Saints signing Holgate from Everton changes nothing
Saturday, 26th Aug 2023 08:00 by Keith Haynes : Owner / Editor

Mason Holgate has signed for Southampton on a season long loan from Everton. The ex Barnsley centre back has been a target of the Saints and Russell Martin for a few weeks. It has been mentioned that this now rules out Nathan Wood after a second transfer offer for his services was rejected by Swansea City yesterday afternoon.

Speaking to a good friend of the website last night the Wood issue was mentioned. We are told that both Wood and Holgate are sought after by Martin and he is determined to play both as his first choice centre backs this season. That remains to be seen but that news this morning does mean that Southampton have to return with a more generous offer for Wood. The news before the rejected offer was that both clubs were quite close to agreeing something but the detail was concerning to the Swans.

As we have reported already this week Southampton have also allegedly attempted to undermine Swans Sporting Director Paul Watson by going direct to the clubs majority share holder and Director Jason Levien in the USA. By all accounts Levien referred them back to Watson, and the same was done by Leeds via Gretar Steinsson' their technical director. We have mentioned throughout the week that the Swans were being perceived as being in a potential position of weakness within the Senior management team of the club, and this behaviour if those clubs had knowledge as to why is pretty much a below the belt move.

But not a surprise.

As an addendum to the above, Paul Watson heads up the Senior Management Team at Swansea City and for these two clubs to take this action, IF Watson had no knowledge, sums up the levels we are dealing with in todays football business.

Even on a match day it seems that this transfer window cannot keep quiet. It all points to a general agreement being required for the window to close before the season starts and only reopen as per the January guidelines. The amount of noise around these transfers and the effect on the clubs involved surely means that is the common sense approach ?

As for Leeds and Southampton, they don’t seem to believe they are on an equal footing to clubs like Swansea City. In the same league and playing by the same rules ? Clearly not, let the results on the pitch this season be the determining factor.