Saint Gaston!

Well if it is true then I suppose it signals the end of the Ramirez interest? Or are we putting our finger in another pie?

 

Oh good the ****** brigade has carried on into today. How in any way does it signal the end of the Ramirez interest, when all reports have said the Ramirez deal is very much still on?

 

It's still on. More likely that the Phillips deal may not happen if you believe Tractor Boy's words.

Ramirez is our absolute #1 target this summer.

 

Since when do people believe Holloway tho

 

If we get Ramirez and Tello that would MIGHTILY piss off Liverpool - 2 of their targets to Saints!

 

Jesus Christ people on this board depress me, also stop posting new rumours on this damn thread go on the transfer rumours thread, everytime I see a new comment here it gets me excited

I think tello would be instead of Phillips if anything also that would piss off Liverpool even more two of their main transfer targets snapped up by us

Yes I'm aware I just broke my own rule!

 

Heard that Saints did make a £10m offer to Arsenal for Walcott a few weeks ago. Was turned down point blank and Saints didn't follow up.

 

Nothing is going to happen until Monday at the very earliest - that is certain. Today, we're distracted by the rather important matter of our first game back in the Premier League.

 

Okay then, Gaston update from Hussein Marhoon:

"#football GdS: Southampton are willing to pay a gross fee of €15m to sign Gastón Ramírez, #Bologna wants that as a net amount. #SaintsFC"

"#football GdS: Another issue is that #Southampton wants to pay Gastón Ramírez's fee over 3 years, #Bologna wants cash to be paid immediately"

 

Press Conference Wednesday

 

Erm, where has that come from??

 

That was probably last weeks standing, everything will start a-fresh from Monday and we may make the break through.

The problem is, do we actually have £12/3m to be able to pay all together, up front? Might eat up our budget for CB or 2...

 

Do you really think we would bid/ buy a player for so much if it ate into the transfer budget for players we are looking at?

 

We don't know how much is in the kitty though do we?

 

Cortese and Adkins aren't dumb are they?.

 

Cortese is not a fool. Remember in any case, we budgeted for a 5 year plan.

This is year 3, maybe we bite into a budget elsewhere to sign a player like Ramirez, lets be honest for a club like Saints, thus far the opportunity hasn't come along very often.

As said though, we don't know how much we have.

 

We're all just speculating really. Let's wait until Monday eh? I don't especially think calling people ******s is terribly helpful either when everybody is guessing.

 

And in the end, it's likely that we'll structure it such that it's probably 50-60% upfront, the rest in increments, Bologna will declare victory, and everyone will be happy.

There's also the reality that the vultures will circle with a solid season. Spending money on players in their late 20s/early 30s is a bit different, because there are diminishing returns; if the Liebherrs are willing to give Cortese the latitude (and it certainly appears that they are), these are investments in very young players that won't just improve the squad, but provide the fallback of a significant profit should any of the players get their heads turned. So long as we're buying young, improving players at prices that are reasonable relative their talent (and Ramirez for 12m is absolutely reasonable) while keeping wages sane, we're not going to run into financial difficulty.

 

Educated guess

Think we should look at the Arsenal transfer model and finance plan which for Southampton would be incredibly successful as we don't have the pressure of trophy and champions league expectation.
So personally pleased we're investing our big money in players in there early 20s

 

The Arsenal transfer model that has resulted in them getting progressively worse?