Dusic

The original article quotes "the British press" as the source though and I havent seen that anywhere reliable over here i.e that he doesnt want to sign for us because of league position. Crux is will we pay 30m and the answer to that is surely, no. Hopefully our back is Dany N'Guessan who is surely an upgrade on Redmond or something.

As ever, its a question of money. We have money, they know we have money and probably rightly they won't sell for less than his release clause. If we want him that much then we will end up paying that or we will go for another target that you would hope has already been lined up. If Carrillo is our record sogning at £19m can anyone really see us suddenly going out and spending £30m just a few days afterwards? Unlikely IMO.

Tadic has been good lately IMO, easily our best ceeative player in terms of tangible output. Hooefully signing Carrillo will give him a target to work with like he did so well with Pelle. Likewise if we sign a decent wide player with pace then he should also be able to combine well with them. He will be key for us the rest of the season and is miles better than what our relegation rivals have as equivalents.

Personally not convinced we will be able to get Promes. From his perspective surely you would just wait until the summer and assess your options rather than making a big move to a side that could be relegated. He is represented by SEG who also have Hoedt on their books, so that may help slightly. This will be a saga over the next few days IMO but sounds like we have a backup, so it may well be that player that we end up with. If it were Gaitan then he doesn't give us the pace we need.

Most deals happen late on in the window. Shame everyone is aware of our interest but not many teams have the money to spend that we do, certainly in the bottom half. Hopefully we have a backup lined up incase it doesn't happen.

This is well worth a listen for those who have never seen him play live (probably 99% on here). Tim Vickery is extremely knowledgeable about South American players and is quite complimentary.

Hopefully like the last few days with Carrillo, no news is good news. In theory, if Promes had no desire whatsoever to join Saints then his agent would have told us and we would have walked away - so their must be some kind of willingness to make it happen on the right terms or if its the best gig in town for him and he wants to move now (although not sure why the urgency to do so). Equally if he has a release clause then that helps not having to negotiate heavily with the Russians. I still think Promes will likely wait until the summer and assess his options, so hopefully we have a backup. Carrillo is a good signing IMO as we lack that profile of player. But alone he makes a static and slow attack even slower, so to have the best mix then we need the pace and directness, as well as the goal record, that Promes would bring. Lets see what happens, but no news may be good news, especially as we havent been linked strongly with others in his position.

Good move. We are crying out for a targetman and he might also help defend set pieces better as we are a small, fragile side. Get Promes as well and its a decent window for us.

Was better than Palace at the weekend but still fairly poor, despite the amount of rain. Hopefully better for Brighton, our team is based around technical play and in a league of marginal gains, a crappy hoke surface does our chances no good. Strange that this season it has been worse with fewer games than we had last year.

The Sturridge one was clearly a possibility much earlier in the window. I think Wilson mentioned it and then later said it wouldn't happen. These things are very fluid. We have probably enquired about 20 or 30 players. Carrillo is clearly a main target. Promes I am far less convinced on the liklihood of that. For those saying we won't sign anyone, we obviously will. They just might not be that good if we don't get the ones nesr the top of our list. It also doesn't really matter if its today, tomorrow, Saturday, Monday etc as long as we bring in quality.

The situation is pretty clear: the club, especially Reedo and Wee Willo will be judged at the end of the window. Not today, not tomorrow but on the morning of 1st Feb. We know we have sold our best player for a lot of money, but if they use that money and bring in 2 or 3 players who instantly improve our side then fair play, they will have done a good job. If they just bring in one player, or none, or sign utter dross then it will be judged as another cluster**** window. Until 1st Feb you cannot really judge. And you certainly cannot claim they are not doing anything because you have no idea if that is true or not.

IMO it would be mental not to rest at least: Hoedt - only quality CB we have Romeu - on 8 yellows Tadic - only effective creative player Bednarek must start at CB to give him game time as will likely be needed in the league assuming we don'!t bring in another CB.

What do we think the chances of the currently linked names are? I reckon: Carrillo - 7/10 Promes - 4/10 Another different wide player - 5/10 VVD replacement - 1/10 Hope whoever joins they are in to be available vs Brighton. Even if from bench it would be a big lift.

You would hope we have been given a bit of encouragement by his agent, otherwise its a massive waste of time at a crucial point of the window and very naïve. For the player it makes more sense to wait until the summer and assess his options. But if he wants to join Saints and has a release clause then it would be very possible. The key part is if he wants do, which should be easy to find out. Hope Les the Postie doesn't get his hand bitten through the letterbox by the Spartak bulldog.

Much better today and suprise, suprise, it helped the players. People at the club know they have made bad decisions, taken too long to spellcheck pledges and sign players etc but supporting the actual players on the pitch is always going to be more conducive to getting a better result than stupid protests. Fans were better, Manager was better, players were better.

Definitely missing a defensive leader. Stephens, unfortunately for a centre back, is better on the ball than off it.

Totally agree. Supporting the team gives the best chance of a good result. In some ways I see this game as a free hit. We likely won't get anything and most results went well yesterday with only Stoke winning in the bottom half. The biggest games are Brighton and WBA plus the whole of March - that will determine our fate. Was noticeable the positivity and excellent atmopshere at Anfield last week when Liverpool beat City. We could do with some of that, otherwise I feel playing at home is a disadvantage to us. You know all the oppos will be saying keep it tight, score first and the crowd will turn on their team. Reed et al will know they have made some bad decisions, MP will know his position is precarious. They don't need pieces of crap A4 photoshop waved in their faces to work that out.

Its not breaking news. We have been in a relegation battle for a few weeks now. Big games coming up and we need to support the team not start protesting.

Reality is that most deals happen towards the end of the window. We obviously want Carrillo and I expect we will get him. An added difficulty is that clubs like Monaco or Spartak for example i.) Arent desperate for the money ii.) Know we are desperate for players and iii.) Know we just sold VVD for a record fee. Pellegrino seems happy with what the club are doing to sign players, and ultimately as long as we get them it doesn't matter now whetger they sign today or in a week's time.

Pellegrino seems fairly certain that two players will come in. Agree with him that its only worth adding good players and generally that goes til near the end of the window. The Watford cup game is irrelevant so as long as we have two in for the Brighton game then so be it. Will be glad if we are targetting quality.

Practical question: as we only really have Reed and Wilson who are senior enough full time employees to lead transfer negotiations, would we struggle to do two big deals at the same time? For example is Reed travelled to Monaco to work on Carrillo, woukd he be able to do much on another deal at the same time?

Russian report says Promes is not true. Even if we are interested, I bet they are a nightmare to deal with, and like any other club, knows we i.) Have money and ii.) Are desperate.

Support the team, make a positive home atmosphere. Stuff like this is counter-productive to the above and will help cause relegation, not prevent it. We have some massive games coming up at home, now isnt the time for stuff like this. (Plus the Manager is a part problem but not the biggest problem).

Absolutely bossed some games earlier this season and looked fantastic until his injury. When on form was clearly one of our best players and added vital pace, mobility and strength. Time to give him a run of starts again?

Agree, but in that context Carrillo is the sort of player you will end up with. £15m is the £8m of a few years ago. You will get a young prospect with few games, a Championship striker you aren't sure will make the step up, a reserve who isn't playing at a bigger club or an old past it has-been. £15m will not buy someone in their prime with a great goal record, who starts every week at a team in a good league. For those you start the bidding at £30m. For a player like Benteke.