Transfer Rumours Saint Theo!

Agree with most, as not to fussed about signing Walcott, especially at the £25-£30 million being mentioned. Cant see why he'd want to go to Everton if he wants to be a regular starter though, as their owner already thinks they have a FAB 4 of Rooney, Bollasie, Sigurdsson and Tosun. But as always with most modern day footballers "Money Talks".

 

I thought Theo would be a nice early purchase as we know he is a decent player...and might be better than that in a team that suits him. He would settle the nerves nicely. If we can't land a player who would probably like to join us, what chance do we have really.

 

We don't need Theo he is so yesterday. We've got Josh Sims and Jake Hesketh. They can run fast

They might even score

 

Some people on here really do have unrealistic expectations if they think we can do better than Walcott this window. I'd be disappointed if he was our only signing, but someone please tell me a better option who is fast & can play upfront or on the right? Tosun & Walcott would have been very good for us, but it looks like Theo will join him at Everton. Funny how they can afford to make signings in January, but small club Southampton can't. Our turnover was higher than theirs in 15/16 (our latest published accounts) and we actually made a profit when they didn't.

If we can't afford signings, then against that's on the board. We've handicapped ourselves by spending big wages of small talent, Redmond is on about £50k, Davis & Long £60k and Forster on £80k. That's £250k a week on wages for players that no other team will touch.

 

I agree that Walcott a good option and maybe our best one. But as frustrating it is as a Fan ( i've been refreshing this page since the return to work), we need to hope that the board are searching for the best player deals and not spunking it out of desperation.

Im as p***ed off as anyone but cling to the hope a Mane type player is being worked on........

 

Whilst I agree that a Mane type should be our usual focus, this isn't a usual year (well compared to the last 5 years). Do you remember Mane in his first 6 months or so? Do you remember how many people were calling him **** and a waste of money? He was adjusting to the league. If we sign someone like this and he takes 6 months to adjust it could well be too late.

I am probably the biggest person against the whole "proven PL player" thing that people like to say as it is complete bullshit. But we really have to be 100% confident this window that whoever we sign can slot in straight away and give the team a boost. The only way we can do that is to sign someone from the PL who will have no language barrier/knows the league and can hit the ground running. Walcott was the best option that I could think of for that.

 

Mane was bit **** in his first few games and was getting grief from fans. I'm not sure we have time to sign a player who needs a few games to settle in which is why i think Walcott would be ideal for us.

 

Fair point ......and probably right.
i worked on the house of Theo's in laws last year. Completely unprofessional but its taking all my will power not to call them for an update

 

Walcott is a lot better than people give him credit for on here. Generally when he's got consistent games for Arsenal he's been very good, his record looks poor recently because the majority of his appearances have been off the bench.

As for a Mane player - he was tagged as the new Ali Dia by Saints fans after a few games and took a while to get up to speed. So a similar move would be a very big risk when we need instant impact.

 

Do it!!!!

 

If like others have said Everton are involved, we have no chance

 

I think Dembele would be fine from that perspective too. You never know for sure though. Some players that have been performing for one team in the PL, move to another and don't perform. Nothings a guarentee (except Rickie Lambert scoring penalties).

 

Yeah I’ve wondered for a while whether we have a similar problem to Arsenal a few years ago - our wage structure may be too flat. We don’t pay really big wages to individuals but we seem to pay relatively big wages to average guys like those you’ve listed. Add to that what we’re paying someone like Gardos and possibly Pied and Clasie (not sure what wages he’s on but I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re still paying at least some of them) and there’s a lot of money going out every week for not much return.

 

Most of the squad was the same squad that helped us get to 6th, alot of them deserved to get a pay rise for that. If Walcott wouldn't lower his wage demands from £120,000 I'd go nowhere near. Just think it would upset the dressing room too much if he was on 50,000 more then anyone else. The transfer fee wouldn't be an issue as we happily paid £18 million for Lemina, I'm sure the board would happily go for another £2 million.

 

Pied is on £40k, not sure about Gardos and Clasie. Interestingly, Gardos is our 2nd most expensive centre back and he's not left yet so I assume he's on good money. Otherwise I'm sure a European club would have taken him for a cut price.

Despite some of those players being involved with us when we finished 6th, none of them were really key contributors. Long had a purple patch after Christmas and subsequently got a new contract out of it, way above what his talent warrants (IMO). That season was built around Tadic, Mane & Pelle, and having Van Dijk & Fonte playing very together and shielded by Wanyama.

 

Christ, this pretty depressing when you read between the lines. We won’t get a good quality PL experienced player because they’ll be too expensive & a “mane” because he’ll be too raw. Sort of agree with all & just can’t see the board going above £15M (which won’t buy us much regardless) in this window anyway. I think we’re a bit screwed.

 

And let's not forget, we're still the Saints ffs!

 

That worked well last time.

If we get a new manager, I'll embrace that. If it's Tuchel, I'll jump for joy. But whoever is manager - and I think we all know it will be Pellegrino anyway - we need signings. This squad as it stands is not good enough for a top half finish, and quite possibly not good enough to stay in the division.

I have never advocated spending big in January, for obvious reasons, but this January is different. This January our PL status is on the line, and we don't have an MLT to win games for us.

 

Well, close the thread then. We're ****ed

 

Having one outlier might be a problem but to some extent that would be because our existing wage structure is so flat. Plenty of other sides in the Premier League have much larger variation in their wages. And of course if we paid our very best players more they might be a little less keen to leave at the first sign of interest from Liverpool.

I’m not sure giving Davis a pay rise at 31 was a good idea or why we gave Forster a new contract last summer when he’d had a pretty poor season and even when we finished 6th Long’s goal record over a lengthy career suggested that the one good (but not great) season he had in terms of goals was an anomaly.