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There does seem to be a bit of a reluctance to play players who aren't in the squad or who are low on confidence in the under 21s. None of Quarshie, Romeu or Robinson were in the squad last night, so (bearing fitness) could be getting practice with the u21s, and as others have said, could Archer have a few games in the u21 and we put Oyekunle on the bench?

Literally the only benefit we've ever seen, but I guess one hit in 10 swings is probably better than none! 🤣 He's a decent player and great option around the squad. Love the energy and tenacious play!

Be interesting to see how Ronnie Edwards plays tonight. Looks like he's played 3 games at right back and the last match at centre back for them. I thought he was pretty poor each time he played for us this season, but previously looked quite promising.

We have a wealth of strong central midfield options, but I'd be tempted to go with Jander and Charles as the two who have a bit of experience and a lot of promise to improve further. I think Downes will move on ASAP (and looks increasingly like a red card waiting to happen) and whilst Bragg is promising, not sure how good he's going to be yet, but has looked promising to date. It's interesting as ask 10 different fans and you'll probably get 4 different pairs.

I thought I read he had done fairly well in Belgium but had a couple of injuries. He's been good since back in the fold, but that isn't particularly a surprise based on his ability - the surprise was more him being completely frozen out previously. A bit like Fellows his finishing has never been his strong point, but sure he'll chip in some goals and assists over the next month or two.

Unless Larin proves his fitness, builds on his initial promise and we sign him permanently.

Do you know this, or just hoping? He's definitely one of our best players so fingers crossed.

Didnt the manager allude to there being something going on behind the scenes with Archer (whether that was a failed move or something else)? Seems strange that both Downs now Archer have seemingly lost a lot of ability / have a crisis in confidence when proving they were decent players in the past

How many fouls for Okoli today?! It was quite funny that he "saved the day" according to the commentator when Quashie headed off the line...!

Looks like he's made well over 400 pro appearances, mostly league one and league two, but has played 36 times in the Championship - last with Wigan in 2022/23 where he played 17 matches - guessing he was second choice. I'm sure if we had to sign another keeper, we could've got someone slightly better on the free market, but guessing we're just praying Peretz doesn't injured. Shame we couldn't tempt Stuart Taylor out of retirement.

Not sure why you've singled out Flynn Downes here - they play a completely different position 😜

I never really understood why (other than a couple of little injuries) Welington has not been automatic first choice at left back. He's always looked significantly better than Manning, particularly at defending!! Also gets forward well, so what's not to like?

We all hope he recovers as he is a decent player and seems like a good guy, but the attitude of the management should be that anything he can give us is seen as a bonus, not a reliance, (as seems it may be the case).

100% this, can't rely on Stewart and it's madness to think he'll do anything more than 5 games until the end of the season based on his 2.5(?) seasons with us. He's sadly overdue an injury!!

Larios confirmed on the OS to Real Zaragoza, but appears only on loan. They're at least a step up from his last loan where he proved his fitness, so will be interesting to see what he does with the mighty Ruben Selles managing him again. https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/larios-joins-real-zaragoza

So this Larin guy looks like he has been out injured about 3 different times this season already - what are the odds that he’ll be injured at the same time Stewart inevitably is out next? Seems a massive risk unless he’s one of two (or Archer doesn’t go after all)

Knowing Wolves are getting near £50 mill and we’re going to accept less than £10 mill for Armstrong? Seems a bit weird and thought we’d sell him for a bit more

Looks like Birmingham (2 points above us) are spending big this Jan obviously pushing for playoffs and promotion. Just signed the Alaves winger Vicente we were linked with in the summer for about £8mil, with some other decent signings, all from top flight clubs and pretty regular players from what I can see, including the top scorer in Sweden and another La Liga player. Obviously they're being bankrolled by their American owners, but aren't too bothered about net spend, whilst we're probably scratching about on the 2 out 1 in method and trying to find the next bargain... Lets see what happens over the next few days.

To put into perspective on the Armstrong situation, Oliver McBurnie has scored the same amount of goals as Armstrong, in ten games less. McBurnie!! It's embarrassing that we'd now probably quite like someone like him in our team.

New tune 🎵 "Kids and Grown Ups love him so, please someone buy Aribo"🎵

Can Tonda turn it around? As others have said, on paper the squad is more than good enough to be top 4 come the end of the season, but rubbish tactics, bizarre substitutions, a squad that feels like it's infested with a few rotten apples and with seemingly little strong leadership needs a big kick to get them firing. This comes from strong management, and a respect for the hierarchy, which I'd say we're currently lacking. Maybe a strong athletic (and reliable) striker signing would galvanise the squad (it certainly wouldnt hurt the fanbase), but really need the squad as a whole to be all pulling in the same direction and wanting to do well for a manager who they respect.

Which player are you referring to? Flynn Downes isn't too young, and arguably on form is good enough for a top end Championship team (although that's quite rare these days), but Damion Downs was a young and fairly untested player who proved not to be good enough (currently). Agreed that we're missing that powerful core spine of the team though - strong centre forward and defensive midfielder (see Wanyama!).

Good luck for tonight. That stadium looks worse than the Silverlake!

I work with a Charlton fan who told me he'd been poor recently (as have the whole team), so they signed someone permanently to replace him and happily sent back.

with some terrible players, but a squad who overall have the ability to be doing far better than they are if they were managed properly and the best players picked in their correct positions.