I was just speculating after Greg’s comment about moving on from Edwards because the P’boro chairman is a dick. Wood maybe first choice all along or maybe we want both as Tom said.
Partly it’s all these other similar deals that make it look fishy. And he’s had one good season at the top of the table team from the Dutch league. A very hit and miss league I guess if any of these deals are likely to actually be value it will be the Brighton one
My brother is a cov fan so I have watched him live a few times in recent years. Most cov fans would tell you he is a brilliant player but quite wasteful in front of goal. Although toward the end of last season he seemed to have added goals to his game. He has always reminded me of Lallana in our L1/Champ days. Great control, dribbling, passing and gets a few goals and assists.
If I wanted to idly speculate having not watched them myself but listening to what people have said I would say it sounds like Edwards did well in a struggling team when Peterborough were relegated. And being under 6ft as a central defender suggests he might not be someone whose game might not be solely about getting his head on things. Especially playing in the more physical lower leagues. So suggests he might have more game intelligence perhaps? But that is based on absolutely nothing. It just seems you need something “more” about you in the modern game to excel as a “relatively short” centre back
Yep, sounds like a bit of a game, which most of transfers are & I don’t think we’ve played that market very well for a few years.
What position does he actually play? Sites I’ve seen points to a “number 10” type position. But us not really playing that way might be why we aren’t really using Alcaraz. I assume he will be one of the two 8s who play with a 6 (hopefully Downes). So where Smallbone and Aribo played at the end ?
Wondering if we are planning on bringing in MoR and O'Hare it would likely mean there could be some truth in previous rumours of interest in Aribo.
Wood does start for Swansea. Played almost every game when fit. He's also played alongside Harwood-Bellis a few times for England u21s and probably all the other age levels. I'll bet Russ spoke with Taylor about Wood.
Not convinced at all that he’s a CB we should be signing if we’re making a go of staying up. Seems like another signing in case we go down, which might be smart business, it just depends how many of those sorts of signings we make. And can’t judge that until the end of the window. That said, when a player signs for us, I will always judge him on how he performs for us.
He's still only 22, plenty of time for improvement and the talent must be there if he is an U21 international.
Think he could do with a season with a promotion candidate in the Championship tbh, like THB had with Burnley and then us. Scouts know better than me of course, and as I say, if we sign him I’ll judge him on what he does in a Saints shirt. I’m just far from convinced he’s the level of CB we should be targeting.
He is coming in for very little (by PL standards) to fill the Lyanco/Holgate role of being the backup's backup. The bar after those two is very, very low. He is only 22 and the coach has worked with him before. I won't lose much sleep over it, but equally hard to be thrilled/see it as a coup at this point
Sky: Southampton are keen to add more 'Premier League know-how' to their squad and maintain a core group of the squad as British / English speakers
It'll be easier to judge these things by the end of the window. A comparison between this PL squad, the one we went down with and the one last time we went up will be interesting. I see Wood as similar level to Lyanco and Holgate, and if he doesn't really see any minutes then fine. If you compare him to the backup last time we went up that was Hooiveld? Difficult to say how Wood compares. Hooiveld was a beast in the Championship whereas I'd say Wood has just been okay. Things still likely to change a lot with our current roster so won't make any sweeping statements just yet! 2013/14 (last time we went up): Fonte, Hooiveld, Lovren, Yoshida 2022/23 (relegation from PL): Bednarek, ABK, Salisu, Lyanco, Caleta-Car 2024/25 (here we go again): Bednarek, THB, Stephens, ABK, Wood?
I was going from Swansea fans comments, a fair few said he didn't start qhen everyone was fit. Looking at it, he played 24 league games, ao about half. Although it looks like the majority of those were at the start of the season, so he got dropped or injured before returning to a squad player role. I still maintain it is a little bit of an odd one but for £5m and a squad option it isn't going to make or break our season