MarkSFC

I think it's fairly obvious that we need a CB (a left footed one at that) but I doubt it will be today or tomorrow that we sign him. Yoshida is not reliable for more than the odd game or three or as a sub but if he was needed for a run of games due to an injury to Fonte or VVD I'm certain our goals against column would increase more rapidly! Gardos is still injured I assume but even not none of really know if he's good enough but the little we saw of him suggests not.

http://wall.saintsfc.co.uk/Article/1728681-ON-THIS-DAY-Moran-strikes-to-knock-out-Pompey

I'm guessing that part of the Townsend to Newcastle reason is the home-grown quota rather than literally because he's a good player....the best they can get that's home-grown!

I knew who you meant. It's called humour. People have bust ups and disagreements all the time. Easy to make things up given recent comments in the media.

Just because he ain't playing? Sell him then.

I'm not as bothered as some on whether Wanyama stays especially if we can get around £20m for him. I think he is excellent when the team are mainly in control of the game (like Saturday) and when the pace of the opponents is not overly quick, and also when they are more runners with the ball than quick passers. When teams play quickly through midfield (like Watford) he gets turned more and caught out of position more and when he is running back towards our goal I think he is far more liable to errors. Thats not to say he is poor but he has this weakness. Against teams like Watford our high energy midfielders like Clasie and Romeu are far more suitable and I think we will come up against more of these types of teams especially if we get back into Europe. I hope he stays because like Saturday he can control a game but £20m would be a good fee and I'm sure we would find a younger model and a cheaper model!

Terence Kongolo?!!

Youre obsessed!! Its called market forces....the fact that Hull only signed him a few months previously was exactly why it took 12m to get him (Steve Bruce said as much at the time "too good an offer to turn down" to parphrase). We ONLY paid 10m for Forster so overall £22m the pair seems excellent value to me.....swings and roundabouts.

You seem to want to justify that the price is too high by saying he is a squad player. The vital point that you and many others do not get is that Premier League football is all about THE SQUAD. In every team especially in clubs of our size we will have a handful of players who likely play every game or at least the majority. In our club the quality of our "squad players" as you put them is vital to our quality overall. The problem with talking numbers is that they all sound ridiculous compared to us mere mortals who earn less per year than they do each week so they appear high. The club however simply (although it isn't simple) need to balance the books to fall in line with FFO as you say whilst maximising quality. Looking at individual players is a mistake, because some we will over pay in some people's opinions but under pay in others. Given how much we have sold players for supposedly paying over the odds for one player really shouldn't be seen as a problem. To be fair if Long plays how he did Wednesday every week he's worth double!!

Well said, those who do not see the value of Long do not understand football. He is on course for 12-15 goals this season, very decent and adds loads more than goals. He wont always be first choice but he is great off the bench when defenders are tired and he is great when we want to play a high tempo game. He was brilliant on Wednesday. I'd pay £12m again for him every time, the number is almost irrelevant nowadays.

Absolutely we should of and would of. We need him now.

" I'm clearly not good enough yet....I must work harder, and be patient, or move on"

I think Koemans comments in the last few weeks are more about frustration with the players, with results, with injuries. Mostly performances have been ok to good and we still out play in terms of possession and passing football the vast majority of opponents. You dont become a poor manager overnight nor do you become a good one overnight, same with players. I think we are now in a vital moment in our recent history (since the re-incarnation business wise) and we now need a manager who will be around for a few years not just 2-3 because the potential development of the club and of the team is much smaller than is has been in the last few years and so we are more likely to achieve that with someone who understands that and accepts it rather than someone who wants to come in and make a big impact. Koeman does not seem to have an ego but he certainly has ambition and I would love him to sign for a long period but if he is not committed to sign BEFORE the opening of the summer window then we need to make the change then. I also beleive that a small part of the players attitude that they will be here for 2-3 years before they get their big club move is albeit unintentionally I'm sure, ingrained by the clubs recent history of manager tenures. Its a bit catch 22. If Koeman is fed up with the attitude he needs to set the tone himself and sign on the dotted line.

Good. You clueless ****

Lallana, Walcott, Bale, Oxlade, Shaw, all "progressed to the first team" when the first team was playing at a lower level, League One, Championship of fighting to stay in the Premier League. Despite our "current form) our teams level of performance and standard is now the highest it has been for a very long time, and the goal of the club is to move regularly into the top 6. By definition the standard required to get into the first team squad let alone the team is higher than ever (excluding early 80's) ad as such players need to better than the players mentioned at the same age....extremely difficult if not impossible. Some on here have mentioned the statement by Les Reed regarding not sending players out on loan and at the time it was the right stance, now as the club has improved and players need to be better as mentioned to break through, our internal process does not do everything needed and so a loan is needed. Look at Stephens and Turnbull, rated by many as the next ones coming through but they are not good enough to play even at Championship level. They need a bit more time. The reality is though that very few of the top 6 teams produce players who at 19-22 are coveted by the top 6 teams or are playing regularly for them, they inevitably buy them from lesser clubs who's system has allowed for the specific development players need from 18-22 and that is playing regular first team football against older men and not their peers. Arsenal have a reputation for developing players when in fact they buy players in the 18-22 age group and turn them into decent players (or not...). Currently we are in between being able to produce decent 18-22 and needing to buy 18-22 year old. I anticipate the next few years we will be needing to buy more 20-23 year old than those who come through our system to play for us. We are more likely with the current 18-22s to produce decent low level Premiership or Championship standard players which is still a positive. The players who shine early are generally those who develop physically quicker - they have maximised their "strength window" and or their "speed window" in earlier year and so stand out. Once players get to 17/18 they have missed these windows and so development in these areas are slower or even static and it is then more about the sport specific skill set, and learning consistency. They key to getting high class 18-22 year olds is more to do with what happens at 11-16 than 17-20 or older and the rate of improvement will be seen in 17-20 if 11-16 has been excellent. One point of this is that there seems to of been some changes at lower level academy over the last couple of years so maybe this has been the problem, but I do not think that one first manager is necessarily better at producing the youth than any other they are merely the beneficiary of the academy development. Pardew and Adkins were lucky we were competing lower down, Poch got lucky with Chambers even though its clear he moved too soon in his development, and Koeman is unlucky. I doubt we will see a "youngster break though" for a couple of years....Slattery perhaps, maybe Little. Until then we will see players go out on loan and be sold to lower level teams. We've had a great cycle over the last 5-6 years, a 2-3 year lull is almost inevitable.

Moyes would be a the long term manager I think we need in the fact that he has had a go at the big job, been abroad and not been successful albeit probably wasnt given the time he deserved. Given the fact he stayed at Everton for a decade suggests that is his natural inclination - to stay somewhere for quite a while. Although the club seems set up to be able to handle a new manager (and staff) every 2-3 years I think that can only work in a short time and when the club is making bigger steps up year on year as oppossed to where we are now where improvements are merely a place or two and a cup run. In this scenario stability is far better for a club of our size and budget. Going for Howe may be good but if he moves from Bournemouth to us I would think he would be doing it because his ambition lies higher. Mourinho / Benitez would never come here. Adkins is just not good enough. Its strange actually that as good as we have been at producing excellent players and a significant number of players who have forged good professional careers we do not seem to have anyone who is "ours" who would be good enough to manage us. Monk, NO! I think this next few months if RK is not willing to sign an extension - I would love him too, but you know Barcelona and Holland will always be in the background - we should get Moyes in the summer and give him 5 years.

Whilst I get the whole "sustainable model" approach I do think that we went backwards over the summer because we seemed to go for quantity over quality. VVD and Clasie (they will both be very good) are the exceptions. Cedric, Martina, Juanmi are just squad fillers and not great at that. We will never know the real story behind the scenes and never know exactly who we target but when your club has sold 4 players for 20-25m and another 2 for 12-16 the lack of any signing up towards the 20m is basically short changing the fans. I dont expect 15-20m signing in January but if we do not sign a couple in that region in the summer we will be heading back down to The Championship because everyone else around our size are doing so/will likely do so. The numbers sound big and in literal terms they are but they are all relevant to the income which significantly increase next year. I think most Saints fans would agree that Wjineldum for 15m is a steal and if he was in a better team he would be even more effective. Its clear that Wanyama and Mane will be off in the summer and we should get near to 50m the pair. I would be very disappointed if that does not buy 3-4 players rather than 6-7. What we need this month is Austin and Townsend. But I'm not hopeful.......

What part of not good enough to play for Boro makes anyone think he is anywhere near our squad let alone starting. The obsession with "homegrown" over talent is amusing; I'm sure many would rather we had 11 homegrown players in the team every week even if that menat League 2.

Calander year 11th http://http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-top-chelsea-eighth-and-watford-survive-the-2015-premier-league-table-by-calendar-year-a3146491.html

Excellent post, I was thinking something similar before reading this so thanks for saving me sme time and probably putting it in a better way. It will not be a season to season success for us but as long as the Academy continues to produce every 2-4 years we will get a couple gems, get the enjoyment for a while and then make the money and so it continues. Its tough to see all these players we produce move on to other clubs but who can blame them really - we all would - we should take pride in that we have a club who is doing things the correct way. As long as we stay in the Premier league for decades to come then that is real success.

Last January we needed a new striker as we only had Long, Tadic, Pelle and Mane. Currently we only have Mane Long and Tadic. We didnt buy anyone and we faded to seventh albeit a great position. Koeman has stated this week that he will only sign a striker if at the end of this coming week it looks like Pelle (and JRod to a lesser degree) are not going to get back very quickly. He has also said this week that despite the 8-0, 6-0, 4-0 wins even last season as well as this we do not score enough or consistently enough. Last season we had a fantastic "back 7" (Forster, Bertrand, Fonte, Alderwield, Clyne, Morgan and Wanyama) and for many reasons we only currently have 3 of them in the side. The effect of the change has been significant since the start of the season because despite what happened last season new players do not always gel that quickly, especially not a whole unit like that. With this is mind, last season we were the best defensive unit so the lack of goals was not as important, however this season we are letting in almost twice as many therefore the lack of goals has a much bigger impact. The team though are in a lot of patches still playing good attractive football but without the goals, the pressure mounts but also this seems to prove to me that its not in the midfield/defensive "back 7" tat needs help its the front 4. So if Koeman/the club (whoever, its all the same in the end) commit the same error as last season then we really will be in trouble. We did get Djuricic and the winger (I forget his name!!) but they had little impact. We need to look to sign someone who can come straight in, hard of course but we need to do it and then balance the books in the summer by getting rid of Wanyama, Yoshida, Cedric, Juanmi, JWP and go again. This window will tell us alot about Koeman and alot about the club.

Koeman has said in his press conference that depending on the fitness of Pelle and JRod we may sign a striker but is not after any other positions as he's happy with everyone. Not sure whether that's a slight dent in his judgement or a clever public backing of his team!

Get rid of VW, looks lost, and seems to be out of position far too much. Get in Austin, Townsend and another CM. Or even another CB and see whether VVD can be DCM. Get Byram in.

I don't think Romeu is a CB. Just sign two!

Here's a radical thought....Virgil Van Dyjk. Has the tackling ability, passing range and clearly has a good shot on him. Morgan never scored many, I this lad could. Easier and better all round to move him forward and get another CB (or two actually!)