Yeah Reinildo has still never been and he's signed, don't think it's unreasonable for a player to not waste time and fly straight into Faro once the rest of the lads are there. There's just a **** tonne of private flights into Faro daily so makes it hard to guess.
Genuinely though I'd be fine saying **** it if we dropped €60m on the Lille CB pairing. Moves the needle so much
This is pure conjecture and I have no idea what our budget is or who we’re going to buy, but if it were me I’d be tempted to spend big money on x2 CB and a GK. would really move the needle as you say. Can potentially fill other gaps the squad with loans. £60 mil on a pair of centre halves would make me feel v confident about our chances next season.
Linked to Bournemouth about a week ago for €30m. Wonder if this is just Lille/his agent trying to flush them out to meet their demands.
Diakite is a complete other level to be fair, you’re right. Close to CL calibre would be a stunning pick up. Quick for. CB, great first touch, tidy enough passing and dominant in the air. Textbook. €30m feels a bit light he be more than that.
You can make a decent case that last season's Southampton team is the worst in EPL history, worse than Derby despite having 1 more point. They lost more games (30) than Derby (29), were relegated earlier, conceded similar numbers of goals (86 to 89), but had a better goal scored record (26 against 20) giving them a better goal difference (-60 against -69). It was a stoppage time equaliser against West Ham on 19/4/25 that got them level on points with Derby's record and a surprise draw on 10/5/25 against Man City, where they basically parked the bus against an out of sorts City team who had 26 shots at goal and hit the woodwork, took them past Derby. Having any kind of positive match ratings playing in that team has to be looked at favourably. He could easily have been their "best" player last season and without him it could have been a lot worse (hard to imagine, but possible).