Toby signs for Spurs - official.

Multiple factors at play. His purchase price from Ajax owed to the fact that he was entering the final year of his contract; he would have fetched closer to £10m otherwise. Additionally, one has to consider that under any circumstance Ajax is going to be willing to take less for a player than a club like Atletico.

As for Long, I couldn't disagree more with it as a point of comparison. I'm willing to overpay a shade for real quality, though I'm dubious that the mooted price is even an overpay. With Long, we got cornered into overpaying for a squad player, which is something we ought to be avoiding.

 

Take your first part and its like I said a couple of posts back. We basically are close in our opinion. If his value is considered upto 15m and we paid 18m, then we've paid 3m + over the top and I think that's ok. My first post said I'd be happy to pay 3m + for a player we know suits us rather than save that money and sign an unknown quantity.

I am also happy as it seems we've added two players at very reasonable prices, probably keeping everything on budget.

I don't think we need to agree to disagree, as we basically agree on his value - I'd just be happy to pay a little more.

 

Unfortunately the premier league inflation is a very real thing and we're having to pay that difference.

Our goals against record was title winning level last season. The reasons for that are multi faceted, but Toby was a big part of that and if we're to maintain our place in the top 7 next season then we need him and not every player should be purchased with an eye on maximum resale profit

 

The Sunday Times piece is a nonsense, cobbled together by a journo putting a 2+2 Belgians guess together. Not even a sniff of a quote in it.

 

Alot of people seem to be getting hung up about money in/out etc. The board has shown over the years that it knows what to do, how much it can spend, and even Katharina herself has given the club money out of her own pocket. Next year, the new TV deal kicks in, which see's a 40% increase in PL money. We're in very safe hands, I think we can all trust the board to go about their business well, and do as they see fit regarding incoming players etc.

 

Anybody genuinely think Toby isn't worth breaking our transfer record for? If so, please take yourself aside and have a word!

 

Talks to self, and concludes we massively overpaid for Osvaldo Level of happiness will depend how much we break the record by. If we bought Toby for £100m and declared he'd be our only transfer for the next two summers, we'd have broken our record, but which of us would be happy? £18m seems a little steep to me for a defender More than happy to have him in the side though Delighted if we can do it even cheaper at £15m or less

 

I started you read your first sentence and thought, so LTL is a doubter.? I should have waited.

 

Can see Lat's point about potentially putting too much of our budget into one player and not filling out the squad as much as it needs to be because of it. But none of us know what the budget is, and we will only be able to actually properly judge that at the end of the transfer window, by which time Toby will have signed for someone else. So, for me, it is if the board think that £18m will get him and are happy to pay it, then let them get on with it and then we can potentially moan about squad depth in a few months time.

 

Obviously, the cheaper we could have him for, the better I would feel. Nobody is keen to pay over the odds. But paying a little more for a known quality will pay dividends. Not because we'll become known for paying over the odds. It's more to do with turning heads. Although Saints have been shooting up the divisions, back to where they have spent most of their latter existence, the vast majority of football people know that Southampton FC are a middle sized club in reputation [yes, 25th richest apparently] and that middle-sized reputation will disappear quicker by having great players that play great for Saints. It will attract better players faster and will eventually be money in the bank and success on the pitch.

 

Surely Saints would have set aside 30-40m for transfers this summer add to that 15m for Clyne and £25m for Schneiderlin that sees us with plenty of cash. Djuricic, Elia, Osvaldo, Ramirez will all probably leave freeing up wages and in the latter two's case potentially getting some more money in.

I say sign Toby at 18m
Plus a young Right back , striker (in the pelle mould), a Goalkeeper and the best Central midfielder we can find

 

I don't think we should go to £18m unless we are likely to lose him to a lower bid. It's difficult for us to get a really top player like Toby without the attraction of CL, so if he enjoys playing for us and has proven himself top class then it's worth going that bit extra for. If we genuinely have aspirations to push for a CL spot over the next few seasons we'll definitely need the quality of Toby. His versatility in being able to cover RB & CM is a real bonus to.

 

My pleasure.

 

Plus we have plenty of other priority positions to strengthen!

 

I think that's exactly why we'd pay 18mn. IIRC there's a clause saying any other club has to offer £3mn more than us, and £18mn pushes his price to £21mn for anyone else. I can see a club like Liverpool or Spurs just about justifying £20mn for him as part of the best defence in the PL (after all, they paid more for Lovren) after the winner, but if they have to pay £21mn - they'll think there's probably better options at that price (or cheaper) for them than Toby.

 

Nothing is done yet, it's still newspaper talk after all, but though I agree we could get him cheaper. There are dangers;

1) The brinksmanship with Atletico would likely go right to the wire, which would mean we would miss him for the august games.

2) He may not be first choice, but other clubs far wealthier than us could have him as second choice target and then outbid us.

 

Spurs have just signed a CB, have Vertongen, Dier, Kaboul and The Romanian. Ok, they'll ditch the last two but that would still potentially mean Toby not being "virtually" guaranteed first choice CB. At Saints Toby would be.

 

And Fazio.

 

We wont get toby. I can just feel it . Shame tho

 

Name those options. Toby is ****ing awesome. If we have to spend more to get him so be it, we can afford it. It would also send out a statement that we signed a player who was strongly linked with Chelsea.