Had a conversation about this today and I know too early and very presumptuous, but the players we have on loan are big players for us so we could face another rebuild. At what point does a player decide to leave a parent club after being loaned out season after season. For example would THB leave City? Mattsen leave Chelsea? Tella Leave Southampton? Even Beyern, so the spine of the team will face this decision. Must be a hard decision for the guys, but a second rebuild could be on the horizon.

Beyer - loan includes clause to make permanent if we go up.
THB - we could agree a loan for next season if we go up, would be the next logical step in his progression by gaining PL experience.

Maatsen - 20yrs old, we're his 3rd loan.
Under the old ownership style he wouldn't make the first team, but he might do eventually with this new lot, but like THB they might want him to get PL experience.

Tella - 23yrs old, he either breaks into the Saints squad as a regular or leaves.

We have a fee agreed on Beyer if we go up, I believe? Pretty sure the Athletic said as much.

THB I think is possible as City like to do away with their kids on reasonable fees, but with buyback clauses inserted (see the ones who went to Southampton this summer).

Tella loves it here, and doesn’t seem wanted at Saints - they could also quite easily be relegated. It’s not out of the question at all.

Maatsen has no chance at Chelsea, again, much like the right back who they sold to Brighton, I think it’s possible.

I could genuinely see us signing all four - but it will cost a LOT.

Difficult to be certain without knowing what clauses if any their contracts contain.

I'd be fairly confident of signing Beyer and Maatsen permanently, not as confident about Tella or THB.

I agree with Sid that we'd prob have a good chance of signing 3 and getting THB on loan for another season. IMO the challenge if we go up is not that we might lose those players but that we might have to spend quite a bit of money just to keep the same team.

If we go up we would need to improve and if a big chunk of our budget goes on Beyer, Maatsen and Tella the adding the additional players we might need could be a stretch financially

Fingers crossed the recruitment side of looking to negotiate permanent deals for a few of these lads in January.

This is a concern when you consider 3 of our defence today are loanees! Forest are a perfect example of this problem.
One season at a time I guess, but whatever the outcome of this season we will need to buy sensibly for next season and it would be great if we could sign Maatsen, H-B and Beyer permanently……..but I think that is highly unlikely, even if we get promoted

If we got hold of 2 or 3 of the best of them, it'd be a major achievement.
(Whichever division we're in).

ElectroClaret wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 15, 2022 5:58 pm

If we got hold of 2 or 3 of the best of them, it'd be a major achievement.
(Whichever division we're in).

Agree completely on this. The two centre halves would be right at the top of the priority list.

That Turkish striker is a must. He’s been key so far.

They are fine players but we’d have the smallest team in the PL by a distance and could take some poundings.

I'd definitely want Harwood-Bellis and Beyer to stay with us if we went up. Maatsen I'm less sure of, and Tella the same although he might just have found himself a home here.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 15, 2022 5:40 pm

Beyer - loan includes clause to make permanent if we go up.
THB - we could agree a loan for next season if we go up, would be the next logical step in his progression by gaining PL experience.

Maatsen - 20yrs old, we're his 3rd loan.
Under the old ownership style he wouldn't make the first team, but he might do eventually with this new lot, but like THB they might want him to get PL experience.

Tella - 23yrs old, he either breaks into the Saints squad as a regular or leaves.

What would really help us would be Southampton getting relegated

Lets stay positive but aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves here?

I’m not sure how serious an attempt we will make to stay up. We certainly won’t break the bank.

I wouldn’t be worried if we lost all our loan player at the end of the season.


VK has shown that if you look at the whole market you can pick up some very good players at reasonable prices. He’s proved he and his team can do that, and they would do it again

Unless his defending seriously improves Maatsen would get destroyed in the Prem.