Absolutely, I think we would have made some of the City signings regardless of Shields coming here. We started this strategy last season, before Shields had even been mentioned, with the recruitment of Livramento and Simeu from Chelsea as well as Broja on loan. We also added Thierry Small from the Everton academy, although he is a little younger and further away from the 1st team. This summer, as well as the City lads, we also added the 2 youngsters from the Spurs academy. I think the reason so many have signed from City is obviously partially down to Shields, but also due to the fact they have the best academy in the country so it is naturally where we would want to shop!
I’m not sure we necessarily would have as I think Shields would’ve been a major factor in identifying the City players and possibly Arribo. We would’ve continued on the young player route for sure but maybe not with these specific players. Maybe more Chelsea players as we obviously had our eye on them last season. But yeah I don’t think he is going to really convince someone to come if other teams are in for them as well. We will need to be able to display that we really do help these young players get to the next level
I cannot remember many moments that exploded the crowd like that one. It was absolutely electric and reinforced by his machine gun celebration
Shields would have absolutely played a big part as he will know these lads personally. But we didn't need to sign Chelsea's youth scout to identify Tino, Broja & Simeu. It's clear that this is our strategy and I think we can expect young players from all the top sides to be coming to Saints as it is at these top sides where it is most difficult to break into the first team. A combination of the higher standard of parent team, quality of academy and the parent clubs/current manager's propensity to play youngsters is what will dictate where our signings come from. So the likes of City & Chelsea are the obvious candidates due the their hoarding of young talent and strong first teams. We are basically trying to replicate Dortmund and their success of Sancho, Bellingham, Haaland etc. Hopefully we can become more attractive than Dortmund to English players as they get to stay in their home country and will get a go in the best league in the world.
I do wonder if Chelsea have become largely impossible to deal with under the new owner who doesn’t really know what he is doing but has an idea of what he wants to do (good young players on very long contracts) For example they have a manager that doesn’t play strikers, signed him one and then gave Broja a 6 year deal (granted Tuchel won’t be there forever) Also we were heavily linked with Anjorin and he went back to Huddersfield. Suggesting they might have priced him out of a move given his poor form on loan last season. And apparently we have a medical lined up for Vale and they pulled the plug last minute and then gave him a big contract extension and loaned him out. The latter is poor form and suggests a bit of a scattergun approach in general (as does the Lavia thing)
I wonder who else might be on the list from Man City for future windows. We were linked with a winger/attacker - Mebude Delap was obviously a strong link but if they didn’t sell him this summer it is difficult to imagine a scenario where they would want to sell and we would still want to buy. He’d have to demonstrate that he is no way near up to it whilst on loan and that would put us off a big bid In the Shields articles the names of Burns and Mbete were both mentioned but I don’t think we will be paying big fees for young defenders who haven’t played many games. A big thing about ABK is that he had more games under his belt than you would expect for a 20 year old central defender. But then again Lavia in defensive midfield with no games was a pretty big call Will be interesting to see.
Don’t forget, pre-Shields we targeted players like Tino because they were well known to Matt Crocker from his time at the FA and extensive background in in academy and England youth group coaching. It’s a unified approach. Shields is a renowned spotter and recruiter of young players, Crocker has a legacy of trying to open pathways for age group players and standardise good coaching practise (he also knows a lot of them, especially the English ones) and Ralph has a dogmatic application to actually playing the best young players at his disposal. All three of those components are driving our current approach.
If anyone just read this and skimmed past without bothering to click the link you've missed some top-grade comedy. Thanks LTL, made my day. Vin
Right move for all involved. Was often an easy target for frustrated fans, sometimes unfairly. Overall had good moments with us and can't fault his effort.
Yeah, I'm mildly disappointed in this one, as there are others that I would want to move on long before Nathan. Saying that, the fact we *can't* move them on, and can with Nathan rather proves my point. Good luck to the lad. Will be interesting to see how well he adapts to a different country. I wish him all the best.
A little surprised he is leaving for Turkey. He's still got a good number of years ahead of him and is good enough for lower half PL teams, though granted he will now be able to play in Europe. I thought I had heard about him wanting to move closer to family as he has his own young family now too so would be a big move. Overall I think he's done a good job for us, frustrating for periods and out best attacking player for others. That he was brought in as our Mane replacement show'd our downward trajectory but not his fault.
I’ve always liked Redmond, and on his day he was mustard. Seemed a confidence player. Good luck to him.
Good luck to him He always tried his best and had some good times with us Nathan and Bertie were good together
So by the end of the next summer window we will likely only have one player in the squad who we’d rather not have there (I don’t see anyone matching McCarthy’s terms) The next few months will be interesting regarding contract extensions. Main one being Elyounoussi. I’d suggest he is the weakest link in our first choice starting eleven (along with a clinical central striker but those are very expensive and half the league wants one) - especially if you subscribe to the idea of certain players being better impact subs given five subs are allowed. I don’t see the point in extending his contract that is rumoured to be a hefty one since I would like to think we are looking to upgrade on him. And his wages are too high for a bench player for us - partly why we have agreed to let Redmond and Romeu go What are his traits supposed to be that make Ralph seem to want to use him as a starter? What sort of players fit that mould in terms of upgrades? I do wonder whose place Gakpo would have taken if he had signed - Armstrong’s or Elyounoussi’s. Academic question of course
Genuinely sad to see Redders go. Had some brilliant games for us. Controversial but I think he is better than Arma and Ely on the wing so I find this quite surprising. He has always worked hard and carried us to safety under pellegrino Thanks Redders
