Dusic

What do you think £20m gets? A young Intl with pace and physically strong, making regular apps at a decent La Liga side, I would say £20m is par for the course

Moussa Dembele 2 goals, 0 assists in 14 league games Nicolas Jackson 2 goals, 2 assists in 14 games One we "don't need". One we need to "smack down £25m-£30m" on. The madness of the transfer window.

Good news for those who have written off Jackson as an absolute waste of money. #hopeful

Very fair point, although interestingly the one position Brighton (and many other 'smaller' clubs) have never got right is centre forward. Fair to say its the most difficult position to recruit - Man Utd for all their wealth have gone for Weghorst and clubs like Leeds and Wolves have spent huge sums in January on players with very mediocre goal records.

If McCarthy does ok in some of the cup games I'm sure he will stay in.

But what if they feel they can get a wide forward for now who is better than our other wide forwards or a striker who is the same as our other main striker?

Presumably they feel our budget allows for a bigger upgrade in the wide areas than it would get us in the striker position where there are few good options for a reasonable price. Wolves paying nearly £45m for Cunha and Leeds £35m on Rutter are good examples of that. Clearly they are trying to add goal threat in attack. Does it matter if that comes from a central striker or a player who starts in a wider position?

I think we all expected to get some forward players in, absolutely. Orsic a good start (on paper at least) and clearly seems like more will follow. But what exactly do you mean by "top striker"? I don't think £25m these days will get you a top striker, and certainly not one that would fit Saints from a wage perspective. Wolves spent upwards of £40m on Cunha, Leeds have just spent over £30 on Rutter from Hoffenheim. Bournemouth spent £20m on Ouattara. Moffi (who doesn't want to move to England anyway) is being touted for £30m. I'm sure none of these are what you think of as "top strikers". You clearly don't rate Adams, fair enough. What I am sure about though is that if we were to sell him, we would be looking for about £20m, only £5m less than yoy think we can get a "top striker" for. Personally I don't think someone like Chris Wood is any better than Adams, they are probably of a similar level and he didnt have a good goal record at Newcastle. Ings potentially could have been a good option but three things we know" 1. He turned down our biggest contract offer to leave for more money at Villa. Judging by Emery's comments I doubt West Ham are paying him less 2. He isn't in the form he was when he left us and is 2 years older 3. He is better suited to playing in a front 2 whereas Jones is setting us up with one striker to be a focal point. Summary: for the money we have to spend, the types of players we are being linked with is exactly what you get. Either a decent Championship player, player who has scored goals in a poor league or a promising player with potential from a better league. If there was a "top striker" available for £25m and sensible wages then all the bottom half teams plus the likes of Brighton would be all over them.

Whats a "proper striker" or "top striker" these days? A lot of the players who score goals regularly in the PL play from wide areas. Orsic for example was the 4th top scorer in the Croatian league last season and is essentially a scoring player who operates from the left side, a bit like Rashford does for Man Utd. The type of players who have a proven record of scoring loads of goals in a top league are either too expensive fee wise, too expensive wages wise, or are over the hill. Leeds just spent €35m on Georginio Rutter, a striker from Hoffenheim and he has 2 goals this season. Presumably they feel aged 20 that his output will improve and he has attributes they value. Perhaps we see similar in Jackson? He is fast, strong and direct - unlike most of our other options. He is regularly getting minutes (mostly as a sub) for one of the better clubs in La Liga and is 21. That is what you get for £20m these days. In addition, we are currently bottom of the league and fairly likely to be relegated, so clearly some targets won't fancy the move. Everyone would love us to go and get a striker who will bang in 15 league goals a season, but so would fans of Chelsea, Brighton, Villa, Palace, Forest, Leeds, Leicester, Wolves, Bournemouth, West Ham and Everton. I don't think there is a huge and obvious pool of quality PL level strikers with proven records in top leagues that are affordable and happy to move to a team bottom of the league.

Antonio is 33 in March and is on the decline hence West Ham replacing him. We are seemingly signing a striker, Nicolas Jackson, who has played as a striker in most of his apps this season for Villareal. We also have signed Orsic who will add a significant goal threat based on his recent record. Not quite sure what some expect...we will end this window having spent upwards of £30m without any major sales, just like in the summer. That would have been unheard of in the Gao era.

Aside from probably unaffordable wages, the other thing about Ings is that he really needs to play in a front two to get the best out of him. That isn't how we are playing. Looks like we will be signing Jackson, and with Orsic too have added different attributes to our frontline this window.

https://www.pianetalecce.it/news/528087420422/il-southampton-ci-prova-saverio-sticchi-damiani-dice-di-no-i-motivi-del-rifiuto Sounds like it would cost a lot more to get Hjulmand as Lecce don't want to lose him mid season. Seems fairly certain we made an offer though, which is interesting. Alcaraz is obviously seen as an attacking midfielder and we know we are so short of cover/replacement for Lavia who will likely go in the summer anyway so good to see us target someone in this position. Re Gallagher, I don't see it happening. We already spent big to get Alcaraz who is a similar player and if Gallagher is available I'm sure he would go back to Palace anyway.

Check the sources of these "several reports", use some of your own judgement and revisit this post. FFS.

Ever since it became obvious that Moffi was a no-go and Jacob Tanswell started mentioning Jackson I've thought we would get him. No issue with it. Promising young player, recently linked to better clubs than ours, who adds new attributes to our attack in terms of height, pace and power. Even if he plays more in wide areas I don't think that is an issue. Adams largely plays well for us and he will be a key player, the problem is that we don't get enough players around him who are a goal threat. With JWP in his new role, Orsic and potentially Jackson, that definitely adds some threat. People get fixated on strikers but loads of the top scorers in the PL the last few seasons are not traditional central strikers and most teams only play with one anyway. No point signing a central striker who isn't better than Adams so if we can't do that then signing a good player who can play all actoss the front seems sensible. We won't be doing this and then dropping another £20m on someone else as well. Hopefully we close the deal as supposed intetest elsewhere and the Danjuma situation which could impact.

Hopefully under SR we can become a bit better with contracts. The amount of players who have signed 4 year contracts and then we get long running sagas with is quite extensive: Clyne, Wanyama, Hojbjerg, Ings, Vestergaard, and now Salisu. Aside from Ings, we pretty much got our money back or a small profit when we sold as we lost all leverage once they have a year to go. With Salisu, he took a year to adapt where he barely played, so he effectively had a two year contract. I know its not always possible, but other clubs seem to manage to extend contracts much earlier, often after a year or so once its clear the player is decent. Recent example being Alexis MacAllister signing a 4 year deal with Brighton just before the WC. I'm sure Saints would just have been comfortable with the two years he had left. Brighton now know they will get £50m+ for him whereas without that it would be £25m. Doesn't mean they will stay longer but does mean their value is protected, and Saints are supposedly all about value.

Having watched the Semenyo video Chez posted: - Would be amazed if he is actually 5'8, seems a but taller and is quite strong. Actually quite similar to Adams in some of his strength on the ball. - Nice finishes with both feet - Good weight of pass on both fit with many assists - Telling actions from both right and left side of the pitch Not saying we should sign him, but he looks like a good player and one that could combine well with other players. More of an Adams competition/cover rather than replacement.

It certainly shows that they didn't have anything lined up specifically for Jnauary which is disappointing but equally our league position, form and managerial uncertainty and sunsequent change probably aided that. Ings is quality and proven here, wouldnt have a concern with taking him. However....under Jones we have mostly played with one central striker and that is certainly not Ings best role, he is much better in a pair. Seeing as we see to have settled on a midfield 3 with JWP in the advanced role I am not sure how Ings would fit that. Jackson is a wide forward who can play up front but isn't going to suddenly come in and take Adams place and bang in 7 or 8 goals. Semenyo I don't know much about but he has often been a sub for Bristol City. Might be a player of potential but again he wouldn't come in and threaten Adams' place. Overall it doesn't scream well organised recruitment to me, these 3 are all very different players. Personally I think we will end up with a wide forward type, preferably someone who can play from the right.

Would be a shame if our top striker target ends up at a relegation rival rather than staying in France. But appears West Ham going big for him. As said yesterday, I think we will get a wide forward rather than no9.

Why? On huge wages and in massive decline. Sounds like pretty much the opposite of a Saints transfer to me. Nicolas Jackson has been pushed by Jacob Tanswell since the start of the window, he is the most likely attacking addition IMO.

Wonder if we might not get a central striker now and instead maybe a wide right attacker. Not saying its the right thing but logic is that we are playing with one central striker and there is no point signing a no9 type if they are not better than Adams (allround game not just goals) and that will cost a lot, for example Moffi seemingly was our no1 choice and is out of our price range. We need to add goal threat certainly, but that can come in different forms and is why the Orsic signing is potentially so useful as we totally lack goals from the wide attackers we have. There really isn't any point in signing a striker for the sake of it who isn't going to be a key player if we could sign a different type of attacker who might be. Again, not saying this is what I would do but it might be what happens and there is some logic, even more so after Jones' recent comments.

Players obviously like him and are playing for him. I like that he has a bit of fight and character. He has just won 3 games in 7 days against PL teams. Defensively more solid. Scored twice in 3 games in a row. Excellent work from NJ who looks a great fit for what we need.

Moffi and Maeda both scoring today.

Is Maeda the Japanese Shane Long? Not meant in a derogatory way but seems like his best attributes are physical rather than technical? Anyone seen much of James Bree? Has good stats for chance creation (think he is on set pieces) and would possibly be a good cover player for a cheap fee given we possibly hadnt anticipated spending on a RB before Tino's setback. Will be interesting to see if he plays for Luton today or not. Tanswell has been pretty on the money this window so if he says he is a target then I'm sure he is.

Elyounoussi is a tactically aware player who can play multiple positions, has high availability and seems like a good pro. Managers like these kind of players. Squads need these kind of players.

https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2023/nice-submit-e18m-offer-for-lorients-terem-moffi/ Says Moffi wants to stay in France and Nice have made an offer. Hopefully we have moved on to other targets if its not going to happen.