in underrating and offloading the lad - to our great benefit.

❤️
I watched that match away at Arsenal with my sons - and when Mane won that penalty with such energy and speed, I said to my sons (17, 15 and 13 years old) :
"WOW; this is our new big star",
and he was! 👆

[HKsaint]

Mark Hughes I must say, such a big name at that moment. 

[Convict Colony]

Pelle and Tadic cos I knew the combination would be awesome 

[Saint in Paradise]

9 hours ago, Roo1976 said:

Ted Mcdougall and Phil Boyer.....................................we scored loads  with both of them.

Add Dave Watson to those two.

[austsaint]

1 hour ago, Convict Colony said:

Pelle and Tadic cos I knew the combination would be awesome 

Think it was Tadic' first Saints game v Everton?   He and Clyne combined on the right flank for a sublime goal.    Respect for Koeman straight away.

[Convict Colony]

 

[SNSUN]

1 hour ago, Convict Colony said:

Pelle and Tadic cos I knew the combination would be awesome 

This - sometimes it's not about signing one player but signing two that can complement each other. That's why I'm hoping if we bring in a striker and an AM that they click.

Tadic and Pelle - hoovering up the best talent from Holland - it was a good strategy although we also got Clasie and Martina so...

[Mr X]

Matt Le Tissier 💪🤣

[AlexLaw76]

Gaston Ramirez!

[Cabrone]

Another one for Osvaldo, genuinely thought he could have become a legend at the club. He had the class but the head wasn't there unfortunately.

[Midfield_General]

3 hours ago, HKsaint said:

Mark Hughes I must say, such a big name at that moment. 

Yeah I got very excited when Hughes joined. Then for some reason we seemed determined to play him in midfield, and he just fouled people all the time. Apart from the phantom ‘goal’ against Leeds that hit the boards and came out, I can’t really remember a single thing he did. 

Kanchelskis was another one. A massive name where I remember thinking ‘wow’ but we got him too late and he had too many injuries to ever really make an impact. 

[Saint Billy]

Very rarely get excited about transfers now due to our restricted budget. The ultimate was Kevin Keegan. I suppose Gaston Ramirez got a little bit of juice flowing as he was a Uruguayan international with lots of hype about him but he was another amongst many that failed to deliver.

[revolution saint]

So this thread is LAST player to be excited about?  Or simply an excuse to list the best player you were excited about?  I'm not sure I'd carry on supporting Saints if the last signing I was genuinely excited about was decades ago.

Anyway,  BBD for me at the moment and I'm hoping the next one, whoever it is, is even better.  I particularly like the foreign links to players I've never heard of and never seen play.  In the absence of prior knowledge you can build them up into unknown gems that will set the world on fire.  Course it hardly ever works out like that but it's a harmless pleasure.

[Mr X]

1 hour ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Gaston Ramirez!

Another that never achieved his potential, style over substance 

[Midfield_General]

1 hour ago, revolution saint said:

So this thread is LAST player to be excited about?  Or simply an excuse to list the best player you were excited about?  I'm not sure I'd carry on supporting Saints if the last signing I was genuinely excited about was decades ago.

Anyway,  BBD for me at the moment and I'm hoping the next one, whoever it is, is even better.  I particularly like the foreign links to players I've never heard of and never seen play.  In the absence of prior knowledge you can build them up into unknown gems that will set the world on fire.  Course it hardly ever works out like that but it's a harmless pleasure.

Yeah I was originally thinking about who the last one was, but it’s interesting to hear either way.

Says a lot that quite a few haven’t been excited by a signing since Keegan 44 years ago - I suppose if you’ve witnessed Saints sign the twice European player of the year, literally anyone else is a bit of a comedown! 

[kitch]

Flynn Downes - getting that one over the line was crucial, IMO. If we somehow manage to snare O'Riley or Ramsdale, then they go up there, too.

[Killers Knee]

Dani Osvaldo, great player but crazier that a blue haired person on Twitter

[Charlie Wayman]

KWP

…in the modern era

Edited 14 August, 2024 by Charlie Wayman

[Pengi]

Ronald Koeman.

[Patrick Bateman]

Steve De Ridder

[Lighthouse]

In 2016 I was convinced we’d found two genuine future stars in Hojbjerg and Boufal. 

[Yorkshire Saint]

David Speedie... alongside Kerry Dixon. That went well !

[bugenhagen]

Ross Stewart

The beautiful thing is that the excitement never seems to go away, I have just as high hopes for him today as the day he signed 😄

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you

[Ralph Fastenbüttl]

On 13/08/2024 at 15:10, Colinjb said:

The most recent that had me genuinely excited. Not long ago. 

Ben Brereton-Diaz. 

Came here to say exactly this. Prior to that, I think Downes was a fairly exciting signing. I think the sting of Ramirez and Osvaldo has taken the sheen off 'big name' foreign striker signings.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

6 hours ago, bugenhagen said:

Ross Stewart

The beautiful thing is that the excitement never seems to go away, I have just as high hopes for him today as the day he signed 😄

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you

Emphasis there.

[bugenhagen]

33 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Emphasis there.

Indeed - that was the part that made me smile when I googled for something clever like "never gonna let me down" 😁

[Give it to Ron]

🚨 Southampton are in advanced talks to sign Lesley Ugochukwu (20) on loan from Chelsea, with no buy option #saintsfc @David_Ornstein
 

he is 6ft 3 and we now have Flyn cover!

[Dellyears]

15 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

🚨 Southampton are in advanced talks to sign Lesley Ugochukwu (20) on loan from Chelsea, with no buy option #saintsfc @David_Ornstein
 

he is 6ft 3 and we now have Flyn cover!

Excitement about a signing? What I remember is shock sadness and anger when we someone took one of ours..it was losing Charlie Wayman to PNE in 1950 or 51 . I was 15 and that did for me.

[Give it to Ron]

7 minutes ago, Dellyears said:

Excitement about a signing? What I remember is shock sadness and anger when we someone took one of ours..it was losing Charlie Wayman to PNE in 1950 or 51 . I was 15 and that did for me.

I have still not gotten over selling Brian O’Neill!

[Dr Who?]

Lambert. 

[E_H_Saints]

Ryan Bertrand as he was the first player that I didn't need to Google or research to see if he was any good.  Everyone else at that time were players that nobody knew of.

[Disco Stu]

Martín Cáceres. He looked decent in his 1 appearance 😅

[Badger]

On 14/08/2024 at 05:49, HKsaint said:

Mark Hughes I must say, such a big name at that moment. 

 

On 14/08/2024 at 09:27, Midfield_General said:

Yeah I got very excited when Hughes joined. Then for some reason we seemed determined to play him in midfield, and he just fouled people all the time. Apart from the phantom ‘goal’ against Leeds that hit the boards and came out, I can’t really remember a single thing he did. 

 

Hughes was clearly past it when we signed him, it was predictable how it turned out. 

Far from excited about the signing. For me it was a signing that firstly, I hoped was just paper talk, then hoped we wouldn’t agree terms or he’d fail a medical. Couldn’t stand him from his time before joining us, a bit like Speedie. And always thought it was doomed to fail, big ego, big salary. Little in return. 

The memories I have of him are his typical niggling style needlessly getting booked on his debut, and a good goal from distance at home to Newcastle. 

Edited 16 August, 2024 by Badger

[Badger]

Nothing will eclipse or come close to the Keegan signing.

Lambert was a good signing at the time, but can’t really compare.

Before Keegan, the signing of Peter Osgood seemed incredible and not one we’d thought we’d see. Saints spending over £200,000 was a major event. 

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

1 hour ago, Badger said:

Nothing will eclipse or come close to the Keegan signing.

Lambert was a good signing at the time, but can’t really compare.

Before Keegan, the signing of Peter Osgood seemed incredible and not one we’d thought we’d see. Saints spending over £200,000 was a major event. 

I remember Ossie's home debut midweek against Leicester and someone must have cut up a bed sheet into loads of homemade scarves, penned 'Osgood' on them and handed them out around the Milton. They were being held aloft under the Toomers to 'Ossie' being sung to Amazing Grace.

Between Ossie and Keegan we signed some exciting internationals and big club players. Jim McCalliog from Man United (if only really best remembered for the quarter final at Bradford and that pass at Wembley), Ted MacDougall (and the Boyer partnership), Bally, Chris Nicholl, Charlie George (big name but...) and Dave Watson. Just after Keegan, Shilton and Mick Mills.

[S-Clarke]

2 hours ago, Badger said:

Nothing will eclipse or come close to the Keegan signing.

Lambert was a good signing at the time, but can’t really compare.

Before Keegan, the signing of Peter Osgood seemed incredible and not one we’d thought we’d see. Saints spending over £200,000 was a major event. 

I hope I live through us making a signing of that level, one day. Can't imagine how exciting that would have been.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

2 hours ago, Badger said:

 

Hughes was clearly past it when we signed him, it was predictable how it turned out. 

Far from excited about the signing. For me it was a signing that firstly, I hoped was just paper talk, then hoped we wouldn’t agree terms or he’d fail a medical. Couldn’t stand him from his time before joining us, a bit like Speedie. And always thought it was doomed to fail, big ego, big salary. Little in return. 

The memories I have of him are his typical niggling style needlessly getting booked on his debut, and a good goal from distance at home to Newcastle. 

Jones had been dreaming of signing him through all his years coaching. By the time he became our manager, Hughes was well on his way down. Ineffective up front for us, shoehorned into midfield.

I remember more fouls than successful tackles. The reasoning was that he could use his experience to read the game from midfield. But it wasn't in his skill set. He was a striker. Jones kept playing him, as he was such a name.

Looking back, there's the experience of a big club, successful player helping a fairly new manager at that level. Someone with a certain attitude, and looking to coach, that the others could learn from. As I type this, these are all reasons we brought in Lallana 🙂

 

[Winnersaint]

Kevin Keegan

[Kristian Loekkegaard]

The Keegan signing from Hamburg, Keegan being at his absolute top,  is still to this day qne of the wildest signings in football.  For those of us old enough to remember nothing compares.

I was really thrilled with the 600.000 pounds signing of David Armstrong from Middlesbrough in the early 80s. Really good business and one of Saints several cult players of the 80s. What a brilliant left legged attacking player.
Loved his (lack of) hair.
R.I.P. David.

Re-signing Mick Channon from M. City was also a great signing.

Talking about the last decade only, I loved our last-day-of-the-window-signings of Davis, VVD and Sadio Mane.

[miserableoldgit]

6 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I hope I live through us making a signing of that level, one day. Can't imagine how exciting that would have been.

It was absolute dreamland stuff. I still can't believe it all these years later!!!

[david in sweden]

On 13/08/2024 at 15:27, hypochondriac said:

I was very excited by ramirez. Lawro said there was no way he was signing for Southampton. It was the first signing that showed we meant business. 

and typically Chairman Nicola Cortese got stitched up by his Foreign contacts.  

A 12 million fee(?) ... on a five year deal at 65k /week. and financed on high interest borrowed money

Almost as bad as the Osvaldo deal ..similar fee and terms ..and out the door after a training ground punch-up with Jose Fonte. 

 

Jose Fonte on the other hand was a  real success.  Cost little over 1 million and partnered 7 different CB's over an 8 year period. 

Edited 16 August, 2024 by david in sweden

[Dank]

Cameron Archer

[Dank]

Lesley Ugochukwu

[Saint_clark]

Depends on the definition really. 

Just on excitement/anticipation regardless of knowledge, it was Orsic. Turned out well. 

In terms of knowing for certain we'd made an epic signing who would be incredible for us, it was Lambert.

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Aaron Ramsdale!!!!!

Welcome aboard!!!!

[Stud mark of doom]

1 Keegan

2 Lambo

3 the best of the rest