S-Clarke

We bring in two, I'd be happy for Archer to go. We need one anyway, so the Larin should be the 2nd if I'm honest. You can't remove Downs, Fraser, Archer, Armstrong from an attack in one month and just add Larin. Regardless of their quality and impact, it's about numbers too - as Armstrong was also a wide right option for us, who goes there if Fellows is injured? You cannot rely on Stewart, he will get injured again in the forthcoming weeks - it's inevitable. And that would thrust a young U21 kid straight into the spotlight, which we seem to enjoy doing with young players before they're ready.

If he was in addition to what we have, sure. But seemingly the likelihood is that we'll probably end up with him, Stewart and U21 Oyekunle. That's not enough. We were expecting a striker to backfill Downs position when he left, but it didn't happen and it slowly got forgotten about. So now we look to be moving on Archer and Armstrong to add a striker who doesn't score, who will join a strike force with a player who hasn't managed more than 7 starts in a season in 4 years.

I worked out that our money received from incomings is actually more than our spending since SR have been in, not by much though - so we've broken even in that sense. They outlaid when they first came in, but they got it all back through player trading. So I don't buy the argument that he's chucked a shedload of money in like some sort of sugar daddy, we've just reinvested what we sold. We're basically a player trading company.

I can only hope Larin is more of a squad addition, if like you say he's going to complete our striker contingent (Larin, Stewart and the young kid) then I have no idea what we're doing.

Never heard of the bloke, looks shit though - but we were only ever going to loan in this window. But seemingly only we can sign a striker who hasn't scored a goal this year to replace our top scorer. Only us. 'We do things differently' 'the Southampton way' Gone are the days of signing players like David Brooks for the 2nd half of the season.

Red hot with just 3 league goals . By all accounts he's been fairly awful for Derby in the main, I wouldn't want him back. I still have nightmares of him lumbering around trying to be a PL player, we need energy up front.

Yep that is true about Jander to be fair, that somewhat come out of nowhere on that Fellows/Azaz day.

I think that's the driver here to be honest, he's clearly made it obvious that he wants out and we've bent our valuation slightly to accommodate that. Like you say, we don't want a bad smell hanging around. He hasn't scored in 11 or 12. But to make this positive we have to sign a proper striker, this is now our opportunity and window to do that. A loan with an option, or even invest straight away in a signing for the future in mind. Pertez, Leo, Jander were all left field picks and they have been reasonable well received - they need to get the striker one as bang on now. What concerns me is that we have had zero links....nothing.

Up to 48m for Larson is just crazy, he really isn't that good. But equally getting £35m for Mateta is also crazy. Player valuations at the top level aren't reflectors of ability anymore you'd have to say.

If they try and bundle in any add-ons for 'surviving relegation', then we've had our pants pulled down.

In probably one of the most socking and unexpected bits of news in football, Watford have just sacked their manager. I think he was their 50365030530th in 4 years.

Sheffield Wednesday are using this window to clear their decks and save as much money as they can. No real news on any takeover that I can read, sad times for them. I can't see how they win another game this season.

Ademola Lookman is closing in on a move to Atletico Madrid. The final details of a deal to sign him from Atalanta are being sorted and he is waiting to travel for a medical. A fee of £30m (€35m) plus £4.3m (€5m) in add-ons has been agreed in principle between the clubs. This guy is another of those footballing transfer anomalies, like Joao Felix, Morta etc. They keep getting moves to big clubs for huge dollar every time, yet never really do anything, then warrant another huge transfer fee. Lookman has been a bit part at Atalanta this season.

Absolutely how I'm seeing it as well, sadly. We'll see...but I've seen this movie a thousand times at this club.

That save in the first half, top corner, was the sort of goal we've been letting in most weeks. Pertez has much better positioning and more of a spring in and strength in his wrists, basically he has the physical attributes you expect a GK to have. Still a little bit flappy, I think he always will be - but he's a character and I think he's added some personality to our backline.

That was as comfortable a game as we've had all season, we strolled through that. There wasn't a moment from the first half through to the second half that I was uneasy, and that is a huge thing to say based on how the last two years have gone. We exploited the space, which Stoke seemed to be allowing. This aids players like Azaz and he is very intelligent in picking up the space between the lines, which he did excellently today. It's the 'setup' we've all been crying out for, and you can immediately tell how easier it is for the players. Having Fellows hugging the touchline gives us a great out, as we saw time and time again in the first half particularly. Bree and Welington were able to concentrate on defending, which they were both very solid at to their credit. Special mention to Welington in particular who had his best game for us I felt. It does just play into what we've always said though - Leo and Fellows out wide, Azaz in the 10 and a 'presence' up top. Let the full backs defend and the wingers attack. It's not rocket science and it's no surprise that we look more comfortable playing this way. Not a spectacular performance, but solid and controlled in a way we haven't seen this season.

Wasn't that the same window where we tried really hard for Andy Reid at the time? I remember it being close at one point, so it all feel a little underwhelming when we added Prutton instead.

I remember that January, to be fair I think the fanbase was somewhat lifted at that point. Burley was in, we were adding players (Rasiak at that point was a prolific player at this level). I think the general consensus in the Jan window of 2006 was of positivity for the following season, in the sense something was being built. In many respects it was, as we ended the season strongly and came out the following season as one of the Top 6 - but what was being built was on very fragile financial foundations, we basically gambled on that playoff season. That 06/07 season (and the back end of the 05/06) wasn't terrible by any stretch, quite enjoyable in some aspects with the breakthrough of Bale added to it. Miles better feeling than we're at now.

The rather scary thing here is that we needed a striker with Downs gone, that was somewhat non-negotiable. (but they were playing on the Stewart back fit angle again, as predicted). But the rather worrying narrative is being put out in the media that we're 'desperately' looking for a striker in the wake of Armstrong's interest - hang on a second, they should have been 'desperately' looking for a striker since before January. But seemingly we need to lose two from our paper thin number 9 force in order to 'add'. Memories of the David McGoldrick striker log-jam days.

But would you spent big, just to position us to make a late charge into what is in effect 3 games of lottery? I'd just stick to loans, they will be out there - if our recruitment is half decent.

To be totally honest with you, this is probably the worst time to be looking at building your own gaming PC (you may have already done it though!). RAM/SSD/GPU shortages have ramped the prices up, RAM its's self has gone up 150% in some cases compared to last year. Pre-builds are better value as some of those companies have residual stock, but these are still creeping up in price compared to a year ago. I'd say give it a few months and check the market, maybe late spring/early summer. Avoid any PC World nonsense, look at places like PC Specialist or overlockers. I've used PC Specialist in the past and they're very good. Depends what you're looking for gaming wise/what games you play when it comes to the spec, but budget for 1.5-2.5k for something that will last 5-10 years. As long as your PC can keep ahead of the consoles (future proof when you spec it) then they'll have no issues with the latest games for years.

I hate playing Stoke, always the same. Crappy, scrappy games we often lose. Home or away. One of those genuine teams we never seem to win against.

He was probably on a 'list', I don't truly believe we interviewed him though. The club were live interviewing Tonda for weeks, so any other links were just tabloid filler as the club had already made their choice. It was probably made in the summer tbh, but acted on sooner than they envisaged - but Tonda's trajectory was decided the moment he was made U21 manager.

I'd say it's mainly due to this season being done, so there's very little point in spending anything at this juncture. It's one of the few times I'd agree with this approach, what would we gain from a splurge at this point? A late, but ultimately failed attempt at the playoffs? And then a pretty bleak financial picture (if it isn't bleak enough already) to broach in the summer. Clever loans are the way to go at this point, then re-asses in the summer. My genuine concern (and likelihood tbh) is that they'll reassess in the summer with the wrong people in charge (again), so it'll just be like groundhog day.

A good battling effort, can't fault the commitment - but I still feel pretty frustrated. We were brought down to their level in that 2nd half, and we didn't get going. I don't think we ever had total control and we let the long-ball, scrappy game take over - which is exactly what they wanted in the 2nd half. Once again I have serious concerns about Tondas ability (or lack of) to influence a game with substitutes, we conspired to get so much worse when he made those changes. In contrast, the skate changes actually improved them and their tactical shift changed their grip on the game. We didn't really do anything to regain any control after that, and those final 15 mins were pretty horrific from us. We shouldn't be 'holding out' against that lot. Good effort and all, but once again we've come up against a depleted (and already poor quality) Championship side, and are scrapping around trying not to lose. I just want this season to end now, not that it ever truly started.