S-Clarke

It would be peak Southampton if we fail to get our CF, yet on deadline day we announce a new contract for this buffoon. Got nothing against him and he tries hard, does a lot for us off the ball, but as an attacker - at this level - he is just pointless and not worth having out there.

That's what I mean, he's a left winger. He needs to play there, that's where he played 90% of the time for Zagreb and where he played 100% of the time for Croatia. On the left, cutting in and shooting at goal. Jones has good tools there, but the question is does he actually know how to use an international level player.

Part of me thinks the club is still trying to avoid 'overpaying', but that is (and this is their own fault) the only way we get the quality we need now. We have to overpay both the club (they know we need a player) and the player, to convince him. If the club are still trying to do deals that 'work for us' then nothing will change. The time for that was in the summer, but we didn't do it, so they made this bed and now need to pay over the odds.

He has a World Cup third place winning, Croatian international left winger on the bench, yet seems reluctant to select him. That needs to change

Not sure why he is being singled out, that was a typical Adams performance. If he had an Ings alongside him he'd him we'd have probably won, with Ings scoring, and Adams work would have been lauded. He's a work horse, not a finisher and as a club we are hanging the guy out to dry by pretending he is a lone PL forward.

He's very flappy, inexperienced and looks a shell confidence wise. When you are wondering when McCarthy is back you kind of have to admit the club dropped (another) GK clanger over the summer. No problem with us signing players like Bazunu in addition to others, but we're hanging them out to dry a bit when they're our 'first' choices. Leno available in the summer, £6m. But we had this 'Let's find Tino' fixation on one of the most important areas of the team. Why does this club always think it's 'cracked' it when something works out once?

Bit harsh I think. I didn't ever see him as a first team player, more of a young kid punt. What was he, £3-4m ish? Peanuts at this level, so it wouldn't have been a case of him and no one else. Still too early to say either as he's not really played for us, still got a lot of development to do. I'd say he was seen as a development signing rather than a first team one.

Talk about hanging a kid out to dry, they both need help in the form of a proper experienced centre forward. Adams will never be that, so we need to drop the hope he will become one as that won't get us anywhere. Mara may well become that, but he's way too young to be carrying that. If the club remain fixated on wide attackers in isolation and ignore the CF area then they're odd.

Back to earth with a bump really. I didn't think our overall game was THAT bad, but the same old problem continues to haunt us and will continue to haunt us until we sort it out - our centre forwards and 10's are truly, truly inept. Armstrong had a chance on the pen spot, but he didn't take it. For a team who doesn't score goals as it is, it's absolutely infuriating that the few chances we get fall to players who are just horrendous. For me, the Armstrong experiment is over - he's not for this level, runs a lot and has a bit of pace, but technically one of the most limited players I've ever seen play for us at this level. Adams works hard, has physicality, but is not a lone player as we keep saying. He needs 'quality' alongside him to bring the best out of him, we should not be hanging Adams out to dry like we are. Filling the team up with wide players is not going to fix the problem, surely the club can't be that blind. Midfield, which has been decent for the last few games, was very weak - but what contributed to that is our lack of control or ball retention, Diallo in particular is still one of the worst CM's we've ever had so i really hope we take the opportunity to replace him, as he's absolutely shit. Not sure why Orsic isn't playing, he needs to start in place of Elyounoussi. Fair enough he might work hard, and his off the ball stuff is good, but from an attacking impact point of view (which is what we need) he is again one of the worst ever players we've had in the PL. So the crux is that we're continuing to carry players who are not good enough for this level and until that changes we will remain bottom. The chances of getting out of this are pretty slim now I think, I'm pretty resigned to it - I don't see us getting anywhere near enough points now, and we're pissing away the games where we should be getting those points. One of the worst seasons supporting this club for sure, because everything we've done up to now is 100% self inflicted.

We've moved from right backs to left wingers now. Hopefully at some point we become obsessed with strikers.

He had been playing for Chelsea, but he did his ACL and apparently his MCL - so a very, very significant injury for the lad. Hope he's ok, but given his game was pretty centred around explosive pace you do have to wonder if he'll ever be the same after this.

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.