Southampton's week in the transfer market followed a clear pattern. The players other clubs want most are the ones the Saints are least willing to sell, while the forward the squad actually needs keeps slipping further out of reach. Throw in a goalkeeper now drawing interest from Italy and you have a fair snapshot of where the summer sits, with a fortnight of pre-season still to run.
The players nobody at Southampton wants to lose
Shea Charles carried the week again. Fulham spent it preparing a written offer worth £24 million, a fee first reported by the Daily Mail. That still trails the £25 million plus add-ons Southampton have asked for all summer. It also comes after Leeds United had three separate bids knocked back, the last of them only a touch lower. Manchester City are watching from a distance too, because a 15 per cent sell-on clause from the 2023 deal means they collect a share of whatever Charles eventually goes for.
There is little sign of Southampton wavering. Charles turned 22 in November and has become a fixture in Tonda Eckert's midfield. His FotMob rating this season sits at 7.16 from 31 Championship appearances. His contract runs to 2027 with an option for a further year, so nobody at St Mary's feels forced into a sale. Saints Marching framed an earlier rejection of Leeds as a boost for the club. Nothing this week suggested a change of heart.
Leo Scienza is the other name the Saints keep guarding. Interest in the winger spread wider still this week, as more clubs joined the chase. Tottenham, Aston Villa, Everton and Leeds all want him, with fresh admirers surfacing in Italy and Spain.
Southampton are said to value him at around £35 million and have been described as reluctant to sell at any price. Scienza collected a share of last season's top individual honours on the back of seven goals and ten assists, which makes the club's stance easy to understand.
The exits, the targets and the one that got away
If the top of the squad looks settled, the edges are far busier. Southampton's clearest priority this summer has been finding a striker, a need Saints Marching set out in June when it asked who the club must sign.
That search took a knock this week. Will Lankshear had spent weeks on the club's radar. He then completed his move to Middlesbrough from Tottenham in a deal worth £8 million up front and up to £20 million with add-ons. Middlesbrough were the side reinstated in Southampton's place after Spygate. Losing a target to them gave the miss an extra edge.
Attention has since turned to Ivan Azon. Fabrizio Romano reported an approach worth close to nine million euros, around £7.7 million, for the Como forward who spent last season on loan at Ipswich Town. Ross Stewart, gone on a free at the end of June, has not been ruled out either.
Eckert told the Daily Echo there is "no striker with a better goal ratio" and that Southampton "definitely" need a second forward before the season starts. Cameron Archer could move the other way. West Brom have shown interest that has not yet reached Southampton directly, with talks so far limited to the player's camp.
The quieter story sat between the posts. Aaron Ramsdale has emerged as top of Torino's list as the Serie A side hunt a new number one, though the talks come with a catch. Torino want Southampton to help cover the goalkeeper's wages before any loan can go through.
Ramsdale only came back to the south coast this summer after Newcastle chose not to trigger the £20 million buy option in his loan, so a fresh move abroad would suit the player and a club keen to trim its wage bill.
The one bit of settled business remains Lewis Dobbin. His move from Aston Villa, worth roughly £9 million, went through earlier this month. He marked his first Southampton outing with a goal against Eastleigh. Squad numbers were confirmed in the same week, with Dobbin handed the eleven and Scienza moving up to the number seven once worn by Matt Le Tissier.
So the week ends where it began. Southampton are holding on to the players everyone wants and still chasing the striker they need, with the squad now in Germany for pre-season and five weeks of the window left to run.
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