Southampton Rumours Archive July 06 2015

06 Jul 2015 14:49:01
Koeman's press conference gave away a few things.

Firstly we are close to signing FC Twente's Cuco Martina who we be cover for Ryan Bertrand who has had minor surgery on his knees and will be out for the next 5-6 weeks. He will also act as cover for right back and centre back if necessary.

Manchester United haven't yet made a second bid for Morgan Schneiderlin, although it sounded like one is imminent. Morgan is expected to travel to Austria tomorrow for the pre-season tour. Nothing to be said about replacements or even a Jack Cork replacement at this stage.

And lastly the situation with Toby. Koeman seemed to be keeping his cards to his chest, but the impression I got as far as he's concerned Toby agreed to stay a Saint when they had talks at the end of the season. So maybe just a gentlemen's agreement is in place with the player. He said he had been in communication with him recently but he wouldn't say about what.

As for Spurs bid he didn't really have much to say.

06 Jul 2015 15:52:35
Well, they needed another option at right back, but this guy is a pretty cheap and nasty foreign import, the type that has those bemoaning the lack of opportunities for English players tearing their hair out.

Given that the indications are that Saints' have all but concluded their transfer business, pending the outcome of the Alderweireld and Schneiderlin situations, that suggests they had little money to play with all along. (Possibly unrelated, but they've just parted company with their CFO.)

The £10-12m for Clyne covered Juanmi, Soares and Stekelenburg. Cuco Martina is supposedly going to cost less than €1m.

I'd imagine the Schneiderlin money will cover his and Alderweireld's replacements. And that'll be it - another transfer window with barely any net spend. Which is great, from a sustainable business point of view. But I continue to doubt the sustainability of selling off their best players and shopping around for replacements in the bargain bins, from a sporting perspective.

06 Jul 2015 18:41:35
I hope you're wrong qwertyell.

We need to add depth to the squad especially if we are to match or improve on last year. Spider will be a BIG miss and we certainly will need to reinvest in DM position, I also feel we will need another defender even if Toby signs and a proven goal scorer. Wishful thinking but our squad needs strength in depth.

06 Jul 2015 19:07:50
4 more inbound, 25m budget.

06 Jul 2015 19:32:52
Unfortunatly martina is poor although I've only seen him play twice, such a shame after last seasons high I beleive we will have a struggling season its ok having numbers but you still need quality

06 Jul 2015 19:38:15
Qwerty is right, but I don't see why it's a big deal if we don't bring in more players beyond Martina, a Toby replacement if we don't sign him and a Morgan replacement if he leaves.

We currently have a 21 senior men in our squad, add in Martina and Toby or replacement brings us up to 23, 8 of which are homegrown. Then add in the likes of Prowse, Reed and Gallagher who are still classed as U21s and we have a full squad. So in order to add depth we have to sell other senior players first.

06 Jul 2015 22:54:01
The squad was thin last season, especially once Cork was sold and not replaced (and still hasn't been). Djuricic and Elia haven't been retained, although the return to fitness (hopefully) of Rodriguez and the signing of Juanmi covers their loss, I suppose, although I don't see Juanmi featuring on the wing often.

But as things stand, in terms of numbers, it looks like the aim is to just break even with last season, which seems an odd approach, given the extra workload with Europe and the problems they had last season with the lack of squad depth - problems that they admitted undermined their campaign.

07 Jul 2015 09:35:06
If you break down our current squad, without judging player's ability, experience or playable positions you'll find we have more first team depth then you'd expect.

Goalkeepers - Forster, Davis, Gazza and Stekelenberg on loan

Defenders - Soares, Fonte, Yoshida, Bertrand, Gardos, Targett, McCarthy, Turnbull, Stephens

Midfielders - Wanyama, Schneiderlin, Reed, Davis, JWP, Gape, Ramirez, Hesketh

Attackers - Pelle, Mane, Tadic, Long, Juanmi, Jay Rod, Mayuka, Gallagher, Isgrove, Seager, McQueen

Now even if we loan a few of the younger players out that I've listed there, it's fairly apparent we have good depth in defence, especially if Toby and Martina are added to that list, as well as a solid number of options in attack. Admittedly midfield could still do with a Jack Cork replacement, but at the moment the club don't seem to be seeking one.

07 Jul 2015 11:52:17
I love your semi-confident attitude but I am afraid that your list of defenders looks a bit thin and ragged for top six ambitions next season . We will be very stretched at the back without some quality in there and don't forget we only achieved our lofty position in the league through our fantastic defence . I can't see that happening this season with the rather cobbled together list you have posted , our fantastic and loyal captain just can't keep doing it year in , year out especially now he is nearly 32 and also without Morgan sweeping up in front of the defence . Just have a feeling we have to sign some quality if we want a repeat of last season. I admire Saints wage structure but it does rather make us a bit of a staging post for players going to the next level should they become successful , I therefore feel that it will be many years before we can break into the top 4 CLUB and realistically probably never if we stick to our rather stringent finance plan. I am not saying we should change our policy just trying to stress that unfortunately in our game of today money is the tool of success and the more you spend the higher you finish which to me has taken the word SPORT out of football forever and changed it to BIG BUSINESS.