Transfer Rumours JANUARY TRANSFER THREAD

Which of our three options would you prefer to face Zaha in the next game?
Bookmarked

 

Didn't people say this about Hughes?

Hassenhuttl could well be the next Carvahal, remember when people said Swansea were safe last year

 

Why would people say that about Hughes.... also no one is saying we are safe either

 

I seem to recall quite a few saying we were down and out when he came in and he turned us around and we stayed up.

You don't have to look too hard on here to see people saying they aren't worried about relegation this year, that indicates to me that some people think we are safe

 

Not me. See the other thread for why I am saying leave it to summer. Saints first choice has said about staying at Genk to the summer as he wants to win the league for them. Now if we can change his mind then fine buy now, if not I am happy with what we have.

 

I am of the opinion that with Cedric only having 18 months left on his deal it is fine to let him go. But with Hassenhuttl's preferred formation relying on the fullbacks pretty heavily I am sceptical about going forward with just Valery/Ramsay who both look raw. Yes JWP can play there but I feel he is similar to Targett in that his pace is going to be his downfall when playing out wide in this system. He also has looked good playing centrally so don't really want him to move from there.

Can't see Yoshida or Stephens being able to play RWB at all. If the guy we want is that Joakim guy and we can;t get him til the summer it would make sense to me to look at a potential loan til then. We of course may be doing this and there isn't anyone but I think it is quite a big risk to just go with 2 youngsters in what is a crucial position in the Huttl system.

 

I agree with giving youth a chance. I'm not quite as convinced about throwing youth into the deep end with no other options available. Having a young FB and one with some experience isn't going to block them, particularly with the physical demands we're placing on our fullbacks.

Valery's really promising. He's also pretty raw, both in his attacking and defending. I'd like to have some option beyond leaving him on an island, because that's a good way to harm their confidence if they have a period where they struggle.

 

Of course nothing can be proved in actuality until it is mathematically certain but people can still express an opinion on a forum.
What Ralph has done in his short time at the club is already impressive despite many unfortunate circumstances forced upon him (losing Pierre, Danny, sendings off etc). He has raised the level of performances of some players that had been written off by some fans and integrated many young players as well. The fitness levels are undeniably better as is the defensive organisation (the 2 things that did for Hughes) and my opinion is that with a fair wind and more players available then there is reasonable grounds for optimism for our chances of survival this season.
I think that it is only the third relegation spot that we have to be remotely concerned about and having studied the bottom half I truly believe that we will finish around about 12th.

 

I'd consider us to have a very good chance at survival, as well. I'd also say that we're placing a very big bet on our current win rate not involving a slight bit of good fortune in close results. We're still pretty bad defensively, even if we're less catastrophic than we were previous, so the goals have to keep going in at a high rate, or we'll be in trouble again.

 

I'm not a big fan of Cedric. It just feels a little bit like a dice role letting him leave now.
Hopefully we can all look back on this, and laugh off our concerns. Gulp.

 

We have 3 RBs if you include Jack Stephens, he is very comfortable in that position if called upon as he played that position for the Academy..

 

People forget that Calum Chambers kept Clyne out of the team for Pochettino, playing youth is not always a gamble if they can perform ok.

 

Christ, its hard enough to stop Jack from bombing forward without giving him an attacking wing-back job!

 

I thought he strode forward to great effect and purpose in the last match and used the ball well. It added another dimension to our play IMO.

 

Jack's miles away from being a wingback, though. Ramsay's not one, either. And with only four senior CBs, one of whom is away for the next while, there aren't going to be too many situations where aren't flush with CBs to shift over.

 

Have you seen either play at wingback? I can't really comment on their suitability until I've seen them there.

I'm guessing that you could add JWP as a possible RWB.

 

We're not trying to question Ralph. We are just expressing concern of relying on unproven youngsters going into a crucial period. We don't have three suitable right backs for the way we are trying to play, and that is a fact.

 

It was obvious to me that Ralph did not see Cedric in his plans, we will have to see what the rest of January brings as far as possible recruits, but if we go with what we have got then the management must be ok with it.

 

We've seen Jack play as a RB plenty before; he plays RB like he's a CB. We can add JWP as a possible RWB, but we're deep into "players who are makeshift-to-adequate" rather than players who are actually good at the position.

 

Like I say we will wait and see what this transfer window brings but Cedric could barely get a game and when he did it was to fill in at LWB.