Forster and now Ely, I’m hopeful we have some sort of agreement with Celtic for Ajaer next summer, or maybe January now that they’re out of the CL.
6 years of watching him obviously revealed a lot more than the 3 games he played in a saints shirt. Or that was nonsense, not sure which.
In the early Leihberr years we signed players and dropped them into an already good side...must have been difficult for recent signings as they were expected to be our saviour. Not suggesting that is the main reason why players like Ely and Carrillo failed, but it couldn't have helped.
And we had other 'failures' in the Leihberr era, but it didn't matter so much because we were doing ok. No team gets a 100% strike rate.
Sometimes players just get caught up in manager turnovers. We massively overpaid for Carrillo, but he’s not a bad player. It’s just that he was brought in specifically because he fits in with Pellegrino in a very specific role...and then we sacked Pellegrino. I suspect the same is true of Elyounoussi. It’s interesting to me that we did not give Celtic an option to buy or just sell him outright (at a heavy loss), because there was interest. I assume this means we believe he isn’t totally awful and can regain some value. Boufal too, got burnt when we bought him and then switched to Puel who did not use wingers. Then he was favored by Pellegrino or Hughes, was average on loan, but now has a manager who seemingly likes what he brings. At least enough to give him a chance.
A reminder that the transfer windows for the majority of leagues close on the 2nd September. Including Scotland & Leagues 1 & 2. I might have missed it, but we still have to shift Lemina, Carrillo & Hoedt
That’s pretty much all the excess baggage accounted for now, apart from Jack Stephens. Good work Saints.
If Hoedt and Lemina do go out on loan, then the club have done well for Ralph, in the absence of clubs wanting to buy the unwanted players. Possibly a strong CB short of where we wanted to be.
I'm not really genned up on Mario Lemina at Saints. I know he is a extremely capable player, but why has he not made it here? Is it injuries? form? attitude? or a combination of these and perhaps other things? I always have a nagging doubt that the odd player will come to Southampton FC and fairly quickly realise that the club's ambition is smaller than their own, and so they'll want away. I'm not saying this about this season's offloaded players specifically. The nagging doubt has always been there.
His performances weren't up to scratch and Ralph has seen him as unwanted baggage and shipped him out like all the others who have recently departed the club would be my guess.