With less than a wekk to go in the transfer window, Saints fans are a little worried about the lack of arrivals.

When Nigel Adkins was sacked, his ability to take the club on to the next stage was stated as the reason why he was removed now, well at this moment in time the issue isnt the next stage, but cementing the foundations in this one, whilst it may turn out to be true that MoPO is able to get more out of the squad than his predecessor, it is also the case that there is only so much that he can get, if he doesnt have the right players in the right positions to work with then he is going to do no better.

Last summer we were linked with many players and Nigel Adkins said from virtually the last kick of last season where he needed to strengthen, he didnt receiv that backing and instead found a system imposed on him in which he did not have the players to play it, instead of the rock solid foundations in the centre of defence and in goal, he got some high profile players like Jay Rodriguez who was almost redundant before he started with only one position to fill up front, likewise Mayuka.

In midfield he got the mercurial talents of Ramirez, but it could be said he already had Lallana who in the Premier division is best suited to that hole behind the central striker, now just when we need to plug the gaps we failed to in the summer we once again seem to be trying to build the walls before we have built the foundations and if you do that in a house we all know what will happen.

t this stage I feel that had we say spent £12 million on a Premier proven central defender, goalkeeper and winger, then we would be in a lot better psotion than we are now and could be looking for the marque signings.

Instead we seem to be repeating the same mistakes as the summer, Forren looks promising, but at this stage we do not know if he is up to the Premier division or not, Liverpool certainly werent sure about him after extensive scouting and stepped out of the picture when Saints came in without too much protest, I hope Forren turns out to be a great signing, but to be honest his record is no better than Hooiveld at the moment.

This being the case in this window I hoped that we would go for realistic signings with the experience in this division, the likes of Scott Dann, Paul Robinson or even consider a loan signing from another Premier club like Marin at Chelsea, players with a true pedigree. instead we bid for a 20 year old inexperienced Brazillian playmaker, yes he might be one for the future, but he isnt what we need at the moment and what part of the queue will he be in for a place behind Ramirez and Lallana.

This next week is vital for Saints not just on the pitch where two defeats could send us tumbling back into the bottom three, but in the transfer window, make the right signings to keep us up first, dont gamble by leaving us short in key areas as we found at the start of the season.

Saints are moving in the right directions, but many clubs have thought they were and suddenly found themselves in trouble as Birmingham City did a couple of years back when in mid February all lookedrosy and they were in mid table with 30 points from 25 games, come the last day of the season they were relegated with 39 points, securing only 9 from their final 13 games, a classic case of a club that took their eyes off the ball and what was needed.

Photo: Action Images

Zambucco added 13:34 - Jan 25 Nick I'm sure Nicola Cortese will have factored all this into the mix when he decided to axe Nigel Adkins. MoPo has a history of getting the best out of what is a available. To be honest we were starting to look very strong without the signing of Forren, so this has given us extra strength at the back. If the rumour mill is correct then we could be looking at 2 or 3 defensive players coming in. I think because the spirit in the dressing room is so strong, that we will survive and by a good margin Keep the faith

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brady100 added 14:15 - Jan 25 I agree, but I think we all have to accept that we will never sign players from the championship as were too 'ambitious', even if that strategy would serve us better in our current position.
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Toussaint added 14:23 - Jan 25 When a new manager takes over theres always a honey-moon period,where the players are still basically doing what the previous boss wanted ie:Everton ,it will take 2 or 3 games before we can really tell how they are really responding...its stick or bust for us fans
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VeloSaint added 14:42 - Jan 25 Unless our #1 targets are available we should be trying to loan in players to plug the gaps. Its a nightmare window where the desperate clubs end up over paying or end up with players they don't want come the summer. Re Forren, on paper he's far better then Jos but the point is valid regardless. He has no Prem experience so we have to hope he's better then what we've got. With Boruc's improvement, no one seems to be touting a keeper as #1 must have. If Forren is the real deal then a wide left player would be my priority.

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richardmdcooper added 14:46 - Jan 25 Zambucco - "MP has a history of getting the best out of his players" - weren't Espanyol bottom of the league this season before he was sacked?! - his record is defnitely nothing to write home about despite the propaganda coming out of sfc!
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legod7 added 14:52 - Jan 25 Nick, I think Birmingham were relegated a couple os seasons ago because they focused all their efforts on winning the League Cup and forgot the priority of the Premier League
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SaintNick added 14:55 - Jan 25 Im hopeful, but im tryiong to be realistic about the situation, yes he has a reputation for getting the best out of players but on the other hand he speaks little english and has no experience in this league and nor have his coaching staff, one feature of a lot of the succesful foreign managers in England has usually been that they have had an english coach alongside them to advise them and help in communications to players

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StSaint added 15:02 - Jan 25 I'm not worried in the slightest and think that we would stay up without additional signings. Your comparison between Jos and Forren is going to look pretty wide of the mark once you have seen him play. Relax - there's still a week to go and NC will be desperate to back his new man. We are fine as things stand and will be even better in a weeks time.
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SaintNick added 15:30 - Jan 25 Couple of points, as Birmingham went into the league cup final weekend they stood on 30 points from 26 games in 15th place with a game in hand on most of their rivals and about to get a second game in hand, their problems started after the cup final not before it. I hope my comparison will look wide of the mark after forren has played, but at the moment none of us really know how good he is as he has only been tested in the Norwegian league, hence why Liverpool wanted to have a look at him in training and against the standard of player he will come up against in the premier, history will soon tell us if he is another Claus or Michael Svensson or whether its Hooiveld or Van Damme

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St_Beano added 16:25 - Jan 25 Rumours on twitter say Chaplow's off to Leeds. Freeing up room for a new midfielder?
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ExiledSupporter added 16:28 - Jan 25 Well said Nick. I feel that it is unlikely that Coutinho is going to come, he says he is happy to stay at Milan, prefers Liverpool if he does leave and apart from a short relationship with MoPo seems to have no substantial reason for coming to us. I would much rather we spent £4m on Ince and let Liverpool spend the money on the young Brazilian, so that we can spend some of the remaining money on fortifying our defence. I had thought we were trailing Coutinho (allegedly) for some time before MoPo arrived and before Adkins left; so not sure whether this is more Cortese/Reed star-gazing or whether MoPo has been consulted. There is no reason to think that Coutinho would provide even as good cover on the flanks, when we don't have the ball, than Puncheon who seems likely to be the player most threatened by his signing. It should be our lack of cover in other parts of the squad that ought to be our priority now - injuries, for instance to MS (arguably our most influential player this season) or JC or another CB would set us back seriously. A couple of loanees might be just right if they are of sufficient quality and experience. I don't imagine there is any hope of retrieving Billy Sharp as an impact sub?

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Butty101 added 17:08 - Jan 25 How can you say Forren is unproven, far from it! You haven't seen him nor have but that dosent mean hes unproven! As for bashing hooiveld again, he had a better game than the Everton centre halfs the other night! That must mean they are not prem standard either
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 19:22 - Jan 25 Coutinho is pure class. If we got him it would be a major coup. He's just what we need. A quick, immensely skilled wide player. Coutinho is great on the ball and could link up wonderfully with Gaston and Lallana. Hopefully Poche can work some magic and sell him the club and our ambitions. As for Forren, he will be our 1st choice centre back. Should prove to be an excellent addition. Exciting times. Its been harsh on the legend Nigel Adkins but I think Poche will prove to be the man who turned us into a very good Premiership side. The thing that impresses me the most about Poche, that I've read from a number of sources, is his ability to make tactical changes through a game to improve the teams performance. I hope he can be as effective in the premiership as Adkins constantly made changes too late in a game and regularly made puzzling decisions with substitutions.

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StSaint added 19:40 - Jan 25 Any chance we can drop the MoPo - makes the man sound like a bloody teletubby.
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Fordy added 22:51 - Jan 25 I agree with you on most of this Nick. Bringing in Poche was a risk, but to bring him in with no English assistant is a real risk. Even Mourinho had Steve Clarke at Chelsea. It would have been great if Poche had come in with someone like Tisdale or even Nick Holmes as his assistant. As for the signings. Everyone knows we need reinforcements in central defence (perhaps a new keeper) and maybe a winger. Not sure we need too much else at the moment.

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stmichael added 10:38 - Jan 26 Not worried in the slightest. New centre back acheived , goal keeping situation improved , Adam and Fonte to return sooner rather than later. You could argue we could do with a wide player but then that is a bit insulting to Adam and Punch who will probably play those positions and are clearly quality players. Other than that this is a mid table side at worst. If the season was starting today probably top 8.

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ExiledSupporter added 12:10 - Jan 26 It's amazing how often a realistic perspective is condemned as negative! Already people are proclaiming that the appointment of Pochettini is a success and will take us up the table on the basis of a strong first half against Everton and a more even second half using almost exactly the same team as Adkins would have chosen. Well I hope that the change of management has very positive benefits, but it is far too early to judge just now (that's not negative, by the way, it's realistic). Too many people are 'celebrating' already and indulging themselves in dreaming of apparently outstanding players who do not seem to meet the priorities that the team clearly needs to address more urgently and which were widely acknowledged to be failings for some time before Adkins was so brutally removed. We did not do this properly during the summer while we became confused about the formation we favoured and the transfer targets we should chase; to make this sort of mistake again would be criminal

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BlackRod added 12:31 - Jan 26 Well said ExiledSupporter. There's a fair chance we may lose the next three games and slip back into the relegation zone. This won't mean that Pochettini has failed - he faces the same 'unkind' fixture list that NA did at the start of the season. I bet the mood round here will change though. Why didn't he bring in some new players? Why are the team playing the same way they did under Adkins? What was the sense in sacking Adkins? All good questions.

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slynch added 10:41 - Jan 27 http://www.football365.com/southampton/8445784/-?
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