Saints January transfer window thread

Well said Beddy!

 

Crawler..!

please log in to view this image

 

Like the way the video finished with Theo who? Imagine if we'd let go of Lallana when times were hard...that's a thought to keep you awake at night. Bridgey didn't want to go, but he had to because we were on the skids....we managed to keep Adam probably because he wasn't on the radar as much. When Oxo left, I knew we'd kept the better player in Lallana.

 

Thought your post was great as well TSS!

Well if I'm going to crawil I may as well go the whole hog!

 

On NewsNow, Inter are sounding to have Ossy already in the bag in the January window.
I would be disappointed but not gutted if true but if a player can't settle then better he moves on quickly before real problems occur.
If he does go who should we look at to replace him?
The young WBA striker for me....the new Michael Owen

 

Hasn't taken long for me to get bored of fans of big teams educating us on how eager our entire squad is to get away from us.

 

A total of 12 academy graduates have featured in the first-team squad at some stage this season, with captain Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse playing a pivotal role in the impressive start to the campaign.
While the quality of young players being produced in England is sometimes lamented, Pochettino believes there is actually plenty of ability in the youth ranks – clubs just need to give it a chance.
“There’s great talent in English football academies, as much as in Spain, Brazil or Argentina,” he said.
“It all comes down to individual decisions. Every club makes their own decisions.”
Saints’ decision has been to trust a number of those players, and Pochettino has already indicated that the emergence of the latest crop of youngsters will reduce any need to spend money when the transfer window opens in January.
“We have a lot of young players coming from the academy that are pushing really hard,” he said.
“They are making a case for being in the senior team. Players like Sam Gallagher and Harry Reed, very exciting players.
“So, in that sense, we are not worried about the depth of our squad because we have a lot of young players that guarantee us a very good future in the immediate future.
“We are covered in that sense, so we are not worried.”
Of course, clubs cannot simply throw any old bunch of youngsters at their first-team and expect success.
The players have to be talented enough in the first place.
In that sense, Saints can be grateful for the work of not just their current regime, but those who went before them and did such a good job of identifying and developing some of the players who are now thriving.
“It makes me very happy,” said Pochettino of the academy’s health. “I fully believe in the future of this academy.
“I’m also very happy and proud for the people that have been part of the academy all these years because all the work they have done now is actually being seen.”

 

Fans at top clubs expect to beat everyone else..when they don't, they either feel cheated (because obviously no one can actually beat them on merit) or they assume that the said club has players who don't belong there and will move on and status quo is reinstated. Obviously not all fans, but the type who bother to shoot across to other forums to post.

As far as loyalty is concerned, we have different types of player: those with history here who would be reluctant to move (like Lallana, Spider), Academy lads who would be reluctant to move but are young and unlikely to stay here forever (Shaw, JWP), those who recognise that we have given them a chance to be the best they can be (Lambert, Fonte) and those bought in who may be more open to moves (Dani, Gaston, Lovren, Maya, Wanyama). I'm not saying they all want to upsticks as they are generally enjoying being here, but footballers tend to move between clubs eventually. All that is clear is that at this moment few are angling to move on.

 

When you can beat us again I'll take you more seriously

 

lol

 

Liverpool are clearly a more attractive club than Southampton for a variety of reasons (financial, historic prestige, they have an established recent record of European qualification etc).

Selling players to bigger clubs doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing though. If you sell players for big money and re-invest wisely you can climb the table. Spurs have stumbled a bit but did this well for quite a while. Over the last 10 years their average spend per season is lower than Villa's and not much higher than Stoke's. Arsenal have a net spend of £17m in the last 10 years while Everton have actually made a profit!

 

Don't think it's been mentioned, but on Setanta during the Arsenal game, the commentator suggested that we were in for Victor's brother, McDonald Mariga, from Inter this Jan. I really can't see it myself as it's probably the one position in the squad we don't need to reinforce right now, but guess it's worth a mention.

 

Same rumour was on Newsnow a couple of weeks back.

 

At the moment we are a club on the rise. When I think back to when Cortese first took charge I genuinely cannot think of a time when it would've been beneficial for a key player to move on.

End of first season in League One - I would guess that the types of teams interested in our star players would've been mid-top Champ teams, Lallana aside as we know of some teams interest, but realistically he wouldn't have got into a Prem first team at that stage.

Promotion from League One - Again I would guess that it would be Champ teams that would want them as I don't think many/any PL teams would gamble on a player from League One. Obviously Oxo went as he wanted to, but he was a brilliant prospect and not really one of our "Star" players.

Promotion from the Championship - Prem teams sniffing about some of our players now, but guarenteed starting place in a PL side for at least a season, then if that player impresses and we go down they can get their move then, if not re-evaluate at the end of the season. It is also quite rare for a key member of a promotion winning side to leave.

First season in PL - Shaky start but started to look a good side after the first 10 games or so, spent heavily in the summer on some established names, chairman and manager coming out with some claims of European football etc. This probably put some of the mid table teams in the PL out of the picture in terms of attractiveness and just left the top 8 or so, again would they be guarenteed starters?

Basically what I am saying is that when we reach a level that it looks unlikely/virtually impossible for us to break, whether that be top 10/Europa/CL/Winners that is when players will look at their options. If we stay just top 10 then players who could play for better sides will look to move on, atm I don't think there has really been a club that has realistically come in that would be too good to refuse for our better players.

 

Yes agree with this. Clearly if a top European side same calling then any player is going to think twice. Our players know they are part of something exciting however and it will be a surprise if any we want to keep leave.

 

History counts for little these days. However Coutinho would not even consider us as Pool had showed an interest (if the press were correct) and this is a player that knows MP. If we carry on doing well this season and claim a few more scalps then we will become a more attractive club. Players from the Italian league really seem to be struggling in general with the PL in the last few years, don't know if its the speed or how physical the games are, but they seem to take a while to bed in, whereas Spanish League players hit the ground running

 

I think if Chamberlin had stayed, and carried on developing at the rate he was when he was with us, he would be a first team player, and we would have never needed to sign Gaston.

 

I think we would still have needed to sign a "name" player like him. Without Ramirez it's unlikely we'd have attracted the likes of Lovren, Wanyama and Osvaldo. Now with those guys on the books, even if they flop like Ramirez, we can attract even bigger stars.

Chamberlain is a bright prospect but he doesn't have the pull to attract big players, and that will be Ramirez's lasting contribution to us even if he is deemed a failure on the pitch.

 

Good point PTF. All part of the NC grand plan.

 

The fact that shaw has started twice as many PL games in half the time speaks volumns for kids that want to goto big clubs. Oxo has suffered from injuries but has only started around 20 games in 3 years and abit more as a sub, and its much easier for a team to take a risk witha wide player rather that a defensive player. His head was turned by his dad but the club would have sold him anyway. Its a shame as he could have played close to 120 games for us (baring injury and our players do not pickup many of those, fingers crossed) , I was hoping a couple of years ago that he would be playing in the middle of midfield, but that ship has now passed.