Media outlets are reporting that Saints have agreed a fee with Burnley for jay Rodrigues, a figure that would smash Saints long standing transfer record.

Todays latest rumour is that Saints have agreed a £7 million pound fee for Burnley striker Jay Rodriguez, earlier in the week it was reported that the lancashire club were looking for £8 million, but with only a year left on the players contract, they know that the price is going to drop unless they can get rid of him in this transfer window in a dutch auction, they have therefore become resigned to losing their top man.

However a bid being accepted is still a long way from the player signing for Saints as we saw last summer with Doncaster reportably accepting a bid for Billy Sharp, but the player prefering not to move at that time, so Rodriguez himself may prefer to stay put for the time being and see if any other clubs come in for him that may be a preferable option to the big upheaval of moving 250 miles South.

You would hope though that if it is fact that Saints have tabled that bid, that it shows their intent for the season, no Saints fan wants to see Saints pay silly money for average players, as we have witnessed from afar over the last few years in the Premiership from various clubs, but we do want to see the team improved and it should be noted that if our template is Norwich and Swansea, both of those clubs invested between £12 - £15 million in key signings last season and we need to do the same, we do have an adavantage though, of the reported £13 million we received for Alex Oxlade Chamberlain from Arsenal, we have only spent around half of that, so that aligned with the Premiership cash should ensure that we have that sort of money to spend, without going silly.

Saints previous transfer record was the £4 million spent on Rory Delap in the summer of 2001, whilst many would call this a signing that wasnt a great success, Delap in 4 1/2 seasons at St Mary's started 118 league games plus 14 as sub, around about 75% of the matches he could have played in, as his Premiership career has shown in the six years since he left the club, Delap was perhaps a player whose strengths were not utilised by several managers at St mary'e

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 12:11 - May 29 Teams that have goal scorers rarely get relegated so to have Lambert , Jayrod , Sharpe , Chung would probably sort out that area for us. 7 milion sounds alot but we are also raking in alot now and that is the way it is in the premiership. Its why we will pay £50.00 for match tickets on occassions this season. This signing if it happens is ok in my book.
0

st_bangkok added 12:18 - May 29 Although it does smash our transfer record, when one takes into account 7 years out of the PL, it is probably relative to what we paid for Delap BITDto a certain extent.
0

simmo400 added 12:19 - May 29 Hopefully he wont agree terms. Dont think he is worth 7 million. Full backs required. Thats where money should be spent in my opinion, but i suppose theres lots of time yet to assemble the team we need.
0

JimmySteal added 16:31 - May 29 First of seven signings.....you heard it here first!
0

St_Beano added 20:58 - May 29 Personally I hope it doesn't mean Chaplow moving in the opposite direction as some of the papers say.
0

BlackRod added 22:33 - May 29 Rumour has it he's not happy with personal terms so it may yet fall through. Remember how many 'certs' there were in the last transfer window that fell at what should have been the rubber stamping stage. NC and NA have learned from previous mistakes to get to their targets fast and go for a knock-out blow. Problem is they have to keep control of the wage bill and aren't prepared to pay what a £7 million player think's he's worth. JR wants a lot more than RL is getting so what would you do? A goalkeeper is next, should hear in the next week or so but I can't find out who. KD not happy though.

0

ThereIn76 added 08:41 - May 30 Apparently BBC Radio Lancs have reported this, Burnley FC haven't commented. Could be another red herring.
0

JimmySteal added 08:52 - May 30 The truth is that this is a confirmed, official bid so it's an indication of Saints' intentions. If they're prepared to spend this sort of cash then what next? Presumably a £3M midfielder or/and a £4M winger wouldn't be out of the question. Is the sky the limit? Great times for Saints fans!
0

bstokesaint added 13:01 - May 30 I'd like to think it's true. There's no reason a northerner can't settle in the south. My wife has and she loves the Saints (ST holder for many years). Personally I think it's more of an escape! BlackRod I'd be surprised if KD saw anything other than competition for places as a positive thing. Many years of professional football would have taught him that he has to fight for his place like everyone else in the team. For over two seasons now he has been the automatic choice without anyone keeping him on his toes.

0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Middlesbrough Polls