S-Clarke

Yeah nothing ITK there, just a strong assumption that we will sign a striker, otherwise we're dead in the water.

**** me we need a striker.

Club were caught in a difficult position really, but it was a fair stance and they stood by their word - can't fault them for that. Unfortuntley VVD has turned out to be a bit of an idiot, although he's played and hasn't dropped any clangers, you can see his level has dropped and he looks disinterested, the fact he doesn't get the captain's armband says it all for me. Give the club their due, they made a stance, but they now need to do what is right and let him go in order to strengthen the rest of our side.

Because we wouldn't be relying on Long to score all our goals.

Pretty much, it shouldn't really be a surprise that we're strugging to score goals when those are our creative force. Boufal and Hoj should play every week for me, let them build up some understanding and form. Midfield 3 of Hoj, Lemina with Romeu sitting deepest. Boufal playing off of Gabbiadni and.....our new signing...(whoever that may be). Push Cedric and Bertrand forward to create the width, get Hoj and Lemina to cover full back when they push forward as they're the most mobile. We kinda played that way against Everton at home and it worked, but then we changed it again. Although one positive, we haven't had many blanks recently.......it's just the other end that is screwed now.

To be honest, our signings in the summer were better than previous windows (Bedranek aside). More along the lines of proven first team quality who go straight in and improve the 11, so a couple more of them this window and we may swing ourselves around. We do of course also need a manager who is able to coach and pick a consistent 11...

Need to just keep an eye on the GD, that's all I'm looking at for this game.

Long is not a goal scorer, he has never been one. He is a handy support striker to someone clinical/better (i.e Mane/Pelle) and he will probably chip in with the odd goal, but having him as a 'focal' point is destined to end as a faliure. Not sure why the club can't see that. Might as well just get shot of him.

Ok, so we're approaching what is likely to be our most decisive transfer window in recent times. Get this wrong and it will have huge repercussions. What do we need to do? Ship out some of the squad to free up space and wages - Long, Gardos, Bedranek (loan), VVD, McQueen (loan), Pied, McCarthy. Use the funds to strengthen the entire squad. New GK - Someone good enough to push Fraser immediately. New CB - Replacement for VVD - someone who could form a partnership with Hoedt long term. New ST - Absolute must, given that we're now probably missing our only goal scorer for most of the season. We need someone strong, quick, tall- someone in the ilk of Aboubakar at Porto (not saying he is realistic, but that 'type' of player). New attacking midfield player - Again, an absolute must for me. Someone who can play across the front 3, but someone who actually has genuine pace and the ability to get in behind and stretch teams. It's all way too safe and predictable right now. New RB - Someone to push Cedric who we can rely on - as we seemingly don't want to use Pied. Big bucks to be spent on a CB and ST. Key attributes for any new additional would be pace, power, strength and height. Get that injected back into the spine of this team. This transfer window will show a lot about us as a club and it's time to put this fabled 'black box' into action.

He didn't even respond to Lallana's phone calls FFS.

They look almost as bad as us, not quite though.

We still miss Fonte though, more so his leadership. He was on his last legs and needed to be replaced sooner rather than later, but we handled his exit like a bunch of idiots and didn't even bother replacing him. We kind of did this summer with Hoedt, but even this is now all a bit of a mess as we're still down one with VVD. Recruitment has been a big issue here.

To be fair any influence he did have wasn't going to disappear over night. Pretty naff coach by all accounts, should have gone in the summer - our new manager should have been strong enough to say so, but the club wanted to keep the Watsons/Black's around.

I heard that Tadic was 'described' as the cancer of the changing room by a fellow first team player (who is on the fringes). Make of that what you will.

I remember back in the summer Koeman was gone (and Mane etc) we were told by our reliable ITK's (K,billy, GUAN etc) that the entire club is having a change of direction/change of approach, yet it was never eluded to as to what that was. Now we know! In all seriousness, I have a feeling that certain people at the club didn't like the power that Koeman had, so the new approcah after he was 'gone' was to pull the reigns back a bit and allow more input from wider voices at the 'club' on first team affairs - hence why we've hired two realitvley subdued managers. Another telling thing for me was the signing of Redmond without a manager in place, that should have rung alarm bells. We miss a strong leader at the top of it all. I know people talk about modern football being all about the club/not just the manager etc, that's how you're succesfull etc , but I don't really buy that. The manager should be your focal point, everything goes through him and he should be a strong enough character to handle it.

He is the slowest quick player I've ever seen. In the side seemingly for his pace, yet he just slows it all down. Does he actually have pace, or is it just a myth? If he doesn't have pace then he probably shouldn't be a professional footballer as I'm not sure what else he has.

He probably will once he's put in a team with the right players around him. He's better when he's alongside a 'big man' and he can run in behind, we've been trying to play him as our lone striker for the last 18 months hence his low goal return. He's always been a support player, same as Gabbiadani really, but we keep playing them as single strikers and seemingly recking their confidence. Puel was as bad with this one up front fixtation. If you had the right player, fair enough, but we don't.

Stephens was great last season, one of the shining lights. But even he is regressing at the moment. I'd say all of our team are playing below themselves, they're all better than this with a decent structure around them. It's really clear to see a well coached team, but it's also really clear to see one which isn't coached - or one which isn't following the orders - and this is one of them.

To be fair, Puel and MPe have had their leading CB's sold from under them with no replacements inbound (other than dross like Bedranek). I still don't think Yoshida is our biggest issue, I know there are some who seemingly hate the bloke, but there are much bigger issues with our squad than Maya.

*sigh*

We never win with Redmond, our biggest win against Everton came when he was benched. It's either coaching or the fact that he is an absolutley awful player, probably a mixture of both to be honest. He should be nothing more than a squad filler, but the sad fact is that he clearly came in to replace Mane's pace.

The squad we have is so lopsided, we have some good players - undoubtably - but some huge holes right down the spine of the team which haven't been addressed. CB, CM, AMC/ST. All area's which are currently short on quality, pace and power. As people have said, in this league you need pace/strength and power. We don't have any of that in midfield apart from Romeu, and even he looks off it. In attack we simply have nothing, absolutley nothing. We can't mix it as we have no focal point, we can't get in behind as we have no pace, we can't build through the middle as we have no number 10. There are good elements to this squad but some glaring holes that a competent manager should be able to resolve/see. It could be that Les is going to allow MP to re-invest in January to plug those holes, but particulary over the last month or so all I've seen is our current players regress and no genuine attempt to impose any sort of playing style. We really are a bit of a non-team and I'm not sure I'd be happy to have his input in a £60m reinvestment spree.

''Thanks for the oppertunity to Southampton, but I'll have to admit that I'm a little bit out of my depth here. So it's best I leave and allow someone to come in with a bit more clout who can get the best out of what is a very unballanced/confused but ultimatley talented squad.''

Doubt it would make the blind bit of difference to be honest if the 9 in front of him are running around aimlessly.

Pointless keeping him if he's just a toxic waste of space, best to get the $$ in and add some players who want to be here. I don't think we'll replace VVD though, we probably see we've already done that with Hoedt and Bedranek.