Southampton Banter

18 Feb 2026 18:14:14
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Matchday 26 - Quick Round Up

17 Feb 2026 08:09:24
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Sunderland v Liverpool - A Quick Liverpool Perspective

16 Feb 2026 07:09:29
Could we have up to 50m to play with this summer?

ABK and Edwards sales covered a year 2 parachute payment loss. Arma left for 7m, if Baz, Archer, Smallbone, Diaz, Sugawara and Downs go for similar that lands 50m (+ Larios), without selling the family jewels like Rambo, THB, Scienza and Charles.

25m to boost attack, 25m for defence, 2 smart loans and we could mount a good push next year, whatever happens now.

17 Feb 2026 21:44:53
I think the following is realistic, freeing up both fees and wages

McCarthy (free)
Ramsdale will want another PL gig. Maybe whoever goes up will buy him for £18m
One of Downes (£12m) and THB (£15m) I could see going to Coventry. Just feels like a good fit
Archer (£5m)
Edozie? Depends how he finishes the season, maybe £4m
Aribo (free but frees up wages)
Larios (£2m)
Smallbone (£7m)
Sugawara (£5m)
Brereton (£10m if he stays in form)
Taylor (free)
Bazunu (£7m)
Downs (£6m)

That’s wildly optimistic and totals about £75m, but sees two of our top players going. It also sees almost all of the aforementioned going for a net loss over the course of their contract which shows the mess we’ve been put in.

It would also leave about 9 spots in the squad for incomings - assuming we buy players on less extortionate wages maybe we can put a good chunk of that £75m back into the club.

In terms of incomings;
Resign Bree, Stewart, sign Peretz and Larin permanently (£5m and £8m? No idea if we have obligation fees or what they are)
That leaves five further spaces with a good £40m as a conservative estimate.

I think one has to look objectively and say how could £15-18m be better spent, on keeping Harwood-Bellis, or selling him and buying three players. I think it’s the latter, and the same applies to Ramsdale. There’s also the risk of Jander going, which would be at a significant markup that we could reinvest.

So we’d need a back up keeper, a CB, a midfielder and an attacker. That doesn’t feel too ridiculous an ask. Again, it relies on sensible sales and recruitment which simply won’t happen.

But I think it would put us in a good place with a best XI of Peretz, Bree, new CB, Wood/Quarshie, Welington/Manning, Charles, new mid/Jander, Azaz, Scienza, Fellows/new attacker, Stewart/Larin. Plus a decent bench with good competition.

Having said all of that. We’ll instead go and buy a Ligue 2 17 year old for £20m bc it helps out our sister club and end next season in 14th.

18 Feb 2026 13:45:53
Smallbone is out of contract at the end of the season so Saints unfortunately get no fee.
I think Downs BBD Larios and Archer will go for lower fees but all have sell on clauses in their contracts. The rest all pretty much makes sense.
Bree and Stewart must be retained and Edozie reintroduced permanently to the squad.
I have heard that Mallorca are desperate to get Larins 4 million euro salary off their books so don’t be surprised if he was a free or very small fee.
Not sure Saints will sign Peretz, that one will be interesting.
The remainder of this and next seasons are very important to Robinson and Digiba, both could become top quality players. Bragg and Williams could also come into the long term picture.

18 Feb 2026 23:05:17
Shame about Smallbone but made up for by that info on Larin.

Hoping we do properly get an academy line into the squad again, Robinson started the season well but hasn’t been seen as much recently, but that FA cup win showed there’s promise there.

I honestly don’t know what to expect from our keepers. We could well have none at one point in July but Perera has been solid without being a disaster or a world beater and if he’s cheap then that’ll be fine by me. Absolutely amazed we never went in for Patterson. Maybe we could go Johnstone once Wolves are down?

12 Feb 2026 15:42:33
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Matchday 25 - Quick Round Up

10 Feb 2026 22:17:07
Wow. Wow. WOW

WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TONIGHT

And the videprinters were broken so all I saw was a full time result of 3-4. Absolute bedlam. From shambolic to absolutely heroic.

11 Feb 2026 05:28:17
I put my son to bed and we were 3-0 down. He woke up in the night to get water. I thought let's see where we fell to in the table now and couldn't believe it!

3 winnable games coming next too!

11 Feb 2026 08:44:24
it shows that Archer can never play for the club again.

11 Feb 2026 10:27:40
And that is what happens when you want to win a game! Or at the very least draw!
The passion and desire to score and keep scoring was unbelievable!
Well done

11 Feb 2026 15:47:18
Unbelievable - best I stay in South America!

11 Feb 2026 15:47:51
100%. I suspect Arma, Fraser, ABK, and Aribo were dragging the dressing room down. Great to see some fight!

11 Feb 2026 18:52:20
Ok it was a commendable fight back BUT WTF was the manager doing with his starting lineup? When Archer Fellows and Jander went into melt down by 20 mins in first half how did the manager help them and the team? He didn’t, stood with his hands in his pocket with the look of a frightened child!
The half time substitutions were obvious except Edozie should have been on for Matsuki.
I’m struggling to celebrate a win at Leicester when the manager has failed to show any emotion! He’s the teams leader, how can any player be motivated by such non lacklustre and expressionless leadership?
The second half players deserve credit for the 3 points and let’s hope Eckert starts learning from the obvious.

09 Feb 2026 07:39:08
{Ed's Note - Shappy has posted a new article entitled, United’s Summer Priorities: Midfield First, Then Balance

07 Feb 2026 11:58:24
Bets on how well or how many Armstrong will score in the premiership with Wolves for their remaining brief time in there?

By brief time I'm not reckoning many, which slightly baffles me why not wait till end of season, better for everyone. I think AA wanted to go though, fair enough.

If/when/if we ever did get back to the premiership he would have been first out the door for me anyway.

Though, I am interested to see if his poor premiership from was down to us and how we used him or just him 🤔

09 Feb 2026 21:18:11
Maybe Arma is a double agent to ensure Wolves get even fewer points than us last season!