James

Loans still cost us in fees and wages. If we go up then we have a serious rebuild and if we don't these guys go back and leave a big hole, especially if loaning Fraser is as a replacement for selling Tella.

Can you loan an entire first XI? Going to have a serious rebuild on our hands if we go up and these loans go back... Especially if Fraser coming in is a pathway for selling Tella. Hope Holgate isn't linked to Che either.

Irrespective of what happens now we’ve gambled by leaving things very late. Martin said at the weekend that he was confident we’d have a stronger squad by the time the window closes so, whilst he doesn’t control the transfers, we’ll have to trust him on that for the moment. Given the stage we are at you would hope we’d be targeting the likes of Piroe (maybe we are but he wants to go to Leeds?) as if we bring in the young midfielder from Holland or a striker from the SPL then its a pretty big ask for them to be firing straight away.

The statements put out on the club website indicated that the cash received for the players sold would support our efforts to rebuild the squad after last season.

An inadequate replacement for Che Adams will have much more of a detrimental impact on our finances than the risk of paying another player’s wages until the end of the season. At least that is my opinion.

That seems shortsighted. Che's contract expires at the end of the season. Surely we aren't that hard up?

Summed up perfectly.

Agree. Seems completely illogical to let a replacement who we know will get goals go to a promotion rival unless we have another target who we know is going to be better than Piroe (although hard to think who that could realistically be).

Yup. I'm sure that's the intention too. Concern is if it looks as though he might stay but we get a deadline day bid and then are left scrambling. Wouldn't read too much into what Martin says - he also admitted pre-Plymouth he didn't know what was going on...

We brought in Shea Charles for relatively big money, in advance of expected departures and at a time when centre mid wasn't really a position of need so hopefully a replacement striker is being worked up on the same basis. The more I think about it, the stranger the Charles signing is. We haven't spent much (anything) other than the fee we paid for him. Given we've signed Downes and seem a bit reluctant to spend money elsewhere I wonder why we prioritized it so much. He looks good so far but just a bit odd in context of our other dealings.

Could see that. West Ham overpay for Solanke and suddenly Che looks like a bargain for Bournemouth.

Especially if a club other than Everton (I'm assuming they are broke) puts down what we want for Adams at the 11th hour. What do we do then? Continue until January one injury away from having to start Mara or Big Paul? It would kill our season unlike any other departure. You can see why fans are nervous. If we lost KWP, Tella or Alcaraz last minute and without a replacement then it would be annoying but wouldn't kill our chances. If we lose Che last minute without a replacement then IMO we can kiss goodbye to going up this year.

Didn't one of the genuine ITKs say that he had heard Piroe was our top target? Thought he posted that as recently as this morning but happy to be corrected.

We also assumed Rasmus and co. weren't that daft whilst they continued to tout Che around up to deadline day whilst briefing Blackmore that Gakpo signing was imminent.

Agreed but it's a big if. Surely if our targets are moving on to other clubs we just need to draw a line and say no (especially to Che) but this is Saints and we know they won't do that. After the multiple mentions on the club website of how the fees received would support our rebuild its a bit odd to go into the last week of the window having only gotten a loan in.

Hopefully we have this situation under control but, given last season's striker shambles, ill admit I'm getting twitchy. All that cash in for Tino, JWP and Lavia and we've signed one player on loan since. Leaving it until the last week again...some things never change.

Nixon reporting so heavy pinch of salt needed but Patrick Roberts is the kind of signing we should be making. Known quality in this league and has previously been thought of as having potential at a higher level - maybe we can unlock that. If we are talking Sunderland players would love us to take a look at Jack Clarke too.

Credit where credit is due. I thought he looked much better today.

If we had Solanke we'd have inevitably sold him at the first sign of interest so is a moot point really

I mean Che was pretty shit last year and clubs still want him. I'm sure PL clubs were interested in Mitro and Fulham resisted whereas we are gambling.

In 2014 we had almost an entirely new team in place before the start of the season. We didn't continue to sell the first team once the season had started and then attempt to rebuild it in two weeks whilst still playing games. Surely we have to draw the line somewhere? I'm sure every time a team comes down players want out but teams that have successfully returned quickly have drawn the line and kept players who can get them out of the league.

Unfortunately we still have to play games over the next two weeks. We are now significantly thinner on quality and given our reserves got spanked by Gillingham and we conceded 4 at home with our so called best available XI it strikes me as though we could do with some recruits now rather than in two weeks followed by another few weeks whilst they bed in.

Got to give them the benefit of the doubt and Wilcox does seem like he knows what he is doing. That said, seems we've left ourselves a hell of a lot to do in the last two weeks of the window. We must have known that the deals for Tino, JWP and Lavia would get done eventually and roughly how much would be brought in so its a bit odd to see us moving so slowly and that the players we are linked with are either loans (Downes, Holgate) or swaps (Paintsil). Given how slow we've been it makes even less sense that we spent big money on Shea Charles. Don't get me wrong, he might be very good for us, but if he's the major signing of the window it will definitely have been an underwhelming one.

Something just feels a bit off about this one. Hopefully Wilcox/Martin's confidence isn't misplaced.

Great...