Dusic

Between Clasie, Hojbjerg and Boufal there is £40m spent which hasn't paid off as yet. Boufal clesrly needs starts but also needs to show more end product to go with the skills. He hasn't replaced Mane whatsoever unfortunately. Next month or two will be telling for his Saints career IMO.

So when we went 6 without scoring you found it not worth moaning about? Each to their own.

Overall a solid window. Admirable stance re VVD and we have kept to it, winning back some respect for Krueger and Reed after similar "not for sale" comments have meant anything but. Have to be delighted with the principle here even if it remains to be seen how much we will see him on the pitch (it doesn't look like the World Cup will be much of an incentive). Incoming: Solid if not spectacular. Needed a partner for Romeu and Lemina looks an upgrade on what we have. Hoedt it has to be assumed will be a regular starter, although was a 4th choice for Lazio and looks to lack pace. Will add much needes height. Bednarek looks even more bizarre as we now have 6 senior CBs on the books and no cup games before Christmas. His esrly appearances have been uninspiring, but he is young. IMO we should have looked to loan him out til January - an Intl player won't learn playing sterile u23 football and he won't make the first XI. Amazed, after our truely dire attacking return last season that saw Puel fired, that we didn't sign an attacker of some sort. Would personally have looked to move on Long and bring someone in with a bit of technique alongside the pace. This season we have scored once from open play against four average sides so this is a huge (ongoing) concern...we just don't have enough starting players who score often enough. It is that simple. Players who never have been regular goalscorers don't suddenly change. Outgoings - Jay Rod was obvious. He will do well at WBA and IMO is better than Austin or Long but he clearly needed a move and we got a good price. Clasie out was equally obvious and it was telling nobody came in to buy him. Goes down as a very poor signing as a Schneiderlin replacement, primarily because it was clear from his first couple of PL games that he was going to struggle physically and he always did. Gazzaniga a non-event but we got a couple of million. Great to keep hold of all the players ae wanted to keep, first time in ages we have done so. Well played Les Reed. Only minor gripe is that we didn't clesr enough deadwood. Gardos clearly has had no future at the club for about 18 months so a shame we couldn't ditch his wages as a training prop. Long (as above) has used up too many chances (literally) and it would have been good to offload him. Verdict: Tempted to say 6/10 as we still look painfully short on options in attack and clearly have a personnel issue there which will probably cost us league places, but for keeping our best players and adding two key players I will go for 7/10. Thoughts?

So in Spain they have until the end of Friday to complete deals? As I said earlier, very few moves happen without being in the media at least a day before, I doubt anyone will be coming in now. Good window, great stance on VVD, but we haven't resolved the fact so few players in our squad score goals...

No links with Vietto for ages so hard to see anything emerging now. Having had a very significant attacking problem for the whole of the last season, and only having scored one goal from open play in four games this season, to not sign an attacker of any kind this summer is quite frankly bizarre. Pellegrino left with a flawed squad, just like Puel was. Excellent window in many regards, but the Saints way seems to be to always leave one position clearly lacking. We have 3 left backs and 6 centre backs yet a shortage of starting XI players with pace or a goal return in the final third. Of our best XI only Gabbi will score more than 10, so we will struggle for goals again. Surely the club can see that?

If there aren't any links tonight then its got to be extremely unlikely. Have already had the "its quiet" stuff leaked to Adam Leitch & Simon Peach which is usually the precursor to no incomings. Big mistake IMO as an attacker with pace would have rounded off a decent window.

No serious links re incomings. Can't recall a deal in the last 5 years or so where there wasn't a link of some kind at least a day before a deal was announced. At this stage the Echo appear to be correct.

From the Echo: "Saints do still have half an eye on trying to bring in another attacking player, though the odds are currently thought to be against them adding any further to the squad as they will not spend for the sake of it." http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/15501571.Claise_could_make_Saints_exit/?ref=rss After such a dire attacking season as the last one, which ultimately got a Manager sacked, I don't think signing an attacker would be "for the sake of it". Keep VVD and sign an attacking player and it would have been an excellent window IMO. Without an attacking signing we have a flawed squad with not enough starting XI players with a decent goal record. Again.

Inter made a new bid for Karamoh according to Italian reports. I had wondered if we might still be keen. Fee and profile suits.

Can we really hold a £60m asset who isn't contributing? For all the bravado, I'm not sure what that really achieves. That said, if we sell now we should have just sold in May and then could have avoided this charade all summer and had an increased budget. If we stick to him being not for sale for months that that has to remain the position now.

No CB incoming was what he meant. If that didn happen then we woukd be left with our weakest set of CBs since the Poch era.

Wanyama was training with the team for the whole summer and didn't refuse to play pre season games from the very start. Wanyama played PL games in August before the transfer window shut. Wanyama played PL games immediately after not getting a move and played for the rest of the season without sulking about it. Wanyama didn't release a lengthy statement begging to be sold and criticising the club. Wanyama didn't completely overshadow the whole summer and build up to the season. And Mane barely made a ripple compared to what VVD has done.

There is no comparison between this VVD situation and either Mane or Wanyama. Ever so slight comparison with some of Lallana and Lovren's whining but even that was tame in comparison. Only a few days to go now of the window but if he stays the saga is far from over.

Insame that we haven't made an attacking signing yet this summer. Those sort of statistics would eventually lead to a relegation battle.

Interestingly this was the same reporter who broke the news about VVD being out for 3 months after the Vardy tackle. Everyone then said similar to the above quote but he was correct. https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/2697859/southampton-news-hammer-blow-for-saints-as-virgil-van-dijk-ruled-out-for-up-to-three-months-with-ankle-problem/

Krueger has had an absolute Hooiveld if we do end up selling him. Why go through all the hassle of the summer and then cave in at the end? Would literally be no benefit to Saints. Could just have sold in May and moved on, with probably a different transfer budget to what we had. Bednarek an increasingly bewildering signing were VVD to go.

Long is ****e. People are only suggesting him because of disatisfaction with our recent performances, not because Long is suddenly a better player. Many of those suggesting Long have mentioned about Gabbi plahing in the hole, or out wide. Look at virtually all his goals for us, they have come by playing on the shoulder of the defender and using his movement and instinctive finishing - moving him further away from goal hardly makes best use of that. Keep Long on the bench because better players are ahead of him and his finishing is ****ing woeful.

He wasn't selected in the initial squad this summer but then did get brought in as a replacement for an injury, and then got injured himself which is a shame. Previously though, I think at U17 level he was one of the key players. Slattery also captained England at U16 level and similar to Sims only made the last squad as an injury replacement. Nobody expects players of the quality of Shaw, Chambers, Walcott to always come through but across those age groups there are upwards of 80 players selected so you would expect a decent Academy to have more than one representative considering there are only about 15-20 Cat A Academies and most England youth players come from those.

I think this time we have Bertrand in the senior squad and Vokins in the U18's. That must be the lowest for a number of years across the age groups combined. A couple of years ago we probably had 10 involved at all levels with England and key players in most of the younger age groups. Of course JWP and Redmond are no longer eligible for the U21s but it shows how there is a gap of talent coming through the academy ranks with only Vokins involved. Some other PL sides have 10 or more players between U17 and U21 level alone. With relegation from the U23 league last season and a couple of poor seasons at U18 level it is hardly a suprise but nonetheless not a great look for a club that puts so much emphasis on its Academy. From those with more knowledge, are some of the younger age groups more promising?

Good to have Dave, Eric and Ron back like the good old days. Andy

If we sell him in these last few days of rhe window then I am at a loss to understand how that is better than just selling him in May (most were expecting him to go anyway), avoiding all the bull**** and disruption during the summer and having a bigger transfer budget to spend? If he goes now the Bednarek signing seems even more bizarre as I think we would still need another CB to come in. Despite the signing of Hoedt, without VVD, our CB options are the poorest since our first season back in the PL. Admirable stance not to sell but it has to be carried through otherwise all we have done is actually harm ourselves IMO.

Didn't Liverpool say they would only bid if they were encouraged to do so? Maybe they have been? I think we will sell as its not as easy as just hoping he completely changes his stance when the window closes. We also clearly need to spend the money, or at least some of it, on another CB if VVD goes and an attacker.

Is he? Has been poor everytime I have seen him. Awful defensively.

A direct and pacy attacker, not necessarily a striker, would complete a well balanced squad. Someone in the mould of Antonio would suit very well as we are still a bit short on height. That said, can see quite a few squad players being frustrated with lack of game time this season - especially if we carry 6 CBs or sign another forward and keep Long.