Transfer Rumours Saints January Transfer Window Rumour Thread

Are there any centre backs who are free agents available? Just a thought.

 

So are people unhappy with
A) Maya as 2nd CB
B) Stephens as 3rd CB
C) Stephens as 2nd CB whilst Virg is out
D) Gardos as 3rd CB whilst Virg is out
E) Being unable to get a long-term target
Or any combination thereof?

Genuinely out of interest. Should probably be a poll.

 

Preferred him as 3rd CB. Maya's decent, in the main, but he's not my ideal by any stretch. I mean, I've been banging on for two years about the need to upgrade on Fonte.

Not great. Doable with our lower fixture congestion, but not ideal.

He's well short of being a starting-quality CB. Not that it's his fault.

Not good for anyone. He needs to be playing regularly at a lower level to get back into his game.

We've had a couple years to address this, frankly. We've known that Fonte would need replacing owing to age even before it was possible that he'd need replacing owing to departure. We put it off and put it off, and didn't even really try to address it in this window, trying instead for a makeshift (and frankly underwhelming) loan before panicking and trying to find anyone (I mean, why would Swansea loan a starting CB with no cover an hour from the deadline?), which failed. That's a pretty colossal screw-up.

Now, we're going to go into the summer with a few high-probability problems. One, we're going to lose Van Dijk, and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if we lose Bertrand and 'replace from within'. Two, we're likely to take a big step back in the table, which may have an effect on recruitment (sorry, no one joins your club on the basis of their League Cup performance). Three, we still have absolutely no idea whether the current hierarchy will spend money when necessary; with a desperate need for an attacker and a defender that had already gone unaddressed in the summer, we were still apparently only willing to buy one and loan another, even with one outgoing.

And if we try for the patchwork approach and bungle it, we're very much relegation contenders. At some point, we have to bite the bullet and actually fill in all the holes with high-quality players, rather than creating a new hole for every one we address. We have a lot of "puts in a shift" and not a tonne of top-level; if we keep selling our best and going with "well, X is adequate", we're going to keep drifting down the table until we find ourselves in the Championship. Warm bodies ain't enough.

 

I have woken up in a parallel universe where we have no centre backs

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Good that we finally got Gabbiadini over that line. Hugely disappointing to not get a cb though, let's hope Virgil is weeks rather than months, though I'd argue we needed one before his injury.

Another massive gamble, by the club who don't do gambles

 

Virgil won't leave in the summer.

 

No CB can only mean that VVD is only out a short time.

 

I'll believe that when we hit September with him in the fold. As it stands, I'd be extremely surprised if someone didn't get close enough to our valuation that we accepted, and I'd be equally surprised if Van Dijk wasn't interested in the move.

 

We held on to S hneiderlin, Mane and Wanysma for another season, when they all attracted bids that met our valuation, & they all had far shorter contracts than Van Dijk.

I don't see the evidence for the theory that contact extensio s are just a device to up the transfer fee.

 

The fact that we got unsatisfactory bids likely played a substantial role.

Meanwhile, our chairman has flatly (and recently) stated that, when big bids come in and players are interested in the move, we have to accept. That carries more weight with me regarding our intentions.

 

Christopher Samba?

 

I too am slightly concern over the "what if" scenario with our CBs, I think some people see things too simplistically.

If we identified 4 CB targets to replace Josè and had it in good authority that at least 2 would be open to offers, we allow him to go.

If Sakho then starts acting a diva during negotiations and indicates that he really wants London and Liverpool start being divas and suggest he's over £20 million to buy plus over £100,000 a week based on a sum total of **** all, we are right to move to plan b.

If everything is progressing with the guy from Spartak then at the point at which he comes over for a medical (assuming loan fee, etc has been sorted) we find out he has an underlying injury, again, we are right to walk away.

Plans C and D could well have been the guy from Celtic and Jordi Amat and if we're refused permission to talk to them, we're back in the position of paying through the nose for a player who may well not want to be here at all or spunking cash on an unknown, untried and untested.

But that's what we've already got in the academy, the only difference is we know them inside out, shortcomings and all and it's an informed gamble.

Yes we have succession planning but I think some people mistake the Black Box for a magic box. It doesn't make players like Michael Keane come here... it throws out possibilities, no amount of slick black fixtures and fittings can over rule players, agents or other clubs being dicks.

 

I interpret that to mean that we can't compete with the top clubs on wages, & therefore eventually have to give in to player 'aspirations' - or greed, if you prefer. Not that we can't wait to cash in. Again, the evidence suggests we sell because we have to, not because we want to. We do however, have a recent history of making a virtue out of this particular neccessity.

 

Yup, the do calculated **** ups...

 

'Giving in' is, per Ralph, entirely part of the plan; being a stepping stone is what we offer to differentiate ourselves. And if a club offers in excess of 40m, and Virgil's 'aspirations' kick in, he'll be sold.

 

Whoever said we don't do gambles? Life's a gamble.

You should never gamble if you can't hack losing though.

 

I have it o good authority from am uninformed ITK that the deal for a top CB was only scuppered dead on 11pm last night.

Just when we realised we had to hand over suit cases of cash. Les and Kat were deep in conversation about the strength in depth we have, that stretches right back to our U9's, and the disagreement came when Kat thought we should play little Sammy Smith but Les didn't think he would adapt to the right sided CB role as he hasn't started practicing clearance's with his right peg.

Kat was fuming as she has wanted that fast-tracked from the success it has had since being introduced at U11 training.

Les said they haven't had the right type of coach to implement this radical training phenomenon and they are searching the Black Box for one.

This failed as the famed Black Box was stuck on finding unavailable CBs mode that ran under the top secret code name of Virgil's replacement - Summer 17'.

 

We'll agree to disagree then. And see who is right come the summer.

I will happily eat humble pie if I'm wrong and Virgil is off this summer (well, not happily. But I'll eat it).

 

Swansea have won 3 in 4 since Clement took over. Not sure the problem was/is their defence.

 

He has for the last three games.