Southampton’s owners, Sport Republic, have taken a lot of flak since their takeover in January 2022, and deservedly so. Two relegations and seven different managers have meant a period of chaos and failure.
In January 2025, three years on from taking the helm in 2022, Solak took over the reins at Sport Republic, understandably seething at the loss of investment from his £100m+ acquisition of Southampton Football Club.
Since taking control, Solak’s first major move was to appoint German Johannes Spors as Sporting Director, a position that had not been properly filled since Jason Wilcox left for Manchester United in 2024.
This summer is Spors’ first in charge of transfer business. Here’s what happened and what Saints fans really thought of the window…
A big thank you to AllSaints, TheStatsSaint and Sam for sharing their thoughts.
Spors At The Wheel
In a Saints Fan Forum earlier this summer, Johannes Spors made one thing clear: things would take time to come into shape. The nature of being a Championship side is that you won’t be able to get your business done early, like some Premier League sides are capable of.
Johannes Spors: “Squad planning is an art that only becomes clear at the end.”
AllSaintsnews98: ‘I think Spors has clearly demonstrated why he was brought in in the first place, able to bring in an entirely new set of players and operating with the utmost professionalism throughout.’
Evidently, Saints got most of their targets, unlike the season before, where they missed out on players such as Matt O’Riley to competition. Having a competent Sporting Director will have helped see some deals through.
Sam__SFC: ‘Whilst it was frustrating to go through the first four games without the signings we clearly needed, it has allowed us to do deals we otherwise couldn’t have, such as Tom Fellows from West Brom. Whilst Still talks a lot about adaptability, it’s been clear throughout the window that we have recruited specific profiles tailored to his 4-2-3-1 system.’
The Main Takeaways
Most transfer windows end with a similar feeling among a fanbase. The real outcome is hard to tell until the season is over – football is not played on paper.
TheStatsSaint: ‘There’s been a big focus on permanent signings rather than loans. We only have two loans this year, one with an option to buy, rather than five loans last time. This left us in a weak negotiating position in 2024, so they’re learning from their mistakes.’
After gaining promotion out of the Championship last time, Southampton had to spend around £40m just to keep their core of Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Flynn Downes, who had been on loans.
Sam__SFC: ‘Sport Republic are not going to change, despite Dragan Solak’s board restructuring in January.
They are clearly very committed to the club financially. Having already invested over £200m of his own money into Southampton Football Club since January 2022, Solak authorised the fourth biggest transfer spend in Championship history this summer, demonstrating the necessary ambition to get back to the Premier League.’
A Potential Stumbling Block
When talking to Southampton fans on the role Johannes Spors has, one potential problem became clear.
Sam__SFC: ‘It is clear that the club will continue to build around one central figure. Solak attributed the failures of last season to not replacing Wilcox, who was poached by Manchester United in April 2024 and left Saints without a Director of Football for the 2024 summer window.
Similarly, the disastrous January 2023 window followed Joe Shields leaving for Chelsea. Despite this, they are continuing to build the club around one person; whilst this allows Spors to implement the changes he wants, it means Southampton’s internal structure is a house of cards which Spors’ departure would bring crumbling down.’
Say Johannes Spors left, there would be extreme pressure on Sport Republic Chairman Dragan Solak to astutely replace him. This was not done in 2024 when Jason Wilcox left his Director of Football position.
Operating Out Of Sight
This summer, Southampton’s media team made a running joke out of how transfer guru Fabrizio Romano wasn’t reporting on many of the club’s signings, like he would usually.
Despite what was a harmless joke on the outside, this did have an underlying tone – Johannes Spors has kept deals quiet and got business done effectively.
TheStatsSaint: ‘Mads Roerslev was signed, which was a surprise. It was a total unknown, with no transfer rumours at all!’
AllSaintsnews98: ‘Tom Fellows (was a surprise). Whilst the other signings are brilliant, the Premier League interest for Fellows made me feel it was especially unrealistic for us.’
Sam__SFC: ‘I was shocked we were able to get Tom Fellows for as cheap as we did. In the moment, hearing Caspar Jander was a done deal came as a surprise (as we hadn’t been linked with an 8 and he hadn’t been linked), but it made a lot of sense when the Mateus Fernandes news broke later on.’
Looking Back With Regrets?
AllSaintsnews98: Whilst I’m not sure how Spors will be reflecting upon it, I imagine the amount of time spent chasing Spertsyan (Armenian playmaker who Will Still openly admitted interest of) will be one of the biggest regrets. Several weeks of clearly one-sided communication which ultimately fell short.’
TheStatsSaint: ‘A regret could be us not shifting the squad faster. There’s still time to clear out (with other leagues’ transfer windows still open), but it’s running out. The current squad has 28 players, but Still will want closer to 25!’
Sam__SFC: ‘Losing Mateus Fernandes for so cheap and so late on will be a regret. Also, should we go up, we will be saddled with a couple of players who whilst great at this level aren’t really Premier League quality in my opinion (such as Azaz). It would be a nice problem to have though!’
The mixture of possible regrets suggests that there was not one clear underlying problem with the squad at the end of the transfer window, but mainly annoyance at the time it took to build a good squad. As Spors said, squad planning is an art – but this was a big canvas!
The Season Really Starts Now
AllSaintsnews98: ‘Honestly, I’m delighted with how the squad is looking. Whilst some will point to Bednarek, Adams and Stuart Armstrong (from the Southampton squad in the Championship of 2023/24) being better than our options now, I think that overall this is a stronger squad. I think there may be some space for loans, and obvious departures in January, but overall it looks good.
TheStatsSaint: ‘I’m still positive, Will Still has a very strong squad and we should be making a strong push for automatics. It’s up to him now, but I’m still slightly worried about our midfield depth, a few injuries would derail us!’
Sam__SFC: ‘Unlike 2023/24, Saints have one of the two best squads in the division, with only Ipswich stronger. They’ve recruited specific profiles for Still’s 4-2-3-1 system and have a minimum of two quality options per position. Despite losing a lot of talent, they go into this season with a blend of young ability and Championship experience ready for an instant return to the top flight.
They’ve made a real statement in the market, now it’s the time to do the business on the pitch – and there’s no better game to start than the South Coast Derby.’
Well chosen final words from Sam there – the slow start to the season won’t matter to any Southampton fans if they can beat bitter rivals Portsmouth on the 14th of September.
Saints have strengthened in all of the positions that needed strengthening, and have thinned out their before bloated squad. Now it really is up to the players and coaches to perform – a city is waiting for their sleeping giant to awake!
