Saints fans face an interesting few days leading up to the transfer window slamming firmly shut, but what lies in store for Southampton Football Club.

The Saints story in most of the newspapers is the shameless pursuit of Nathaniel Clyne by Manchester United, this is mainly driven by a press desperate for a big story this window, fuelled by the odd leak or two, in turn this leads to other clubs being linked by default.

But Saints fans dont have to worry Clyne will go nowhere in this January window especially as the club does not have another right back at the club with the quality and experience needed at this stage.

Most reports claim that Clyne is in negotiations with Saints and some are saying that he has told them he will decide his future at the end of the season, this is fine, it is whatyou would expect from any player in his position, he knows that the deal on the table could increse substancially if Saints do qualify for the Champions league, so that being the case its not in his interest to rush into signing a new one at this stage. Indeed it is good to see that unlike certain players who left in the summer, Clyne is concentrating on his current job and leaving this till the summer.

The second big story is the supposed interest from various teams in Jay Rodriguez, the first issue here is that the player has not played for 10 months and even if a return to full training is imminent in the next couple of weeks as has been suggested, it is unlikely that Rodriguez would be truly match fit till the start of March.

So buying him now for what would be an inflated price for any club would be a big gamble and one that at this moment they would be unable to cover with insurance, that being the case then the risk gets bigger and of course there is no guarantee that the player will come back to anywhere near like the player he was looking like.

From a Saints perspective although I like Rodriguez as a player and would prefer him to stay, if Saints were to receive a bid in excess of £25 million I think we should snap their hands off.

These are the two big stories involving specific players at St Mary's and i really expect this window to be a quiet one although one shock departure could be Jack Cork if the club decide that it is better to ship him out now and get something for him rather than see him go in the summer.

A few weeks ago I think Cork would have been shipped out, however our horrific injury list will perhaps mean we will keep him out of neccessity, this is a strange situation and i can see both sides of the coin here, on one hand Cork perhaps knows he is not first choice and on the other hand Saints need him now but probably not so much in a month.

So what will Saints do regarding incoming transfers in this window ?

Again injuries might force our hand here and certainly Shane Long's injury will have a bearing on this, the arrival of Elia means we are not so desperate as we might have been, but we are still short of bodies.

One name that keeps coming up is Dirk Kuyt, the player is due to leave Fenerbahce at the end of the season, but with the Turkish club desperate to slash the wage bill he could be allowed to go, although as they are chasing the Championship there they might just keep him.

Joining Saints could suit Kuyt who is understood to want to have his final swansong at Feyenoord next season, so a short term loan at Saints could allow him to also say goodbye to the Premier League, do not underestimate the Koeman factor here.

A loan move would best suit Saints for a forward player in that if they keep hold of Rodriguez and Long recovers quickly they will then have an abundance of fire power, it is just this unprecedented injury list that is causing Koeman to even consider the transfer market.

Without these injuries Saints would have been concentrating to see if they could get any of their long term targets rather than replacing players etc, but things seem to change week in week out at St mary's with every injury.

So I dont think anything too much will happen in the next week and if it does I dont think it will be bad for Southampton Football Club.

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 12:18 - Jan 26 I totally agree Nick. I think you are on the money here with everything you've said about Clyne and J-Rod. I personally don't begrudge any player a move upwards (provided that is what it is) and it does in the correct way. I think that's important when you look at the depratures in the summer gone by. I think money as opposed to footballing reasons were at the forefront of some of the players' minds. Some were definitely running before they could walk and may find their careers going backwards as a result. Those are the players I have no respect for. Getting back to the current day I think our chances of CL football hinge on RK bringing in a couple of worldies in this window. Our small squad is getting battered by injuries and the more this goes on the more I fear for our current position against the bigger squads of the top clubs. Would love to see an out and out goalscorer come in and maybe some defensive cover for Toby.

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