LAST GASP Transfers That Will Save Your Club From Relegation! | Deadline Day

Welcome back to Deadline Day, everybody. I hope you're having a good time at home. Today, in this episode, we're going to be talking about some of the transfers we've seen today that could potentially keep clubs in the Premier League. That's right, we're dipping down to the relegation, boys, and it is very, very tight down there at the bottom of the league right now, so transfers could make huge differences to clubs. Hamster, let's start with you. Who do you want to talk about? Yes, boys, I'm going to go for Southampton. Now, yesterday, on Twitter, you may have seen me waxing lyrical about their pursuit of Moussa Dembele. I thought they had secured him for a miserly £3 million. That would have been some deal, because he has been pretty prolific for Lyon, not got an awful lot of game time under his belt this campaign, but that is largely owing to off-the-pitch issues. He's kind of fallen out with the hierarchy, the coach, not really a comment on his ability, has remained a .6 golden assist player for them during his tenure at Lyon, hasn't he? But that's not happened, and they've moved on pretty quickly as well to Kamaldin Suleimanov from Rennes. He's joined Southampton for €25 million, rejecting Everton and Leipzig in the process. Now, to be fair, no-one really wants to go to Everton at the moment, do they? But pretty surprised he turned down Leipzig. They could have done with him as well, having sold Lukman, Brobbey and Huang this season on permanent transfers. But, like I said, Southampton have secured a signature, and it's strange, isn't it? Because after the World Cup, he kind of reappeared on everyone's radars, widely heralded as a prodigious young talent with a really high ceiling, but hasn't seen an awful lot of game time this campaign at Rennes. Had a great first season for them following his move from Norduland, where he put up, I think it was, six goals and assists in 20 league appearances, but only two league end starts to his name this campaign. Also a couple in the Europa League as well. But Rennes have been sticking with that 4-4-2. They've got Benjamin Borussia on the right, they've got Thierry on the left. That's their top assister, top goalscorer, so their positions in the team, absolutely just not up for debate. They also have Jeremy Doku on the bench as well, who's only clocked 380 league minutes. He's a bit of a dribble monster as well, isn't he? Thank you for that outlook. And not to mention, they've got Aimee Nguiri, who can play on the left as well, and Calimuendo, who can play up front and can pull out wide. So they've got players with similar profiles, so despite, you know, Souleymane being, like I said, highly touted, he is someone they can perhaps do without. They've made a little bit of profit on him, but not a massive amount. But yeah, like I've said, this season has been effective in a short amount of game time, completing almost four dribbles per 90, clocking up over three shots. There's tons of defensive work too, which will be music to Nathan Jones's ears. But I just think he's going to be someone that gets Southampton fans off their seats, which maybe hasn't happened at all this season. I mean, they're bottom of the league, aren't they, with one win in their last five. Level on points with Everton, that's 15, averaging 0.85 goals per 90. There's only three teams in the Premier League with a worse return. And I just think, massive upgrade physically on El-Yanoussi and Armstrong. The output of those two players can't get much worse. I think only two goal contributions between them. JWP leading the side for goals and assists. Not a great situation to find yourself in. So, a really exciting transfer. Makes sense to both parties. It's a big thumbs up from me. And I think if he clocks up three, four goal contributions, that could be hugely decisive come the end of the campaign. Yeah, absolutely. And they've also, they've not stopped there either. They've got Owen Atshu through the door, haven't they? He's 6'7", mate. He's bigger than your boy. Bigger than that. Unbelievable record in Belgium, isn't it? Yeah, was it 73 and 87, something like that. He's obviously been part of a really exciting front three. There are quite a few clubs interested in his services. He's ended up at Southampton and, my God, do they need a goalscorer? They need a No. 9 who can put the ball in the back of the net. So, fingers crossed for Nathan Jones. That can happen because I think Che Adams has got 4 in 17 starts, hasn't he? Not really good enough. And with James Ward-Prowse in this sort of new No. 10 role, I'm very excited to see you on the end of a James Ward-Prowse free kick or a corner. He must be absolutely delighted about that. The corner routines will be flying off the handles. They've gone for Charlie Adam and Andy Carroll, haven't they? Yeah, it's a remix of that. I respect it and I'm excited to see that. I think Southampton, I agree, have done actually pretty smart business in this window. Pretty smart. And another club, South Coast Club, but they've also done really good business, I think, Bournemouth. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, unlike Southampton, I think they did all their significant business before deadline day but got in Mathias Wigner from Roma in the last few days on loan. I think he's very solid. Difficult second season for him but I thought he impressed on many occasions last term. Only his first season in a top five league last term coming from Uruguay. But I think it's, like Southampton, Bournemouth's key to staying up is upgrading that forward line because they haven't been anywhere near good enough when you look at the underlying numbers. They rank bottom of the Premier League for expected goals. They rank bottom for shots. They're only taking 8.4 shots a game. The next worst is Everton who are nearly taking 10 shots a game. So it's quite a big leap there. And yeah, chance creation as well has been a problem for them. I think Moore's there, Kiefer Moore, the top scorer on four. I think Solanke's behind him on three. I've actually really enjoyed Solanke at points this season. But they do need, yeah, they need more firepower up top. And I think they've got that. Dango Uttara, we've already seen him. Got quite a decent assist on his first Premier League start against Nottingham Forest. Yeah, he looks, he's one of those players that even at a young age looks physically adept for the Premier League. Great pace, very hard working as well. At Lorient where they signed him for €22.5 million, he was making 3.5 tackles and interceptions per 90. I think among attackers slash wingers in Europe's top five leagues, he ranks in the top 5% for all defensive actions. And at Bournemouth, he will be required to do that under O'Neill. He's decent in the air as well. He's obviously played on the right in that first game and he does tend to play on the right, or he can play on the left as well at centre-forward if needs be. And if he was to need to, you know, say fill in for more at centre-forward, he's also quite decent in the air as well. Obviously not key for more levels, but he can do that. Six goals and five assists in 18 Liga and games before he came to Bournemouth this season. He's averaging a goal involvement every 140 minutes. Again, for a Lorient side who, you know, are really over-performing in this league. You know, they sold also their top scorer Taron Moffey to Nice, or not sold, but he's gone on loan, at least initially, to Nice. And so they've had to spend over 24 million euros themselves just to bring in reinforcements and try and consolidate their place in that kind of top seven of Ligue 1. But yeah, Outar is a big talent. You know, he only turns 21 in under two weeks. And yet he signed... Sorry. But yeah, Outar is a big talent. You know, he turns 21 in under two weeks, but he only signed his first professional contract in France two years ago. He only moved to France from Burkina Faso in 2020. So it's been a pretty meteoric rise for him. And to now be, you know, playing in the Premier League, commanding that kind of fee, is huge. And I think just goes to show, yeah, what a high ceiling this guy has. And I think he will clearly be thinking if he can help keep Bournemouth up, if he can put in, if he can score five goals between now and the end of the season, then there could be a bigger move for him round the corner. And I think the same can probably be said for Antoine Simegno, who comes in from Bristol City. A Bristol City boy, signed for just over 10 million. So a great fee for Bristol City to get for one of their academy graduates. And yeah, he's been on fire this season too. Six goals and three assists in just over 1,200 championship minutes. He can also be pretty effective even if he doesn't start immediately as well. I think four of his goals, four of his eight goals in all competitions this season have come off the bench. So he's not even been an automatic starter for Bristol City, but a little bit like with Souleymane, I think he's a player who can get Bournemouth fans off their seats. He's really skilful. He's two footed. I think he primarily plays at centre forward, but when you're watching him, he drifts out to the left a lot. So I could imagine him maybe taking up a position on the left of that 4-4-2, or if they were to be more expansive on the left of a front three. But again, you know, it's just a great either option to provide for Solanke and Moore or to be back up to them. He's been more of a scorer this season, but he put up 12 assists in the championship last term. So there's a lot to his game. And I feel like, again, this is a player who, you know, he's still quite raw. It'll be interesting to see how he's used at Bournemouth, because I think, yeah, maybe slightly enigmatic in that sense. But I think as a pair, Uetara and Semenyo, they definitely bring something to this Bournemouth-Bournemouth line that they have. I think Solanke is the only real player who has real flair in that team. You obviously have the physicality of someone like Billing, but I think Uetara and Semenyo both have flair. And if it means that this Bournemouth team can start putting up, you know, 1.2 expected goals a game, start creating, you know, decent chances in, you know, four or five decent chances in games, then that will be a big difference maker in what is such a tight relegation battle. Yeah, I think, you know, it gives them a good chance. Yeah, they're going to rip it up in the championship next season. That's not too bad, though. I think that has to be taken into consideration. A player like Semenyo, you know, has proven track record of performing in the championship. And if you do drop down, you've got talents like him that can potentially bring you back up. I'm sure that's part of their thinking. Definitely. I think when you're a Premier League side and you are in that sort of relegation dogfight, you've got to be thinking, OK, if we go down, who that we're signing can solidify us as a very solid championship side, which brings us to some of the bigger whiffs. You know, we've talked about two successes here in Bournemouth and Southampton, two of the bottom three. I think we should talk about a third team in that bottom three, which is Everton, who have only appointed Sean Dyche officially yesterday, or the day before, and still yet to sign a player of note. Obviously, they have sold Anthony Gordon for £45 million as well. I think this is massive, massive problems developing here. They don't have a goal scorer in that side, do they? Demaree Gray, top scorer in the side with five goals. But I think if you look at the non-penalty expected goals and assists, nobody is putting up better than Anthony Gordon's 0.33, and he's left the club now. So £45 million comes in. Where does the £45 million go? I have absolutely no sort of blinkers on that Everton fans will be furious with how this window has developed across January, because it has been an utter farce. I saw David Ornstein saying just earlier that they had made an enquiry for Mishy Bashawai. He turned them down because he didn't feel they were a stable enough project. They've gone for Anthony Alanga. That man will literally play for anyone as well. I know. They went for Anthony Alanga, and he seemingly has turned them down, or Man United have turned them down, saying that it's not a stable enough project to send a player there on loan. I think there obviously went for Suleymaneh as well, didn't they? Turned down by him. Everton have had a disastrous January window, especially when you look at the teams that are slightly above them in the table. You know, they've only scored 15 goals this season. Only one team has scored less than that in Wolves. They've got 12. They bought in a £50 million centre-forward in Mateus Cunha. They bought in Pablo Sarabia. They improved in multiple areas. They got Lopetegui through the door nice and early, so they were set up. I don't see them getting dragged into it. Leeds United have gone out and got Weston McKennie through the door. They've got multiple players that suited Jesse Marsh's system, even though he hasn't won a game since November 5th. I think that Leeds fans will be pretty happy with their business. Werber is going to solidify them at the back, and if they can get some output out of Ritter up front, it's pretty good going. Even Leicester. I think Leicester have had a bad window, but they've managed to get Tete through the door from Lyon, who I think we can all admit is an upgrade on their right-wing slot right now, and Harry Souto, who is an upgrade on Daniel Amati, so they've improved two positions. I look at Everton, and I think they've got worse. They've actually got worse in the January window, and they've sold a £45 million asset. It's unbelievably bad. What's baffling about this as well is that they didn't learn from last January. Last January, they sacked Benitez, got in Lampard, and then went full panic mode in the last two days, van de Beek and Dele on those short-term deals. Neither of them worked out, and they ended up really getting away with one, not getting relegated last season, let's be honest. I don't understand how they've just gone with exactly the same kind of thinking this time round. Sacking a manager at a really bad timing all round. Lampard probably had to go, but it was bad timing. Especially when you had a well-cut break. A mini pre-season could have been made given the manager that well-cut break to assess the squad and approach January in a proper manner. It clearly hasn't happened. The lack of goals is absolutely astonishing in the team. Neil Maupin and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have had injury problems, haven't scored goals. There's nobody else in the squad that can get a goal. I really feel sorry for Sean Dyche, because I think he's been put in a very, very difficult situation. Out of the teams we've discussed then, Everton got weak heart, so they don't meet the criteria of a team that's made transfers that could possibly keep them in the division. Do we think that Southampton then, with Suleymaneh, have someone that they can dream on there that might do enough in that relegation dogfight to push them towards 17th? Do we still think all the teams we've mentioned are going down? Has anyone's season been saved by the business? In some ways, I quite like Bournemouth, just because there's quite a lot of potential upside with Bournemouth's transfer. I don't think Bournemouth have been particularly impressive this season, but I think where they are compared to what their underlying stats say, they're quite fortunate to be two points above bottom. If those new signings can perform, the problem is with Bournemouth is that they've got a really tough run of fixtures coming up. Everton have got Arsenal and Liverpool. They do, but Bournemouth have Arsenal and City coming up. They've got Newcastle, they've got Brighton away next. They have to get some points out of those next three games. They've got Wolves away in three weeks' time, which is probably their biggest game of the season. This is the thing, there's pressure on all of these new signings to perform in the next three, four weeks, because that could be really make or break. It's usually around the end of February that the relegation battle goes from being six, seven teams to around four, five teams. All of these signings need to hit the ground running. I would say that all the aforementioned players that perhaps Weston McKennie signing for Leeds, Leeds being, at least by their underlying numbers... A superior team. Yeah, a superior team to some of the ones we've mentioned, and adding a player of his quality, that's probably moved them into the realms of safety, or someone I'd feel comfortable with saying will avoid relegation. Then I think Southampton have probably conducted the savviest business, but then a team that was in a greater amount of flux than some of the others prior to that. There's obviously a lot of nuance there, but I would like to see Suleymane light up the prem. Will it happen? It remains to be seen, but the bottom three, as it stands, are looking grim. Let's ask these guys at home, who do you think is going down, and what do you think of the relegation battler's business this January? Let us know in the comments below. Stay tuned later for a live stream wrapping up all of the biggest transfer rumours and shakers, rumours? Movers and shakers, later on in the day. Thanks very much for watching. See you later. Bye.