Today marks the point where we will be over the half way stage of the January transfer window and there appears little sign of movement.

Saints fans are starting to become a little apprehensive with noon today marking the half way stage of the transfer window yet we appear no nearer landing a new signing than we did as the bells struck midnight on New Years Eve to mark the opening of it.

Perhaps what grates most with the Saints support is that when the club strangely allowed Virgil Van Dijk to announce his move to Liverpool before the window had opened, many hoped that indicated that Saints were ready to move for his replacement early in the window and were getting the money into the coffers in advance.

That was the hope anyway, after all you ask any Saints supporter young or old what Saints needed to do in the window and they would all tell you a central defender to replace Van Dijk and a striker were a must.

Given the publicity given to our famous black box, you would have thought that the targets would be identified early and signed sealed and delivered after all this was no time to quibble about a few million after holding out for the extra from Liverpool.

Now the January transfer window is not a simple one in that us apart most of the selling clubs want to hang on to the final week in order to ensure that they have squeezed out the best price for players, but Saints needed to make a statement here and they haven't done.

A problem mght be the uncertainty of the manager's position, there is a school of thought that he should have been sacked at the start of the year to give a new man the money to spend and that this uncertainty might also be a factor why players might not want to sign for the club and there could be some truth in that.

The problem for the club is that they want to get the right man in both players and perhaps manager, if they sack Pellegrino there would be really no one left at the club to run the team till a new man was appointed, Kelvin Davis would be the only coach left and with respect to him, he has only been a coach for a few weeks and that would be a worse situation than keeping Pellegrino.

But the club need to do something different and fast, their problem is that whatever they do is fast becoming damned if they do and damned if they dont in the eyes of the fans, the longer this drags on the worse it will get.

Photo: Action Images

saintstuinoz added 09:30 - Jan 16 It certainly has the feeling of not wanting to spend money until they're sure about the manager, but time is ticking on and something needs to happen soon. Either back Pellegrino and get in players he wants, or sack him, get someone else in immediately, and let them spend.
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Sanguin added 09:30 - Jan 16 I remember last year after Fonte left, Reed commented that they had a replacement lined up but as soon as Fonte was gone the replacement’s price jumped up. Reed and the club hierarchy are frugal, which I think is good for the long-term future of the club (compared to frivolous purchases like Osvaldo and Ramirez). But getting relegated definitely isn’t good for the long-term future of the club!

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cornishsaint added 09:40 - Jan 16 We are at the point of no return, a manager with no confidence or the desired skills to get us out of this hole and seemingly a non existent board and chairman, no signings currently but apparent interest in a unused sub from Monaco who will need time to gel which we don’t have and nearly 60 million worth of talent sat on the bench whilst we continue to use players out of form, unbelievable set of circumstances that reminds me of the dark days under Lowe leadership.

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davej added 09:53 - Jan 16 Unfortunately it is not like going to the supermarket and buying off the shelf, Agents these days have alot of power over their clients, A deal will be placed on the table then the agent will tout the player elsewhere then heyho another week passes. Take Walcott he spoke to us , Everton now Bournemouth, There will be deals set up but will not be actioned until the last week. The better deal for the player the better deal for the agent.

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cornishsaint added 10:30 - Jan 16 Also the silence from the club is deafening as they continue to ignore the current situation, it’s time for the DE and others to start making a stand and state the truths from the people that matter the most (the fans) the club need to respond as we are being treated like idiots
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SanMarco added 10:58 - Jan 16 Excellent point about the timing of the VVD sale. With every day that passes that look more and more like us bending over for Liverpool rather than for our own plans. If we do not strengthen we could well go down. There are probably 9 teams in the battle, if you include Watford (I discount Palace and Wet Spam as they will stay up easily). 9 teams and 3 places - so even with simple maths that is a 1 in 3 chance. We have only won 4 games and have still not sorted the goal scoring (or tight defending for 90 whole minutes for that matter). Nothing guarantees that a squad with our record are suddenly going to get 20 more points. Sacking the manager now is totally counter-productive if we have to flail around like Stoke and in two weeks' time end up with a third choice like Lambert. We also have 3 important games before the end of January. Waiting until the evening of the 31st will not help us in those. Strengthen properly and we could still nip into the top ten - mess it up and we may be going to QPR and Norwich next season.

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Chesham_Saint added 11:57 - Jan 16 Clearly they’ve known VD was going to leave for many months. I was delighted when we sIgned Hoedt but surely they must have looked at any number of centre backs during the search for him -didn’t they think to ear mark anyone else during g that process? This is beginning to smack of gross imcompetence.
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dirk_doone added 12:23 - Jan 16 They want to save on the January wage bill. It's all about squeezing as much cash out of the club as possible. But, Les Reed is a bit old and slow anyway. He should have retired last year on his 65th birthday.
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petedoors1 added 13:54 - Jan 16 Sky Sports are saying Walcott set to undergo Everton medical today. Looks like another one got away.
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roamer added 13:59 - Jan 16 There are two possible scenarios: 1. Gao The Muppet is came to destry the club selling all players /litterally/ and to bring us to the championship and make additional cash /profit/of arround 30 mil.plus. That's absolutely real and we should think about that. 2. The Board / The Hockey Player and Less The Lumbur/ are still considering options of new manager to replace Pellegrino and that's why there are no new signing. This scenario is unlikely to be true. I don't know what's actually happen with the club behind the curtains but it is smell like a big shite,ok.

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SanMarco added 14:17 - Jan 16 Must be true if it is on Sky Sports pete!! Personally I wouldn't break the bank for Walcott but we need to break the bank for SOMEONE soon.
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underweststand added 15:31 - Jan 16 I don't think that numbering the days will make much difference, except we hope those passing days were used productively. As has been said before there is a lot more to signing a player that agreeing wages and signing the contract. IF - as it seems - we will sign players from " abroad" then FIFA rules and work permits need to be considered too. As for who we sign...The idea of the "prodigal Walcott " returning to SMS may encourage some, but if he doesn't come I won't be sad. WE need two strikers (priority) but if we don't sign that extra CB - I think we can cope. The lack of goals has been our downfall and every game that enede up drawn, or that we lost by the odd goal made it worse. Now we look to see what Les & Co. can pull out of the hat...

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SaintBrock added 15:36 - Jan 16 Keep up the pressure Nick. Day 31 will come soon enough.
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Pecky3 added 20:31 - Jan 16 It is unbelievable that the Club appears to be doing nothings about bringing in players, We desperatey need a goalscorer (proven), central defender and more importantly a new manager. Bring back Koeman - all is forgiven!!
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