The silly season starts today and the rumour mill is already turning at Southampton FC, one man who Russell Martin deemed surplus to requirements was midfielder Shea Charles who is currently on loan at Sheffield Wednesday, however he is attracting interest for a permanent move.

The finger of blame is pointed at Russell Martin mainly for his inability to adapt his totalitarian possession football style, but it can also be levelled at him that he failed to use the players that he had to hand, that he had his little favourites and cliques and if you were in you were in and if you were out you were out.

Several of the summer signings were unceremoniously dumped by Martin without much opportunity to show him otherwise, Big Bes Ugochukwu, Charlie Taylor, Maxwell Cornet & Ben Brereton Diaz & only have 10 starts in the Premier League between them.

Back in the summer Shea Charles was one who found himself dumped by Martin, despite showing early promise in 2023/24, he was soon reduced to the role of a bit part player and was shipped off to Sheffield Wednesday on loan for the season.

At Hillsborough he has been considered one of their better players and there is talk about Saints now recalling him, however it seems that there are other clubs who value him more than Russell Martin ever did and according to The Daily Mail
at least 3 top flight clubs are said to be considering a January bid for his services.

West Ham United & Leicester City are the two Premier League club sniffing around and they are also joined by Atalanta in Italy's Serie A .

Charles who has only just turned 21 two months ago, joined Saints in the summer of 2023 from Manchester City for £12 million and now has 23 caps for Northern Ireland, also captaining them, perhaps highlighting that he has the leadership qualities that we so badly lack in all areas of the team.

Saints are under no pressure to sell, Charles is contracted to the summer of 2027, but I think he could well flourish under a new manager at St Mary's, that could also be the case for the 4 players mentioned earlier, Big Les Ugochukwu has been a revelation in the last 3 games, showing us just how poor a judge of player Russell martin actually was, he and the other 3 might just show Saints supporters that given the chance they can add something to the current squad, hopefully that might be the case for Shea Charles as well.

Photo: Action Images

Bowlercow added 15:36 - Jan 1 RM didn't necessarily dump him but maybe wanted him to have game time and gain some experience Also according to our illustrious press Edwards was going to Wednesday.........until he went to QPR
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onetowatch added 12:09 - Jan 2 Sorry Bowlercrow, if you couldn't see the potential of SC that should have been encouraged and developed in the Championship in readiness for the Prem, then you're in the same league as RM. He is a perfect partner for FD and to see him sat on the bench last season whilst WS started time and time again was criminal. He's now showing the ability that should have been displayed at St Marys, hence the PL attention from other clubs. Many of us were continuously making that point last season.

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AmericanSaint added 13:32 - Jan 2 Well I think this shows that RM may have missed the plot on player evaluation. If we are to lose Unuwacku (spelling?) back to Chelsea, we then should have SC back to fill that role, which he is showing he can do. Get him Prem experience so that he can be even better next year in the Championship. It is a no brainer.
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halftimeorange added 17:55 - Jan 2 I thought at the time that shipping Charles out for experience was somewhat hasty but, in fairness to whoever made that decision, our squad was and is top heavy, and it is sometimes difficult to judge how quickly a player is going to develop. Charles was in and around the first team last season and was improving but, who saw Dibling's rise to the top. I thought that Sam Amo-Ayew would have broken through first. Although I found RM's tactics not to my liking, I doubt the number of men competing for places helped him.

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davenbennett added 13:29 - Jan 3 Good point by halftimeorange. I thought Amo-Ameyaw was going to break through before Dibling as well. I would still have him on the bench all season before Sulemane, BBD, Fraser, Cornet. They haven't delivered at all, but Amo-Ameyaw could still develop into a good player.
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