There’s no way we can spend that much in January. Unless a first team player is leaving and needs replacing in January. We might all wish we had an extra CM but the fact is that it’s just not necessary at this time. We have enough players who can play there. We also have some promising young options. There could be an opportunity to go back for the likes of a Choudhury or AMN on loan in January if we have a season-disrupting injury to one of our three starters or are looking to sign either at end of season but you don’t buy in January because people are injured. This is what Ralph has now and we’ll find out if it’s enough. If there is some mythical money left over, I’d rather that they held onto it and really looked at the Romeu situation this year and figure out how best to transition away from being so dependent on him next year. That and getting a promising young goalkeeper lined up for summer 2022.
Or put towards a goalkeeper An extra 130k or so a week off the wage bill next summer will help a lot. Even if you have to factor in player wage increases.
Yes on paper priorities 1 and 2 should be a new goalkeeper that will become number one and realistically someone that we can sign that will replace Romeu as first choice in that position We are not going to be able to pitch a spot as his backup to anyone established. Romeu also only has two years left on his contract and I can’t imagine we want to extend for too much longer on his current terms The other option is to extend and try to find a Tino equivalent in his position After those two we would need to look at doing something with our advanced midfield positions as we have lots of players of similar quantity This is all based on squad and performance levels right now. Big improvements or declines in performance levels could change this although priorities 1 and 2 will remain the same
Plus there's a lot of add ons for Vesty, Ings, Obafemi etc etc that they have included but which won't be ready cash for us yet.
The “Official” in and outs page from Sky is missing our biggest signing and I’m sure is missing a couple of outs. **** as always! Back of handkerchief maths: Vestergaard and Armstrong were about equal value. I believe Perraud, Tino, Simeu & Lyanco came to roughly £20m combined Ings sold for £30m, giving us £10m profit, plus whatever we managed to raise from Lemina, Gunn etc £25m might be stretching it
Other sources seem to have guessed at between 4 and 5.5m for Lemina and Gunn. Then 1.5m gets closer to 20m So yes 25m is stretching it but 10m might be undercooking it. But that is just based on top line fees and not any extras
Plus “net spend” is a load of nonsense anyway and doesn’t really mean anything to the club. Who knows what our committed spending is now with all the new contracts and the ones we’ve let leave.
I wonder if this is why we were linked with that Middlesbrough right back? Because if a really good offer had come in for KWP we would have sold him and brought in a younger reserve replacement ? Everton fan on Twitter asking “yeah but is he worth 10-15m when we have x and y as cover”. Are they for real?! No wonder nothing game of it If someone had come in with 25m he would probably have gone
If in Ralph we trust.. a coach with method, the ability to enthuse and improve, then it's reasonable to assume he has had a major say in recruitment. This is his squad, perhaps for the first time. Time for optimism and being a Saints follower for a very longtime that feels strange but exciting...
I was taken aback by the fact we only got £1.5 million for Obafemi. A good bit of business for Swansea but disappointing to see an academy player not fulfilling his potential.
If you take your Saints tinted lenses off would you be happy paying a large amount for a young striker with: - a very bad injury record, - very limited game time, - not rated by his current manager, - stories implying behaviour issues / not training properly , - at best 5th choice at his current club who aren’t exactly pulling up trees, - seemingly behind someone like Shane long in the queue for a place in the bench - not considered good enough to move up in the squad when said club loses a striker; and - only one year left on his contract The reason for seeming taken aback is rumours that we put a 5-6m price on him earlier in the window and perhaps for those with long memories rumours of Villa interest for a higher fee last year But he hasn’t kicked on and he is not only nearly always injured but also at the wrong time as well It will be fascinating to see if he can prove people wrong and hold up to a full championship season . There is no evidence so far that that is the case
Am pretty sure that is a fake deal and agent talk, so that Mbappe looks favourably on Real Madrid (who showed how much they want him) when he has free choice where to go at the end of the season.
I think if he stays fit, he'll do well in the Championship, but he's not the level we need, and most critically only had a year left on his contract (as you say). So not even worth keeping as backup.
Obafemi is at the point in his career where he needs to be playing regularly. He obviously was down the order here so we had 2 options really: 1) Loan him out and see how he got on with the potential of offering him a new deal if he had a good loan spell (which he might not sign as he might’ve wanted to move somewhere he would get more opportunity on a free so we got nothing) 2) sell him I’m not too bothered that we went option 2. A bit like Harrison Reed it was time for him to move on and find a club which would play him a lot. If it works out then fair play to him
This. I actually like Obafemi much more than most on here, and believe he could end up being a solid Premier League striker if he stays healthy and works hard...he has a knack for turning up in the right places that is really hard to teach. But with his contract approaching an end, and his injury history, that wasn't going to happen with us.
Obafemi seems a nice lad but he has his head in the clouds too often. I get the impression that far too often when people talk to him he smiles and looks like he is listening but everything is going in through one ear and out the other. When he scored that last gasp equaliser at Old Trafford in the interview after the game he said that Ralph told him to just score. A frustrated looking Ralph afterwards said when he was interviewed that it wasn't the only thing he told him. I get the impression that happened far too often and Ralph just lost patience.
Me too. I don't actually think he is injury prone as such. It is just that he has such an unusual physique he needs to warm up very differently to other players. It was this lack of warm up (and possibly diet) that had Ralph suggesting that he needed to think very carefully about his game preparation and lifestyle. Contrary to suggestions, I think Ralph really liked Obafemi which is why last season he came off the bench more often in front of Long and Tella. His pace and strength makes him (in theory) a high impact sub. Sadly though, the theory never turned into practice. If I was in his shoes, and looking at how we've strengthened this summer, I would probably move on as well. Swansea will find him a big character in the dressing room and he will be well liked. If he can stay fit and get game time he could become a legend at Swansea in the same way as Nathan Dyer (good but not quite good enough for Saints).
