S-Clarke

I would probably look at this appointment as more of an SR one, rather than a dedicated Southampton one. Sure, he'll have most influence on us as of today but they'll use him across their club portfolio when that builds. It does seem as if SR have an odd fetish with City it has to be said, but I think they're looking at their multi-club model and trying to put in similar foundations by recruiting people who are schooled in that environment. The elephant in the room in all of this is Jones though, it just doesn't line up with anything else they're doing.

Agree, not enough concrete on this at the moment. Half-hearted links to Akpom, Beto and Moffi aside there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of concrete links. Whilst we do need reinforcements in attack, i.e wide/creativity etc, we surely cannot ignore the need for the focal point up top. Otherwise, what we're doing is just pointless, and it's frustrating because we're doing some good stuff, as we did in the summer (lavia/ABK), but if we continue to ignore that ST position it just renders anything else we do as pointless.

This approach isn't a surprise, and actually it's how all these multi-club models work. It's the only way it would work really, economies of scale and all that. I can see why the likes of Crocker and co are leaving, and I can also see how we are attracting the likes of Shields/Wilcox - as they will be part of SR, not just ourselves. Equally they have experience of working in a multi-club model at Man City.

The media will have us believe that it was Redknapp who discovered and developed him!

Yeah I don't know where time is going at the moment! It feels like only yesterday I was watching Bales debut. Now he's retired, and David Beckham's son has rocked up at Brentford FFS.

They're actually counting Alcaraz. Basically they have no idea.

Thanks for that, ok sounds like he's more of an AMC then rather than a conventional CM. We do need legs in the attacking third of the midfield to do just what you say though, drive forward and carry the team into the opposition half. I would argue we are still crying out for a more physical deeper lying CM though. Character is a plus, will be interesting to see how quickly he can adapt. Long contract until 2027 too.

Yeah I think it was nonsense if anyone expected a signing on day 1, given Christmas/bank holidays and the such! We've moved quickly in my opinion, almost got the 2nd and we're on the 9th Jan. Still a bit nervy that we haven't got that key centre forward though. That's one I'd have hoped we'd have lined up a bit earlier.

Thanks for your input. I've never seen Alcaraz play, is there anyone in the current European leagues you could compare him with? Is he another Alexis Mac Alistair, or more of a Leandro Perades or Rodrigo De Paul type?

Ok, I think it's safe to watch the youtube videos on this guy now! I always assumed this guy was a wide player, but he's actually more of a CM (number 8). So he'll be our CM signing, now just a CB and ST to go.

This is playing out exactly as it did at Stoke. He was at loggerheads with their fans most of the time, disagreeing with their opinions and being all defensive. I’ve seen some Stoke fans describe him as treating the entire fanbase with contempt when he was there. He obviously hasn't learnt sod all from that experience going by his press conferences with us. One win at Palace doesn't change anything, that Forest game will live long in many peoples memories as one of the worst, if not the worst, 90mins I've ever had to watch at St Mary's. If we see any more of that then there is only one way this ends.

Is it safe to start watching YouTube videos on this guy yet? I avoided doing that for Gapko just to avoid the disappointment. It does sound as if Alcaraz is being signed as our CM option, it doesn't seem as if he's a wide attacker.

I still think he was up there with Ronaldo and Messi for a couple of years, he won Real the Champions League a couple of times - pretty much single handily. Benzema, Ronaldo and Bale were a frightening 3 and dominated for a good few years. That’s why I’ll never understand the hate Real fans had towards him, he contributed loads to them even if it was condensed into 2 or 3 years.

He's obviously aware of the fans opinion of him, he posts on here at the end of the day so he's seen it all! Against Forest 'long ball' wasn't a myth, it's what I watched for 90mins. Long ball into the channels. Chris Cohen was even directing Salisu to do such a thing, at which point Salisu did it and then shrugged his shoulders (if anyone else noticed that). We weren't long-ball against Palace, but Forest was pretty frightening.

I reckon Alcarez is one of the guys already over here, sounds like that will happen. I hope we're not setting ourselves up for disappointment on the striker front though, that simply cannot be an option. For me a ST was always the biggest priority, attacking midfielders next on the list. If we get Orsic and Alcaraz but still drop the ball on a striker then it's all rather pointless and another massive ballsup. Beto would be good on attributes alone, but I’ve not seen any concrete links to him and we’d have seen then by now.

We've not been blessed with superstars in this team for many years, so anyone half decent is likely to be somewhat pined for when they're not playing. Armstrong is half-decent, no more than that. His lung busting runs and threat from deep were fun to watch, but it didn't really happen enough if we're totally honest. He wasn't particularly consistent and his injury record has been very poor. He's still one of our better players for sure, but that's more of a damming indictment of the rest of our players in that attacking third rather than Armstrong being a world beater.

He was up there with the best for a couple of years, it did peter out a little though. If I'm honest he should have retired some time ago, but he obviously wanted a last swansong with Wales at a World Cup which you can't really begrudge! I remember his debut against Millwall back in 2006, one of the last home games of the season I think. He owned that left side, so much power and pace at a young age. It's making me feel pretty old to have seen these guys make their debuts (Theo/Bale) and now they're retiring, or on the brink of!

This is the mega confusing thing for me. When we were going for the likes of Selles, Shields etc in the summer it suggested that we were after the top 'young' talent in all area's, not just playing staff. Like you said, going for someone like Liverpools assistant would have made a bit more sense in terms of our approach. Jones just seems a really odd divation away.

Jesus-h-christ.

Started crap, thought it would be same old. Palace could and probably should have had a couple in the first part of the 1st half. From about 30 mins we got to grips with it, kept the ball a bit but didn't actually create anything of note. A bit huff and puff. 2nd half we came out more on the front foot, more aggressive, more in their faces and it worked. I don't care who the defender is, they will always hate being pressed and that's what we did well in the 2nd half. There is a tinge of frustration that we couldn't play like that against Forest, and part of me wonders if once again the players are wilting under the pressure in the league, but a win is a win and you have to take them at the moment no matter where they come. Could build some momentum, could be a false dawn. Hope we get a decent draw in the next round.

I imagine this guy is going to be our Crocker replacement and Joe Shields replacement wrapped up in one.

It's often a good sign when fans at his previous club hold a player in such, such high regard. He's not just 'liked' by their fanbase, he's absolutely adored and has legend status over there. Bit of a late bloomer at 30, but it's weirdly refreshing to see us adding someone who has done it at the highest level of mens football - not kid football.

You're getting a little bit too overemotional LGTL. He's not purposely come in to break us with an agenda, as others have said he's taken a well paid job like we would all do if we were offered it. It's not his fault he's out of his depth, the people who recruited him take the blame for that.

Yeah I wondered that, I think it was Baird who he said had noticed that. We'll find out soon I guess, couple of bits on twitter I saw over the last few days suggested he'd done his ACL or MCL. Seemed a bit innocuous.

To be fair I did admit that I over-egged that, as I even admitted a lack of an attacker is going to kill us. I guess I was excited by the early showings of ABK and Lavia that it clouded my judgement a bit! I don't think our recruitment was all bad in the summer though, we had the right idea and definitely targeted some good young players, better than we have in previous years...but we didn't back it up with the established quality we also needed which has become even more apparent as the weeks went on.