Southampton FC would be 'a bit nuts' to take potential £15m cash windfall as Wrexham lurk | OneFootball

FLW's Southampton Fan Pundit Martin has warned Saints against the sale of Adam Armstrong, amid interest from Wrexham.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Southampton have endured a very frustrating return to the Championship after their humbling relegation from the Premier League last season.

Former Lens boss Will Still took charge in the summer and Saints were expected to challenge for promotion in the second-tier but they have instead remained in the bottom-half for much of the campaign.

They did show major signs of improvement under the management of Tonda Eckert on an interim basis but their form has again fallen off since Eckert got the job permanently.

The south coast outfit shared a 1-1 draw with arch-rivals Portsmouth at Fratton Park at the weekend, leaving them 15th in the table with just nine wins in 29 games.

One man that has remained effective despite their general inconsistency is key striker Adam Armstrong, but it has now been reported by Alan Nixon, via his Patreon, that Wrexham are interested in a £15 million move for the attacker.

Southampton would be ‘nuts’ to sell Adam Armstrong to Wrexham

Having initially struggled in the top-flight when he first arrived at St Mary’s, Adam Armstrong has proven himself to be a relentlessly consistent threat for Southampton in the Championship.

He was their top scorer in their play-off winning 2023/24 campaign and has again defied the team’s performance this season to score 11 so far this year with only Swansea City striker Zan Vipotnik having notched more in the division.

Wrexham, who sit tucked inside the top six at this stage, have apparently lined up the Newcastle United academy graduate and it is a move that FLW’s Southampton Fan Pundit Martin Sanders believes would be a bizarre and poor decision.

Martin says: “I think it would be a bit crazy unless there is someone really good lined up to come in.

“He had two big chances (vs. Portsmouth) and didn’t score them but they were massive chances.

“It’s a difficult one, a really difficult one. He probably is coming to the end of his time at Saints but I just think Saints fans would want to see a big replacement come and do it.

“There is a lot of talk of Joel Piroe. He would be a like for like change but he is one of the Championship top scorers so I think it would be a bit nuts to sell him without replacing him because I don’t know who is going to score the goals.”

Southampton already raised funds in the summer

One of the contributing factors to Southampton’s very slow start to the season has to have been their disorganised summer transfer window.

Their incoming business stalled because of a wait on which players would be leaving but the players that did depart for really big money didn’t happen until late-August with the sales of Tyler Dibling and Mateus Fernandes to Everton and West Ham United coming in the final week of the window.

As well as that, other first-teamers such as Yukinari Sugawara, James Bree, Charlie Taylor, Will Smallbone, Armel Bella-Kotchap and Ben Brereton Diaz all departed in a similar timeframe.

That left Southampton scrambling but did, at least, mean this month was supposed to be a bit quieter and things could be put into place a bit better.

It would therefore seem a little foolish and unnecessary if Saints were again to rip up the only real thing that was consistently working, Armstrong scoring, with less than a week of the window to go once again.