It is now 23 days since the opening of the transfer window and although Saints have intimated that big money is about to be spent, the worry is it hasn't yet.

There is nothing strange in the fact that 23 days have elapsed since the transfer window opened and there is little happening at St Mary's, indeed there is little of note been done at most Premier League clubs as of yet, as of today only 17 incoming transfers have been done by top flight clubs and most of those are either loans or low key deals with little big money transactions as of yet, but that will hopefully start to change.

As of this morning Saints were one of 9 Premier League clubs yet to bring anyone in either on loan of for a fee, so this is an indication of how slow theJanuary market is until the final week.

That final week starts tomorrow and that is when things will hot up, the selling clubs will be getting to the point where they will be happy that they are getting the best price for their player and will open for business, so hopefully it will get interesting.

Saints have intimated that they are hopeful of getting at least two deals over the line this week and that they are going to invest if not all of the Virgil Van Dijk money a big chunk of it.

The big rumours are Quincy Promes from Spartak Moscow and Guido Carrillo, both attacking players and if landed with a transfer fee likely to total around £45 -50 Million between them, that is a big chunk of the transfer kitty.

But the worry is that Saints will not address the biggest area of concern and that is the central defensive position, for three seasons this was our strongest part of the field, Fonte/Lovren, Fonte/Alderweireld & Fonte Van Dijk were three strong partnerships, but last season and now this we have failed to address the issues that have arisen.

This season has been one of soft goals conceded every game and whilst Wesley Hoedt looks to be a good signing the failure to initially play him regularly and now to find a truly Premier League partner to play alongside him has cost us dearly so far.

If we are to survive with ease this would be my main priority, Sunday against Spurs saw yet more points dropped after taking the lead and more to the point saw yet another player lose his marker and score unchallenged in the box, this can't keep continuing.

So although I like most Saints fans would be pleased to see two players of the quality of Promes and Carrillo arrive, I would much rather see a central defender in first, Saints like to do things quietly perhaps they have something up their sleeve.

So this is the week of reality, the past three weeks have been ones of social media bickering, but little of what has been said has actually had any substance, it's only ranting, it is action that counts and by the nd of the window someones words will ring hollow, will it be Les Reed's or the more volatile of our supporters ?

Photo: Action Images

petedoors1 added 10:07 - Jan 23 Looks like they are waiting to see which new players MARCO SILVA wants.
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saintmark1976 added 10:16 - Jan 23 Today's Guardian newspaper has details of various football clubs revenues for the 2016/17 season. We had revenue of just over 180 million pounds, the 18th highest in the world and the 9th highest in the Premiership, yet we currently languish in the relegation zone.But then again we are only a "small club" so we should expect nothing else I suppose. I am reminded of what was said about First World War soldiers, "lions of men led by donkeys".

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SaintNick added 10:21 - Jan 23 So if we had held on to the lead in the last three games and were now lying 9th would you be praising Les & Ralph for taking us to exactly the position we stand in terms of income, although with the return of Newcastle to the Premier I would suspect that we might drop a notch, although the Van Dijk transfer might inflate our position a little. It is very easy to be flippant about Saints position, but a lot wiser to look at the bigger picture and were that income has come from

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SanMarco added 10:31 - Jan 23 I know many will weigh in with the 'CB is not the priority' narrative but I fully agree with Nick. Yes of course we need goals, and that is a long-standing problem that should have been addressed ages ago, but it is the defensive issues that have emerged in the last year or so that are every bit as important. Our lack of goals has hurt us badly but the weakness in central defence is, arguably, more important in a relegation struggle. We weren't going to beat Spuds 4-3 but we might well have beaten them 1-0...

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skiptonsaint added 10:32 - Jan 23 I am prepared to waiti a bit longer but if they are not here in time for the Brighton game and we mess that up and lose this momentum then I think the 2/3 million saved will of been a stupid error. Also really not sure what to do about the Watford game. Clearly Sims , Hesketh time etc but do we risk any first teamers ?
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ExiledSupporter added 10:33 - Jan 23 Nick, there you go yet again...bravely, but I think wrongly, pressing for another central defender as the first up priority. You are right we gave away another soft goal to Kane and yes that was partly due to McCarthy beinjhg stuck on his line (a la Forster), but didn't you notice that yet again we couldn't put the ball in the net despite making a reasonable number of quite good chances during the game and by the end had depended on Spurs to gift us a goal (thanks to Bertrand's excellent work down the left in stretching the defence. Didn't you notice that defensively we got better as the game went on, but no better at hittinbg the target and troubling their keeper. I agree we do need a better defrender to partner Hoedt, but not nearly as urgently as our need for 1) a big striker, 2) an attacking chance making winger, and 3) a quality No.10!

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SaintNick added 10:50 - Jan 23 We didnt get better defensively as the game went on, but we did get luckier, Spurs had two good late attacks where they stretched us, one where they flashed the ball right across the goal. If we stop conceding goals then you would be surprised how easier it gets to score them, if we had Charlie Austin then we have our big striker, our problem is we arent adapting, buts is the issue really goals, last six games we have scored 7 goals in the league table our goals for is about average, but in those six games we conceded 11 and that is an awful record and tells you the problem is conceding them not scoring

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TimSaint added 11:42 - Jan 23 Nick, to be fair we conceded 5 against Spurs on Boxing Day, so the goals against will look bad !! What those last 6 games have shown is that we always seem to concede poor goals, or goals that could easily have been avoided. Stephens and Yoshi have proved to be nothing more than back-ups and we really do need a quality central defender to partner Hoedt. (Gardos won't play for us again and Bednarek is one for the future). Albeit rather fortunately, even Swansea got a goal and defended for dear life to get a win last night - we have tried this pretty much every time we get in front and we all know what happens next !!

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SAINTSNIL added 11:51 - Jan 23 Every decent team old fashioned view that it is, has a spine, ours is Mccarthy /Forster, Yoshida/Stephens /Hoedt, Physio friendly Austin, and???? Now that is a osteoporosis arthritic one if there ever was! Hence - Bottom three! Not rocket science.
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saintjf added 12:04 - Jan 23 You are right about the centre back problem. It is a long term problem that has not been dealt with by the club since Fonte got above himself. I worry that the club is looking for a particular profile of player that they can sell on. It might be better to look for players that are not such a long term bet but who can do the job now to get us out of trouble.
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underweststand added 12:14 - Jan 23 Some of you have Pellegrino clearing his desk to make way for...Marco Silva?...really? Yes he started well with Watford..not a club who have a lot of patience with their managers, but now he is (sorry.. was) under a lot of pressure and was finally shown the door, I wonder if his mindset is up to handling a side already in the relegation zone and not showing any great improvement - or scoring goals. Admitedly MP hasn't got much of a record to boast about just now, with one win in ten games, but Watford were hardly much better before his departure , but IF we are to replace MP and this poor record continues he won't look any happier than MP does . Most of all I like to see some passion from managers, and Silva doesn't break into a smile very often - even when he gets a good result. Whatever you can say (good/bad) about Puel, at least he knew how to celebrate a goal. A lot of Prem.sides at the wrong end of the table are going to see their transfer budgets disappear into redundancy pay-offs to all the sacked managers /staff. IF.. Pellegrino goes, we need a good communicator who can speak the language (and I don't mean Spanish) ... and knows how to set up an attacking formation. For me... not Silva.

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underweststand added 12:28 - Jan 23 TO Author.... Yes ...day 23 , but why is it that some of our fan base start criticising on Day 2 if we haven't signed any new players. In more than 60 years asa Saints fan, I can scarcely recall almost anyone being signed so early in the window, and the fact that half of the Prem sides haven't signed anyone either is surely a sign that a lot of nervous clubs are keeping their cards close to their chest - especially if their current manager has one foot out of the door already. There are a lot of transfer issues apart from money. How much did Gabbiadini's value rise after his whirlwind start last season.? Today no-one would miss him if he left. Does the target still have the good form when he turned up on the Black Box last year ?.. Why is it a shock to see clubs suddenly up their demands after they see we've sold a player for £75 million. No surprise surely? .and just because the Black Box picks up players in form..how do we know that they even wants to come to a club at the wriong end of the Prem. I lost count after the 20th player we've been "linked with " turned up on someone's web site. I'm sure we will sign 2 maybe 3 players before 1st February, but not at all surprised if it includes someone that no-one else has ever heard of, let alone seen .

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saintmark1976 added 12:48 - Jan 23 Nick, once again you are attempting to paint a picture by the use of "what if this or what if that". Unfortunately we did not hang on to a lead in our last three games and if you reacquaint yourself with a table (that does not lie) then you will see that we remain in the relegation zone. Regretfully these are facts and there is no connection to flippancy at all. Put simply we had the ninth biggest revenue stream during 2016/17 yet languish in the bottom three of the league. A genuine question to you, if this discrepancy is not the owners and managment teams responsibility then who exactly is at fault in your opinion?

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Ali_Diarea added 13:53 - Jan 23 I think a commanding goalkeeper should be a priority over a new CB. A decent goalkeeper galvanizes the defenders in front of him and should also be able to organize the back line. Also, don't forget that the CB combinations mentioned above had Spider/Wanyama protecting them. This made their life so much easier and probably made the CBs look better than they really were. As good as Romeu is I don't think he's as good as either of those players.

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CanadianSaint added 14:17 - Jan 23 ExilesSupporter - your totally wrong. Our suggested issues are conceding soft goals because of not having a commanding CB and also scoring goals. The blame for Kane's goal on the weekend is on Stephens yet again. Like the lad but he's not the answer. He turns off at key moments and Is horrible at defending on the cross and set plays. This issue is likely that both CB's don't command the back but the issue will not go away. Nick is spot on. We not only need attacking signings but a quality CB that can command the back 4. Well illustrated Nick. I totally agree

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SanMarco added 14:52 - Jan 23 underweststand - I think we thought the unusual rushing through of the VVD sale was to enable us to buy early rather than just as a favour to Liverpool. Exiled: Nick calls getting a CB "the biggest area of concern" - you feel that the attacking problems are the biggest area of concern. At the risk of sounding like a Liberal Democrat I would say it was 50-50. If we buy more than one player I think one must be a CB. Puel did pretty well in a points per game sense until the Fonte nonsense and he did that with two quality CBs. 1-0 wins in three of our home draws and we would now be mid-table. Yes it is true that winning them 5-4 would be more fun but I would go for points over fun in the next 14 games.

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dirk_doone added 15:44 - Jan 23 The whole spine of the team (and squad) is weak, from goalkeeper, through centre backs to strikers. This is partly due to our dealings in the transfer market over the last 2 years and partly due to poor coaching. Forster never used to be that bad until Dave Watson got to work on him. I'm expecting Day 24 to be as exciting today until the big news comes on deadline day that Les has found a buyer for Gabbiadini.

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cornishsaint added 18:21 - Jan 23 I think we could see Obafemi come in up top as seriously worried no one will be coming in Really pleased for the lad to get his debut but now is not the time to be relying on the youth to get us out of this hole, 7 and a bit days to go let’s hope we produce a miracle and bring in a couple
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SanMarco added 18:52 - Jan 23 Yes - I certainly think MP was saying something to the board by bringing him on. If we bring in no one at all then we really are taking an almighty risk.
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SaintBrock added 22:06 - Jan 23 Glad to have you back on track Nick!
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DockersRottingCorpse added 01:02 - Jan 24 Nick the van Dijk transfer money wouldn't make any difference as they don't include player sales. It's TV revenue plus gates and commercial.
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underweststand added 11:05 - Jan 24 to San Marco... YES ...Liverpool did themselves a favour, but also one for us ...because I don't think any other club would have been prepared to pay such a huge fee. Of course, they knew they wouldn't be out of pocket with the Courtinho sale already lined up. I think the club thought we were odds-on to sign Walcott (and /or Sturridge), but that dragged on too long, and in the end we got neither. Matt Le Tissier even wrote that he thought Walcottt was going to sign. Main problem, we have given long contracts to almost all of the first team squad, and now many of them aren't hitting the same form they had previously. Those people who don't believe in "luck" might consider that two weeks after we sold Fonte (still a good player then ) VvD got injured. JayRod's deal looked a win-win situation, and although Charlie Austin came good upon his return, his injury has caused even bigger problems. Shane Long is Worth his Place - just for nuisance value, but one goal in a year isn't what you expect from a striker. Gabbiadidni's valuation must have doubled in the first few months after he joined, but now no-one would miss him - if he left. Each time Boufal scores it becomes a candidate for Goal of the Season...but they are far still too few. If we don't have 2 new strikers by Day 31 , then we'll be in real trouble-- meanwhile some of the others contributors on here need to change their nappies a bit more often.

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Braveheart added 11:26 - Jan 24 For me, if we have to change managers at this stage of the season, It has to be Hoddle or Bilic.
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underweststand added 14:32 - Jan 24 Like many others I am delighted to see a youngster (Michael Obafemi) getting a bit of game time , but let's not kid ourselves that he's the answer to our scoring problem. He's still an Under 18 and has played in most of their games this season and picked up around a dozen goals, and has even had a handful of U23 sub.apps. Good progress. However, I am reminded of a comment from Roy Hodgson (then England manager) when defending his decision NOT to play R. Sterling more often. He replied that a lot of younger players can come in and "shine" for half-a-dozen games , but quickly fade our of the picture. This is a profound observation that is very often quite true. I hope we see young Obafemi on the bench a few more times (for encouragement) but let's also remind ourselves that even that legendary start of the young Alan Shearer didn't break any records (after that first home appearance and it took him a season and a half of waiting before he even got a regular look-in, when he played half -a-season and scored a mere 3 goals. Also Matt Le Tissier (in the same era) did little better in his first 2-3 seasons. We have all been hoping to see another goal burst from the on loan Sam Gallagher, except that he's now "unlucky" enough to have picked the "wrong " Brum side. I hope we see a bit more of Obafemi, and wonderr if we are likely to see Sam G. back again ?...but let's be fair to them, and not expect miracles to occur overnight.

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