James

Its being discussed on Northstand Chat at the moment - not from football rumours but a lot of talk on Twitter. Could be a load of rubbish though, I can't see any reason why they would want him!

I find him pretty frustrating to watch to be honest - agreed he's done better away than at home where he only gets a short time to impress. If he could cross he'd be our most dangerous player by far but he just can't. He has pace and runs at players which is a definite plus but his decision making and crossing is just atrocious. He's definitely more of an off the bench impact man and when all our players are fit he wouldn't be in my first XI. That being said, I think a lot of the flack he is getting started after he didn't square it against Blackpool to give us the win!

Not necessarily if newspaper reports were true - for example the Mirror yesterday. Although I agree we just don't know the situation. Also as for being a low risk gamble, it is a risk as there's every chance he hasn't actually changed and merely wants to use this as a shop window opportunity thus unsettling the squad again with his Mr Big attitude. He hasn't settled at any club for a reason, let's hope this is the time he changes his attitude for the better.

I agree we'll see - if they turn out to be 4 quality players for us then I'll eat my words. I never said anything about 'spunking money' everywhere - just would have preferred an investment in solid Championship quality players (e.g Sharp etc) rather than 4 unknown quantities who may or may not be good enough but have no track record to speak of (bar Jos who had of course played for us before).

It is a good thing, but if we carry on doing that then we won't sign anyone! Obviously the buying club has to pay a premium but it seems we aren't prepared to move forward with anyone. Puncheon coming back may be a good thing, but at the start of the season when we were on a role would ANYONE on here have wanted him back? I don't think so. We are desperate, because we don't have a good enough squad once we lose a few players - bringing Punch back is a cheap option to appease the panicking fan base. Given that only yesterday Puncheon was slagging of NC and threatening to call in the PFA - I find it highly unlikely that in the space of 24 hours all resentment and misunderstanding has been put aside. NA stated that Punch would never play for the club again, and the only thing I can see that has changed the management's mind is a desperate need for new bodies because we can't get anyone else in.

Dont disagree, but it is a risk to only have one target who we might not even get our hands on if promoted. It would be irresponsible not to have other options in mind (ones which I'd argue more achievable). The fact is we haven't been promoted yet, Puncheon may have a point to prove but it doesn't disguise the fact that we've clearly failed to land the players required for the promotion push and in my opinion this news stemmed from the panic surrounding the shambolic showing on Monday. If today concludes our business then I'll be very disappointed as I don't think we've done enough.

No but, there are plenty more fish in the sea bar Hooper. For example, if Sharp was available for £1.5m then I'd take him in an heartbeat - the fact is all we have to go on this window is the players signed and a couple of paper reports about a big bid for what was in my opinion an unrealistic target. I just think we must be a bit desperate if we are resorting to bringing back a forgotten man, if our primary targets weren't available surely we should have had a back up plan? And I doubt Puncheon was it at the start of the window.

The point is, we were never going to realistically get Hooper - there are targets out there who were achievable and would have improved the squad but we seemed to put all our eggs into one basket. Now we're desperate enough to bring back one of the most temperamental players in Saints history, who was told he'd have no future at the club as a back up. Nobody wants Pompey style transfers, but I have to admit I'd expected more than a loan signing who didn't look impressive, an unproven striker and the return of Puncheon!

No doubting that when he wants to be Puncheon is a good player - would probably be deserving of a spot in the first eleven when in good form. But, to me this all seems a bit too convenient given our worrying performance against Leicester. I think it looks a bit desperate, when I said I wanted new faces post Monday Puncheon wasn't exactly what I had in mind. I was one of those who didn't buy the scepticism about our financial situation but I am beginning to think we don't have as much as we'd all like to think. We haven't been able to secure our targets and so have hastily bought Puncheon back in. So far this window we've signed Jos (who admittedly cost a bit), Lee on a free, Falque on loan and then brought Punch back in from the cold. Not exactly significant investment befitting a team with ambitions for the Prem, even with our horrendous injury and suspension problems. I hope Puncheon comes back in and does well for us, but I remain a bit worried that this move merely papers over some of the cracks that have begun to show in January.

Especially if the rumours about Sharp are to be believed.

Just been on the Donny forum and they don't dismiss it out of hand as apparently the Mirror got some previous Billy Sharp news spot on. Maybe the guy knows what he's talking about.

Who is posting that though? Could be anyone. Interesting that some posters suggested rumours he was in the stands last night just hours before the Mirror ran the story. I hope to god the rumours are true as boy do we need him after last night.

The booing at half time was a complete joke - disgraceful really, after the treats we've been served up at SMS this season the players surely deserve a bit of slack during this rough patch.

That's fair enough - but I don't think we need to sign two new CBs - just one would be enough but we won't even get that. My point about Hooper is that when you bid for a high profile (for us) player at a big club like Celtic you've got to respect the fact that the deal is not likely to come off. For this reason we can't put all our eggs in one basket, we need to have other options on more realistic players. I'm all for aiming high, but if aiming high and missing means we don't get anyone then that would be ridiculous. I'm starting to think we should have got Jutkiewitz - at the price he was going for he would have been a good young addition with room for development. Anyone would have been better than Guly/Connolly tonight.

We need a ball playing CB - Martin puts us under too much pressure due to his lack of composure and skill on the ball. We need two - one to play now and another as cover as I don't think Martin is ready to step up full time if we get a long term injury.

Martin looks bad (both tonight and against Bristol imo) because we play it out from the back at home and he doesn't have the confidence or skill on the ball to do this. He put us under so much pressure with a poor touch tonight. He's not got the class or the skill of a Fonte who basically plays as an extra man in the midfield when we've got the ball.

He made some mistakes tonight sure. Harding at RB and Falque over De Ridder were the two which stood out for me. It's the team that have run out of gas, not Adkins. He hasn't really got the chance to change it because the squad is so thin. I also wish he'd be a tad more decisive in the transfer market and his record of picking players isn't exactly great. However, he is the best manager I've seen in charge of Saints since Strachan and to say that he benefited from Pardew's work is madness - we had a dreadful start to last season under him and the style of play implemented this season is all Nige's own doing. Short term criticism - perhaps, he made a few bad calls tonight. Long term? No chance. In Adkins we trust.

Really really poor tonight. Some mistakes made by Nige tonight: 1) Playing Harding at RB - just terrible for the whole game I thought - Frazer should have started if fit enough (which it appeared he was when he came on and did a good job) 2) Throwing Falque straight in there - have been surprised by the positive comments on here about him after that, looked like a fish out of water I thought and was glad to see De Ridder come on. Hoping there's more to come but wasn't particularly encouraged by tonight's showing. Other than that, I don't think he could have done much else and it shows how dreadfully thin the squad is. I'm all for keeping a close knit group, but its plainly obvious that we can't make that impact change from the bench when things aren't going our way. Players like Holmes (hate to pick on him but feel the need to after tonight) weren't good enough for us in League 1 and he definitely isn't a player worthy even of a place on the bench for a team supposedly challenging at the top of the Champ. There's no doubt that teams like boro and WHU would struggle if they were missing as many key players as we are but they have got a much better quality of replacement. What worries me is that its all well and good saying we've got key men to come back, but they won't just step in and immediately be performing to the level they were prior to their absence and that is what we need to make sure we get back on track. Tonight is the night I really started to doubt we could go up automatically - Cardiff are closing in on us fast and will take the **** out of us next Tuesday if we play like we did tonight. What is so annoying about the current situation is that the league this year is very very poor, and we are (on our day) better than any team in the division but I really think we might have run out of gas this season. Nige seems to have run out of ideas when plan A doesn't work, the worry on his face after the game was clear for all to see. Finally, why oh why haven't we been more decisive in the transfer market? Its been clear for weeks we've needed new blood but none has materialised (bar Falque and Lee, although not here yet). Its a dangerous gamble to sign players like Lee who may not settle and have taken almost the entire January window to arrive! As for bidding for players like Hooper, its great to show ambition but doesn't matter a jot if they don't sign and therefore can't make an impact. We need some new faces now, but I doubt we'll get them and fear we'll blow a very good chance of promotion this season.

I hope Nige doesn't think we don't need any new blood as tonight was as clear an indication that we do that we've had all season. This January has got me really worried about our financial situation. I know we don't want to blow the budget but its been clear for absolutely WEEKS that we've needed new players yet none (bar Falque who I thought was very average tonight) have materialised. We are playing a very dangerous game signing players like Lee who are not only unproven, but have pretty much taken the entire January window to arrive. It's all well and good making the right noises about bidding for players like Hooper but that's no good if they don't actually sign. I hope to god we've got a back up plan as we might not have as good a chance to get promoted next season, or indeed the next few seasons. Tonight was the night I began to see it slipping away/actually thinking we weren't ready as if we play that team, or with those rotation options in the Prem we will get absolutely murdered. I hope this is clear to Nige and Nicola and I'd be worried if it wasn't.

As much as I like Steve, he isn't good enough - nor are any of our supposed first team replacements.

Guly just ****ing shocking

We need some other forward options, we clearly needed them when we had a gap in proceedings but we didn't get them. We won't score tonight, we havent got a clue going forward

Just dross so far we don't deserve to go back top

Not impressed with falque at all so far

Harding is poor - Richardson should have started