Jose Fone looks set to be out for at least six weeks after being stretchered off against Chelsea at the weekend putting further pressure on an already weak central defence.
Of course no one at Southampton Football Club could have predicted that Jose Fonte would have picked up an injury against Chelsea, there are those that will say we should have played a weakened side to protect players from injury, but Im not one of them, you can never tell when an injury might strike it could just have easily have been done in training or in another league match, it was just bad luck it happened in an FA Cup game when in the past we have put out weakened sides.
But this potential long term injury to Fone only accelerates the consequences of our failure to land an experienced central defender at Premier league level, last summer we were rumoured to be chasing central defenders almost as soon as the season had ended last April, indeed we had shipped out Arron Martin on loan to Crystal Palace within weeks which suggested that we were clearing the decks for an arrival in this department, however despite many names being linked, no one arrived till virtually the last minute of the last day when Yoshida was signed, this smacked of a panic buy and to be fair to Yoshida although he has improved of late the fact is he isnt the rock at the heart of our defence that we need.
Unless we sign someone by Saturday then it looks like Hooiveld will have to partner Yoshida and this worries me greatly, in recent weeks we have shored up a little defensively but how much is that due to the quality of opposition we have played than the quality of our defenders? Ok we kept Arsenal at bay, but the Chelsea game showed just how at this level you just cannot afford any lapses in concentration and show the opposition a chink in your armour.
Now is the time to get proactive and quickly, of course they would like to sign the likes of Davide Astori, but if he isnt going to be signed by Saturday then we will have had a week to identify someone who could be signed easily and quickly and perhaps on loan who ticks most of the boxes, Ill throw a name into the hat, Matthew Upson, not had the greatest time at Stoke since signing in August 11, and at 33 he is not one for the future, but there are pleny of his ilk in Premiership squads and he fits the bill in he knows what is needed in this division, a short term loan could be the difference between drawing or losing at Aston Villa and that in turn could be the difference between staying up and going down, in the wider picture Matthew Upsons wages for three or four months are a fraction of what we will lose if we are relegated.
So again the problem is not that we are missing out on transfer targets but thet we have or seem to have no contingency plans, someone like Upson and I am only using him as an example could well be better than either Fonte or Yoshida in what we need them to do, Liverpool messed up in the summer transfer window that left them with only one striker at the club in Suarez, but they had their man identified and the deal agreed so that it could be signed virtually the moment the clock had struck midnight to herald in January, Sturrisge came in and immediately repaid some of his fee by scoring the first goal at Mansfield, if they can do this why do we find it so hard, as i have often say its not what you do wrong that counts, its what you do next !