Theo Walcott, Romain Perraud and now finally Dynel Simeu have (reportedly) signed for the club in under seven weeks.
Now, if you visit the Premier League website and open the article "Summer 2021 Latest Transfers & News" you can see that there are clubs with our same amount of acquisitions, if not less.
Let's take a look at our new players!
Theo Walcott has decided to stay at Southampton after a rather successful loan spell at St. Mary's, making 21 appearances and creating 6 goals (3 goals scored, 3 assists). From what I've seen of him, he's brought nothing but experience to the team, and I think that if he continues to play and perform in the same way he did with us last season, he could even turn out to be a crucial part of the team. Walcott on signing permanently for Saints: “It sounds nice when you say it like that: permanent. I wanted to work as hard as I could to be at this club. It really means a lot to me to be here. What’s most important is we’re going to have fans back as well, which is going to be a big boost for everyone. I’m really excited for the year – it feels like you’re going to get the better me now. I lived on my own last year a lot, and that was quite hard, but now I have my family with me and you’re definitely going to get the better me.” So pleased for you, Theo!
Romain Perraud has finally signed for Saints and I can't wait to see him play! I think this is the most exciting signing we've made since Mohammed Salisu. From what I've seen and read about him, I'm guessing he'll bring more quality to the team and hopefully make a difference. Ligue One posted an article on Perraud in November, classifying him as "one to watch". His style of play was also described: "With a great left-foot, Perraud is ideally suited to Olivier Dall'Oglio's attacking tactics at Brest as the full-backs are encouraged to push forward and get crosses in... - Committed and skilful, Perraud is progressing at pace and his terrific displays have not gone unnoticed." Romain on joining Saints: "Very excited to be part of Saints FC! I'm really looking forward to learning about St Mary's Stadium, my teammates and the fans of this iconic Premier League club. I will give it all up for you, I hope you’ll enjoy my style and mindset. Can't wait to start Southampton FC!" We can't wait either!
Dynel Simeu is apparently a new Saints player (as per Tom Leach of HampshireLive). He is 19-years-old, captained Chelsea's U23s team for some time, and we honestly knew nothing about him before Fabrizio Romano tweeted he was set to join Saints on a free transfer! During these last two days I've done some research and found out he made 67 appearances, scoring 3 goals, making 4 assists and receiving 7 yellow cards (and 0 reds, which is a positive!). He only played once as a right-back so let's not consider that position for him - he is a centre-back who will be useful in our team considering Jannik Vestergaard want a move away. He is a very good prospect and I can't wait to see him in action! He will not join Saints' first team at the moment, he will be an U23 player to start (even because 19-year-old defender Allan Tchaptchet is set to leave Southampton and the B team is set for a reshuffle). Dynel on growing up in Southampton: "That’s all I knew. I always dreamed of becoming a footballer but my family and I never thought it was realistic. I remember winning managers’ player and players’ player of the year, they were my first proper individual trophies. I really enjoyed my football there. I pretty much played every sport – I did cross country, I was quite good and I won a few races, I did athletics and represented Hampshire, my county. I admired Portsmouth and Southampton because that’s all I knew, I always dreamed of becoming a footballer but my family and I never thought it was realistic, then when I got the chance everything happened quickly. It was unbelievable." he said, unaware that he would soon find himself on the brink of a Saints transfer move. Welcome Dynel!
Now, let's take a look at the club's potential departures away from St. Mary's.
We are now close to selling Mario Lemina, which only means one thing in my dictionary: funds for Armstrong. And even though Saints bought the Gabon midfielder for £15.4mil back in 2017 and are about to get only 22 percent of what they spent for him (£3.4mil) - excluding add-ons - we can look at the positive side straight away: the money OGC Nice are paying for Mario are hopefully enough to secure a move for Armstrong to St. Mary's, which would be our fourth signing of the transfer window.
"Ings and Saints. Saints and Ings. It has been one heck of a seesaw hasn't it?" Well, what we know for now is that he's attracted interest from Spurs (primarily), Chelsea and maybe even Man City (if they failed to sign Harry Kane). We also know that Saints would want to sell him for a price of £20mil or more. Danny wants to wait, for now. He isn't looking for a Spurs move ideally (and even if so, many reports suggested Saints have ruled off the table negotiations with Tottenham, at least for a while, so let's see...) and neither a Chelsea one. According to talkSPORT, our striker is trying to attract interest from the two Manchester sides, United and City. The Daily Mail and The Mirror a while ago suggested Anthony Martial could leave the Red Devils this summer, while the Citizens have already said farewell to Sergio Agüero and will have to wave goodbye to Gabriel Jesus too if he leaves for Juventus; with that said, City remain with zero attacking options (I doubt Ferran Torres would be their first choice centre-forward, as he only played in that position twelve times, even though he scored 6 goals). If City failed a move for Kane to the Ethiad, there's no doubt the Citizens would need Ings more than United, and here only one thing is important to Saints: who will pay more? Still, if City completed a move for Kane, that would leave them with only one striker (always considering Ferran Torres as a right winger, which is the position he made more appearances in), and for the reigning Premier League champions it would be quite surprising if they begun the new season with no "important" backup striker (who has more experience than Ferran Torres in the centre-forward position), so I wouldn't be surprised if City made a bid for Ings a couple of days before the transfer window closes.
There's something about Vestergaard... Yesterday Charlie Eccleshare of The Athletic wrote an article regarding Spurs' latest transfer news, mentioning they still retain interest in our Dane defender. Nothing new though, up to now. Tottenham, AS Roma and a few other unnamed Italian sides linked with Jannik. Well, if Spurs complete the signing of Takehiro Tomiyasu, which they are close to doing, they would have 5 centre-backs. Do they really need a sixth? I don't think they'd need Jannik even if they sold one. Same for Roma, who have 5 central defenders as of now. I'll try to keep you updated if something new emerges.
Thank you for reading this article, hope you learned something new on the club's current transfer situation. We March On!
Sources for information and quotes included in the article:
Tom Leach, Twitter and HampshireLive (hampshirelive.news)
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