Yeah I meant in the hundreds of millions not multiples of! I reckon somewhere between £120-150m could be quite easily achieved..
I met Jos Hooiveld outside Tesco in ocean village just after we lost in the FA cup to Sunderland in 2014 and he told me that there were some 'badge kissers' loved by fans but it was widely known within the club they were pushing for moves away. 100% certain he was talking about Lallana. This forum regularly has periods of dislike for JWP and I just cannot understand it. He gets criticised for playing sideways too much but in every game this year it seems to me when he is on the ball, no one is making any forward movement. I was never Redmond's biggest fan but at least he made some smart runs. Most of our players this year like the ball in to feet and we are so predictable. It's a real shame Stu looks crocked as for the last few years we relied on his directness.
Interesting point you make. Ever since the famous moment of THAT badge kissing by you know who, I've been suspicious of all such behaviour. Anyway I'll sign off on this subject until we know our PL future, as quite honestly we're not in the Championship, yet.
Out (regretfully) Lavia KWP JWP Out (practically) Sulemana Adams Salisu Walcott Out (Gladly) Orsic DDC Diallo Aribo Djenepo Out (Finally) Mo -------------------------------------------------------------------- Keep (hopefully) Alcaraz ABK Tall Paul Livramento Bedders Romain Edozie Smallbone Tella Keep (perhaps reluctantly) Mara Brie Lycano A. Armstrong Larios Bazunu
Can't see Tella swapping Burnley for us. His 'people' are probably angling hard for a move right now and if the teams swap places, why on Earth would he want to play for Saints - clearly on a downward spiral, and loaned him out - for Burnley, wanted him, trusted him, and now love him? We all know that forcing players to come back and play for us does not work - oh hang on this is Southampton FC, incapable of learning from experience
He's a Southampton player, under contract until 2025. If we don't want to sell, then he stays with us.
Evidence would suggest this does not work. We messed up by forcing players to play for us before. If he really wants to go, let him go.
Yep. Huge mistake letting him go on loan to be honest. Some would argue he wasn’t ready for PL, and I agree. - I am sure the loan has done him the world of good. But for selfish reasons we shouldn’t have let him go. He would have offered way more than Mara, Theo, Ely, Edozie, Adam Armstrong & Stu Armstrong have this season. Absolute passengers. Also should have kept Redmond who would have offered more than all of them too.
I get the feeling with Tella the loan was more for him than us in the sense that I don’t think the club thought he had a long term future here. Was more go on loan, have a good season and secure yourself a good move on the back of it. Now he’s done far better than anyone probably thought, we would most likely want him next season regardless of league (I still am unsure about him personally), but whether he wants to stay when he could be an important part of a PL team is another matter.
You can't just let every player who has an offer from another club leave. Van Dijk to Liverpool for a world record fee is just not comparable. We made Schneiderlin stay an extra season, he was fine with it. Fans complain when we don't try to keep players, and now you're saying we should just let them go, even before a concrete offer has been made. There's just a real let's-feel-sorry-for-ourselves attitude among the fan base right now. Also, yeah, for 18-20m then we should probably sell him anyway. One good season in the Championship doesn't mean anything, as we all well know.
If Burnley slap down £15-£20m then I’m fine with him going. He’s scored 17 goals in 35 games for the team walking the league at 23. Whilst impressive it’s not earth shattering. For context A Armstrong scored 28 in 40 for the team that finished 15th in the same league at 24. Adams scored 22 in 46 for the team that finished 17th at 22. Im not trying to criticise Tella and of course there is more to football than x goals in x games but I would suggest that if Adams or Armstrong had been in Burnleys team this year they would’ve hit at least similar numbers to Tella. It also backs up my theory that football is basically an entire confidence game when you are talking about players who aren’t the real elite
My post was merely to the previous poster's postulation on who we should keep, sell and who will leave. It was just a comment on the assumption that Tella will stay with us that is all. You sound a bit angry.
Yeah if Burnley (or anyone else) was to offer £18m to £20m, I'd be looking to accept that. Bank the money, rather than gamble on where his career goes from here. Whereas if it was only an offer of, say, £8m to £12m, I'd be more inclined to hold onto him. I really don't see Burnley spending big bucks this summer. £18m to £20m I suspect would represent a sizeable chuck of their budget. So would they be willing to spend that on Tella? I'm not convinced. Hence, at least in my mind, he'll be playing (and hopefully scoring) for us next season.
Surely we keep Tella for a season in the championship. It would be complete madness to sell him when he would be a proven player at that level. We can't sign a raft of championship players for one season. In the same way we can't play a load of youth players with zero first team experience like Ballard et al. Sure get them games but not become the core of the team. There needs to be an element of proper planning to not only return first time but have a squad that can actually stay up as well.
Why do we all seem to think Tella is the answer just because he has had one very good season in the Championship? We’ve bought several players who were on fire in the championship and have been awful to mediocre in the PL. He came through our academy, we knew him better than most. We must have thought our current options were better at the time, which is fair enough.
It's not that he is the answer per se. But if we are to have wholesale squad changes having him is one less signing required. And signings for what will hopefully one season are very challenging.
