January 2023 Transfer Window

[Roo1976]

On 27/10/2022 at 20:10, stevy777_x said:

Tino s carreer is fucked, he ll never be the same again

You his surgeon?.................inside info?

[FarehamSaintJames]

1 hour ago, Roo1976 said:

You his surgeon?.................inside info?

Nope, he’s just a bit of a prat. 😂

[Saint86]

Should have signed Openda in the summer. He was so cheap... Just grabbed a hattrick for Lens as well 😭😭

Edited 29 October, 2022 by Saint86

[Dusic]

Seeing as most January deals will be worked on and in many cases agreed during the WC break I hope we start to see some strong attacking links soon.

Regardless of Manager its such a huge weakness in our squad and will relegate us unless sorted.

Hopefully in early Jan given they have ages to agree a deal.

[Saints foreva]

Got to be breaking the bank for a striker. The club have backed themselves into the corner not signing one in the summer, Che Adams, Mara and Armstrong are Championship standard. Continue with them and we're down this season. 

[Dusic]

2 minutes ago, Saints foreva said:

Got to be breaking the bank for a striker. The club have backed themselves into the corner not signing one in the summer, Che Adams, Mara and Armstrong are Championship standard. Continue with them and we're down this season. 

I think its a striker and a no10 type that we need.

Not sure any one player will make enough of a difference.

Whilst Adams misses some good chances, we also don't create anywhere near enough and really miss some quality to create.

[Saints foreva]

5 minutes ago, Dusic said:

I think its a striker and a no10 type that we need.

Not sure any one player will make enough of a difference.

Whilst Adams misses some good chances, we also don't create anywhere near enough and really miss some quality to create.

By my reckoning, Adams has missed 5 sitters this season. He's awful infront of goal. A better striker and we'd have more points but I do agree that we also need to upgrade on shite like Moi and Aribo. They wouldn't start for any other club in this league. 

[Daft Kerplunk]

5 minutes ago, Dusic said:

I think its a striker and a no10 type that we need.

Not sure any one player will make enough of a difference.

Whilst Adams misses some good chances, we also don't create anywhere near enough and really miss some quality to create.

100% need a creator and a good goal scorer, but now we are in a difficult position because of our league position, and appeal to anyone decent. The ball was dropped big time in the summer by those in charge at the club. 

[S-Clarke]

7 minutes ago, Dusic said:

I think its a striker and a no10 type that we need.

Not sure any one player will make enough of a difference.

Whilst Adams misses some good chances, we also don't create anywhere near enough and really miss some quality to create.

A wide number 10 and a clinical front man, that's what we needed in July, and we still need it. We always do this, every window we leave a position short. Full back, centre back, CM etc.

But this year we've played the game with the position you cannot play that game with. I'm one who will stick up for the club when it does good stuff, but the summer transfer window has to be looked upon as a huge failure. We spent £80m and ended the window with a weaker attack than the season before, absolute shambles.

[Convict Colony]

Who we overpaying for as the new Messiah then in Jan.

I just don't see a doable name out there at mo.

[the saint in winchester]

Chris Wood (Newc unlikely to let him go with Izak injured), Mateta (the spare behind Edward)... or someone from the overseas market.

[stevy777_x]

We ve basically replaced Broja and Long by Sekou Mara in attack. How can we expect to be scoring goals with this ?

[qwertyell]

42 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

wide number 10 and a clinical front man, that's what we needed in July, and we still need it

We need a 6, 9, and a 10/winger (depending on whether a different manager might play a different system). 

Doubt there's going to be much value out there in January for such key positions.

They absolutely ballsed up the summer recruitment - whilst their cheerleaders waved their pom-poms and declared us transfer window champions. 

 

[Saints foreva]

2 hours ago, stevy777_x said:

We ve basically replaced Broja and Long by Sekou Mara in attack. How can we expect to be scoring goals with this ?

Scouting team deserve sacking if they can't find an improvement on Shane fucking Long. 

[SuperSAINT]

20 minutes ago, Saints foreva said:

Scouting team deserve sacking if they can't find an improvement on Shane fucking Long. 

We’ve gone through 2 of them already 

[MAY-Z]

4 hours ago, stevy777_x said:

We ve basically replaced Broja and Long by Sekou Mara in attack. How can we expect to be scoring goals with this ?

The way some people carry on on here you would think Broja scored 50 goals last season. 

he didn’t, the attack is garbage because of the way we are managed, you only need to look at Ralph’s preseason comments about Stu Armstrong being criticised because he likes to play attacking passes that don’t always go to a teammate to know Ralph wants safe slow play that is easy to defend against 

[Saints foreva]

Why couldn't we sign Callum Wilson when he was relegated at Bournemouth. Comfortably better than the Championship shite we've got. Shambles of a recruitment sector. 

[Turkish]

9 minutes ago, Saints foreva said:

Why couldn't we sign Callum Wilson when he was relegated at Bournemouth. Comfortably better than the Championship shite we've got. Shambles of a recruitment sector. 

We are smarter than that 

[Saints foreva]

35 minutes ago, MAY-Z said:

The way some people carry on on here you would think Broja scored 50 goals last season. 

he didn’t, the attack is garbage because of the way we are managed, you only need to look at Ralph’s preseason comments about Stu Armstrong being criticised because he likes to play attacking passes that don’t always go to a teammate to know Ralph wants safe slow play that is easy to defend against 

@stevy777_x won't reply to this despite being Ralph's biggest fan girl, he never seems to be able to defend the fraud. 

Edited 29 October, 2022 by Saints foreva

[S-Clarke]

11 hours ago, Saints foreva said:

Why couldn't we sign Callum Wilson when he was relegated at Bournemouth. Comfortably better than the Championship shite we've got. Shambles of a recruitment sector. 

Didn't have the money for that back then, I think Newcastle spent £20-25m on him.

And we also had Ings when they signed Wilson, so the same urgency wasn't there.

[ally_uk]

I still think Onuachu is someone we should seriously look at as a striker option. 

Absolute unit like 6.7 good goal record for Genk and knows how to head a football. 

Could be the targetman, focal point up top we are crying out for. 

Surely we must of scouted him 

[cloggy saint]

Please, don't use 'absolute unit', it's silly.

[Badger]

21 hours ago, Saints foreva said:

Scouting team deserve sacking if they can't find an improvement on Shane fucking Long. 

This is where many of our problems stem from, scouting and recruitment. This includes getting the deal done, where does that lie, is that with Semmens ?

[MarkSFC]

Admittedly I've not been to any games this far this season but it seems to me that RH has either bottled it or just tried to go super safe early doors so as to finish games much better than last two seasons.  We used to come flying out of the taps but from TV and radio and taking to those who have been to games this has disappeared.  Rather than try to get two or three up and hold on we now seem to want to hang on to a clean sheet as long as possible and try and sneak a win or draw.  

Time for a fresh mind and new tactics. Please!!!!!!!

[saintant]

1 hour ago, MarkSFC said:

Admittedly I've not been to any games this far this season but it seems to me that RH has either bottled it or just tried to go super safe early doors so as to finish games much better than last two seasons.  We used to come flying out of the taps but from TV and radio and taking to those who have been to games this has disappeared.  Rather than try to get two or three up and hold on we now seem to want to hang on to a clean sheet as long as possible and try and sneak a win or draw.  

Time for a fresh mind and new tactics. Please!!!!!!!

Agree with all of this.

[manji]

On 24/10/2022 at 23:32, wooley7 said:

I thought this too. We seemed to want a striker and we’re, apparently, prepared to offer 25-30m for Broja and Delap. We were probably aware of the situation with Gakpo and switched to him after failing to sign ‘the striker’. If that is the case I would like to know who it was.

We really need a Gakpo and a decent striker.

 

[Disco Stu]

6 minutes ago, manji said:

 

So presumably they're pretty pissed off with Semmens?

Edited 30 October, 2022 by Disco Stu

[HarvSFC]

1 hour ago, MarkSFC said:

Admittedly I've not been to any games this far this season but it seems to me that RH has either bottled it or just tried to go super safe early doors so as to finish games much better than last two seasons.  We used to come flying out of the taps but from TV and radio and taking to those who have been to games this has disappeared.  Rather than try to get two or three up and hold on we now seem to want to hang on to a clean sheet as long as possible and try and sneak a win or draw.  

Time for a fresh mind and new tactics. Please!!!!!!!

This is correct and my major issue with the season. We used to be a high pressing, high energy team. Yes, it came with a lot of risks, but it also got us a lot of highs. We were top of the Premier League for the first time in our history playing such a way and we were never in a relegation fight playing that way. Yes, we got a couple of embarrassing 9-0s, but losing 9-0 twice over two seasons is better than losing 1-0 nine times over a single season. The 9-0s are also of course better than being relegated. The Championship is brutal, as we've experienced previously. West Brom and Huddersfield make up two of the bottom three this season, two clubs who have been in the Premier League in the last three years. Then you have Middlesbrough, Wigan, Stoke, Hull, Cardiff and Sunderland making up the bottom eight. All clubs we've competed with during our tenure up here. We're just lacking ideas at the moment and the result, should we continue to sleepwalk as we did under Pellegrino could be disastrous.

The current board (not ownership) have got a lot wrong, in a much shorter time than Reed and Wilson had. The contract extensions to McCarthy and Stephens, the permanent signing of Walcott on a high wage, selling Romeu too quickly and without a replacement, the contract extension for Djenepo will also probably prove to be a mistake following a handful of good games as a full-back, he's now getting limited minutes again in his actual position, so he'll be taking up a position in the squad for the foreseeable. Then you have the major one. We lost Broja and Adam Armstrong showed he wasn't up to this level as a striker last season, so the priority had to be a goal scorer. We even had big money for such a player, should the Gakpo reports be true. But, we waited too late, aimed too high and went for a player who's above our level and didn't want to come here and didn't have a contingency plan in place, so we went back to Man City and picked up Edozie for little hassle. For the first time Semmens and Crocker had money here and they showed their naivety.

Then you have the comments at the fans forum, about how Semmens finds it a chore to get paid to follow us and how it doesn't matter where we finish in the league, how he scoffed at one fan for saying he's tired of following the club away and seeing shit performances because he mentioned Man City, where we got a point from, completely avoiding the point and then the treatment of fans this year has been awful. Not forgetting the farce and how unprepared the club were for fans' return from the lockdown football. I just don't like them really and think they should be under far harsher criticism than they receive. 

This January we need a Gabbiadini signing. A striker, who's ready to come straight in, hit the ground running and lift a pretty average team and get results. It's a tough ask, but it's a necessity, or we face a relegation.

Edited 30 October, 2022 by HarvSFC

[stevy777_x]

20 hours ago, Saints foreva said:

@stevy777_x won't reply to this despite being Ralph's biggest fan girl, he never seems to be able to defend the fraud. 

Go and see how Broja is playing this season and what Chelsea fans think of him. Pure pace, skill and strength.

Way more ready than Mara.

 

[trousers]

9 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

Yes, we got a couple of embarrassing 9-0s, but losing 9-0 twice over two seasons is better than losing 1-0 nine times over a single season

I know some see the two 9-0s as unforgivable (and, to be fair, it's a valid point of view as any) but totally agree with your assessment above. I'd happily take a 9-0 defeat per season over the ultra-cautious approach we've adopted this season if that improves our overall success ratio. 

[Harry_SFC]

3 hours ago, HarvSFC said:

This is correct and my major issue with the season. We used to be a high pressing, high energy team. Yes, it came with a lot of risks, but it also got us a lot of highs. We were top of the Premier League for the first time in our history playing such a way and we were never in a relegation fight playing that way. Yes, we got a couple of embarrassing 9-0s, but losing 9-0 twice over two seasons is better than losing 1-0 nine times over a single season. The 9-0s are also of course better than being relegated. The Championship is brutal, as we've experienced previously. West Brom and Huddersfield make up two of the bottom three this season, two clubs who have been in the Premier League in the last three years. Then you have Middlesbrough, Wigan, Stoke, Hull, Cardiff and Sunderland making up the bottom eight. All clubs we've competed with during our tenure up here. We're just lacking ideas at the moment and the result, should we continue to sleepwalk as we did under Pellegrino could be disastrous.

The current board (not ownership) have got a lot wrong, in a much shorter time than Reed and Wilson had. The contract extensions to McCarthy and Stephens, the permanent signing of Walcott on a high wage, selling Romeu too quickly and without a replacement, the contract extension for Djenepo will also probably prove to be a mistake following a handful of good games as a full-back, he's now getting limited minutes again in his actual position, so he'll be taking up a position in the squad for the foreseeable. Then you have the major one. We lost Broja and Adam Armstrong showed he wasn't up to this level as a striker last season, so the priority had to be a goal scorer. We even had big money for such a player, should the Gakpo reports be true. But, we waited too late, aimed too high and went for a player who's above our level and didn't want to come here and didn't have a contingency plan in place, so we went back to Man City and picked up Edozie for little hassle. For the first time Semmens and Crocker had money here and they showed their naivety.

Then you have the comments at the fans forum, about how Semmens finds it a chore to get paid to follow us and how it doesn't matter where we finish in the league, how he scoffed at one fan for saying he's tired of following the club away and seeing shit performances because he mentioned Man City, where we got a point from, completely avoiding the point and then the treatment of fans this year has been awful. Not forgetting the farce and how unprepared the club were for fans' return from the lockdown football. I just don't like them really and think they should be under far harsher criticism than they receive. 

This January we need a Gabbiadini signing. A striker, who's ready to come straight in, hit the ground running and lift a pretty average team and get results. It's a tough ask, but it's a necessity, or we face a relegation.

Very good post

[Manuel]

3 hours ago, HarvSFC said:

 

This January we need a Gabbiadini signing. A striker, who's ready to come straight in, hit the ground running and lift a pretty average team and get results. It's a tough ask, but it's a necessity, or we face a relegation.

Pelle signing, but yes.

[Saint86]

5 hours ago, Badger said:

This is where many of our problems stem from, scouting and recruitment. This includes getting the deal done, where does that lie, is that with Semmens ?

We've had two uncommitted heads of recruitment in the past 3-6 months, both of them moving to teams in Blue. Suggest it lies there. 

Edited 30 October, 2022 by Saint86

[Killers Knee]

DM for competition in a weak area

and a striker:

 

[Roo1976]

3 hours ago, stevy777_x said:

Go and see how Broja is playing this season and what Chelsea fans think of him. Pure pace, skill and strength.

Way more ready than Mara.

 

And how long has Mara had ?.................Broja was hit and miss with us and seemed to be very sulky. He hasnt set the striking option for Chelsea alight, in the same way we need to give Mara an opportunity rather than minutes. Broja started in alot of games until the injury, lets just wait on Mara if hes ever given a chance.

[Maggie May]

Broja was the player we should have broken the bank for. He will be a superstar.

[Dellman]

Just now, Maggie May said:

Broja was the player we should have broken the bank for. He will be a superstar.

Brighton's strikers put one over him, four in fact

[notnowcato]

8 hours ago, Dellman said:

Brighton's strikers put one over him, four in fact

Ya we should sign Og, bagged 2 for Brighton on Saturday 

[stevy777_x]

11 hours ago, Roo1976 said:

And how long has Mara had ?.................Broja was hit and miss with us and seemed to be very sulky. He hasnt set the striking option for Chelsea alight, in the same way we need to give Mara an opportunity rather than minutes. Broja started in alot of games until the injury, lets just wait on Mara if hes ever given a chance.

I d kill to have broja in our team right now. 
I wouldn’t with Mara, I watched his games with Bordeaux, yes he scored a few towards the end of the season, but he has never impressed me with his forward play. 
I frankly don’t know why we signed him, we can’t afford to have a project that may or may not turn out well.

[gio1saints]

Our whole system of play is predicated upon the assumption that out main strikers will run their bollx off all match to provide extra cover. Its not based on the premise that our main strikers will have a decent conversion rate on scoring chancers. 

If your strikers CR is better then the team does not need to work so hard so often.  All that running in defence of a lead is useful./ But when you are losing you need to score- we do not score enough of our chances.

Transfer priority should be a high conversion rate striker, ideally from few chances. A few more goals go in the team and manager look like football geniuses.  Look at SA goal v Arse. Cosmic football.  

 

  

[Saint Garrett]

12 hours ago, Maggie May said:

Broja was the player we should have broken the bank for. He will be a superstar.

We were willing to, Tuchel pulled the plug on it late on in the window. Thats life.

[the saint in winchester]

11 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

We were willing to, Tuchel pulled the plug on it late on in the window. Thats life.

Broja never would have considered staying with us. He has been at Chelsea since he was 9 and he only came to us to impress Chelsea he was ready to lead their line. Tuchel gave him the nod, and his performances for us dipped at the end. Sadly for him, Tuchel was replaced and Potter isn't so sure. He's rotating his front men, and some talk he could agree to sell Broja. However, he now has more attractive options than Saints.

The frustration for us is that Ralph promised us a Broja-type to replace him. Instead, Che got a few pre-season and we seem to have kept our wallet closed, thinking he was up to it. Now we are going to have to spend in January when we are at risk of relegation.

[Saint Fan CaM]

Brightons strikers interest me - are there any names that we would have said “yep, that guy will do a great job for us”? But they’ve not spent mega bucks to assemble a potent strike force have they? Especially in comparison to what we paid for Adams, Armstrong and Mara.

[Saint_lambden]

Double Salzburg swoop for Okafor and the manager, with any luck. 

I know we were sniffing around Marcus Edwards at Sporting early in the summer but he'd not long moved there permanently so they were unwilling to let him go for anything like a sensible price. Shame, because he's looked excellent in the Champions League. 

[Saint Garrett]

7 minutes ago, the saint in winchester said:

Broja never would have considered staying with us. He has been at Chelsea since he was 9 and he only came to us to impress Chelsea he was ready to lead their line. Tuchel gave him the nod, and his performances for us dipped at the end. Sadly for him, Tuchel was replaced and Potter isn't so sure. He's rotating his front men, and some talk he could agree to sell Broja. However, he now has more attractive options than Saints.

The frustration for us is that Ralph promised us a Broja-type to replace him. Instead, Che got a few pre-season and we seem to have kept our wallet closed, thinking he was up to it. Now we are going to have to spend in January when we are at risk of relegation.

The deal was on until Tuchel pulled the plug at the end of the window. Was waiting for Aubameyang deal to happen.

[manji]

17 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

So presumably they're pretty pissed off with Semmens?

There was a feelgood factor in the summer. Joe Shields quitting harmed that. Sacking Semmens would at the moment do more harm. Semmens will go when the World Cup builds up. SR not happy. 
IMO he undermined what could have been a good start to the season. Not criticising Che but we would quite possibly won the Palace game with some backup. 
Aribo will come good but you just have to see how poor Scottish Football is he will adjust.

[trousers]

1 hour ago, manji said:

Sacking Semmens would at the moment do more harm. Semmens will go when the World Cup builds up. SR not happy. 

Given we're only 3 weeks away from the start of the World Cup, I'm not sure what difference it would make between sacking Semmens 'now' and in a few weeks...?

[Ted Bates Statue]

1 hour ago, Saint Garrett said:

The deal was on until Tuchel pulled the plug at the end of the window. Was waiting for Aubameyang deal to happen.

Didn't think Broja was up for returning, and thought we had moved on. Do you see us going back for Broja in January, or one of our other summer targets instead?

[Chez]

21 hours ago, MarkSFC said:

Admittedly I've not been to any games this far this season but it seems to me that RH has either bottled it or just tried to go super safe early doors so as to finish games much better than last two seasons.  We used to come flying out of the taps but from TV and radio and taking to those who have been to games this has disappeared.  Rather than try to get two or three up and hold on we now seem to want to hang on to a clean sheet as long as possible and try and sneak a win or draw.  

Time for a fresh mind and new tactics. Please!!!!!!!

He's chased his tactics, from the high press, high energy, try to grab goals early and then hang on for grim life route (which were widely criticised on here), to something more solid, less expansive, more energy conserving allowing us to press hard in the second half (which most on here demanded). If we had some more midfield dominance, and some flair, pace and goalscoring ability in forward areas, that approach could work a treat. Sadly, we don't. I've no idea what tactics would get the best out of the players we have to be honest, but that's what managers get paid the big bucks to work out.

[Saint Garrett]

1 hour ago, Ted Bates Statue said:

Didn't think Broja was up for returning, and thought we had moved on. Do you see us going back for Broja in January, or one of our other summer targets instead?

I fully expect us to try, now Tuchel has gone, but whether he would come now or Chelsea would now let him leave I don't know. He's played quite a bit for Chelsea this season.