Southampton Ready To Break Transfer Record In Next Week Tuesday, 30th Jul 2024 08:58 So far Saints transfer business has been fairly low key but with Ben Brereton Diaz about to arrive at the club for a bargain fee, it seems that the club is ready to break their transfer record to land Russell Martin's number one target. So far Southampton FC have done some good business, they have got a balance right between some experienced old campaigners who are out of contract, some highly rated youngsters as well as bringing in two expensive signings in Flynn Downes & Taylor Harwood-Bellis who were of course on loan here last season, so n many respects don't feel like new signings. In doing so, the cash spent has topped £50 million and so far we have only racked up £9 million worth of incoming transfer with the departures of Duje Caleta Car & Lyanco, although in the coming weeks I would expect a few more to leave.
But our spending is not yet over and according to givemesport.com we are ready to smash our transfer record in order to bring in Russell Martin's number one target Matt O'Riley. As it stands it looks like a two horse race between Saints and Italian club Atalanta who can sweeten their offer to the player with the fact they are in the Champions League next season. But that perhaps won't be as much as a temptation as it sounds as O'Riley could stay at Celtic and play in the Champions League. So far Atalanta are far from Celtic's valuation of the player, Atalanta have so far only bid around £15 million with Saints said to have tabled a bid of £18 million, however Celtic want around £25 million. That figure of course is the one they have allegedly touted around to stir up a bidding war, the reality is that it is going to be whatever the bidding clubs are willing to pay. I suspect that a ceiling might be reached a little short of their asking price, but it is still going to be north of £20 million for a player it seems Russell Martin is desperate to land.
So it seems at the moment the next move is down to Atlanta, will they raise their bid and up the ante on Southampton ? Like all transfers it will come down to how much each club is willing and for that matter able to pay and of course which destination the player actually want to go to. Biut it seems that Saints have a very specific strategy in their transfer plans for this season, they know the key areas they need to strengthen, the players they need and what they can bring to the club, and of course how much they need to spend in each area and they are quietly getting on with it.
The problem is as the season looms is that ideally in a transfer window you would land your key targets first and then build round them, but the reality is that you often cannot do that as your key targets are in demand and as in the case of Matt O'Riley, their current clubs want to hang on and spark a bidding war. Hopefully this week we will land Ben Brereton Diaz, we will bring in Matt O'Riley and we will also bring in a Premier League experienced goalkeeper. If we do that then I think we will have achieved most of our targets for this window in terms of incoming signings, we will then need to look at pruning the squad and that is another story. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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