January 2023 Transfer Window

[EBS1980]

Our summer transfer window was all about buying promising players, give them game time and hopefully develop them so in a couple of years they will be sold for big bucks.

We seemed to have forgotten about the here and now, players playing who aren’t good enough/ready for the PL. We needed some experience and know how to support 2/3 of these type of players.

im sure SR will want to protect their investment and relegation will see ABK and Lavia sold earlier and cheaper than they would want. What SR do now in this window really could define our next few years, whether we remain a PL side or become one of many fighting to get back in it.

Edited 27 December, 2022 by EBS1980
Typo

[Chez]

14 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

This was pretty easy to predict in the summer. Gakpo was already too good for Leeds or us. He knew it, his agent knew it, as did his international manager.

He just had to hang on and the big move would happen.

he may have had faith in his own ability, but it took a great start to the season and world cup before the big clubs did. Fair play to us and Leeds for trying in the summer. When Man United failed to come in for him, he might just have taken the next best option. Would have been brilliant to have got that boost of new talent.  Wasn't to be. 

[LGTL]

Knowing our fucking club they’ll probably bring in Broja on a loan deal to the end of the season. 

[Chez]

1 minute ago, EBS1980 said:

Our summer transfer window was all about buying promising players, give them game time and hopefully develop them so in a couple of years they will be sold for big bucks.

We seemed to have forgotten about the here and now, players playing who aren’t good enough/ready for the PL. We needed some experience and know how to support 2/3 of these type of players.

we did sign some experienced players too in Aribo, Carleta-Car, AMN and Cabellero that were for the here and now. ABK had a fair few games under his belt too and could well have been for the here and now. 

Livia, Bazunu, Edozie, Larios and Mara were your promising youngsters. 

The problem is perhaps more that the existing  players were not the best and none of the experienced guys coming in have really improved the first team. 

 

[FarehamSaintJames]

You need to blend youth with experience.

Our experience and leadership was already extremely weak in the summer window and was even weaker by the end of it.

Who are the leaders in the dressing room?

Who is the one rallying their team saying this isn’t good enough?

Who is calling out their teammate for being selfish or not tracking back, or for their lack of effort?

Quite simply none of them strike me as that type of person.

[Edmonton Saint]

Last time we were relegated we strengthened in January with Redknapp Jr, Barnard and Camara amongst others,  can’t help feeling this January is going to be eerily familiar.

[cloggy saint]

1 minute ago, Edmonton Saint said:

Last time we were relegated we strengthened in January with Redknapp Jr, Barnard and Camara amongst others,  can’t help feeling this January is going to be eerily familiar.

Should be ok, I'm pretty sure they've all retired.

[FarehamSaintJames]

3 minutes ago, Edmonton Saint said:

Last time we were relegated we strengthened in January with Redknapp Jr, Barnard and Camara amongst others,  can’t help feeling this January is going to be eerily familiar.

Yeah we’ll finish with a squad of 30/40 players and they still won’t be the right players.

I remember as a youngster looking at the back of a programme and seeing the shirt numbers 35 - 40 being taken just seemed absurd for my eleven year old brain.

[Roo1976]

24 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

You need to blend youth with experience.

Our experience and leadership was already extremely weak in the summer window and was even weaker by the end of it.

Who are the leaders in the dressing room?

Who is the one rallying their team saying this isn’t good enough?

Who is calling out their teammate for being selfish or not tracking back, or for their lack of effort?

Quite simply none of them strike me as that type of person.

JWP is supposed to do all the above

[Dark Munster]

I think we're one decent striker and one competent manager away from having a good chance of staying up. Unfortunately it's unlikely we'll get the former, and definitely not the latter (at least not until it's too late).

[East Kent Saint]

7 hours ago, Chez said:

he may have had faith in his own ability, but it took a great start to the season and world cup before the big clubs did. Fair play to us and Leeds for trying in the summer. When Man United failed to come in for him, he might just have taken the next best option. Would have been brilliant to have got that boost of new talent.  Wasn't to be. 

So he's off to Liverpool then .....

[bangkoksaint]

What concerns me (amongst other things) is that 4 days before the window opens there are no rumours or tangible links to potential early signings. I know we like to go below the radar but I’d be expecting something.

[Hawkswood]

After the starting 11 I saw yesterday and how they were played I genuinely don't think it matters who we sign.

[danjosaint]

14 minutes ago, Hawkswood said:

After the starting 11 I saw yesterday and how they were played I genuinely don't think it matters who we sign.

100% this, the team/tactics were a fucking shambles with no 'new manager bounce' 

Ralph has caused this and SR at totally at fault for not sorting this last season, how long do the warning signs have to be there before a competent board figure out the 'right way' to solve this rather than being clever pricks thinking this is a computer game

[Wade Garrett]

Buy a keeper.  We have been ripped off by City again.  Bazunu nowhere near good enough.

 

[MarkSFC]

When they are on peak form do we need to replace....

 

Gks...None good enough full time. Willy ok for odd games.

 

Defenders

 

KWP/Salisu/ABK/Tino...Good enough

 

Lauris/Lyanco/Prraud/Caleta-Car...jury out

 

Defensive Midfielders

 

Diallo...shocking

 

Lavia...Good enough

 

JwP...Good enough

 

Attacking Midfielders

 

Djeneppo/Walcott/Armstrong S/Moi....not good enough

 

Edozie....will be

 

Strikers

 

Adams...Good as the 2nd choice

 

Armstrong....no

 

Maura....too early

 

So I make it that at a minimum we need...

 

A GK

 

A DCM

 

A AttackingCM/winger type

 

A first choice striker. 

 

Will we get 4 players in January? 99.9% NO!

 

Will we get the most important one; a Striker? Probably. Will he be good enough? Unlikely🤣

 

We are doomed with this bloke at the helm. 

 

Why leave your best CB on the bench? 

 

Why play Bazanu after a bad game on Tuesday when you have the huge experience of Cabellero on the bench?

 

At least he saw Diallo was shocking and removed him but even that was 10-15 minutes late. 

 

Need a miracle window and a miracle turn around in performances next 4-6 weeks. 

 

Depressing. And I'm a very optimistic person🤣

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[david in sweden]

9 hours ago, LGTL said:

Knowing our fucking club they’ll probably bring in Broja on a loan deal to the end of the season. 

Not this season we won't .   He got an ACL injury last week and will be out for the duration.

[Saint Garrett]

Players good enough to be in starting XI: ABK, Salisu, KWP, Lavia, JWP, Adams.

Young players who aren’t ready yet but possibly fine for cameos off the bench: Bazunu, Larios, Edozie, Livramento Mara (cos of injury)

These probably aren’t good enough, or certainly aren’t good enough to be starting in the premier league. Possibly keep a few for squad depth: Macca, Caballero, AMN, Lyanco, DCC, Djenepo, Walcott, Aribo, Elyounoussi, Diallo, Armstrong x2, 

Unfortunately, we don’t have enough good players in the top bracket to survive IMO. Some of the ones in the bottom have the potential to be in the top…DCC, Perraud, S Armstrong, but that’s about it. 

so that’s leaves the following players needed in Jan: GK DM (assuming Lavia is going to continue having issues), AM x2 ST. And then possibly a LB. We just have ended up with so much crap in the squad, but if you buy players for 6-12m then likelihood is. They won’t be premier league level players. That’s what has happened. 

Edited 27 December, 2022 by Saint Garrett

[SambaMaverick]

The more I think about it, the more bonkers it is that we paid £11.5m for Sekou Mara.

Why? 

[InvictaSaint]

14 minutes ago, david in sweden said:

Not this season we won't .   He got an ACL injury last week and will be out for the duration.

I think that’s the point he was making. We’re so shit at recruitment we’ll bring in a crocked striker. 

[Saint86]

16 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

Players good enough to be in starting XI: ABK, Salisu, KWP, Lavia, JWP, Adams.

Young players who aren’t ready yet but possibly fine for cameos off the bench: Bazunu, Larios, Edozie, Livramento Mara (cos of injury)

These probably aren’t good enough, or certainly aren’t good enough to be starting in the premier league. Possibly keep a few for squad depth: Macca, Caballero, AMN, Lyanco, DCC, Djenepo, Walcott, Aribo, Elyounoussi, Diallo, Armstrong x2, 

Unfortunately, we don’t have enough good players in the top bracket to survive IMO. Some of the ones in the bottom have the potential to be in the top…DCC, Perraud, S Armstrong, but that’s about it. 

so that’s leaves the following players needed in Jan: GK DM (assuming Lavia is going to continue having issues), AM x2 ST. And then possibly a LB. We just have ended up with so much crap in the squad, but if you buy players for 6-12m then likelihood is. They won’t be premier league level players. That’s what has happened. 

Tough to disagree too much. I'd move DCC and S. Armstrong into the top bracket. I also think perraud is good enough for the prem (but he'll never be one of our best players).

Edozie (at current level) and moi are passable for a relegation scrapping team... But when you have moi, edozie, Che, and Armstrong as your combined set of attacker's it's basically fatal to our survival chances sadly. We'll waste so many guilt edge chances it's not even funny. 

We only have lavia as a competent CDM. This is shocking from a recruitment perspective and a massive reason for why we have struggled. 

Defence should be fine. Not sure why Jones started lyanco though... 

GK needs to be better. 

We need reinforcements at the start of January regardless of who the manager is. 

 

 

Edited 27 December, 2022 by Saint86

[Turkish]

12 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

The more I think about it, the more bonkers it is that we paid £11.5m for Sekou Mara.

Why? 

Look up his stats. That’ll tell you why. In fairness he looked great when he came on again Leeds, but barely had a look in this season 

[SambaMaverick]

4 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Look up his stats. That’ll tell you why. In fairness he looked great when he came on again Leeds, but barely had a look in this season 

All he's done aside from that pass vs Leeds is jog around lazily. If we added his fee to our super mega bumper summer warchest, who knows what superstar SR might have unearthed?

[Saint Garrett]

3 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Look up his stats. That’ll tell you why. In fairness he looked great when he came on again Leeds, but barely had a look in this season 

I don’t think much of him atm, but I think you can see he’s got something and I think he will be a competent player and probably one worth taking a gamble on. The larger issue being we took gambles on all of our signings this summer, but n positions we needed players to come in and hit the ground running. 

As most ppl said all summer, we had to sign a striker that was going to score 10-15 goals this season, and some out of nothing because of the lack of quality we have in behind the striker positions. Ings and Broja papered over the cracks, and it was clear to see that when Broja was out of form last season, we were awful. 

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

All he's done aside from that pass vs Leeds is jog around lazily. If we added his fee to our super mega bumper summer warchest, who knows what superstar SR might have unearthed?

I was being sarcastic when I said look at his stats, as that’s what the geeks seem to have based all our signings on. 

[saintant]

There's a lot to be done in this window. Unfortunately, if you have a keeper who is throwing goals into his own net every game your chances of gaining points are extremely limited.  Poor as we were as a collective yesterday, a half decent keeper prevents Brighton's first two goals.

[david in sweden]

Ralph's efforts kept us up for the last 3 seasons, despite the fact he had little transfer budget to play with .

The huge profit from the VvD deal disappeared in a rush of sub-standard signings, most of whom have already left the club.

The simple fact is that after losing Mane and Pelle, we haven't had a genuine goalscorer since (except maybe for Danny Ings)

Give credit to Ché Adams who has to battle his way past 3 defenders, but has never improved on the level of his Championship days.

Genuinely feel sorry for Adam A. but there's little more to be said about a player who tries his best, but never really got started.

 

Whilst we continue to sign wingers and midfielders, the whole issue is pointless (no pun intended) if we don't have a player

up top who can find the net on a regular basis. Our (young) summer signings look good prospects - on paper - and would be better 

if they were integrated into a side with more experienced names, but it's a pathetic show when we have to say our best player was

an 18 year old, who got kicked around the pitch for all his efforts.

 

IMHO  we might just survive with the defence (and maybe even the midfielders) we have, but we must sign  at least 2 strikers who 

know which way we  are kicking after half time, and rotate them - in pairs - until we find the right solution. 

 

[FarehamSaintJames]

9 hours ago, Roo1976 said:

JWP is supposed to do all the above

Doubt that.

He’s the club poster boy. He isn’t a leader. He doesn’t argue on the pitch, he doesn’t get in the refs face, he doesn’t even get into his teammates.

His head drops every time we concede.

He’s not a captain. Let’s not confuse a leader with someone that actually leads as compared to someone who has been at the club the longest.

[Miltonaggro]

I was looking forward to the transfer window opening as light at the end of the tunnel. With Jones the Steam on the footplate I’m now shitting myself that it’s a train coming! 

[Fitzhugh Fella]

As someone else has said I don’t think it matters who we get now. 

[Saint Matty 76]

3 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

As someone else has said I don’t think it matters who we get now. 

I don't agree with this. I do think a good January could keep us up, but I just don't think we're capable of it.

We need a goalscoring winger, a striker and probably an 8 at a minimum. I think we'll stick with McCarthy & Bazunu so no point hoping for something there.

I think Che and Edozie with two better players around them could be decent enough to give us somewhat of a chance.

[Sarisbury Saint]

3 hours ago, MarkSFC said:

When they are on peak form do we need to replace....

 

Gks...None good enough full time. Willy ok for odd games.

 

Defenders

 

KWP/Salisu/ABK/Tino...Good enough

 

Lauris/Lyanco/Prraud/Caleta-Car...jury out

 

Defensive Midfielders

 

Diallo...shocking

 

Lavia...Good enough

 

JwP...Good enough

 

Attacking Midfielders

 

Djeneppo/Walcott/Armstrong S/Moi....not good enough

 

Edozie....will be

 

Strikers

 

Adams...Good as the 2nd choice

 

Armstrong....no

 

Maura....too early

 

So I make it that at a minimum we need...

 

A GK

 

A DCM

 

A AttackingCM/winger type

 

A first choice striker. 

 

Will we get 4 players in January? 99.9% NO!

 

Will we get the most important one; a Striker? Probably. Will he be good enough? Unlikely🤣

 

We are doomed with this bloke at the helm. 

 

Why leave your best CB on the bench? 

 

Why play Bazanu after a bad game on Tuesday when you have the huge experience of Cabellero on the bench?

 

At least he saw Diallo was shocking and removed him but even that was 10-15 minutes late. 

 

Need a miracle window and a miracle turn around in performances next 4-6 weeks. 

 

Depressing. And I'm a very optimistic person🤣

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JWP has been shocking this season.

 

[badgerx16]

56 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

. I think we'll stick with McCarthy & Bazunu so no point hoping for something there.

Start Macca, Gavin B looks completely shot of what little confidence he might have had. At least McCarthy is used to playing behind our defence.

[Crab Lungs]

Doucoure, Everton or would be a start in replacing Romeu. Perhaps not quite our profile but someone who knows the PL and can be effective in the central areas is a must.

to say we’re a bit gappy is an understatement.

as for a striker, what is Mr Ings doing other than warming the Villa bench? A loan wouldn’t be a bad idea.

It is, after all, pretty much shit or busy time and we need to give it a real go.

[FarehamSaintJames]

1 hour ago, Sarisbury Saint said:

JWP has been shocking this season.

 

There’s a Twitter account called JustSaints that absolutely adores him and is backing JWP like he’s Jesus. JWP could start a world war and it would defend him.

Obviously it’s run by a random fan but judging by the teenage responses he defends JWP like Piers Morgan defends Cristiano Ronaldo.

The kind of account that uses stats like “JWP has made more passes in centre than any other CM”, and it’s like “Yeah because he passes two yards sideways every time, he still does fuck all with it”. 🤦🏻‍♂️

It’s very cringy viewing. And they’ve paid £8 a month for the blue verification tick, makes it all the more funny I suppose. 🤣🤣🤣

Edited 27 December, 2022 by FarehamSaintJames

[Appy]

 

[SuperSAINT]

Good lord. 

 

[Harry_SFC]

1 minute ago, Appy said:

 

WTF a new centre back is the least of our worries. As for re-calling Bednarek, please god no. 

[AlexLaw76]

2 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

Good lord. 

 

Why on earth are we in the market for a new CB?

[S-Clarke]

Just now, AlexLaw76 said:

Why on earth are we in the market for a new CB?

Playing Lynaco as front-sweeper to fill the Romeu void?

[woodsaint1]

2 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

Good lord. 

 

The only way we would be in for a new CB or recalling Bednarek is if we're planning on shipping one or two out. Salisu still not signed that new contract...

Not our priority right now 🤦🏽‍♂️

[Saint Matty 76]

It’s literally the last position we need. Incredible if it’s true but pretty sure that reporter is useless.

[Baird of the land]

One position we actually have depth is one where we are linked with recalling a failed player or bringing in someone new. Absolutely crazy if true.

[Disco Stu]

11 minutes ago, Appy said:

 

I refuse to believe this for my own sanity.

[saintant]

1 minute ago, Disco Stu said:

I refuse to believe this for my own sanity.

Agree, unless Salisu and ABK are off which wouldn't surprise me.

[davefizzy14]

13 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

Good lord. 

 

Thats got to be complete utter nonsense. Its obvious where we need to strengthen and it needs to be done right away.

[Miltonaggro]

13 minutes ago, Appy said:

 

WTAF! Feels like it's taken us years to get this position right, with AVK, Salisu and DCC appeared that we'd finally made progress.  Strap in for a second half season pairing featuring Lyanco and Bednarek at some point 

[M271]

Last February 7 of 11 yesterday started the matches to win at Spurs and draw at Man U. Those not out there yesterday were Forster, Bednarek, Romeu and Brojo. The first 2 can be replaced by McCarthy ( I know! but they are much the same level) and Bella-Kotchup (better than Bednarek imo), that leaves the loss of an effective dm and striker and that is where our priority should be in the January window. In the position we are in I’m not sure it is in the clubs interest to splash the cash but 2 loans of out of favour but proven themselves previously players maybe, I don’t know who that could be mind you!

I don’t think that our other players are in the main as bad as some make out on here but nearly all of them are lacking confidence, energy, organisation and commitment, that will need to improve quickly if we are to haul ourselves up the table and without that any signings won’t work. A team like Southampton has to get 100% out of their players and the team playing better together than the sum of the parts, we have been operating like that in spells in past 2 seasons and currently Fulham, Brighton and Brentford are.

[Suhari]

26 minutes ago, Appy said:

 

Is this guy credible?

Surely nonsense, unless we're cashing in on Salisu, and/or Lyanco is off.

[Dusic]

23 minutes ago, Suhari said:

Is this guy credible?

Surely nonsense, unless we're cashing in on Salisu, and/or Lyanco is off.

He is usually pretty credible.

Being objective, Lyanco isn't the answer and was a poor signing.

Salisu is definitely not signing a new contract before the end of the season and quite possibly not after either even if we stay up.

We keep conceding goals and lack leaders so perhaps they will feel its time to cash in on Salisu now and get someone a bit more experienced in.