Chez

He certainly was good in that game. He's scored 4 goals in 19 League games. He's scored 24 goals in 115 league games for us. Just for comparison, Shane long scored 23 in 96 in his first four Prem seasons (not for us mind you). He hasn't signed a new contract. He has 18 months left.

Without wanting to go over the whole Broja thing again, I'm not sure you can compare the impact Tella made with Broja. I had no issue with him going out on loan. Quite frankly he was not up to standard last season and a loan made sense. However, playing wingers would have been a better fit for him.

You'd think Jones' would have just stated that when he was asked if Tella would be returning.

We certainly did last time, with the sale of Crouch keeping us afloat according to Lowe. But what's the alternative? Keep everyone to try to go straight back up and add another £50m, £60m of debt?

Never putting a foot wrong? He was a non entity in some games and absolutely turd in some games. His first touch was horrific. No where near good enough. Glad he's playing well, but by and large he was a complete let down last season when we had hoped he would step up.

I'm certainly not upset, it's a bloomin web forum, just stating my position. At the start of the window I suggested that ings was the only real answer to our problems. I'm not daft, I know we need goals, but I also know signing players is tough, so tend to cut the management some slack. Maybe too much. Hopefully Mara will get the goals instead. If he doesn't, we are fucked.

Fair point. I should have got involved in that thread and will do next time. It was a very hard window to rate then. We were very active, so that's a plus, but lots of youngsters that made it hard to anticipate how they and we would do.

If we can get a decent striker, bring him in. If we can't, then in my opinion it's no bad thing to bring in a talented attacker to create more chances. I'm not saying one is better than the other, I'm saying if one is not possible then do the other. You just want to pigeon hole to give you someone to argue with. I state this regularly, we need better quality in every position.

Sure. I repeat, all I've ever said was we signed A striker. Mara was always going to be with the first team squad, just like Broja was. I don't remember Ralph's comments (not sure it matters much now), but were we ever after another striker? We tried to sign Gakpo, who was a left winger, not a striker. Ralph would have to have signed that off. If he requested a striker, who was that guy?

Just to add that being in the minority on here ain't always a bad thing. The rate the transfer window thread is a case in point. How the fuck you rate a window until you've seen the players play I don't know. Also, I've seen posts suggesting that "creating more chances is pointless if Che is on the end of them". I'm sure that's a tongue in cheek comment, but if not, it just shows how fans have worked themselves into a frenzy over the lack of a striker signing. If Che is a one in five chance guy, then let's ensure we are not just feeding him one or two chances.

I have never said that. Not once. I don't rate Che, and like everyone else, I've been disappointed with Armstrong and thus would welcome a better striker. I've been suggesting we sign Beto and Jackson for weeks. I just don't go on about our failure to do so, morning, noon and night. My arguement was, and has always only ever been that we did sign A striker in the summer, Mara, for £12m and it annoys me that its overlooked. No one says we didn't sign a keeper or a centre midfielder. Sure, he might not be a £30m player (I suggested we sign Scamacca - so what do I know), but he is a centre forward that imo replaced Broja, not Shane Long, as you suggest. He's not been anywhere near as effective as Broja so far, but he is a striker. Maybe just the wrong one, although after Tuesday I have high hopes.

I can see you are getting terribly excited about us possibly matching or breaking our transfer record. The reality is, a lot of signings provide little immediate impact as they don't hit the ground running. A delay in signing him now means a delay in him providing an impact. So, going on that theory, perhaps it's not cost us points already, but maybe we'd of had more chance in some games coming up.

It ain't great, we really aren't very good, but you don't give up.

Pretty sure Morgan won't be in the first team squad today.

Ballard and Payne maybe, but Morgan definitely won't.

Too much to turn down. Saints don't want to sell, but this is only going to end one way.

We will create more chances. Che doesn't miss them all. Not pointless at all. Besides, maybe Mara will get the shirt?

Well, Orsic doesn't look particularly strong or fast. Hard to say about aggression. Sulemana looks quick, but strong and aggressive wouldn't be the terms I'd use. Skillfull, pacey dribbler would be my three word description. He looks quite exciting . Someone that will provide more quality and more of a threat, hopefully.

They are not the attributes to describe Sulemana (or Orsic).

So? Everyone knows how transfers work these days. Jones has described it himself. The manager lays out the attributes he is after, then the scouting team present some options and they decide which to go for. Obviously the manager can provide his own options, as he will have done with Bree, but managers don't spend time scouting like they used to - especially with so many players coming from abroad. They are reliant on scouting teams. That's the same everywhere. Are all Prem managers yes men? Of course not. And neither is Jones.

Have you found other sportsman in your supply in the past then?

I think he might want: "Yeah, we are clearly in panic mode now, as time is running out and we have not managed sign the forward we want yet. The question has been, do we throw more money we don't have at the problem or go for a player we are not convinced about? The players we have are clearly not good enough, hence we have lost so many games over the last year. I'm in agreement with the folks on Saintsweb forum, if we don't bring in a striker I don't think we will stay up."

you wrote `attacker' not striker. Does that mean you'd be happy with a guy like Kamaldeen Sulemana or does it need to be a Che replacement/partner?

Let me know when you have an ear lobe photo.

Jones made it pretty clear a week or so ago that an attacker (winger) was more likely than a striker, so since then I've not expected us to sign a striker, but I did think we would sign Jackson. With that transfer blowing up, should we manage to bring in the next option, I could live with that - what choice do fans ever have? Yes, we need a striker, but a winger that can create, won't do us any harm. I'm also wondering whether Mara might be the one to take these extra chances the likes of Sulemana might provide. Any attacking talent added would be good.