| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on 08:11 - Jan 13 with 2224 views | PatfromPoole | I believe he may be returning from his dazzling loan spell with Red Star in Ligue 2, where he has made an almighty 6 appearances. That cash would have been rather useful for a striker now. Unbelievable that we have sold Edwards for pretty much the same amount that we paid for this "investment". |  |
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 08:31 - Jan 13 with 2151 views | saintmark1976 | That’s what we get from Sports Republic Pat. Player Trading Company. First. Hospitality Company at St Mary’s. Second. Southampton Football Club Third. Possibly. |  |
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 08:56 - Jan 13 with 2082 views | dirk_doone | According to this report, Sport Republic are going to spend £9 million on a centre back who wasn't good enough for Birmingham City. https://softmedia.com.ng/south [Post edited 13 Jan 10:02]
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 09:15 - Jan 13 with 2052 views | SaintNick | Pat you are not Donald Trump , lets keep it real, if you put his name in AI then you get a 5 million euro transfer fee, but if you look at other articles written at the time, then you find it hard to find out the actual fee paid. Some speculate that the transfer deal is "Worth 5 million euros, which suggests that if we are to pay that money, then he will have had to have met certain criteria, usually staged payments when he plays a certain number of games, so to hit the 5 million euros payment he will probably have had to have played 100 games and/or got a full international cap for France. The reality is that we will have paid somewhere around £1 million euros which is around his value up front and the rest only if he succeeds. We have bought potential, he only turned 19 in November, there arent many 19 year olds playing regularly in the top two divisions in England and indeed in Europe. Our two sightings of him have been in the Premier League, two fairly short appearances as sub at Everton & against Arsenal, but he looked the part in them. Whether he makes it or not we will see but FFS give him a chance, I don't know why he didn't get much game time at Red Star, I don't know what the French second division is like, but plenty of people have had loan spells as youngsters that aren't successful and then have returned to us to make their mark. Cameron Bragg is a recent example, he couldn't even get into Crawley Town's League One matchday squad, let alone the bench after only 6 weeks at the club, before he was recalled in January 2025 to play in our U21 squad, yet now he is flourishing. Lets give some of these youngsters a chance before we start using them as examples of where Sport Republic are failing, but if we do at least keep it real. Older supporters will remember Jack Stephens signed from Plymouth in 2011, he made a fleeting 3 minute appearance in the FA Cup in 2012, spent much of the next 5 years out on loan, most of those not being that successful, before finally making his League debut for Saints aged 23, 5 years after his first sub appearance. He went on to become a club legend, you have to give these youngsters time |  |
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 09:20 - Jan 13 with 2040 views | SaintNick |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 08:56 - Jan 13 by dirk_doone | According to this report, Sport Republic are going to spend £9 million on a centre back who wasn't good enough for Birmingham City. https://softmedia.com.ng/south [Post edited 13 Jan 10:02]
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Perhaps they might have been had he not have signed for Blackburn on loan on 6th January yet this article is dated 11th January
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 09:30 - Jan 13 with 2025 views | HytheFerrytales |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 09:15 - Jan 13 by SaintNick | Pat you are not Donald Trump , lets keep it real, if you put his name in AI then you get a 5 million euro transfer fee, but if you look at other articles written at the time, then you find it hard to find out the actual fee paid. Some speculate that the transfer deal is "Worth 5 million euros, which suggests that if we are to pay that money, then he will have had to have met certain criteria, usually staged payments when he plays a certain number of games, so to hit the 5 million euros payment he will probably have had to have played 100 games and/or got a full international cap for France. The reality is that we will have paid somewhere around £1 million euros which is around his value up front and the rest only if he succeeds. We have bought potential, he only turned 19 in November, there arent many 19 year olds playing regularly in the top two divisions in England and indeed in Europe. Our two sightings of him have been in the Premier League, two fairly short appearances as sub at Everton & against Arsenal, but he looked the part in them. Whether he makes it or not we will see but FFS give him a chance, I don't know why he didn't get much game time at Red Star, I don't know what the French second division is like, but plenty of people have had loan spells as youngsters that aren't successful and then have returned to us to make their mark. Cameron Bragg is a recent example, he couldn't even get into Crawley Town's League One matchday squad, let alone the bench after only 6 weeks at the club, before he was recalled in January 2025 to play in our U21 squad, yet now he is flourishing. Lets give some of these youngsters a chance before we start using them as examples of where Sport Republic are failing, but if we do at least keep it real. Older supporters will remember Jack Stephens signed from Plymouth in 2011, he made a fleeting 3 minute appearance in the FA Cup in 2012, spent much of the next 5 years out on loan, most of those not being that successful, before finally making his League debut for Saints aged 23, 5 years after his first sub appearance. He went on to become a club legend, you have to give these youngsters time |
Yikes..are you revealing there exists a top secret genetic modification project that is dedicated to producing clones of Jack Stephens. |  | |  |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 09:38 - Jan 13 with 2006 views | Butty101 |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 09:15 - Jan 13 by SaintNick | Pat you are not Donald Trump , lets keep it real, if you put his name in AI then you get a 5 million euro transfer fee, but if you look at other articles written at the time, then you find it hard to find out the actual fee paid. Some speculate that the transfer deal is "Worth 5 million euros, which suggests that if we are to pay that money, then he will have had to have met certain criteria, usually staged payments when he plays a certain number of games, so to hit the 5 million euros payment he will probably have had to have played 100 games and/or got a full international cap for France. The reality is that we will have paid somewhere around £1 million euros which is around his value up front and the rest only if he succeeds. We have bought potential, he only turned 19 in November, there arent many 19 year olds playing regularly in the top two divisions in England and indeed in Europe. Our two sightings of him have been in the Premier League, two fairly short appearances as sub at Everton & against Arsenal, but he looked the part in them. Whether he makes it or not we will see but FFS give him a chance, I don't know why he didn't get much game time at Red Star, I don't know what the French second division is like, but plenty of people have had loan spells as youngsters that aren't successful and then have returned to us to make their mark. Cameron Bragg is a recent example, he couldn't even get into Crawley Town's League One matchday squad, let alone the bench after only 6 weeks at the club, before he was recalled in January 2025 to play in our U21 squad, yet now he is flourishing. Lets give some of these youngsters a chance before we start using them as examples of where Sport Republic are failing, but if we do at least keep it real. Older supporters will remember Jack Stephens signed from Plymouth in 2011, he made a fleeting 3 minute appearance in the FA Cup in 2012, spent much of the next 5 years out on loan, most of those not being that successful, before finally making his League debut for Saints aged 23, 5 years after his first sub appearance. He went on to become a club legend, you have to give these youngsters time |
lol you were happy to write Dom Ballard off after a couple poor loans…. |  |
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 09:52 - Jan 13 with 1947 views | dirk_doone |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 09:20 - Jan 13 by SaintNick | Perhaps they might have been had he not have signed for Blackburn on loan on 6th January yet this article is dated 11th January
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You're right, he doesn't appear to have been good enough anywhere, so hopefully there is no substance to that report: https://www.transfermarkt.co.u It's lazy reporting. If there's an overpriced dud available, he's inevitably going to be linked with us. [Post edited 13 Jan 10:13]
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 10:12 - Jan 13 with 1876 views | SaintNick |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 09:38 - Jan 13 by Butty101 | lol you were happy to write Dom Ballard off after a couple poor loans…. |
I didn't write Dom Ballard off, I felt that he was not as good as the other options that we had at the time, his path was blocked to the first team, his track record out on loan wasn't good over a couple of seasons, 45 games played and 6 goals scored, if he had come into our first team at any time last season he would have failed miserably and the fans would have been on his back, as they were on our other forwards who were also failing miserably. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but at the start of this season, Armstrong, Archer, Stewart & Downes all had far better track records than Ballard and at a higher level, he would have been 5th choice it all added up to it was the best option for the player himself and the club for him to leave. Im pleased to see him doing well In the case of Sanda he had been out on loan for 4 months not two years, it's too early to tell, my reply was more about using him as an example of Sport Republic's devilish ways |  |
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 10:20 - Jan 13 with 1841 views | PatfromPoole |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 10:12 - Jan 13 by SaintNick | I didn't write Dom Ballard off, I felt that he was not as good as the other options that we had at the time, his path was blocked to the first team, his track record out on loan wasn't good over a couple of seasons, 45 games played and 6 goals scored, if he had come into our first team at any time last season he would have failed miserably and the fans would have been on his back, as they were on our other forwards who were also failing miserably. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but at the start of this season, Armstrong, Archer, Stewart & Downes all had far better track records than Ballard and at a higher level, he would have been 5th choice it all added up to it was the best option for the player himself and the club for him to leave. Im pleased to see him doing well In the case of Sanda he had been out on loan for 4 months not two years, it's too early to tell, my reply was more about using him as an example of Sport Republic's devilish ways |
When you say that you didn't feel that Dom Ballard was as good as the other options we had at the time.... Were you including Super Sekou? Ballard scored at Cambridge in a game which I think Mara played in. [Post edited 13 Jan 10:21]
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 12:41 - Jan 13 with 1679 views | SaintNick |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 10:20 - Jan 13 by PatfromPoole | When you say that you didn't feel that Dom Ballard was as good as the other options we had at the time.... Were you including Super Sekou? Ballard scored at Cambridge in a game which I think Mara played in. [Post edited 13 Jan 10:21]
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In April 1982 we played Coventy City at the Dell when Kevin Keegan lined up alongside new signing Keith Cassels, they starred in a pulsating 5-5 draw Keegan got 2, Cassels got 2 the first a glancing header and the 2nd a chip from 25 yards also crossed for Keegan's second. We thought that we had the partnership that would win us the league the next season. Turned out Keegan left for Newcastle and Cassels scored 2 goals in 13 appearances before being sold to Brentford at a loss. Sport Republic are continuing the Southampton Way, not inventing it |  |
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 15:12 - Jan 13 with 1538 views | felly1 |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 12:41 - Jan 13 by SaintNick | In April 1982 we played Coventy City at the Dell when Kevin Keegan lined up alongside new signing Keith Cassels, they starred in a pulsating 5-5 draw Keegan got 2, Cassels got 2 the first a glancing header and the 2nd a chip from 25 yards also crossed for Keegan's second. We thought that we had the partnership that would win us the league the next season. Turned out Keegan left for Newcastle and Cassels scored 2 goals in 13 appearances before being sold to Brentford at a loss. Sport Republic are continuing the Southampton Way, not inventing it |
We finished 7th in the old 1st Division that season. Comparing the way the club was run then to these bozos now is laughable. |  | |  |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 15:59 - Jan 13 with 1484 views | PatfromPoole |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 12:41 - Jan 13 by SaintNick | In April 1982 we played Coventy City at the Dell when Kevin Keegan lined up alongside new signing Keith Cassels, they starred in a pulsating 5-5 draw Keegan got 2, Cassels got 2 the first a glancing header and the 2nd a chip from 25 yards also crossed for Keegan's second. We thought that we had the partnership that would win us the league the next season. Turned out Keegan left for Newcastle and Cassels scored 2 goals in 13 appearances before being sold to Brentford at a loss. Sport Republic are continuing the Southampton Way, not inventing it |
When Sport Republic sign a European Footballer of the Year, I will agree with you. |  |
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 16:11 - Jan 13 with 1469 views | SaintNick |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 15:59 - Jan 13 by PatfromPoole | When Sport Republic sign a European Footballer of the Year, I will agree with you. |
So Sport Republic selling a player of low value to Goztepe is far more of an example of a lack of ambition than selling the European footballer of the year ? |  |
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 17:07 - Jan 13 with 1418 views | shotters |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 08:31 - Jan 13 by saintmark1976 | That’s what we get from Sports Republic Pat. Player Trading Company. First. Hospitality Company at St Mary’s. Second. Southampton Football Club Third. Possibly. |
At the time I felt that paying this much for a young kid with very few games under his belt was a way of giving £5 million to Valenciennes to improve their finances For me there was very little to suggest he warranted such a fee Not the first time we've signed young foreign prospects but seeing the situation the club is in right now and the fee involved, it's not surprising that it comes under more scrutiny |  |
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 18:35 - Jan 13 with 1358 views | PatfromPoole |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 16:11 - Jan 13 by SaintNick | So Sport Republic selling a player of low value to Goztepe is far more of an example of a lack of ambition than selling the European footballer of the year ? |
Are you saying that we currently have the same level of ambition as we did in the most successful spell in our history??? I would have to bow to your increased knowledge of the situation in the early 80's, but didn't Keegan more or less demand to leave, and did he ever play in the top flight again after he left us?? |  |
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| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 20:33 - Jan 13 with 1270 views | ronan006 |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 18:35 - Jan 13 by PatfromPoole | Are you saying that we currently have the same level of ambition as we did in the most successful spell in our history??? I would have to bow to your increased knowledge of the situation in the early 80's, but didn't Keegan more or less demand to leave, and did he ever play in the top flight again after he left us?? |
he is on 416K a year more than twice the salary of the prime minister... |  | |  |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 20:58 - Jan 13 with 1235 views | grumpy |
| That Valenciennes CB that we spunked £5 million (or 5 million Euros...) on on 18:35 - Jan 13 by PatfromPoole | Are you saying that we currently have the same level of ambition as we did in the most successful spell in our history??? I would have to bow to your increased knowledge of the situation in the early 80's, but didn't Keegan more or less demand to leave, and did he ever play in the top flight again after he left us?? |
Keegan wasn't happy with our lack of ambition as I remember and went to Newcastle and played 78 times scoring 48. His partnership with Channon was magnificent and I doubt if I will see another better. |  | |  |
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