Transfer Rumours The January 2015 Window

"I made the decision (to move to City) and I have to deal with it, I can't look back and say it was a mistake but the only thing I do miss is playing football."

Well, well, well. These words should be engraved above the home team dressing room door at St. Mary's as a warning to those players who think they would be better off elsewhere. He might be financially better off with the lifestyle that brings, but at the end of the day he just wants to play football.

 

He certainly scuppered any remote prospect of an international career by joining them. There have been worse players selected.

If his salary wasn't going to be so out of the question i would think he'd be a good part ex for Jay Rod.

Scored a few for Swansea on the way up IIRC

 

He doesn't miss the money, though. He probably found out that his full pockets make sitting on the bench a pleasurable experience.

 

Personally, for exactly the same reasons, I'd do the same as we did with Bertrand, loan with option to buy.

Not really - if wants a move away; he's effectively job hunting, just like the rest of us he's asking as many people as possible (even by making it known he's "asking" two clubs he's also inviting the rest of the league into the bidding for him)

Look at Bertrand, disappointing loans elsewhere, but came good when he came to us. It really depends on what the black box says...

Indeed, but the real test is if he'd take a pay cut to come to us...

 

I think they should pay to come here...look what we do for their careers.

 

I read that Morgan is once again being touted to Arsenal, or so several horse manure articles on NewsNow continue to tell me. The usual headline with these things is something like... Southampton Ace is the answer to Arsenal's midfield problems.

I would like it very much if Chris Rann countered these articles by pointing out in one of his own that Schneiderlin is already the answer to Southampton's midfield problems, thank you very much.

 

Aren't most of the NewsNow pieces all opinions from bloggers who are fans of whatever club they are linking our players with?

 

Nope. Plenty of them are from legitimate newspapers, neutral blogging sites, and online news/sports agencies and websites. There are fair minded ones and biased to the point of stupidity ones, and even the newspapers themselves can be as casual in their news accuracy as a website which seeks to undermine every other club bar their own.

Premier League Owl is an excellent example of a neutral, as is Squawka. Chris Rann of George Weah's Cousin fame and Kingsland Roar audio blog is unusually fair for a fan blogger, and lacking in arrogance, even though he is biased in his opinion and reporting towards SFC.

And tbf, if you sift through the copycat dross at NewsNow you can find some very good articles, although it helps if you get off the football section.

 

http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014...tt-jones-the-english-goalkeeper-playing-in-p/

Talking of newsnow, I found this rumour about our interest in goalkeeper Matt Jones who plays in Portugal. No idea of validity...he has had a strange career, but Saints sometimes do obscure. Perhaps his recent stats have had the red light flashing in the Black Box

 

It would be a strange career move to become an understudy for a younger player at his age.

 

The transfer merry-go-round that is seemingly set to continue at St Mary's, every time Saints pop their heads above mid-table, does make me think that the Board must have considered how much it takes in sheer currency to keep the players they have if they want to pursue their success story. I mean, major players say they want to play in the Champions League. Understandable. But what happens if Saints manage to give them that opportunity..? Surely, their only options are to stay or go elsewhere where Champions League football is also available. Then they have to think how much they enjoy playing football, because they may encounter the situation [Scott Sinclair] of hardly ever playing competitive football again. Is it really worth it, when they are already multi-millionaires..?

So how much will Saints pay in hard cash and bonuses to keep their stars..? It's pretty certain that we've got to be within touching distance of the big payers. Top footballers are proven to be more or less a mercenary lot, with a few exceptions, and they can't all be in our team. Everton manage it, and they apparently have no money [perhaps that's why] at all. But they even posted a profit, last time I heard.

 

This is why "building the brand" (horrible phrase) is unfortunately essential if we are to compete on the big stage and retain our star players and recruit more of them. The FFP rules mean that we can't rely solely on handouts from Katharina and just offer bigger and bigger wages, without increasing our income commensurately. If that means expanding the stadium or moving to a bigger one then that's what we will have to do. It also means selling more shirts to African and Asian kids, so our international ambassadors have their work cut out as well.

The biggest things we have in our favour are, of course, the Academy, and the black box. These both mean we could probably stand another exodus like last summer, heaven forbid, and still be viable on the pitch, because we will have internal and external replacements lined up already. But in the long run, if we are to avoid that becoming an annual event, our wage structure will have to be competitive with the "big" clubs, and that means bringing in more fans both in the stadium and in the shops.

 

Not sure how effective it has been on a global scale but the media output from the club has been impressive lately and befitting a big club.

 

Sinclair is actually a new link. Rest are all rehashes of summer links-

Townsend
Jones
Wickham
Cerci
Guidetti
Martins indi
Vlaar

Problem is they generally ignore the current status of those players now compared to the summer

The goalkeeper I agree with above and don't know why he would move from being first choice to understudy to a younger keeper apart from money which is not what we really want. Unless he is better than anyone realises and might actually be able to push forster (absence from England contention means nothing as overseas players probably don't even register)

Cerci is apparently wanted by arsenal and United . Quite where he fits in those sides is anyone's guess. Both have a ridiculous number of attackers. I don't know a lot about him

On paper guidetti could be good. Apparently city want to call him back in January and sell him for 5m before he goes for free in the summer. He has worked with koeman before and was pelle's predecessor at feyenoord so I assume fits in koeman's system.

I don't see us going for Wickham as his attitude does not seem right.

I don't see the Dybala link coming to anything . The Palermo chairman seems impossible to negotiate with and we have not had good recent experience with south Americans from Italian football.

The centre back links could only realistically be to highlight we have other options lined up if Toby falls through (or just an extra name entered by agents for their purposes) . No similar left back ones though...assume Bertrand is more positive / likely ?

 

I'll be very interested to see the next accounts, and whether Wreck-It Ralph has managed to push up the commercial incomes.

 

We have no midfield problems TSS!

 

And maybe this would be a good reason to sign him (assuming he ticks all of our other boxes of course). A voice in the dressing room stating categorically and quite correctly that the grass is not always greener may not be a bad thing. On the subject of ticking boxes though, has he made enough appearances for our black box to even offer an opinion on him I wonder?

 

All rumours tho, only thing I have been told is we are looking at Redmond still.

 

You could say that the Sinclair link is an old, old link. We've been linked with that player ever since our first transfer window back in the PL.

 

True but as Lallana, Lambert and Lovren are thinking (hoping), things will change and they won't be concluding that they've made a poor move. Especially when they're on more money sadly. Anyone thinking of leaving Saints would surely consider it too early to judge the success or failure of the gravy train.