January 2015
Schneiderlin ends up staying after no teams meets my value
Plenty of fixtures means plenty of rotation
Lloyd Isgrove nets his first goal for the club
Transfers
Two new signings for us, Angelo Ogbonna joins from Juve after he was transfer listed. The lads a top quality centre back and to secure him for such a small fee is great business. Second new signing is young Gaston Gil Romero who will eventually replace Schneiderlin when I manage to offload him. Sadly Romero didn't get a work permit so has gone out on loan to try and get one from our feeder club.
Leaving us most notably was Gaston Ramirez for a fee of ?4m, he was never the same after his horror injury and even before that never really impressed me. Jake Sinclair went out on loan to get some game time.
Ogbonna
Gaston Gil Romero
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League
Fulham 0 - 2 Southampton
Barbosa, Osvaldo
Two early goals won the game here, after that we sat back and controlled the game very nicely.
Southampton 4 - 2 Liverpool
Lukaku(2), Gomez, Lambert
What a brilliant game of attacking football, both defences guilty of some errors but out front 3 of Gomez, Ward-Prowse and Lukaku were sensational.
Southampton 3 - 1 Swansea
Gomez, Lukaku(2)
Gomez scored after 52 seconds here after a great lofted ball by Prowsey, Lukaku made it 2 with a header just after. Swansea pulled one back but Lukaku scored another header late on to put a bit of polish on the result.
Southampton 3 - 1 Leeds United
Lallana, Barbosa, Ogbonna
Another 3-1 win, 2nd minute free-kick from Lallana kicked things off and after 8 minutes Barbosa scored a great goal. Ogbonna scored his first goal for the club just before half-time from a corner. Leeds got one back on the counter from a corner of ours but we held on well.
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FA Cup
Third Round
Southampton 3 - 0 Blackburn
Gomez, Lukaku, Lovren
Easy win here over Blackburn. Simple as that.
Fourth Round
Southampton 4 - 1 Norwich
Cerci, Isgrove, Lambert(2)
Very tidy performance here. Lloyd Isgrove has had a top month and scored a cracking volley here. Next round we have either Spurs or City though....
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Capital One Cup
Semi-Final 1st Leg
Southampton 1 - 1 Manchester United
Lukaku
Very very tight match here, Lukaku missed a penalty but scored the follow up. We managed to hold on until the 54th minute when Rooney broke free and scored. Could have gone either way but ended a draw....
Semi-Final 2nd Leg
Manchester United 0 - 1 Southampton
Evans O.G
Bit of a poor game really and it was always going to be settled by something dodgy and Evans headed into his own net from a corner!! We march into the final!!
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Monthly Review
A perfect month really. I'm delighted with our performances, especially Lambert, Barbosa and Isgrove. Been fringe/rotational players this season but all had a great month especially Lloyd Isgrove. I've shown a lot of faith in the young lad by not signing a new left winger and playing him when Osvaldo has needed a rest and he's always proven to be a real handful for defences.
I'm pretty happy with my signings too, Ogbonna is a solid centre back and Romero will be a top player in a few years I feel. Hopefully we can get him a work permit in the summer. I was hugely disappointed with the bids I had come in for Schneiderlin, highest bid was ?3.9m from United and I wasn't gonna strengthen a rival for that little price.
Player of the Month
Lloyd Isgrove
In a busy month the lad has stepped up getting a number of assists and netting his first goal for the club too.
Table
Us and Chelsea seem to be pulling away from the chasing pack right now and if we can make those games in hand count then we will go top!!! All looking very interesting!
