January is a bad time to buy unless you have someone lined up already. Few players available and high prices. We have had a couple of good January buys though, so possible. However, is the money available....the owner has just bought the club for a big outlay...especially as he couldn't use his money in China. We'd like the club to spend so that this season is improved, but perhaps the owner/board are thinking longer term and will only spend if we are really at risk of relegation. I don't think we are...but what do they think.
Relegation from the Prem is the footballing equivalent of going from being comfortably off to suddenly finding yourself selling The Big Issue. I meet too many people in dire circumstances, where an outside observer would never have predicted their trajectory, to be complacent. I've found out that **** things happen to people when they've not seen the warning signs. Relegation happens to teams because they don't get enough points. In 1974 we went through the latter part of the season thinking that a team with Channon and Osgood as strikers we could never be relegated. Equally, we've survived being relegation certainties while seeing unlikely candidates falter - 1999 and Blackburn, for example. I don't think we will be relegated, but we will be a candidate if we don't pick up enough points. I am not advocating panic buying either. Simply, I'd hate the board to adopt an approach that we are "too good to be relegated". That label applies to only a handful of clubs, and we aren't one of them.
I hope Pellegrino has told Reed what he wants because i personally still have little idea what i would buy for him. For myself i would try and replace Austin with a target man, but i have no idea if he would use one. We don't seem to have a player of his style for any of the other attacking positions, and right now i don't know what formation he wants to play. we could buy a pacey winger to cut inside as we don't really have any. could buy a dedicated AM that can play incisive passes though the middle and shoot from distance. both seem needed. I have no idea which to prioritise. Also our squad is full so every purchase would mean needing to get rid of somebody. Austin: limited players who's out of favour and may want to move on. seems like an obvious choice if we can find a buyer. might be stuck with him. Long: has been more used under Pellegrino and give us something we don't have elsewhere. i would expect he would only leave if a decent offer came in. Redmond is many peoples favourite to lose. but he;s one of both Puels and Pellegrino's most used players which implies they wouldn't want to lose him. Doubt we would get any worthwhile offers either. Tadic is arguably our best attacking midfielder but also seems to suit Pellegrino the least. Can't cut inside and shoot and isn't great and keeping the ball. Davis? highly unlikely he would get rid of him. very much in favour. Prowse? lol no. A few options for dropping players elsewhere: Gardos is apparently in our 25 man squad. Thats a free slot as far as i'm concerned. Mcqueen? 3rd choice LB. would be harsh to him though. Hojbjerg? i don't see it happening unless we get an offer. *Bednarek counts as youth and isn't part of the 25, VvD: possibility this slot will get freed up. don't see it happening untill summer though. so unless i'm misunderstanding something we can buy 1 player for sure, possibly an extra 1 or 2 replacements depending on the offers we get. Very hard to see massive change in the winter.
I know I missed the sarcastic face at the end of my post. Charlie was good business, if we have a target lined up for a few million then it makes sense if we think we can gain a couple of places. But I expect no ins or outs, which is what I think is correct. MP2 will have to find a way to make us score.
Add Bertrand to the list of move on at Xmas, he still seems to be sulking and causing issues behind the scenes since he didn't get his own way last Xmas transfer window. We have Target and McQueen who will at least try and look interested
If I was Bertrand, I'd be sulking too; constantly busting my gut to bomb on down the left flank, only for me "teammate" Redmond to totally ignore me and cut inside instead.
Mind you, he did waste one really good chance in the first half when he got to the byline, saw Gabbi’s run, and blasted it 2 yards in front of him.
Bertrand isn't blameless in the delivery issues as his crossing is less than effective as we saw yesterday
It's a shame we don't have a left sided player that links up perfectly with Bertie, to play on that side.
How many crosses did he actually get to put in yesterday? The only crosses I remember on our side were from Cedric. They were absolute garbage.
Certainly not as many as the number of times I was thinking "no wonder he apparently wants to move to Man City, they'd be slipping balls down the line for him for fun". Gabbi, Bertrand and Virgil would rack up various crazy stats for City, and Lemina wouldn't look out of place either.
Could say that about lots of players in this league. Bertrand and Gabbiadini wouldn’t get into City’s team (Bertrand now as Mendy is injured) VVD probably would and too early to tell with Lemina
I'm not saying they would walk into City's starting XI (other than Virgil, in my opinion), but I wouldn't raise an eyebrow if City added any of them to their squad. Whereas I would with anyone else in our squad. City can easily afford to sign Bertrand in January as first-team cover for Mendy, before discarding him to second choice thereafter. I'm just someone who will generally feel sorry for a player who is having to play with teammates who are not up to their standard. Either sign them better teammates, or let them leave. If I was Virgil or Bertrand, I would want to leave too. I only mentioned City specifically because apparently they are interested in Bertrand.
I would be shocked if City wanted to sign Gabbiadini, think Saints fans hugely over rate him. He is good and it is true that we aren’t playing to his strengths and not helping him, but he isn’t close to being good enough for a top 4 side imo. He would score goals at City, but so would the majority of forwards in the PL given the talent in City’s midfield
It's bad enough having a media trying to sell all our players. No need for the fans to do it for them.
Then I'd suggest you find someone else to feel sorry for. There are plenty of better candidates around.
