Saints transfer rumour thread

Renaissance, surely!

 

Southampton are expected to announce the signing of Cagliari centre-back Davide Astori shortly.According to Goal.com, the 25-year-old Italian international has agreed personal terms with the south coast club, believed to be in the region of 1.6 million pounds per season.

He is awaiting the Premier League outfit to reach agreement with their Serie A counterparts before making the move.

 

Yeah, true, but the vast majority seem to express sentiments that they regret he's leaving.

 

Yes, that's a much better word. Let's use that one.

 

I love the comment that describes Cagliari as a 'Bolton Wanderer'

 

Errore

 

Mirror have us paying 8 figures for both the Italians.

 

Looks like The Don's Serie A contacts are coming in useful and he is ready to speculate to accumulate...this could be the most exciting transfer window ever!
COYS!

 

I realise we need to strengthen, but why does everyone cost £10M, & does this not worry anyone else? I have come to terms with Gaston with his high end average wage, but some other names been chucked around would be on more & could be rather disruptive. We need to be careful, money isn't always the answer.
Dons bullet proof hat in wait for replys.

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...on-look-at-coutinho-and-davide-astori-1523048

 

About £30k a week then? Seems reasonable enough.

 

Wait until we actually sign someone! Then we can get a little excited. Astori looks more and more likely by the day but Coutinho seems like a long shot. Who else have we actually been linked with who we would be excited about?

 

Saints have made an enquiry for a loan move for Barcelona's young winger, Cristian Tello

 

Relax HR, if anyone knows what he is doing finacially, Nicola Cortese does...I remember the days of 4m Rory Delap being our most expensive signing when even clubs like Charlton were spending far more, it was this 'short termism' that ultimately cost us our Premier League place in 2005...We are not the same club that Rupert Lowe run to appease the shareholders and sold anyone that was worth a few million pounds and I'm delighted and excited by that...The Don has a vision and to my mind signing an Italian international defender isn't a gamble at all.
It's all part of the evolution of Saints into one of the top clubs in the country.

 

Link? Weren't we linked with him in the summer?

 

So between 10 and 99 million? They must be really ITK.

 

If we go down then it will be bad. If Coutinho/Astori live up to their price tags then we'll stay up, most of our signings have been bought for the present and future. We already have a lot of young players with great potential to become top Premiership players: Shaw, Clyne, Lallana, Schneiderlin, Ramirez, etc. We just need a bit of experience, especially at the back and I think that Astori will give us that-10 million euros may seem a lot but an English player of similar quality would cost around 15-20 million pounds.

 

No link, inside goss. Not saying it will happen, but Saints have enquired (no doubt many other clubs have too as Barca are looking to give Tello more experience). It may depend if they sell David Villa or not. So could be one that goes down to deadline day (if at all)

 

I'm not worried about it because the players being talked about are legitimately good. Astori at 6.5 million would be an absolute steal. I would have happily paid 8 million for him. Not as excited by Coutinho, but again we are talking about a player with a big reputation and a ton of promise so while the price is high, it wouldn't be over the going rate.

If we end up signing like 4-5 of them, then yeah I would be a little worried where the money is coming from, what happens if we get relegated, if we are just splashing the cash stupidly, etc. But just being linked to those players, I think is a good thing because it shows we are ambitious and willing to spend the money it takes to bring in some good players.

 

It's a game of chance isn't it. If these players keep us up then the increased TV money that comes with being in the Premier League this season pays for a lot of the outgoings, however relegation and then being forced to sell those players through release clauses would mean that we lose money in terms of transfer fees and even more in wages means that we could be in a worse position. Cortese and the decision makers have to be pretty sure that these players are going to adapt quickly, settle and make an actually difference over the next 5 months to sign them.