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January Transfer Window 2025

Master Bates

By Master Bates,
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hypochondriac

hypochondriac

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Master Bates said:

Busy window...

https://x.com/SaintsExtra/status/1856464034956005500

I'd really rather we didn't bother. By January we aren't going to be close enough to make it worthwhile and we will just end up spunking a load of cash leaving us with a load of players we can't shift in the championship. Much better imo to spend nothing so we have a bigger budget to play with next time out. 

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Weston Super Saint

Weston Super Saint

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

You joke but when people kept calling us a 'selling club' all that ever really meant was that we were recruiting good players that Champions League teams wanted.

As opposed to now where we recruit average Championship players that Champions League teams don't want?

I think I see the cracks appearing in our master plan.

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hypochondriac

hypochondriac

Posted
Posted
26 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

No thanks, they'll end up buying even more squad fillers who just fall into Martin's painfully slow football regime. 

I'd rather we shifted half the squad and got ready for the championship. 

Agreed. Sulemana, Onuachu and Orsic take 2? No thanks.  

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egg

egg

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

We will sign 2 more wingers and yet another centre half knowing Mr Football and Poundland Pep

A winger who can actually do something won't be a bad thing. 

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S-Clarke

S-Clarke

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, Master Bates said:

Busy window...

https://x.com/SaintsExtra/status/1856464034956005500

That's alarm bells to me, we don't need to keep throwing more money at this in the hope that something sticks - that's all they've done since they've been here, moving from one footballing approach to the next. SR firstly need to sort out their plan, what they want to do with us. Revamp the entire analyst and scouting setup, bring in a 'football' DOF - not a business man who ran Dyson, and then maybe have a look at the budget and see what could improve it. None of that is going to be in place by January so it's best we do very little.

Spending MORE money without the above in place will lead to another window of Onuachu, Orsic, Sulemana, Charly etc etc.

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hypochondriac

hypochondriac

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

That's alarm bells to me, we don't need to keep throwing more money at this in the hope that something sticks - that's all they've done since they've been here, moving from one footballing approach to the next. SR firstly need to sort out their plan, what they want to do with us. Revamp the entire analyst and scouting setup, bring in a 'football' DOF - not a business man who ran Dyson, and then maybe have a look at the budget and see what could improve it. None of that is going to be in place by January so it's best we do very little.

Spending MORE money without the above in place will lead to another window of Onuachu, Orsic, Sulemana, Charly etc etc.

Agree with this 100%. We absolutely do not need to be spending more money in January to make the problem worse. 

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Challenger

Challenger

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

That's alarm bells to me, we don't need to keep throwing more money at this in the hope that something sticks - that's all they've done since they've been here, moving from one footballing approach to the next. SR firstly need to sort out their plan, what they want to do with us. Revamp the entire analyst and scouting setup, bring in a 'football' DOF - not a business man who ran Dyson, and then maybe have a look at the budget and see what could improve it. None of that is going to be in place by January so it's best we do very little.

Spending MORE money without the above in place will lead to another window of Onuachu, Orsic, Sulemana, Charly etc etc.

Yep, probably just more squad fillers. SR trying to build an ever growing tower, built on a foundation of sand.

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Weston Super Saint

Weston Super Saint

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Farmer Saint said:

I'm sure it wasn't. Not sure where you're getting the opinion that I said it was? I think they expected a brave fight against relegation, but ultimately relegation.

Apart from about a month of you proclaiming our business model was to be a 'yo-yo' club, I've no idea why anyone would think you've said that. None. Not a clue.

PSR innit.

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Farmer Saint

Farmer Saint

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I don't truly buy that, we have spent a fortune in SR's 3 PL transfer windows.

£100m Summer 1

60m January 1

£100m Summer 2

In their 3 PL attempts they've spent £260m, the fact we haven't been able to build a stable PL team and are left with loads of Championship players is down to the awful decision making and poor use of that money.

Certainly the first 2 - however this season we came up and had to spend nearly £35m off the bat on THB and Downes to go backwards after losing Armstrong and Che. We then spent £15m to replace Che with Archer, £12m to replace Armstrong with Fernandes and another £25m to replace our car crash of a keeper situation. That's £87m just trying to stand still.

Edited by Farmer Saint
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Weston Super Saint

Weston Super Saint

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

Certainly the first 2 - however this season we came up and had to spend nearly £35m off the bat on THB and Downes to go backwards after losing Armstrong and Che. We then spent £15m to replace Che with Archer, £12m to replace Armstrong with Fernandes and another £25m to replace our car crash of a keeper situation. That's £87m just trying to stand still.

So you agree, we spent money because of awful decision making.

PSR innit.

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Farmer Saint

Farmer Saint

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

it is you re-trotting out a belief we have been disadvantaged due to PSR. The amount we have spent on transfers and wages suggest otherwise.

And this is it, you think that we would have only spent that money irrelevant to PSR, whereas I think we'd have spent more, on better players had we had the opportunity. We'll have to agree to disagree until the accounts are posted though.

Edited by Farmer Saint
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notnowcato

notnowcato

Posted
Posted

 

9 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

But they already have players, they have different baselines. We spent, what, £80-90m on mostly lower wage players, with Ramsdale as a one year dart throw as we know he's a saleable asset whatever happens.

And Brighton have done very well out of sales the past 3 seasons

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Farmer Saint

Farmer Saint

Posted
Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

yep, annoyingly well run!!

It is when you live in East Sussex, all your colleagues/staff are Brighton fans and your kids decide to support them too as their local team.

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SambaMaverick

SambaMaverick

Posted
Posted
34 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Where is the rest of your player sales?

We will be ripping the squad totally apart following relegation - all saleable assets will be removed.

We raised £160M last time around, and we will be in a similar financial state this time out as well.

Trying to summarise where on earth that money can come from is pretty bleak... I've approximated some valuations below, although we'll be in a far weaker negotiating position this time around without the likes of big money sales to bail us out. Obviously we won't get takers for all these players, and similarly we may have to sell a couple we don't want...


Ramsdale - £25M?

THB - £25M?

Dibling - £20M?

Fernandes - £15-20M

Archer (if we're lucky) - £10M?

Onuachu (if we're lucky) - £5M?

Sulemana - £5-10M

ABK - £5-10N

Reckon we could feasibly get somewhere in the realms of £95-115M all in - its unlikely we're realise maximum value for every player we sold, we'd need to cut wages, and we'd need to balance getting them out the door with trying to fill gaps... but all said and done, it leaves the squad pretty threadbare as it is and doubtful we'd have much money to strengthen.

GK - Baz/Macca (Average champ)

FBs - Bree, Taylor, Manning, Suga (Autos level))

CBs - Stephens, Bednarek, Woods, Edwards (Playoff level)

CDMs - Downes, Charles, (Autos level)

CMS - Smallbone, Aribo, (Play off level))

AM/Wingers - Edozie, SAA, Fraser (Top half)

CFs/St - Armstrong, Stewart (Armstrong is playoff level, but zero depth)

That is a squad that would challenge for the playoffs, not the top 2.

 

I'd rather we ripped up 80% of the squad. No-one will want to stay that anyone's overly fussed with keeping and I'd rather stay down for a couple of years than go through a repeat of this season.

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FarehamSaintJames

FarehamSaintJames

Posted
Posted

For stories to come out and say words to the effect of “we’re backing him, January, January, January” implies that someone screwed up royally in our latest recruitment process.

It also implies leaks though the club and the start of a finger pointing battle.

No doubt that Russ would’ve pushed for the likes of Downes, Fraser and Woods, but I can’t imagine he was the one involved with Matty Fernandes (for example). 
Equally if they were his picks and a recruitment team went after Fernandes and Ramsdale it suggest Russ’ transfers have been the least beneficial.

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FarehamSaintJames

FarehamSaintJames

Posted
Posted

I can see another panic window coming (Orsic, Sulemana and Onuachu vibes) and look at the roaring successes they’ve turned into.

It says a lot about the recruitment process that the majority of the summers signings don’t make a starting eleven and some not even a match day squad.

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Lighthouse

Lighthouse

Posted
Posted

To be completely honest, we don't really need to sign anyone for another 18 months. Assuming we go down, even after selling THB, Dibling, KWP, Fernandes and Ramsdale, we'll still have a big squad of decent Championship players. We can also try to offload Paul, ABK, Sully, assume Lallana retires from playing and still have a squad that should be in the promotion fight, having lost 9 players (11 if you count Les and Cornet).

GK: Bazunu, McC, Lumley

DF: Suga, Manning, Taylor, Bree, JB, JS, Wood, Edwards

MF: Aribo, Downes, Smallbone, Fraser, Edozie, SAA, Charles

ST: Archer, Armstrong, BBD, Stewart (occasionally)

We'd only need to bring in a couple of half decent loans really and we'd have a decent 24/25 man squad.

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Hodgey

Hodgey

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

To be completely honest, we don't really need to sign anyone for another 18 months. Assuming we go down, even after selling THB, Dibling, KWP, Fernandes and Ramsdale, we'll still have a big squad of decent Championship players. We can also try to offload Paul, ABK, Sully, assume Lallana retires from playing and still have a squad that should be in the promotion fight, having lost 9 players (11 if you count Les and Cornet).

GK: Bazunu, McC, Lumley

DF: Suga, Manning, Taylor, Bree, JB, JS, Wood, Edwards

MF: Aribo, Downes, Smallbone, Fraser, Edozie, SAA, Charles

ST: Archer, Armstrong, BBD, Stewart (occasionally)

We'd only need to bring in a couple of half decent loans really and we'd have a decent 24/25 man squad.

Agree with this. Plus Wellington and two lads with a year of Turkish top league experience in Juan and Matsuki. Maybe one of the promising youngsters flies at that level too (ie Awe). Oh and don’t forget Larios (occasionally too). Half decent manager should hit the play offs with that lot easily without the loans (which is the one area our scouting got right in the champs)

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Farmer Saint

Farmer Saint

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Hodgey said:

Agree with this. Plus Wellington and two lads with a year of Turkish top league experience in Juan and Matsuki. Maybe one of the promising youngsters flies at that level too (ie Awe). Oh and don’t forget Larios (occasionally too). Half decent manager should hit the play offs with that lot easily without the loans (which is the one area our scouting got right in the champs)

A half decent Manager should win the League - Martin got us promoted with pretty much an equal team.

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Hodgey

Hodgey

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

A half decent Manager should win the League - Martin got us promoted with pretty much an equal team.

Depends on the strength of the other two coming down and who they have to sell. That’s an unknown. 

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pingpong

pingpong

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, ally_uk said:

I'm still scratching my head at our recent incomings.....

Edwards, Wood, Cornet, 

Most of them can't even hit our first team. What was the point of signing them? 

Edwards and wood will be excellent in the championship next year.

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Galway saint

Galway saint

Posted
Posted

What’s the point in spending a lot of money in January, they keep repeating the same mistakes. Suspect by January we will be cut adrift so hopefully they don’t bother and save their cash and spend it more wisely next year,  as this season is a write off.

 

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FarehamSaintJames

FarehamSaintJames

Posted
Posted

Russell Martin-esque signings:
- Ryan Fraser
- Nathan Woods
- Flynn Downes
- Charlie Taylor
- Ronnie Edwards (maybe)
- Adam Lallana (maybe)

Gut feeling, but I don’t believe the loan signings of Ugochukwu and Cornet, or the signings of Marty Fernandes and Yuki Sugawara were under his steam.

Ben Brereton is one I can’t decide on. Could easily be a RM signing but equally could be a SR “fuck we missed out on Delap, who’s available on the cheap” deal.

The fact that not many of these players make a match day squad says a lot.

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Farmer Saint

Farmer Saint

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, ally_uk said:

I'm still scratching my head at our recent incomings.....

Edwards, Wood, Cornet, 

Most of them can't even hit our first team. What was the point of signing them? 

They're for the Championship next season as were Archer and BBD - part of the yo-yo strategy.

Cornet was because he was available and we were light in those areas.

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Weston Super Saint

Weston Super Saint

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Farmer Saint said:

They're for the Championship next season as were Archer and BBD - part of the yo-yo strategy.

Cornet was because he was available and we were light in those areas.

Just to clarify, you're now saying (and saying it as if it was definitely true and there could be no other possibilites!), that the only reason we signed Archer and BBD was so they would be great for us NEXT season in the Championship?

Despite PSR constraints that you've been parrotting for the last 3 months, the club decided the BEST thing they could possibly do was spend this year's transfer allocation and an entire years worth of wages on not one, but two players who will be useless for us this season, but absolute blinders for us next season.

This also means that the club entered the summer transfer window being 100% certain that we would be relegated (which makes the signing of AR look fucking weird, especially given 'PSR innit').

I imagine asking you for a source for this will be fruitless.  I also imagine you've made it up to suit your narrative.

You don't half make up some absolute bullshit.

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pingpong

pingpong

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Just to clarify, you're now saying (and saying it as if it was definitely true and there could be no other possibilites!), that the only reason we signed Archer and BBD was so they would be great for us NEXT season in the Championship?

Despite PSR constraints that you've been parrotting for the last 3 months, the club decided the BEST thing they could possibly do was spend this year's transfer allocation and an entire years worth of wages on not one, but two players who will be useless for us this season, but absolute blinders for us next season.

This also means that the club entered the summer transfer window being 100% certain that we would be relegated (which makes the signing of AR look fucking weird, especially given 'PSR innit').

I imagine asking you for a source for this will be fruitless.  I also imagine you've made it up to suit your narrative.

You don't half make up some absolute bullshit.

Russell martin is a reliable source, these signings are made with long term in mind, not to try and stay up this season.  AR could be an exception, depends what contract he has but he's low risk in that we can move him on easily.

"Whereas I think 18 months ago in the January window, it was very much about spend money for here and now because you need to stay in the Premier League.

"We haven't done that and I think that's agreed that we're not just going to go all in for one season and then put the club in a situation that isn't very good.

"Not everyone will agree with that strategy, but the club have gone with us to try and bring some stability over a period of time, to bring a way of doing things."

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Weston Super Saint

Weston Super Saint

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, pingpong said:

Russell martin is a reliable source, these signings are made with long term in mind, not to try and stay up this season.  AR could be an exception, depends what contract he has but he's low risk in that we can move him on easily.

"Whereas I think 18 months ago in the January window, it was very much about spend money for here and now because you need to stay in the Premier League.

"We haven't done that and I think that's agreed that we're not just going to go all in for one season and then put the club in a situation that isn't very good.

"Not everyone will agree with that strategy, but the club have gone with us to try and bring some stability over a period of time, to bring a way of doing things."

Sure, that makes sense.

Spend this year's transfer fees on next year's players for the Championship.  Great plan.  I think you've also forgotten about the 'scar' tissue they will all gain during the relegation - something that Russell was keen to make sure no one had when we signed them this summer.  Makes sense to sign them without scar tissue, just so they can gain some of our own!

Now explain why we spent upto £25m on Ramsdale, plus what, £100k per week, when we could have just put McCarthy between the sticks with Lis as back up and saved millions.  That makes no sense at all, unless you sign him with the hope he will be good enough to keep the team up, whilst hoping the other signings come good.

Talk about re-writing history to make it look like we have some sort of coherent plan!

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Football Special

Football Special

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

I’m not sure Swansea fans would agree on Wood but he’ll be reasonable back up and hopefully Edwards is something of a gem.

Need to get Edwards out on loan for 6 months in January, get him playing some regular football in championship or league one. 

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Turkish

Turkish

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Russell Martin-esque signings:
- Ryan Fraser
- Nathan Woods
- Flynn Downes
- Charlie Taylor
- Ronnie Edwards (maybe)
- Adam Lallana (maybe)

Gut feeling, but I don’t believe the loan signings of Ugochukwu and Cornet, or the signings of Marty Fernandes and Yuki Sugawara were under his steam.

Ben Brereton is one I can’t decide on. Could easily be a RM signing but equally could be a SR “fuck we missed out on Delap, who’s available on the cheap” deal.

The fact that not many of these players make a match day squad says a lot.

Breaton-Diaz on paper looked a good signing. Scored a lot of goals in the championship, had a decent record in a woeful Sheffield United team, (although it turns out we might be worse) available at £8m is a good price. I thought he’d be a decent signing and still think he will be but it’s pretty clear he’s not suited to Russball as if you look at his goals a lot of them are running in behind or getting on the end of crosses, he’s an SR data signing no doubt. 

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Football Special

Football Special

Posted
Posted

There was a complacency at the club in the summer that it was just a matter of time until we off loaded some players, they were expecting higher bids for KWP and Onuacho , hoped ABK was going for a few quid to Germany , Edozie was being touted around looking for someone to take him , also hoped Kamaldeen would go, possible all of them could go in Jan depending on offers, except obviously Edozie who has a season long loan. 

If Ross Stewart regains fitness that will feel like a new signing 😃

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