Rate the January 2023 Transfer Window!

[Barsiem]

My favourite time of the window!  That feeling of optimism that we all have about new signings that we are invariably completely wrong about (see the rate the summer 2022 transfer thread...).  Are you brave enough to put a number on how Saints have done?  Please be forewarned that your answer will likely be ridiculed in a couple of months time, so vote at your own risk

Summary of Ins/Outs - taken from Sky Sports.  We also got Jan Bednarek back from his loan

In

Mislav Orsic - Dinamo Zagreb, £8m

Carlos Alcaraz - Racing Club, £12m

James Bree - Luton Town, undisclosed

Kamaldeen Sulemana - Rennes, £22m

Paul Onuachu - Genk, £18m

Out

Dynel Simeu - Morecambe, loan

Nico Lawrence - Torquay, loan

Dan Nlundulu - Bolton, loan

Ryan Finnigan - Crewe, loan

Kazeem Olaigbe - Harrogate, loan

Lewis Payne - Eastleigh, loan

Thierry Small - St Mirren, loan

[Saint Fan CaM]

I’ve voted 7 which for me represents a decent spend in a January window without big player sales. The other three points are reserved because (a) Jones is likely to thwart any quality improvement in the squad by playing a weak team for the most important matches and setting up the team with awful tactics and (b) the new players have yet to demonstrate their significant value.

Edited 1 February, 2023 by Saint Fan CaM
Typo

[SambaMaverick]

Not falling for this old chestnut again

[goodymatt]

I voted 8.

Alcaraz gives us the driving forward CM we were missing. Orsic, although starting very slowly should be a decent signing. Sulemana and Onuachu give us an abundance of pace and power we had otherwise been missing. Hopefully Paul keeps scoring goals. Bree is cheap cover and with KWP picking up another injury last night (let’s hope it is just a precaution as Jones said) it was a sensible move for a player the manager knows. Not sure we really needed Bednarek back.

Not like Saints to spend £60m without any sales, having spent a fair amount in the summer too. Let’s hope we have enough to get out of trouble, I think it’s going to be tight regardless of a decent window. other than Everton all of our rivals have strengthened too.

[Victor]

A good window but unlikely to keep us up

Now have a squad that has something like 25 who have played in the first team this season or have just been bought for the first team.

How many can you name that would be definite starters? He has to get a settled team, and quickly. I don't think he has the time or ability to do that to get us the points we need. It took Steve Cooper a while. Can't see Jones doing it but hope I'm wrong.

[Barsiem]

I've gone for a 6.  Not sure it'll keep us up but has given us a chance, and we should have a strong squad for the championship.  I'm a little concerned at how much we've spent but we do have quality in Latvia ABK & JWP to sell if we do go down.  A lot will depend on how well Onuacho does - that's not a signing we can afford to get wrong!

[S-Clarke]

Not doing this again! We've filled the obvious holes (minus DM), need immediate goals or contributions from Ounacho but he looks to have the tools we lack.

I still look at it being a very tall order for us. We're going to somehow need to find European qualification form for the remainder of the season, and I just cannot see how that is possible. This is not just on the players, but we have a manager who looks entirely out of his depth.

[Jimbo]

I've voted 2. More unproven gambles. Striker sounds promising, but could be too little too late. 

Spent £100m+ on a lot of dross the last two windows.  Would have been better off signing Lavia, a proper GK and Danny Ings.

Left with a bloated squad of average players.  Shades of 2004/5.

Will be very happy to be proven wrong.  Unlikely with NJ at the helm

Edited 1 February, 2023 by Jimbo

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Jimbo said:

I've voted 2. More unproven gambles. Striker sounds promising, but could be too little too late. 

Spent £100m+ on a lot of dross the last two windows.  Would have been better off signing Lavia, a proper GK and Danny Ings.

Left with a bloated squad of average players.  Shades of 2004/5.

Will be very happy to be proven wrong.  Unlikely with NJ at the helm

I think that's harsh. We haven't spent that on dross, we've spent a lot of it on talented young players and have got the balance a bit wrong. We've somewhat addressed that this window with more proven experience and international players, so we'll see where we go

[homesicksaint]

I voted 10 because the acquisitions significantly exceeded my expectations and there were no first team disposals.

I don't know  if it will keep us up and am not optimistic about our manager or how long it will take the new players to settle in but that wasn't the question.

COYR

[revolution saint]

I'm not rating it till I've seen the players play. 

On the face of it, it doesn't look too bad and has addressed the most glaring problems like another striker and a bit more variety in the wide areas but no idea how they'll look when reality kicks in.

Of the players we brought in earlier though:  Orsic hasn't done anything so he'll need to get better, Alcaraz had a good game in the first leg and justified the hype but last night was pretty poor.  He's shown enough potential to probably turn out to be a good signing, just hope it doesn't take him too long to get there.

[igsey]

I'm just enjoying the novelty of buying players without having to sell.

[tajjuk]

7, should be an 8 IMO, but a point off for leaving everything so late. I feel like we could have got these players in earlier, especially considering the World Cup break and we might have a few more points on the board had we done that. 

[Ex Lion Tamer]

We did our best and spent money but it's so tough to get game changing players in January when you're bottom of the league

[Ken Tone]

Well we had a better window than Everton! 

[Raging Bull]

6 minutes ago, Ken Tone said:

Well we had a better window than Everton! 

I looked in on their forum earlier and it’s safe to say that they’re preparing for relegation. 

It’s interesting that some (seemingly connected) posters were saying that they were pi**ing other clubs off by wading into advanced transfer deals knowing they couldn’t afford the players. 

[Convict Colony]

The problem is your rating 2 things with 1 rating - money v players careers at saints

I voted 10 based on the amount of money spent by us - weve never had a season like it in our history.

The other aspect is the players performance, your trying to predict how they will be rated as a saints player when leave us and if we are doing that can someone message me the next lottery numbers. 

 

[Saint Fan CaM]

What surprises me the most is the number of forum members who are so concerned about getting flamed because they voted in a forum poll! Couldn’t make that stuff up! 🤣

[the saint in winchester]

49 minutes ago, Ken Tone said:

Well we had a better window than Everton! 

Well, they're about to sign Andre Ayew on a free, so hold your stat on value for money until he has been assessed.

[badgerx16]

I'll let you know at the end of the season.

[Chewy]

I’ve gone 7 - to be less than 5 in my mind would imply we’d got weaker and we’ve undoubtedly improved. One or two might turn out to be excellent (optimistic for Alcaraz particularly).

However, whether due to age or where they’ve played, none of the acquisitions are proven. And our failure to deliver a cf for January 1st was unacceptable imho. We also didn’t shift anyone.

Very pleased with the investment, it’s a good sign of their intentions both for now and longer term, so overall quite happy.

Until Saturday when I see our next team sheet, of course

[homesicksaint]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Not doing this again! We've filled the obvious holes (minus DM), need immediate goals or contributions from Ounacho but he looks to have the tools we lack.

I still look at it being a very tall order for us. We're going to somehow need to find European qualification form for the remainder of the season, and I just cannot see how that is possible. This is not just on the players, but we have a manager who looks entirely out of his depth.

To be fair we do not need European quality form. We need 25 points from 18 games to achieve 40 points. I don't believe any team has been relegated with 40 points in recent years.

I agree that safety is a tall order with our current coaching set up but we certainly have the quality and depth of squad to stay up.

[trousers]

I've voted "1" and ordered a set of standard issue Saintsweb forum "told you so" and "glad I was proven wrong" cards from HindsightRUs.com

Edited 1 February, 2023 by trousers

[a1ex2001]

It's nice that w have brought some players without selling the best ones at the club for once and hopefully some at least will be an improvement on what we have, shame we couldn't have got the striker we needed in at the start of the month as we might not b bottom of the league if he'd hit the ground running.  Big negative of the window is we still have a manager who doesn't know what he is doing!

[goodymatt]

We are 2 points from safety (with a bad GD) with 18 games to go. Basically we are 1 win away from safety, having spent the most of all bottom 8 teams in this transfer window (which worked out ok for a Newcastle this time last year).

I struggle to accept this ‘we are down already’ view, given we have almost everyone to play once. Yes we had a nicer run of fixtures lately but that doesn’t change that we still have pretty much everyone in the league to play (Bar Everton who we beat and Villa who are in great form atm), pretty much the same for all teams? 

I agree that the manager situation remains a concern, I’m on the fence re Jones atm (he wasn’t anyone’s choice amongst our fanbase). He now has the tools to survive IMO. I expect it to go all the way but we have more than a small chance of survival.

Do we think that all of the bottom 8 teams are going to put together European form? I seriously doubt it. Marginal improvements will make a big difference and we’ve strengthened well in this window, on the face of it at least.

[S-Clarke]

1 hour ago, homesicksaint said:

To be fair we do not need European quality form. We need 25 points from 18 games to achieve 40 points. I don't believe any team has been relegated with 40 points in recent years.

I agree that safety is a tall order with our current coaching set up but we certainly have the quality and depth of squad to stay up.

If you take the kind of form you are suggesting over an entire season, that's around 55+ points - which is pushing into the contention of those European places.

[Jimbo]

1 hour ago, goodymatt said:

I struggle to accept this ‘we are down already’ view, given we have almost everyone to play once. Yes we had a nicer run of fixtures lately but that doesn’t change that we still have pretty much everyone in the league to play (Bar Everton who we beat and Villa who are in great form atm), pretty much the same for all teams? 

I agree that the manager situation remains a concern, I’m on the fence re Jones atm (he wasn’t anyone’s choice amongst our fanbase). He now has the tools to survive IMO. I expect it to go all the way but we have more than a small chance of survival.

Agree with all of the above, until 2pm Saturday arrives and the bonkers lineup is announced..

[Saint86]

Went for 6, and I am surprised to see it being rated so highly by others at the moment.

We signed our striker at the very last minute having wasted a month of fixtures. Its also not proven how good he will be at this level, he is a long way short of your Gakpo's and Ramos' re ability and playing experience to date. Not that fast, not great touch, but a beast in the air. The jury has to stay out on him i'm afriad - although fwiw, i do think he'll score important goals for us.

Not convinced that our two wingers are significantly better than what we had already, and Orsic has barely featured which is a worry. I think Edozi is our best wide player, and we all hope that the new guy will play alongside him and Onochua in a front 3 i'm sure?

Alcaraz i think looks class, but is young and will likely be inconsistent.

No CDM, which means one injury to Lavia and its almost certainly GG for our prem status.

In summary, despite being happy that we've addressed most of our key targets, we've spent a lot of money and none of the players are proven premier league level ability or necessarily ready to play for us every game. So between the manager and the delayed business, we've ultimately ended up dropping key points vs the likes of Fulham and Forest, and surrendered a cup semi final. None of that should be making an 8/10 month of footballing business IMO.

Edited 1 February, 2023 by Saint86

[SNSUN]

We’ve signed one of the fastest players in the world, one of the tallest players in the world, brought in experience, brought in another talented youngster in a CM position for which our options were limited and sourced cheap but reasonable right back cover. We also brought Bednarek back who, whilst iffy, does provide us with extra CB cover should the worst injury crisis occur. That’s a pretty good window for me, and SR have at least given us a chance. 
 

My worries are that we are still reliant on a young keeper that has yet to shine (whilst Forest brought in Navas as cover for Henderson for example), we didn’t sign a DM which could spell trouble if Lavia has another spell out, and… oh yeah… we still have Jones as manager. I just hope and pray the new lads settle in fast, our key players can stay fit, and that Jones can stop naming shit line ups and formations, stick with the best solution of 4231 (or possible 4141/41221) and that we can get a few league wins on the board before it is too late. Try and hit 30 points with 6 games or so left and we have a chance.

[Eric The Red]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

If you take the kind of form you are suggesting over an entire season, that's around 55+ points - which is pushing into the contention of those European places.

Actually it's 53 points if you round up. So not good enough even for 7th but quite possibly top 10 going on recent years.

[S-Clarke]

19 minutes ago, Eric The Red said:

Actually it's 53 points if you round up. So not good enough even for 7th but quite possibly top 10 going on recent years.

Close, blimey my maths isn't as bad as I thought!

Still it would need one hell of an upturn that's not really been seen since we returned from lockdown in 2020. I think we got something like 16 points from 27. 

We need 25 from 54 points as homesick said, almost half the available. And that is taking into the account that we must play Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Brighton, Utd, Newcastle, Man City. That's almost 24 points written off if we go with the form book, which kind of means we need to win every single game against the rest - starting on Saturday. 

That's how unrealistic survival is imo.

Edited 1 February, 2023 by S-Clarke

[jawillwill]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

If you take the kind of form you are suggesting over an entire season, that's around 55+ points - which is pushing into the contention of those European places.

We are currently 2 points from safety. By your logic every team in the league probably needs European firm to stay up.

[jawillwill]

* Form.

Our firm is well 'ard enough to be Premier League.

[Saint86]

5 hours ago, homesicksaint said:

To be fair we do not need European quality form. We need 25 points from 18 games to achieve 40 points. I don't believe any team has been relegated with 40 points in recent years.

I agree that safety is a tall order with our current coaching set up but we certainly have the quality and depth of squad to stay up.

You don't need 40points to stay up this season FFS. The bottom 7 sides haven't managed to get more than 18 points with over half the games played. 18th is going to be down at around 34-35 points tops i reckon - certainly nowhere near 40!!! Or if it is 40, then all hell will have happened at the top of the table to be dropping those points to the bottom sides...

Edited 1 February, 2023 by Saint86

[AlexLaw76]

11/10

[Le Timmier]

Knocking at least one point off because Janny B returned

[Crab Lungs]

10/10 until I throw my toys out of the pram in a game or twos time. I reserve the right to not give any players any leeway or time to prove themselves. 

I also reserve the right to relentlessly boo and berate them and if they give me any stick back, cry like a baby on an internet forum about it.

I would also 100% not say this to them one-on-one, face-to-face but instead gush like a flushed, giddy schoolgirl whilst they sign my XXXL replica shirt.

[Highfield Saint]

It’s a 9 from me

The owner has put his money where his mouth is and now it’s time for the fans to stand up and be counted and play their part knowing that the manager, team and players will make mistakes but supporting them noisily will make a difference 

 

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

if i'm honest i hadn't heard of any of them bar the croatian lad, so can't pass judgement. They surely can't be much worse than some of the horse shit dished up so far

[Dark Munster]

Far too soon to say. The last poll closed too soon. Hopefully this one will stay open longer.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

I'd like to see them play for a game or two.

While it's been an impressive amount of money spent, it took to the last hours of the window to address the massive scoring gap in the team. That's a risk that will take to the end of the season to see if it paid off. 

Romeu is still a massive loss. Not helped with Lavia's fitness.

Baz looks less than impressive, a problem in narrow games. Also emphasised by the strengthening others have been able to do.

Lots of money. Lots of players. Yet still weaknesses in the first team, even if the new guys all do well.

[S-Clarke]

4 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

I'd like to see them play for a game or two.

While it's been an impressive amount of money spent, it took to the last hours of the window to address the massive scoring gap in the team. That's a risk that will take to the end of the season to see if it paid off. 

Romeu is still a massive loss. Not helped with Lavia's fitness.

Baz looks less than impressive, a problem in narrow games. Also emphasised by the strengthening others have been able to do.

Lots of money. Lots of players. Yet still weaknesses in the first team, even if the new guys all do well.

Sadly those two weaknesses which remain are self inflicted weaknesses, we should have sorted out GK properly in the summer (not saying no to Bazunu, but he shouldn't have been our first choice keeper signing), and also keep Romeu around and if not - replace him with a like for like.

As of today those are now the the two obvious issues with our first team, so we're better than we were this time last week, but GK in particular could be costly (Especially with the players Everton and Forest have in goal)

Edited 1 February, 2023 by S-Clarke

[Colinjb]

Ask me in May.

[Saint Garrett]

Impossible to say yet, but went for a 7, based on the fact we’ve fixed some holes in the squad. 

But who knows whether the players we’ve bought in are good enough. I’m disappointed it took so long because I think we’ve thrown away points and may have made a difference with the cup semi final. 

[StrangelyBrown]

7 for me. Still 2 obvious positions to deal with (DM and GK) and our manager still needs replacing. 

[CB Fry]

The write up in The Athletic on our deadline day signings is quite heartening.

If this Sulemana really is a Mane Mark two, and Onuacho settles (and starts scoring) quickly, then maybe I will start believing we can stay up.

But my worries remain about a liability goalkeeper and an erratic (I'll be generous) manager.

As I said yesterday I don't really get why we couldn't have got Onuacho earlier in the window.

[Dellman]

If  he is Mane Mk2 I hope the fans will treat him better than they  did Mk1 who was rubbished from the start, never understood the hate and didn't blame him for leaving.

[DrunkenSaint]

no new CDM so gave it a 5. New striker is a plus, the new winger seems meh looking at his stats, Luton guy was horrific, not sure it will be enough to get us out of relegation. It all seemed very rushed and no thought behind the signings. Tall striker seems we will be hoofing it upfield once again which still wont work. Our defence is pretty bad and we really miss Romeu so we needed that Romeu type player to help protect the defence, you can get all the attacking players you like but it wont mean nothing if we are leaking goals at the other end. I still dont think Jones is the right man to get this team going, keeps insisting on the 3 at the back and we've lost before he realises its not working then tries it again the following week, he's a loon.

[CB Fry]

8 minutes ago, Dellman said:

If  he is Mane Mk2 I hope the fans will treat him better than they  did Mk1 who was rubbished from the start, never understood the hate and didn't blame him for leaving.

Jesus wept, talk about myth making.

Hint: he didn't leave fir Liverpool because of a couple of posts on this forum and maybe a few terrace groans from his first couple of matches two years prior.

 

[Vancouver Saint]

8 for me. 

SR have given us the best possible chance to stay up we could expect. 

But still some major doubts about their most important signing of all - Nathan Jones. Jury is still very much out for me. 

I think the players we've brought in are exciting - Alacaraz, Orsic, and now Onuacho and Sulemana - but they're young and will likely need time to settle in as human beings into a totally new culture (if that's a word we can associate with Southampton!)...let alone hit the ground running in the PL. Add the unproven Nathan Jones equation (genius in disguise or useless shouty-prat) and we will need a lot of luck to get the points we need. 

I'm not counting the points but rather thinking are there three worse teams than us going into the last 18 games? Everton and Bournemouth most likely... then Forest? Leeds if they get injuries, Wolves if the new manager honeymoon ends abruptly, Palace even? Leicester and West Ham will get out of it I think.

When none of the TotalSaintsFC punters think we can win against Brentford on Saturday it's a reality check. 

We all know what the most Saintsy thing of all to do is. That is find our form one game and one point too late...end the season with five wins in a row and miss 17th on goal difference. 

I so hope I'm wrong.

Edited 1 February, 2023 by Vancouver Saint