January Transfer Window 2025

[LuckyNumber7]

Good luck Stu. Was gutted that injury at Cardiff cut his season short and deprived him of a proper send off. What an awful night that was all round.

Reckon he could still have done a job for us in the PL this season.

[OldNick]

22 hours ago, Football Special said:

A mate of mine lives over there and watches Torino occasionally, they are big fans of Che Adams, bagged another couple last Friday night , think that's 9 for the season now 

Does this mean how poor that league is or has Che developed somewhat?

[Galway saint]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

The fact we are trying to put an obligation to buy (assuming that is accurate) suggests Juric/the club doesn't fancy him. I guess Archer may have indicated he wants to leave, so inserting the obligation works for him and SFC? If the `obligation' element of the news stories is true, then one way of the other his time at Saints seems almost up.

Good question. Everyone keeps saying `Armstrong will score a bucket full of goals back in the Championship and without Martin holding him back', but I'm not sure. Having several strikers would be a good plan. Maybe Juric thinks they are too similar and doesnt want both. If that is the case then you allow one to leave - and that obviously requires a suitor. Maybe Armstrign doesn't have one. 

Increasingly looking like the decision to recruit the blades strike force hasn't worked out as planned. It was an add one at the time but I guess our recruitment team liked what they saw 

[Saint Matty 76]

Alcaraz just gone to Everton, interesting to see how he does in the Prem in a non-possession team. 

Pretty well based on what we saw last time I'd imagine.

[Maggie May]

5 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Alcaraz just gone to Everton, interesting to see how he does in the Prem in a non-possession team. 

Pretty well based on what we saw last time I'd imagine.

It speaks volumes when Joe Rothwell scores more Championship goals than you.

[Lighthouse]

An interesting move, given how little interest there was in him in summer. Good luck to the lad, an obvious candidate for a goal against us in April.

[disconnect]

31 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Alcaraz just gone to Everton, interesting to see how he does in the Prem in a non-possession team. 

Pretty well based on what we saw last time I'd imagine.

Interesting move. We totally wasted him, one of the very few players to come out of the back end of our last premier league season with any credit, and of course Martin hated his direct style and unpredictability. I guess we wouldnt have bought Fernandes if he was still here, but a midfield with both of them would've offered a lot more goal threat.

[Wade Garrett]

1 hour ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Alcaraz just gone to Everton, interesting to see how he does in the Prem in a non-possession team. 

Pretty well based on what we saw last time I'd imagine.

Obviously wasn’t pulling up trees at Flamenco.  Only been there for 5 minutes.

[Saint NL]

 

He was never the same after that injury, but I'm surprised to see he's still playing 

[Harry_SFC]

SAA withdrawn from the under 21 line up at the last minute. Guessing it's to do with a loan move. 

[Disco Stu]

I can't help but feel annoyed about Alcaraz. You don't sell one of the few players to have shown they can play at this level if you're looking to build a competitive squad.

If keeping him meant we couldn't sign BBD, Fraser, Lallana, Wood, Edwards and Taylor, that would have been fine by me.

I despised Martin's style of play so losing Alcaraz because he wasn't deemed to fit his slow, indirect system infuriated me.

He should be playing for us. Think about the number of times we've lost all potency this season because nobody decent was available to replace Dibling or Fernandes.

I expect him to be a £40m player in a year or two now that he's playing in a direct system.

Edited 12 hours ago by Disco Stu

[FarehamSaintJames]

I can’t help but not care less about Alcaraz.
He didn’t want to be here and wanted to go back to South America.

If he’d scored fifty goals it would have felt worse, but he scored a small amount and didn’t even feature much in the first half of our promotion season.

Frustrated yes, but I’m not losing sleep over it.

It’s like Broja all over again. He did ok, but he certainly wasn’t pulling up trees ffs. 😂

[Disco Stu]

4 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

I can’t help but not care less about Alcaraz.
He didn’t want to be here and wanted to go back to South America.

If he’d scored fifty goals it would have felt worse, but he scored a small amount and didn’t even feature much in the first half of our promotion season.

Frustrated yes, but I’m not losing sleep over it.

It’s like Broja all over again. He did ok, but he certainly wasn’t pulling up trees ffs. 😂

That's not how I heard it. The Athletic claimed his intentions were to stay. 

https://www.givemesport.com/charly-alcaraz-wants-to-stay-at-southampton/#:~:text=Midfielder Carlos Alcaraz intends to,Kamaldeen Sulemana's future is uncertain.

Martin failed to play to his strengths, agreed, but under Selles' direct system, he was our best player. One of the few that made watching us bearable that season.

[Wade Garrett]

31 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I can't help but be annoyed about Alcaraz. You don't sell one of the few players to have shown they can play at this level if you're looking to build a competitive squad.

If keeping him meant we couldn't sign BBD, Fraser, Lallana, Wood, Edwards and Taylor, that would have been fine by me.

I despised Martin's style of play so losing Alcaraz because he wasn't deemed to fit his slow, indirect style infuriated me.

He should be playing for us. Think about the number of times we've lost all potency this season because nobody decent was available to replace Dibling or Fernandes.

I expect him to be a £40m player in a year or two now that he's playing in a direct system.

To be fair, his present and previous clubs couldn’t wait to get rid of him.

[Toussaint]

9 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

I can’t help but not care less about Alcaraz.
He didn’t want to be here and wanted to go back to South America.

If he’d scored fifty goals it would have felt worse, but he scored a small amount and didn’t even feature much in the first half of our promotion season.

Frustrated yes, but I’m not losing sleep over it.

It’s like Broja all over again. He did ok, but he certainly wasn’t pulling up trees ffs. 😂

Why would he want to be here when our  useless manager didn’t rate him?

Let’s see if he’s like Broja all over again, in fact let’s see if Broja is like Broja in a season or two.

[SNSUN]

Just now, Disco Stu said:

That's not how I heard it. The Athletic claimed his intentions were to stay. 

https://www.givemesport.com/charly-alcaraz-wants-to-stay-at-southampton/#:~:text=Midfielder Carlos Alcaraz intends to,Kamaldeen Sulemana's future is uncertain.

Martin failed to play to his strengths, agreed, but under Selles' direct system, he was our best player. One of the few that made watching us bearable that season.

He was also one of the newer recruits to say he wanted to stay and play after relegation if my memory serves before he was shipped off to Juve. I liked him and I would have liked to see him stay but he just wasn't a fit for Martin. I actually hope he does well at Everton, despite my dislike of them.

[spyinthesky]

Looks like Jayden Mehgoma has gone on loan to Preston from Brentford.

[Matthew Le God]

3 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

Looks like Jayden Mehgoma has gone on loan to Preston from Brentford.

15 days ago! 😉 

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

I can't help but feel annoyed about Alcaraz. You don't sell one of the few players to have shown they can play at this level if you're looking to build a competitive squad.

If keeping him meant we couldn't sign BBD, Fraser, Lallana, Wood, Edwards and Taylor, that would have been fine by me.

I despised Martin's style of play so losing Alcaraz because he wasn't deemed to fit his slow, indirect system infuriated me.

He should be playing for us. Think about the number of times we've lost all potency this season because nobody decent was available to replace Dibling or Fernandes.

I expect him to be a £40m player in a year or two now that he's playing in a direct system.

What about selling Alcaraz to afford to buy Fernandes?  I know which I'd prefer.

 

[Chez]

2 hours ago, Saint NL said:

 

He was never the same after that injury, but I'm surprised to see he's still playing 

Excellent. Love JayRod and always will. Bloody brilliant for us. Look forward to seeing him scoring some massive goals on the Disney series in the near future.

[Football Special]

12 minutes ago, Chez said:

Excellent. Love JayRod and always will. Bloody brilliant for us. Look forward to seeing him scoring some massive goals on the Disney series in the near future.

Could well be against us next season.

I remember going to his England debut, at home to Chile I think, was on course to go to world cup I think before the injury 

[Chez]

4 minutes ago, Football Special said:

Could well be against us next season.

I remember going to his England debut, at home to Chile I think, was on course to go to world cup I think before the injury 

still annoys me that he missed out on the WC and we missed out seeing him another season (or two) more of him in his prime. 

[Fabrice29]

3 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I can't help but feel annoyed about Alcaraz. You don't sell one of the few players to have shown they can play at this level if you're looking to build a competitive squad.

If keeping him meant we couldn't sign BBD, Fraser, Lallana, Wood, Edwards and Taylor, that would have been fine by me.

I despised Martin's style of play so losing Alcaraz because he wasn't deemed to fit his slow, indirect system infuriated me.

He should be playing for us. Think about the number of times we've lost all potency this season because nobody decent was available to replace Dibling or Fernandes.

I expect him to be a £40m player in a year or two now that he's playing in a direct system.

He’s scored 3 goals since he’s left and done nothing to suggest he’ll be a 40m player. I liked him but he was hardly tearing it up in the Championship was he. Also, we can all pick players we like and compare them to players we don’t like and don’t play in their position to make our point sound better. Maybe he’ll do alright at Everton but selling someone we didn’t need and hasn’t done much since is perfectly okay. 

Edited 9 hours ago by Fabrice29

[Disco Stu]

8 hours ago, Chez said:

What about selling Alcaraz to afford to buy Fernandes?  I know which I'd prefer.

 

I don't believe the narrative that it had to be one or the other regarding Alcaraz and Fernandes especially given they were both at the club at the same time albiet for a short while. If we were so cash strapped that it was critical we could only have one or the other, we would have waited for an Alcaraz sale to go through and I doubt we would have been playing him against Newcastle when the Fernandes deal was announced by Fabrizio Romano on the same day. Playing Alcaraz suggests a deal wasn't anywhere close at that point.

Save the wages and signing-on-fees for Lallana, Fraser and Taylor. Save the fees for BBD, Wood and Edwards amounting to £14m. We've just deemed it acceptable to spent another €5m this window on an 18 year old from the 3rd division of French football. We wasted so much money on crap last window and this is hardly just hindsight. It was clear to see at the time.

Edwards and Wood were never going to improve us at this level and Kayi Sanda won't help us this season or probably next. If we wanted to add to central defense and couldn't afford to bring in real quality, we should have utlilised the loan market for a player that can actually play at this level instead of wasting a loan spot on a squad filler forward like Maxwell Cornet.

Edited 3 hours ago by Disco Stu

[austsaint]

8 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Given the fees for the Championship players, BBD, Wood and Edwards more than cover the Fernandes fee, I don't believe the narrative that it had to be one or the other regarding Alcaraz and Fernandes especially given they were both at the club at the same time albiet for a short time. If we were so cash strapped that it was so critical we could only have one or the other, we would have waited for the Alcaraz sale.

Agree with that.   Alcaraz was offloaded mainly because the previous manager didn’t rate him, and didn’t employ a game style to suit Alcaraz’ strengths.   Effectively Will Smallbone was preferred (by RM), a decision which seemed odd at the time, and odd with hindsight.      Wish him well….even if it is with the Toffees.

[wild-saint]

13 hours ago, OldNick said:

Does this mean how poor that league is or has Che developed somewhat?

Umm. Well I certainly know which answer I’d go for ….. B) he is still shit but playing in a crap league.

[swannymere]

Isn't it very odd that we still buy players who don't fit our style of play and/or then get managers who don't subscribe to the style of play for continuity? Someone needs to be held responsible. We end end up wasting so much money because of this this.

[benjii]

If we had played Alcaraz as a striker this season he would probably have more goals than any of our other strikers.

[Chez]

3 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I don't believe the narrative that it had to be one or the other regarding Alcaraz and Fernandes especially given they were both at the club at the same time albiet for a short while. If we were so cash strapped that it was critical we could only have one or the other, we would have waited for an Alcaraz sale to go through and I doubt we would have been playing him against Newcastle when the Fernandes deal was announced by Fabrizio Romano on the same day. Playing Alcaraz suggests a deal wasn't anywhere close at that point.

Save the wages and signing-on-fees for Lallana, Fraser and Taylor. Save the fees for BBD, Wood and Edwards amounting to £14m. We've just deemed it acceptable to spent another €5m this window on an 18 year old from the 3rd division of French football. We wasted so much money on crap last window and this is hardly just hindsight. It was clear to see at the time.

Edwards and Wood were never going to improve us at this level and Kayi Sanda won't help us this season or probably next. If we wanted to add to central defense and couldn't afford to bring in real quality, we should have utlilised the loan market for a player that can actually play at this level instead of wasting a loan spot on a squad filler forward like Maxwell Cornet.

I didn't create the x or y narrative. You did. We sold him because he did not fit RMs possession-based style. Quite simply, he gave the ball away too often for Martin's liking. That's not to say the funds didn't help to buy other players who have not worked out. 

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, swannymere said:

Isn't it very odd that we still buy players who don't fit our style of play and/or then get managers who don't subscribe to the style of play for continuity? Someone needs to be held responsible. We end end up wasting so much money because of this this.

I find it even odder that we have to go so balls deep into one particular style of play, when did this philosophical footballing dogma become a thing?

[StrangelyBrown]

10 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

I find it even odder that we have to go so balls deep into one particular style of play, when did this philosophical footballing dogma become a thing?

It makes sense if we stick to one philosophy (maybe not quite as rigidly as Martin), but to change so drastically shows a complete lack of strategy and direction.

We've gone from high press & high energy counter attack to long ball to heavy possession and now back to the start - none of which are complimentary or need the same sort of players.

Absolutely mental.

[Whitey Grandad]

7 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

I find it even odder that we have to go so balls deep into one particular style of play, when did this philosophical footballing dogma become a thing?

It was when they changed the rules in 2019 about goal kicks having to leave the penalty area. I think Arsène Wenger had something to do with it.

Damned stupid idea.

Here’s some of the thinking below. In theory by opening up your own goal area to the opposition you’re making openings around their back line that your goalkeeper can exploit by kicking long. Yeah, right.

https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/news-the-new-goal-kick-rule-change-a-primer