S-Clarke

Wow, this was a blast from the past.

Your post will get a confused emoji very soon.

The Moussa one would be a weird one, given that he's signed a new contract, but if anything it shows the nonsense of him being given one in the first place as we're searching around for better wide players this window. I can imagine he will be surplus soon.

Confirmed - https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2023-01-20/announcement-jason-wilcox-southampton-football-club-director-of-football-2023

I think a lot of people are throwing Jackson in the bin because of his scoring record. People are incorrectly concluding that he is a centre forward. He isn't, he's a wide attacker who can operate from the left, right or sometimes in behind. That’s his game, an attacker with pace and power. He's not a goal scorer, so it seems unfair to see people saying he's shit just because his goal record is low - he's not a striker, so it's not going to be high. So, Jackson alone isn't a bad signing, he's a decent player who will add that pace and power we have been missing in those attacking thirds - I for one am all for this deal. But....he needs to be complimented with a striker, someone in the box who will convert the opportunities his direct running will create. I don't want us to end up with one and not the other, we need both to be honest.

Looking at it from a pure financial viewpoint, then yes, you could say the club were rightfully patting themselves on their back on that one. But as a football decision it was diabolical as we didn't correctly replace him which is why we find ourselves in big trouble, so the figure we got is totally irrelevant. If he now rocks up at keeps WHU up instead of us then it goes down as one of the worst sales we've ever made in my opinion. I’m sure the club won’t be patting themselves on the back then (to give the new lot some credit, this was before SR came in)

Yeah that's rightly pissed me off now, that is a disaster of a move. Would have been better off if he stayed at Villa, but now he will keep a rival up. Hope we've got something lined up, unlikley to ever be better than Ings though.

West Ham signing Ings for £12m would be a hammer blow (excuse the pun). They're down there with us, so that's another team you'd argue will be fine if that happens. I have a nasty sinking feeling that we're not going to get an out and out striker and we're focused on wide attackers, which won't help us a single bit. (well, maybe a bit - but not enough).

I think what you've said is what people are saying, really. No one has any problems with us signing Jackson per say, in fact he looks a quality attacking player that will get bums off seats.....but as you've said you hope we're after a striker as well, so I think it's fair to say that there will be a tinge of ''wtf'' if this guy is instead of that striker (that proper out and out striker).

That probably changes as the deadline edges closer, if they realise they're getting no takers by the end they may well accept a loan with an option (he'd have 12 months left at the end of that loan, so any fee would be affordable to us – dependant on staying up obviously). They've just signed a new young striker too, not one for their youth team either as they've spent £20m on him. My nervousness on this one is waiting until the death for a loan, it neve happening and then going into the rest of the season with no striker signing. That would just be infuriating.

Then it really doesn't make a great deal of sense IMO.

I think he's the sort of player we need, as we saw with our links to Gakpo in the summer. Not necessarily an out and out number 9, but someone who can offer physicality and pace in the wide area's and up front. I would hope and expect that he is in addition to a 'number 9' type though, as I still think we're screaming out for one of those. You can have all the attacking players you want (Orsic, Edozie, Jackson) but that's only one part of the puzzle, if you've only got Adams on the end of the chances then you're still not in a good place and not a lot will change.

It's all about the risk appetite though isn't it. Chelsea don’t have to worry about him flopping 2 years into his deal, they’d happily make a loss and wouldn’t blink. We can’t work like that. Just imagine if we'd have stuck Lemina or Hoedt on 7+ year deals, at the time they looked to be 'marque' signings but that would have killed us. I think 4.5-5yrs is about right for us, I wouldn't want us going any longer than that. Options are a good idea, but we're not usually privy to what goes into contracts.

What are the chances, the bell end Richarlison in the middle of that.

West Ham have tabled a £25m bid for Moffi apparently, that should be enough to do it. Worryingly Everton have also submitted a loan bid for Atalanta striker Duvan Zapatta - who is an absolute beast. We need to see some concrete links to strikers soon, bit nervous we're going to be where we were on Aug 31st at this rate.

No squad planning, even their fans say he's not really required. They need help in CM and CB. I just think 8 year contracts are just ludicrous, 5 years yep...maybe 6, but 8 is just stupid and such a risk.

It's a pretty good sign of his character that he was trusted to be thrown in there like that, in a place like Goodison. Technically he needs to be better as Chez alluded to above, but he showed some balls. Some of those blocks he made were crucial and that for me shows up his character, and if that's right then technically he will come to the fore shortly.

They're such a shambles though, what if he flops? They're not immune to spending big sums on players and then wanting shot after a year (Lukaku, Havertz, Werner to name a few). I just hate seeing clubs run like that. No planning on the squad side of it, no thought. This is the sort of behaviour that FFP needs to cut out for the protection of that club as well as the others in the league, but of course they're using loopholes to get around it.

They'll just go and sign a guy from Shaktar Donetsk for £100m and give him an 8 year contract.

They've got some dangerous players, but I thought they were absolutely horrendous against Leeds. They should have been done by many goals, their centre backs were just static and letting Leeds runners in time and time again. It was only Martinez and poor finishing that stopped a thrashing. It was a win that masked an incredibly shit performance in my opinion. They're almost certainly beatable if we go for their throat.

I must admit, I wasn't expecting to see Iwobi. He was stretched off with Oxygen in the last game, talk of broken bones and all sorts.

He reminds me of other young keepers who have come into this league and initially struggled. De Gea for one, and Kepa. Both a bit flappy when they first came here, but they did get better. I think it's way too soon to be writing this guy off, the things he does in games come across to me as a lack of experience rather than outright ability. I would agree that it's risky to have him in a struggling team right now though, and I'd have preferred a more experienced keeper with him on the bench, but we will just have to be patient.

I didn't realise I posted that in here

Chelsea have no real strategy, as shown by their bid for Lavia just a few weeks into his career here. They wait for other clubs to scout, then go sniffing and get them anyway (Felix another example). Not really sure what their end-goal is, they look all over the place.

Now I've got my breath back, I'll try and share some views. We didn't play badly at all, throughout the game. First half we had some good opportunities, we kept Everton at arms length for the majority of it and were only let down by awful set piece defending. From open play our shape and defensive discipline was spot on throughout the game. What we lacked in that first half was a bit of attacking balance. We had KWP left, Ely covering for Lyanco right side and it unbalanced us and removed our opportunity to break. The press was a little bit off as well because the players didn't seem as comfortable in their positions. As soon as we altered that in the 2nd half we looked more comfortable, KWP a key part in the JWP equaliser. Elyounoussi was also a little more free on the left hand side, although he is still a bit too slow for this league IMO. My MOTM was DCC, I think he's a monster of a CB. He adds the composure and calmness that so often goes missing in Lyanco's and Salisu's games, so he compliments those two really well. He's getting better and better with more game time. This was a huge win, make no bones about it. So pleased with the character to turn around a game like that, it was huge and it will add even more belief to this group. I can see what we're trying to do now, against Forest I think we were rightfully all very confused and bewildered, but the last few games we have a clear approach and the team shape is bringing the best out of certain players. If we can get ourselves a real number 9 (Adams tries, but he does struggle when he's isolated) then I think we have an excellent opportunity.