Summer 2013 Transfer Rumour Thread - Mk2

Depends what you mean by "as good as we hoped". I didn't hope for players as good as Wanyama and Nainggolan, so in that sense it's certainly not looking any worse if we don't get them.

And it's three bids accepted (probably not but if you're using two, I'll go along with it) - don't forget we signed Lovren.

 

Astori and Osvaldo were confirmed targets which didn't work out, probably because the players weren't interested. How many others have there been that we are not aware of?

 

This isn't irregular, and it's just conjecture anyway, I've certainly heard nothing to the tune of Astori turning us down.

Particularly with Osvaldo, neither were likely to be especially time consuming exercises. If Cortese and Pochettino spent three weeks knocking on Osvaldo's door to try to convince him to join I'd be concerned.

 

It isn't a concern at all. This happens when you bid for players some will want to join some won't all you do is move on. It's not like there are only 2 good players in the whole World.

 

Thought Pochettino said we didn't bid for Osvaldo?

 

Well I thought the July 1st target for getting all business done was unrealistic but I was certainly hoping we'd have 2 or 3 in early and when the bid was accepted for Wanyama things were looking good. So from that perspective it's not as good as I hoped but I'm certainly not on the verge of a breakdown.

Yes it's 3 bids (obviously that's according to reports which may or may not be true but I can't be bothered to include that disclaimer in every post). I wasn't including Lovren this time but did say something like "we've signed one player and two other bids accepted" a few posts back which is where two came from.

 

I believe that, without Moyes at the helm, Everton could easily finish outside of the top seven next season. Bookies seem to fancy us for the top half, so yeah I'd say Everton could well be on a similar level to us.

 

I think we all know the July 1st thing was an optimistic ambition rather than an actual goal. I know the general reaction on here was "right mate, good luck with that!" and as such I see no reason to stress because the inevitable happened and we weren't done that soon.

Fair enough, I missed that, not that it matters anyway - it's all speculation. We only know for sure about two bids being accepted, I'd wager it's a bit higher than that, but also that it's not remotely irregular to not sign every player you lay your eyes on. Far too early to worry as far as I'm concerned.

 

Indeed, he said "we got information about his situation at Rome, but we made no offer". In other words enquiries were made but no bid. Either that's because Roma aren't selling him, or he wasn't remotely interested in coming here. This article, and reports Man City are now interested in him (implying he is available), suggest the latter: http://www.caughtoffside.com/2013/06/29/roma-striker-pablo-osvaldo-turns-down-17m-southampton-move/

Similarly, with Astori, Pochettino admitted our interest, "Astori, for example, has been sought, but in the end we opted for Lovren, a great player" he said. This would suggest to me again that the player wasn't interested.

Now these are only two players on what I presume to be a fairly long shortlist, but added to Nainggolan and possibly Wanyama, who is left? And might they potentially go elsewhere while we're waiting on noes from some of these ambitious targets?

 

May also be that they're fairly comfortable with what we have, and thus are spending the early portion of the window going after players who would be significant improvements, knowing that more prosaic options will be available later on.

 

I'll just wait until the end of the window until I worry. Yes we have been knocked back by players or clubs but so does every club. It's not like Saints will just sit there twiddling their thumbs waiting for Wanyama to respond we will have other targets for the same position.

 

No and I didn't expect us to have everything done by then but the intention was obviously to try and get business done early and it seems likely we're behind on what we wanted to do. Having said that there's weeks before the season begins so it's not time to panic. Agreed on the speculation, which is why I didn't bring up Osvaldo.

When you don't get your top targets you obviously move on... to players you don't rate as highly. So I'd say it's a slight concern. As is our unwillingness to pay agent fees. I think that will hamper us in the transfer market. Obviously it's nothing to panic about, I'm not predicting the sky is about to fall on our heads or anything, I'm just saying things aren't looking quite as good as they were a couple of weeks ago.

That's possible, I'm not a big Martinez fan, but right now I'd say they're a step ahead of us. Of course there's still a long time til the season begins so that could change.

 

If every player was turning the club down then it would be obvious that we are aiming too high.

If every player was accepting our offers then it would be obvious that we are aiming too low.

As it stands, I think we're aiming at the right level of quality, definitely nothing to be worried about! One of the things I've been most impressed by during Cortese's reign as chariman is his reluctance to pursue older players unless they can significantly enhance the team immediately (Lambert/Boruc etc.) whilst the rest have been reasonably young talents with enough footballing years ahead of them for the coaching staff at Southampton to nurture their skills/abilities.

 

If NC had no vision then we would enter next season the CB problem mainly resolved, Cork and Morgan midfield and Rickie, Adam, Gaston and Sharp up top. A team surely good enough for survival. Yet mere survival is not where NC sees the club, he may be aiming too high but that is surely better than trying to snap up bargains from L1 or from Spanish clubs trying to offload thier worst players for peanuts.

 

Some people on here seem to want a signing for signings sake! We still have until end of August to conclude our business which is plenty of time.

We have not yet sold anyone and I personally feel that if no other business was done, with Forren and Lovren coming into the squad as well as Sharp able to do a job and other youngsters able to do a Luke Shaw and break into the squad, we will survive.

I know that mere survival is not enough for Cortese and I believe in the vision and see no reason to worry, our transfers during his reign have been largely successful.

I would rather we take our time over transfers to get it right than sign someone who won't make us stronger, there's plenty of room in this division for another QPR, let's not let it be us!

It was always going to be easier selling our vision to the likes of Fonte, Lambert and Cork but now we are in the Premier League less players are going to buy into it but the fact we have signed Ramirez, Boruc, Forren and Lovren shows it can be done. I would rather have players that buy it than players here for a big pay day etc!

Also our best players signing new contracts along with Shaws contract which he will sign and the future is looking bright, the future's mostly red and a little white with a touch of gold!

 

Woah there, who mentioned relegation?? The squad we have now is easily good enough to stay up, but that is not the objective. We don't need big changes but there's a fine line between 14th and top 8 and we need 2 or 3 quality additions to help this team reach that potential.

 

Agreed. I think some people are seeing a lot more worry and negativity in our posts than we intended them to.

 

Relax. Everyone. It's not all about a quick fix from transfers (should I be saying that on this thread!!).

Worth looking once more at the positives.

A)we finnished 14th in our first season back in the top flight and want to build on that
B) we, and the club, have seemingly identied that this was the year to release/sell the deadwood, secure our best players/assets to long term contracts and show a bit of faith in the 3/4 youth players who are knocking on the door.
C) we already have some international players (Forren, Mauyka, Ramirez, Yoshida) who I expect to be better this season having had time to settle and a full pre season.
D) we (and it seems the club) all agree that all we need is 3/4 quality additions in the right areas, rather than lots of squad players - the management, given the quality of the current squad, has set it's standards high and we have already managed to secure a regular starter for one of the best international sides in the world.

Yes we are up against lots of teams across europe for our main transfer targets (with teams such as Norwich, Villa and Cardiff even spending big) but there are enough players to go around and I'd rather we worked hard to secure the ones who will make a real difference.

 

So much negativity and panic on here. c'mon guys. What is great is the ambition we have. The only bids (that we are aware of) have been for World class players and the great thing is we could afford the asking price for these players. Yes it appears the players have turned us down, but would you rather we aimed lower than these targets? If we can afford them lets try and sign them. There are plenty of players available who would improve our squad who won't say no to us.

 

Sheesh, I really don't think anyone is panicking.