Dusic

Tadic still our best creator. Play him into form.

Ervine has had a terrible season!

Wouldn't say JWP has done anything either versus Wolves or as a sub in the other games to say he should come back into the starting XI.

Lemina subbed off. Wasnt watching but he looked tired apparently. Hopefully we can build him up to 90mins soon.

He could sit out the whole season and he would still be very desirable to the top teams. If anything it could prolong his career in the longer term so I wouldn't cling to this (or anything World Cup related either) to determine what he does.

If he starts playing for us it wouldn't bother me. He is our best player and I'm aware not everyone who plays for us probably wants to be. He was a ****, but ultimately I want Saints to win and he would give us a much better chance to do that. Next time he plays for us I won't be booing or singing pointless chants about him. What does that achieve?

Would consider Eric Black as a front sweep for this one.

Intl football is so slow it is quite hard to judge how he would do in the pace of a PL game but you wouldn't really want him being dragged into wide areas. Can't really think of a current PL defender he reminds me of, a better version of Hooiveld is all I can think of: lanky, languid style, long legs and nice left foot. Tonny Vilhena who we nearly bought for about £1m a few years back from Feyenoord looks very good. Similar to a Lemina type. Would have been a bargain had we got him for virtually nothing.

Watched the game the other day and first half of NL's match today. Hoedt solid if unspectacular. Tidy on the ball, wins headers. His movement and mannerisms are quite similar to Jos Hooiveld actually. Nice weight of pass on his left foot. He does look slow and quite stiff but few 6'4 CBs are much different which is what makes VVD a freak.

Tadic is also excellent at combining with his full back and playing them in on the over/underlap. Often overlooked but full backs a key part of how we play and he is excellent in this regard. Its only really his lack of goals that let him down.

He has already been here for a whole season. During that time we have struggled for goals and he has struggled for starts. I personally would start him as the no10 but Puel rarely did and now Pellegrino isn't picking him either. He will start to get demoralised. If he isn't starting by Jan I can see him pushing for a move as it would be 18 months at a club he would have expected to be a key player at. His situation needs to change quite soon I think otherwise it could be like Clasie where it was: "he is still recovering from an injury", "give him a whole pre season", "he needs more game time" etc and before you know it two years have gone by without many highlights. Hope he starts versus Watford. He will be fresh having not played Internationals. Tadic and Redmond have been poor so far this season in a non-scoring team. If he doesn't start this game then its clear MP isn't a huge fan I think.

Between Clasie, Hojbjerg and Boufal there is £40m spent which hasn't paid off as yet. Boufal clesrly needs starts but also needs to show more end product to go with the skills. He hasn't replaced Mane whatsoever unfortunately. Next month or two will be telling for his Saints career IMO.

So when we went 6 without scoring you found it not worth moaning about? Each to their own.

Overall a solid window. Admirable stance re VVD and we have kept to it, winning back some respect for Krueger and Reed after similar "not for sale" comments have meant anything but. Have to be delighted with the principle here even if it remains to be seen how much we will see him on the pitch (it doesn't look like the World Cup will be much of an incentive). Incoming: Solid if not spectacular. Needed a partner for Romeu and Lemina looks an upgrade on what we have. Hoedt it has to be assumed will be a regular starter, although was a 4th choice for Lazio and looks to lack pace. Will add much needes height. Bednarek looks even more bizarre as we now have 6 senior CBs on the books and no cup games before Christmas. His esrly appearances have been uninspiring, but he is young. IMO we should have looked to loan him out til January - an Intl player won't learn playing sterile u23 football and he won't make the first XI. Amazed, after our truely dire attacking return last season that saw Puel fired, that we didn't sign an attacker of some sort. Would personally have looked to move on Long and bring someone in with a bit of technique alongside the pace. This season we have scored once from open play against four average sides so this is a huge (ongoing) concern...we just don't have enough starting players who score often enough. It is that simple. Players who never have been regular goalscorers don't suddenly change. Outgoings - Jay Rod was obvious. He will do well at WBA and IMO is better than Austin or Long but he clearly needed a move and we got a good price. Clasie out was equally obvious and it was telling nobody came in to buy him. Goes down as a very poor signing as a Schneiderlin replacement, primarily because it was clear from his first couple of PL games that he was going to struggle physically and he always did. Gazzaniga a non-event but we got a couple of million. Great to keep hold of all the players ae wanted to keep, first time in ages we have done so. Well played Les Reed. Only minor gripe is that we didn't clesr enough deadwood. Gardos clearly has had no future at the club for about 18 months so a shame we couldn't ditch his wages as a training prop. Long (as above) has used up too many chances (literally) and it would have been good to offload him. Verdict: Tempted to say 6/10 as we still look painfully short on options in attack and clearly have a personnel issue there which will probably cost us league places, but for keeping our best players and adding two key players I will go for 7/10. Thoughts?

So in Spain they have until the end of Friday to complete deals? As I said earlier, very few moves happen without being in the media at least a day before, I doubt anyone will be coming in now. Good window, great stance on VVD, but we haven't resolved the fact so few players in our squad score goals...

No links with Vietto for ages so hard to see anything emerging now. Having had a very significant attacking problem for the whole of the last season, and only having scored one goal from open play in four games this season, to not sign an attacker of any kind this summer is quite frankly bizarre. Pellegrino left with a flawed squad, just like Puel was. Excellent window in many regards, but the Saints way seems to be to always leave one position clearly lacking. We have 3 left backs and 6 centre backs yet a shortage of starting XI players with pace or a goal return in the final third. Of our best XI only Gabbi will score more than 10, so we will struggle for goals again. Surely the club can see that?

If there aren't any links tonight then its got to be extremely unlikely. Have already had the "its quiet" stuff leaked to Adam Leitch & Simon Peach which is usually the precursor to no incomings. Big mistake IMO as an attacker with pace would have rounded off a decent window.

No serious links re incomings. Can't recall a deal in the last 5 years or so where there wasn't a link of some kind at least a day before a deal was announced. At this stage the Echo appear to be correct.

From the Echo: "Saints do still have half an eye on trying to bring in another attacking player, though the odds are currently thought to be against them adding any further to the squad as they will not spend for the sake of it." http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/15501571.Claise_could_make_Saints_exit/?ref=rss After such a dire attacking season as the last one, which ultimately got a Manager sacked, I don't think signing an attacker would be "for the sake of it". Keep VVD and sign an attacking player and it would have been an excellent window IMO. Without an attacking signing we have a flawed squad with not enough starting XI players with a decent goal record. Again.

Inter made a new bid for Karamoh according to Italian reports. I had wondered if we might still be keen. Fee and profile suits.

Can we really hold a £60m asset who isn't contributing? For all the bravado, I'm not sure what that really achieves. That said, if we sell now we should have just sold in May and then could have avoided this charade all summer and had an increased budget. If we stick to him being not for sale for months that that has to remain the position now.

No CB incoming was what he meant. If that didn happen then we woukd be left with our weakest set of CBs since the Poch era.

Wanyama was training with the team for the whole summer and didn't refuse to play pre season games from the very start. Wanyama played PL games in August before the transfer window shut. Wanyama played PL games immediately after not getting a move and played for the rest of the season without sulking about it. Wanyama didn't release a lengthy statement begging to be sold and criticising the club. Wanyama didn't completely overshadow the whole summer and build up to the season. And Mane barely made a ripple compared to what VVD has done.

There is no comparison between this VVD situation and either Mane or Wanyama. Ever so slight comparison with some of Lallana and Lovren's whining but even that was tame in comparison. Only a few days to go now of the window but if he stays the saga is far from over.