Saints Favourites To Sign Charlie Austin ! But Why ?
Saints are being touted in the media to sign QPR striker Charlie Austin, but the big question is why Saints would be interested in doing so.
Saints have been linked with Charlie Austin before on more than one occasion, but the question is just where would he slot into the Saints side ?
Austin does not fit the usual profile for a Ronald Koeman signing in that he is an out and out centre forward and from that respect he could only be a direct replacement for Graziano Pelle unless Ronald Koeman intends changing his formation to play two out and out strikers up front.
Koeman already has several other strikers as in Mane, Long & Rodriguez who are not only able to play as out and out strikers when called upon but also able to play in a wide role.
This tends to suggest that these reports are nothing more than media speculation probably fuelled by the players agent.
If Austin was to arrive he would be unlikely to be an automatic choice and although it would be nice to have a player of his capabilities coming off the bench, I just cannot see Austin himself being content with that.
The big surprise of the summer is that no big club came in for him, rumours persist about his off the field lifestyle and perhaps this has lead to teams not being willing to take a chance on him and he has seen his star wane. A year ago he was on the verge of an England cap yet a year later he has not made the strides of his peers from last season, like Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy.
That is the only real reason you can see hi coming to Saints, he would be in a team where he can shine albeit in a reduced role and perhaps push his case for an England recall.
Other clubs linked are Bournemouth, Newcastle and Aston Villa, but that would surely be a ove that could put him back into the same position that he is now next season ie the Championship.
West Brom are also being touted and that could perhaps be a good move as he would not only have the chance of a place in the starting line up regularly, but would perhaps not be involved in a relegation battle.
What to read next:
U's Vs Accrington Match Preview As the round of matches over the festive period draws to a close, we have the visit of Accrington Stanley on that most rare of events in our football history, a Sunday afternoon kick-off. If you filter out play-off and cup games, in the league this accounts for just 25 games since we were formed, seven won, six drawn and 12 lost. As you would imagine, Sunday games are generally focussed around Christmas and the New Year, or more recently, Sky-mandated final games of the season. It’s been a pretty positive holiday schedule for the U’s too, eight points from four games, and with other results often going our way, we’re now just two places and three points outside the play-offs.
U's Vs MK Dons Match Preview Happy New Year U’s fans! After two hard fought 1-1 draws away from home across the festive period we kick off the New Year with a home match against Milton Keynes. Tickets look to be selling well, although not in the West Stand it seems, so should be a decent crowd providing MK bring more than their normal coach load. I know it doesn’t count for anything but the calendar year League Two table has us in fifth with 72 points from 46 matches played so 2025 hasn’t been a bad year to be a U’s fan.
Gillingham Vs U's Match Preview First and foremost, I hope you are all having a pleasant Christmas break relaxing with family and friends, and wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. This will be our final match of 2025, with a trip to Priestfield to face old adversary Gillingham, our second game against them this month and our third this season. This will be our 112th game in all competitions against the Gills, a relationship that started with a Ted Davis U’s side winning 2-0 at Layer Road on 27th August 1938. At the final whistle tomorrow we will also be at the halfway point of the season, so considering at the end of September we were 20th, plenty of optimism for the second half of the season.
Crawley Vs U's Match Preview Merry Christmas U’s fans! Boxing Day in proper football leagues means football matches and the U’s face one of their shortest trips of the season as they venture across the Thames to face creepy Crawley. Crawley’s “stadium” is one of the few grounds I’ve gone away with the U’s (the 3-1 League Cup win back in 2019) and it felt like a ground that should be in the National League South but Crawley have been established in the football league since 2011 with two promotions to League One during that time which is impressive given the relative size of the club. We don’t have a huge history against Crawley Town, with just 24 meetings to date of which Crawley have won 11. In fact since that memorable League Cup win we hadn’t managed to beat Crawley until the, not as memorable but probably more important, 3-2 away win towards the end of the 2023/24 season that went a long way to helping us stay in this division.
U's Vs Newport Match Preview And so, Danny and Nicky enter their second century of games managing the U’s, at home to struggling Newport – let’s hope it starts a bit better than the first century finished. There won’t be many games we score three and lose, trouble is there’ll be even fewer where we concede four and win. That being said, I couldn’t fault the first hour of the Salford game, with the U’s in control of a game against good opposition, and on a typically heavy pitch. Then we kind of fell apart, certainly defensively, helped in no small part by a masterclass from ex-U’s Luke Garbutt (how is he only in League 2?). Credit must also go to 250+ of the faithful, a long trip starting at stupid o’clock – they deserved more than that for their support.