Dusic

I'm not sure this is overly helpful. Regardless of anyone's opinion of Jones I don't think he will be replaced this season and certsinly not anytime soon. SR have just backed him with a lot of signings and also paid a considerable fee to get him in the first place. Ankersen doesn't strike me as someone who would cash out so soon after placing a bet, and he was the driver behind getting Jones. Yes he needs to get results, and fast - but surely now is the time for fans to get behind the team as they try to get the points we badly need rather than there being a constant atmosphere around the manager? No wonder we are better away.

New lads will be bench at best. Hopefully will see our best midfield combination of Lavia, Alcaraz and JWP start. CB tombola will be interesting, Bednarek and Salisu I reckon with hopefully Bree at RB (assuming KWP injured) and Perraud in on the left. Could McCarthy make a comeback here now he is back training?

Answer: because the ones we have signed are 18-20 rather than 16 or 17 and are players clearly ready to come straight into a PL team and have an impact. I mean, there are good academy players and then there are different level academy players like Lavia. Larios is clearly better than Jake Vokins. Edozie clearly better than any 19 or 20 yo wingers we have/had. More interesting would be directly asking how we could have kept JJM or Dibling first time around? The answer would probably be: not much unfortunately.

The answer to Q1 is Jason Wilcox and Charlie Boss so please don't waste anyones time with that! Would be interesting to know more about the benefits Wilcox may bring though. Q2 is interesting Q3 pointless as they will obviously not say that Good question would be how they would approach this summer if we do get relegated.

After a shaky start in a team that wasn't setup right I thought Bree showed some glimpses of his quality, particularly on the ball where he seemed composed and also put a couple of nice crosses in, one of which Armstrong should have done much better with (sound familiar?) Noticeable that he is bigger and stronger than our other full back options. Sure he will start at the weekend in KWP's absence.

FYI, Chelsea's best XI (and first team squad) contains more academy players in it than ours does. If he is good enough, and the signs suggest he quite possibly is, then he will make it. Massive blow to lose top talents and because he isn't on a pro deal the compensation is probably poor.

He is definitely the weakest of our 5 CBs, yet is probably the one who has played the most under Jones. Surely he doesn't start at Brentford?!

Will make a diffefence in that regard certainly. My only concerns, despite his good goal record: - Can we get enough runners around him to avoid him being quite static up front? Hopefully Kamaldeen, Edozie, Armstrong, Alcaraz can help here. - From open play will we revert to just smashing the ball up to him because he is big and good in the air rather than trying to build up and get crosses in from good positions? - He doesn't play 90mins very often in Belgium (reguarly subbed in the 60s) and the PL is much faster... Lets hope for no failed medicals...

Vitinha - would be my preferred option but if Brighton are in its sadly a no-brainer to go there Onuachu - in his prime and excellent record. Would massively help defending set plays too so can see why we want him. Question marks on whether he will step up to a much higher level and also if he is suited to playing up front on his own. Would we end up just aimlessly hoofing to him? Sulemana - would be a great addition if we got one of the strikers as well. A little less so if just him but equally we don't really have a player of his profile so wouldn't say no. Of these it seems Onuachu is by far the most attainable for us, even more so given Rasmus links. Probably the cheapest too. However we are in prime "Southampton agreed a deal and the player was happy to make the move but <<<selling club>>> were unable to source a replacement so this is maybe one to revisit in the summer.>>> territory. Also, its clear we will just be getting one of these at most. Just for the slightly more deluded amongst us.

They are just quoting Football Insider who are a fairly dreadful source reliability wise. Hard to get top excited as we have seen it all before and some of the sources that gain a lot of traction on Twitter especially are very questionable.

Exactly. On the face of it a player with a contract rapidly expiring would be much better advised to sit it out and have more of a pick rather than rushing to join the bottom of the PL club right at the end of the window. If he does join, I reckon he would have an easily achieved get out clause if we go down, so perhaps on those terms it wouldnt be so stupid as at least would give him a shop window for a few months to attract PL offers.

Via David Ornstein, The Athletic (we all know how this ends): Everton are also sure to be active in the last hours of the window. Buoyed by the £40million they received from Newcastle United for Anthony Gordon, they are attempting to reinvest some of the money straight away and buy a direct replacement in Rennes winger Kamaldeen Sulemana (top-right photo). Everton made a verbal offer on Sunday and were waiting for a response from Rennes, who want in the region of €30m to get the deal done. Southampton, who are also trying to bring in a forward before the window shuts, have already had a €20m bid rejected but remain keen to recruit the 20-year-old Ghana international, while Bournemouth showed interest as well.

Surely if anyone comes in from outside of the UK it will be known about by tomorrow morning at the latest as would need time to travel and do medicals etc. Hard to keep any deals from being reported these days so will be a concern if no concrete news soon.

I think he is saying there are some fans that didn't get thst at 1-0 down and 5mins to go with 10men the key thing was to go into the second leg with something to play for rather than go 2-0 down and game over chasing an unlikely equaliser. Totally sensible yet clearly some fans, emotionally or whatever, expected us to pile forward. Regardless of what you think of NJ he is correct here 100%.

You will be disappointed Davey. It will be either a £20m or so wide player or a £20m or so striker. Beto probably is too expensive to be either, but no chance we get both.

One of Lecce's other midfielders went off injured in their game tonight. Doubt that would help our already slim chances of getting Hjulmand in this window. In the written section of Jones press conference he said we know who we want (Sulemana) and also the selling clubs that have been seeking a higher price know time is running out. Said we want either a striker or someone who can play across the front and will create different types of chances to what we do now. He kind of suggested that if/once we sort the priority player (Sulemana) then perhaps something else might happen too.

Seems Sulemana is the one we want. Very pacy, different to any of our other players and his dribbling stats are excellent. No real goal record and some injury concerns though. For 20m we aren't going to find some kind of superstar goalscorer so presumably they feel with some different attributes it may help to create a higher volume of chances, which would certainly help although obviously they need to be taken. If we were to sell Adams we would certainly want at least £20m which kind of highlights our problem. Lets hope we get Sulemana done if indeed he is the primary target.

Seeing as most transfers these days, certainly the big ones, are in the media at least 2 or 3 days before they get done, we should hear something soon if we are actually going to sign a forward or it will be quite worrying. If there is nothing known by end of day Sunday then I think its unlikley anything of note will materialise, certainly in terms of a non UK based player. Will be interesting to see what Jones says in the press conference today - after the game on Tuesday he sounded convinced that we will get someone in, so hopefully he still is.

I doubt we will sign another midfielder now that Alcaraz has started well and Diallo has had a couple of slightly better games. Unless it was someone who would come into the starting XI then its kind of pointless as we have AMN kicking about too. Surely we will sign some kind of attacker....surely? They may say there is no point in signing someone unless they are better than what we have but it almost feels like they have to regardless just to show willing. Would be a terrible look if we literally spent £5m on Orsic and watch others improve their attack with big money deals (Cunha - £50m, Rutter - £35m, Ouattara - £20m to name a few). The likes of Wolves, Leeds and potentially Bmth look set to record mega spend this January, unprecedented level really for bottom half sides. Wolves could be close to £100m and Leeds over £70m if they get McKennie.

Well yes. Koeman was right that for the need, (main striker to replace Lambert) Pelle was the right player. Maybe Jones is right that for the need (full back cover, who will possibly not play a huge amount), Bree might be the right player. There is no reason for Jones to sign someone that he knows will not be good enough for what we need. Hence why we havent been linked with any other Luton players. ------------- On Semenyo: - Looks two footed, some great finishes off both sides and means he is unpredictable for defenders as can drive inside or outside whereas all our forwards are very one footed - Seems strong even if not really tall, brushes players off quite easily - Used to the physicality of English football so less adaptation time potentially than a player from Europe

I can also remember when we signed Graziano Pelle because of Ronald Koeman. Not sure why signing a cheap cover player who the manager knows the attributes and personality of is being seen as such a bad thing. Unless of course you are looking for any possible reason to slag that manager. If Bree comes in, starts every game and is awful then of course criticise. But he is clearly being brought in aa cover due to Livramento being injured and iur huge reliance on KWP.

Bree seems like a low risk signing that makes sense given Livramento is surely not going to be up to speed quickly enough to throw into a relegation battle this season. If KWP gets injuted again we are screwed so seems sensible. His numbers for chance creation are good (he takes the set plays for Luton), he knows what the manager wants and is experienced in English football which is quite rare for a Saints signing. Seeing as he only has a few months on his contract he will be cheap and probably on sensible wages too whilst not expecting to play every week.

https://theathletic.com/4102884/2023/01/25/southampton-and-bournemouths-and-the-battle-for-nicolas-jackson?source=user-shared-article Pretty much as expected, we dallied and haggled and Bournemouth came and offered the cash needed. Also says Ankersen spoke fsce to face with Antoine Semenyo last week... Palace now linked:

Could we tempt Craig Mackail-Smith for one last hurrah? For all Jones says we are improving, he is being let down by SR for failing to improve his attacking options. I was happy with Jackson, who would have added pace, power, height and something different to our existing options. We clearly wanted him having been in talks since almost the start of the window so a big blow to see him go to a direct rival, despite the people on here who think £20m gets some kind of 1 in 2 striker from a top league.

Considering the number of very presentable chances they had we were lucky they only scored one. Armstrong handball slightly unlucky but the ruling on that is clear, despite what the hapless Don Goodman was babbling. Positives...Alcaraz. Looks forward and lasted 90mins in a frenetic game. He is a nailed starter in our best team. Negatives...the woeful composure on the ball in both halves but especially when attempting to play out from the back. Salisu at LB. Having a penalty area player like Orsic and not ever getting him the ball in a dangerous area. Also...Lyanco is just awful.