Saints Summer Transfers 2021

[Linky]

£400k for Kerr, £300k for Rooney? Perhaps £300k for McCart? So we’re willing to lose most of our back line including our Captain for £1million, the same amount  that Hibs turned down for Porteous. 
 

It’s exactly this that I was worried about. We let our players go for cut price fees, and don’t sign any senior players because we’re waiting for all the deals to be done first.

How would you replace these 3?

[John Bonham]

1 minute ago, Linky said:

£400k for Kerr, £300k for Rooney? Perhaps £300k for McCart? So we’re willing to lose most of our back line including our Captain for £1million, the same amount  that Hibs turned down for Porteous. 
 

It’s exactly this that I was worried about. We let our players go for cut price fees, and don’t sign any senior players because we’re waiting for all the deals to be done first.

How would you replace these 3?

Yeah those figures seem really low based on the money that gets thrown around down south, even if they only each have a year left. 
 

huge rebuild if we lose most of our defence, our season was built on it last year. 

[Cagey]

9 hours ago, RandomGuy said:

Papers saying we've set Kerrs price at £400k, and Rooney can leave for £300k. Interest in McCart too, who will likely be in the same bracket somewhere.

Middleton still training with Rangers and no decision made on his future yet, unlikely anything will happen until hes done pre-season with Rangers.

If Saints allowed these players to go for those figures it would be a disgrace.

Of all the players I would like to hold on to it would be Rooney. £300 k is only 2 league positions & Rooney's general play & scoring ability is probably worth 2 positions & maybe 2 cups.

At the end of the day the players have big decisions to make. Stay with a club where there is a great togetherness or join clubs where the future is unknown.

At the end of the day though ,money counts.

If we lose those players we are back to the target of staying out of the bottom 2.

[Brian Potter]

2 hours ago, Cagey said:

If Saints allowed these players to go for those figures it would be a disgrace.

Agreed. But the club doesn’t have much choice. Get a fee now or lose for nothing in six months.

[rickardo]

12 hours ago, RandomGuy said:

Papers saying we've set Kerrs price at £400k, and Rooney can leave for £300k. Interest in McCart too, who will likely be in the same bracket somewhere.

Middleton still training with Rangers and no decision made on his future yet, unlikely anything will happen until hes done pre-season with Rangers.

So Saints would sell their double cup winning captain and double cup winning goal scoring full back for less than 3/4 of a million bucks ? If this is even remotely true it is nothing short of insulting to the players and a kick in the puss to supporters that the heart of their greatest achieving is getting torn apart right in front of them .No happy.

[Johnny B]

The dilemma hypothetically; Kerr, Rooney and McCart decline to sign new contracts and will go for free next season. Do you keep them and accept £0 or do you sell all 3 now for £1 mil. We know it is less than they are worth but that is what is on the table.

I would keep them and enjoy next season but the money cruncher will take what he can get.

[Linky]

9 minutes ago, Johnny B said:

The dilemma hypothetically; Kerr, Rooney and McCart decline to sign new contracts and will go for free next season. Do you keep them and accept £0 or do you sell all 3 now for £1 mil. We know it is less than they are worth but that is what is on the table.

I would keep them and enjoy next season but the money cruncher will take what he can get.

Yes, but you've also got to factor in that if you let them go for free next season, you have a whole year to find replacements and are more likely to make some money from the European run. When a spine of a team goes, it really hit morale too.

[Cagey]

28 minutes ago, Brian Potter said:

Agreed. But the club doesn’t have much choice. Get a fee now or lose for nothing in six months.

They can sign a pre contract in January but we don't lose them for a season.

If these guys stay after signing precontracts I think they will still give their all just like Liam Craig did.

[Radford 72]

Especially with Jason Kerr probably, it's not just losing out on the £400k fee.or whatever but the sell-on clause. 

If he went to, even Wigan or Oxford and did well, you are probably talking ten times that and Saints would presumably like a slice of that pie, although I do think we'd be entitled to something anyway having developed him. 

[BrechinSaintee]

Being realistic the club will sell now if they don’t sign new contracts. They will be looking to add sell on clauses too so might make more in the long run. Gonna be hard to replace 4 of our top players tho

[BroganGoals]

There will be some difficult decisions to be made by the board and by the players. It would be great if the players all stayed for another season at least on extended contracts.

I suppose another issue with the price on Saints players is when did a player last leave and kick on? We have three players in current squad who left and came back. Then there is Kennedy and Wright who have not been regulars at Aberdeen and Hibs. 

Personally, I think Kerr, McCart and and McCann are all £1m plus players and have huge potential to go far in the game. 

[R.B.B:- Adz]

2 hours ago, Johnny B said:

The dilemma hypothetically; Kerr, Rooney and McCart decline to sign new contracts and will go for free next season. Do you keep them and accept £0 or do you sell all 3 now for £1 mil. We know it is less than they are worth but that is what is on the table.

I would keep them and enjoy next season but the money cruncher will take what he can get.

Keep them. End of!

[saintee in exile]

Derisory offers!How much did we make from winning the two cups and all the spin offs associated...season tickets etc

 

[Pat McGroin]

4 hours ago, Linky said:

Yes, but you've also got to factor in that if you let them go for free next season, you have a whole year to find replacements and are more likely to make some money from the European run. When a spine of a team goes, it really hit morale too.

My thoughts too. We’re far more likely to make the Euro groups with these guys in the squad. We should be selling no one until the end of the window. Conference group stages is worth more than £1m 

[THE LARK SAINT]

1 hour ago, Pat McGroin said:

My thoughts too. We’re far more likely to make the Euro groups with these guys in the squad. We should be selling no one until the end of the window. Conference group stages is worth more than £1m 

Apart from some  paper talk  no one has said we are 

I'll wait till its official 

Maybe the Club will agree with you 

Braw!

[dunkeldneil]

1 hour ago, Pat McGroin said:

My thoughts too. We’re far more likely to make the Euro groups with these guys in the squad. We should be selling no one until the end of the window. Conference group stages is worth more than £1m 

I would prefer to keep them for another season rather than sell them now for low offers and have a good crack on Europe 

[rik2304]

A move down south is a big leap in wages and a big step towards getting capped. 

It's also an opportunity to then get a potential life changing move.

A couple of games in Europe won't be the hook for a player that we imagine it to be. 

[R.B.B:- Adz]

6 hours ago, Linky said:

Yes, but you've also got to factor in that if you let them go for free next season, you have a whole year to find replacements and are more likely to make some money from the European run. When a spine of a team goes, it really hit morale too.

This is what I agree with.

At the end of the day, we can all value Rooney or Kerr at £700,000+ but they are only worth what someone is willing to pay. If someone is only willing to pay £300,000 we have to be honest and say that he is worth more than that to us and needs to stay. If he leaves a year later for free, so be it.

£300,000-£500,000 won’t change our season, keeping Rooney Kerr and McCart together will.

[Melbourne Saint]

In fairness CD has previously stated (I think January window?) That he was having sleepless nights because clubs were looking at the squad. Obviously nothing materialised then, but CD seemed resigned to aggressive approaches. 

Which would suggest that saints would hopefully have a Plan B? As in, a few targets if/when the approaches come. We're already a few players down on last seasons squad, with the (unsubstantiated rumours) that 3-4 could be pinched on the cheap, or in our eyes at least is galling.

The feel good factor from an incredible season could be erased pretty quickly. So, we'll need a pretty impressive signing to keep fans from really having a go.

Who that is is anyone's guess. In Stevie we trust.

 

[tucker]

Courier podcast thinks Rooney will be away think normally if clubs coming in with second offer its close to a deal

[saintgscot]

14 hours ago, Cagey said:

If Saints allowed these players to go for those figures it would be a disgrace.

Of all the players I would like to hold on to it would be Rooney. £300 k is only 2 league positions & Rooney's general play & scoring ability is probably worth 2 positions & maybe 2 cups.

At the end of the day the players have big decisions to make. Stay with a club where there is a great togetherness or join clubs where the future is unknown.

At the end of the day though ,money counts.

If we lose those players we are back to the target of staying out of the bottom 2.

No European football at clubs interested as well.

[Cleveland-Saint]

ok....so you sell three of our best players for say 1m and alternative is zero in a year. Im going to make assumption we end up with a worse team, not a stretch as this is an incredible unit that just pulled off a miracle year.

So whats the monetary cost/benefit of:

• reduced league position, say we could get 3rd/4th/5th or end up 9th? 
• good cup run versus poor?
• better gates with better football from higher league position
• possible improved europe run

No idea any if saints sell, but surely above is worth more than 1mil?

Am I missing anything here? Can the players demand to leave or something, as they'd get better salaries?

Edited July 1, 2021 by Cleveland-Saint

[Melbourne Saint]

1 hour ago, Cleveland-Saint said:

Am I missing anything here? Can the players demand to leave or something, as they'd get better salaries?

Players can make transfer requests and do have a players association to assist them in what can be described as "really disfunctional" relationships. If it's really bad, they can strike/train alone, but it's not common. Because no-one wins.

The crystal palace winger Wilfred zaha went through it last summer, had a standoff, club stood firm and he's still there. Duncan Ferguson had a high profile shit storm at Dundee Utd and Jim McLean in particular over paltry wages. 

I really hope there isn't anything like that going on at saints. It's clearly got a fantastic team spirit and it will genuinely be a sad decision for players to leave their mates. But money counts.

I wonder if some bids could be sneaky... Sign xyz, but loan them for a season back to saints. It does happen, but usually with youngsters.what is a reality check is if we lose some of the 4, we're actually left with an old team. There's no doubt some stressed heads at McD. 

[John Bonham]

How do we retain SC ticket holder levels and keep fans coming back if we let the guts be ripped out of the squad this summer and potentially end up in a relegation dog fight? If SC numbers are correct we are seeing a decent bounce that could be built on in future but that could easily be lost. 
 

what does that kind of loss cost the club in the long run? 
 

it’s a real conundrum. 

[blueheaven]

3 hours ago, Cleveland-Saint said:

ok....so you sell three of our best players for say 1m and alternative is zero in a year. Im going to make assumption we end up with a worse team, not a stretch as this is an incredible unit that just pulled off a miracle year.

So whats the monetary cost/benefit of:

• reduced league position, say we could get 3rd/4th/5th or end up 9th? 
• good cup run versus poor?
• better gates with better football from higher league position
• possible improved europe run

No idea any if saints sell, but surely above is worth more than 1mil?

Am I missing anything here? Can the players demand to leave or something, as they'd get better salaries?

I think there are a huge number of factors that the club needs to take into account - it can't be easy. We could turn down all offers, keep our team together and still have a poor season. If we upset players by not letting them move for more money, it could upset the dressing room spirit. I also think it's healthy for a club like Saints to have a reputation for developing players and then selling them on to places where they can further their careers or earn more money: doing that can help us to attract other players keen on the same route. Of course there's also the club's sheer need to bring in money (even after the successes we've just had, I imagine we've made a substantial loss in the last year due to Covid, and any reasonable six-figure sum for one of our players would help with that). There's also the sell-on clause issue mentioned by @Radford 72.

We'll always be a stepping stone for a lot of players and I think we all accept that. What makes it difficult this season is that there's a feeling we've built something really strong with this particular side, and it would be hugely disappointing to see that side completely broken up when it feels like there's an opportunity to really kick on this season and have another good one. 

With players like Kerr, McCart, Rooney and McCann - perhaps one or maybe two could go for a decent fee and it wouldn't be all that damaging to the team, but if three or four of them were to go in one summer, that's the heart ripped out of our team. My feeling is the club won't allow that to happen. But Rooney is arguably the one who would be hardest to replace and it's a worry that right now he seems to be the one closest to going.