S-Clarke

This is just what you have to accept with players such as Azaz, it's very similar to how Tadic was perceived by some fans during his time here. They will go missing, they won't always be in the game, but they'll have moments in the game which can potentially change it up through a bit of imagination or forward skill. These players don't run at that output 90mins a game, but you play them and get them into as much space as possible, because they have more chance of doing it than others.

There was an initial investment in that first window, but even that was executed all wrong. That was the moment their entire model failed before it had even started. £160m spent and a load of absolute crap we've struggled to offload since (bar Lavia). Like you say, they benefited hugely from that relegation by selling JWP, Tino, Tella etc. We didn't spend much in the transfer window under Martin, the big 'fire sale' in 2023 was used to fill those mistakes from the previous windows. You'd hope they'd learnt when we got promoted, but they did it all wrong again. Splurged £120m on players we are now struggling to shift, bar Fernandes. They lucked out with Dibling, as he was nothing to do with them, and this has allowed us to splurge this year - jury is out to see if things pick up longer term with the spend this summer, but sitting bottom half of the Championship is a suggestion it won't. You'll see this summer that it'll be all about THB, Downes, Charles, Leo etc being sold - and we won't hugely reinvest as it will be used to plug the financial holes which are getting bigger by the month. Expect to see the likes of Bragg, Quarshie, Bree (he'll get a new contract), Robinson start to play roles in the team to fill the gaps of those who have left. I fear for the future of this club with these charlatans remaining in charge. They don't know how to run a football club, they have no footballing experience at the top levels and they are dragging us down at record levels. That 5 year climb from the abyss is about to be erased, and I don't think we come back this time. At least we have an arcade though.

And from their first window, the only player still at the club now is Edozie and he doesn't even play. They haven't got a fricking clue.

Replacing our top scorer with a player who hasn't got a league goal this year is a smart move, some clever outside of the box thinking from SR there. At this point I think we're some form of social experiment/trolling exercise. Not holding anything against him, hope he does well and scores some goals. But we needed more than him, certainly as we've lost Fraser, Downs and Armstrong from our attack in the window.

Thanks for those 2 games? But yeah, not going to be missed. So SR's first transfer window was such a huge success, the only player still at the club today from that 2022 splurge is Edozie and he doesn't even get into the squads. The writing was on the wall as soon as SR got their grubby fingers involved.

Someone needs to give Dragan's trusted football advisor, Rasmus, that memo then.

This is the SR model to a tee. In the SR mantra, this will go down as a huge, huge success in scouting, player trading and group movement. They don't care for the individual clubs per say, it's all about the group. To them, that will be a £20m profit into the group - they just used us to move him around to start with. This will justify the entire model sadly. We're just a pawn. We're not a football club anymore in any meaningful way.

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.