Southampton player tipped to make Bournemouth summer transfer as £20m fee mooted | OneFootball

Ramsdale has been linked with the likes West Ham and Chelsea, but he is being touted for another potential destination

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 will soon return to the Championship officially after just one year away in the Premier League, and you can imagine that a few of their squad - despite their performances this season - will be courted by Premier League clubs.

One of those is Aaron Ramsdale, who despite being part of a defence that over the course of the whole 2024-25 campaign has conceded 77 goals, will likely be heading back to the top flight of English football.

Signed for an initial £18 million from Arsenal last summer, with the ability for that deal to rise to a maximum of £25 million, Ramsdale was the proven international between the sticks that the Saints hierarchy hoped and believed could win them points in the battle to survive the drop - as it happened though, it did not work out like that.

Aaron Ramsdale tipped to move on from Southampton this summer - Bournemouth a likely destination

Having missed some of the season through injury, Ramsdale to date has played 24 times for Southampton in the Premier League, but only keeping two clean sheets and conceding 57 times doesn't tell the whole story.

The 26-year-old has been one of, it not Southampton's best player still this season, and when asked as to whether £20 million would be a fair price for the stopper amid interest from West Ham, as per The Times, FLW's Saints fan pundit Martin Sanders believes that it is the right kind of figure - although he can see the Stoke-on-Trent-born goalie heading elsewhere and back to a former club in the form of Bournemouth.

"No doubt Aaron will move on," Martin told FLW.

"He will definitely depart, he's already made it kind of clear he wants to stay and play in the Premier League if he wants to be in and around the England squad, certainly with the World Cup next summer.

"He has a relegation clause for what we paid for him, around £18 million plus the add-ons, so yeah, £20 million - I think he will go.

"I think he'll end up at Bournemouth, I think they're in pole position for him, Chelsea are looking too, but he's been a great goalkeeper.

"He's been wonderful this season - without him, Saints would've lost a lot of games by a lot more.

"Aston Villa is a classic example - if you said to him before the game you're going to save two penalties but lose 3-0...incredible really."

Aaron Ramsdale staying at Southampton was never likely - he will need to be replaced adequately though

Ramsdale is more-than good enough to be starting week in, week out in the Premier League, but he has been pitched in at some struggling clubs over the years where he's had to do a lot of hard work.

He showed some very good qualities at times for Arsenal, but of course he dropped away and became a backup to David Raya - he was far too good to be sitting on the bench every week, just like he's too good to be playing in the Championship.

If sold for £20 million, Southampton would surely have to use some of that money to find a replacement, as there will be serious question marks over Gavin Bazunu after some of his performances the last time the club were in the Championship.