JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW

According to Echo we are biddng £150k for Barnard, as he has scored 17 goals this season think trying to get him on the cheap. Know he is out of contract at end of season but £250k would probably be to good an offer for southend to resist and could get tied up quickly and get in before other clubs have a chance to talk to him. Certainly would prefer Barnard to Lisbie and think he would work well with Lambert.

Found this today on a Southend site....

Blues chairman Ron Martin has updated his cooments regarding the possible transfer of the club's top scorer Lee Barnard.

SOUTHEND United have turned down two offers for hot-shot Lee Barnard.

As was revealed in yesterday's Echo, Southampton were first to bid for the Shrimpers top goalscorer when they tabled an £150,000 offer.

And Leeds United have now also officially entered the race by bidding £175,000 for the striker.

But those two offers have been rejected by Blues chairman Ron Martin "The club has received offers from two clubs, "confirmed Martin.

"Both of which have been refused."

The Shrimpers surpremo insisted he was still keen to keep Barnard at Roots Hall but he was also wary of losing the striker on a free transfer at the end of the season.

Southend have offered the 25-year-old a new deal but Martin believes Barnard - who has been made aware of the bids by manager Steve Tilson - now has no interest in staying. "Of course the club doesn't want to sell Lee but clearly he will not sign a new contract and I am told he will walk at the end of the season," said Martin.

"In the meantime, because the player recognises that he might double or even treble his wages at the clubs that have enquired, it would be difficult for the manager to keep him motivated when the player has at least one eye on leaving and potentially at a higher level.

"There has been interest from two League One clubs over the past few days with a third club, again in League One, making enquiries yesterday.

"All these clubs are vying for promotion and are formally of at least Championship status."

The third club interested in Barnard have not yet tabled on offer but it does seem certain the striker will leave - possibly even before this weekend's clash with Wycombe Wanderers.

"We're between a rock and a hard place," added Martin.

"However, for the moment no decision has been made and whatever decision the manager and board comes to, it will serve the best interests of the club."

According to the Echo today, Lisbie is keen on a move to Saints.

Looks like a straight fight between us and Leeds but think Barnard would prefer to stay in south so would have thought a bid of 200k would win. If Southend don't take that then suspect we would walk away go for the cheap option of Lisbie for now and look at Barnard when out of contract. Don't think Southend would risk losing £200k and him walking away for nothing .

Not that keen on Lisbie, would be useful backup and we could loan out Paterson for some experience but not that worried if he doesnt sign. Guess AP keeping his options open.

According to BBC Saints are favourites for Barnard's signature:

'Southampton and Leeds United are leading the battle for Southend striker Lee Barnard, BBC Sport understands.

Leeds are thought to have made a bid of £175,000 for the 17-goal frontman, but the Saints are favourites to land him

And Southend manager Steve Tilson told BBC Essex: "If he goes to one of the bigger clubs then he could set himself up for life.

"He's been great for us but you can't stand in someone's way if they have the chance of a big move."

Leeds manager Simon Grayson is not willing to say whether they have bid for Barnard but he did tell BBC Radio Leeds: "I do all my business behind closed doors but someone who's scored 17 goals in a season is a decent commodity to have."

I'm not prepared to comment at the moment but he's a player we've reported an interest in

Southampton boss Alan Pardew
The former Tottenham trainee, who made three Premier League appearances, joined Southend in 2008 and has scored 37 goals in 85 appearances.

The 25-year-old had loan spells at Exeter, Stevenage, Leyton Orient, Northampton and Crewe when he was at Spurs.

Southampton were also believed to be interested in Ipswich's Kevin Lisbie, who is on loan at Colchester, but now appear to have turned their attentions towards Barnard.

"I'm not prepared to comment at the moment but he's a player we've reported an interest in," manager Alan Pardew told BBC Radio Solent.'

Sounds as though we are going to get our man. Southend have now accepted bids from us and Leeds but he wants to stay down south.
Paterson is supposed to be going the other way. Hopefully only on loan.

Agree hopefully Paterson is a loan deal as he has shown signs of potential and is one for the future, don't have any other youngsters challenging up front and if we sign Barnard can then afford to loan him out. Would be nice to see Saga on his way.

I've just seen this on longpier.com (a Southend website).......


BREAKING NEWS:

Southend's top scorer Lee Barnard will sign for League One rivals Southampton, longpier.com understands.

The forward, who has netted 17 times this season had attracted attention from other League One clubs in recent weeks, including Millwall and Leeds.

The Saints' original offer of £150,000 plus a player was reportedly rejected by Roots Hall management yesterday (Wed). But a better offer was made by the south coast club's board late last night, thought to be in the region of £200,000.

According to reports, Barnard does not want to move north, and therefore rejected a deal at the Elland Road outfit.

Longpier.com understands Barnard will have a medical at St Mary's on Friday before putting pen to paper.

Earlier the Chairman of the Blues, Ron Martin, told the Southend Echo:

"Of course the club doesn't want to sell Lee but clearly he will not sign a new contract and I am told he will walk at the end of the season.

"In the meantime, because the player recognises that he might double or even treble his wages at the clubs that have enquired, it would be difficult for the manager to keep him motivated when the player has at least one eye on leaving and potentially at a higher level.

"There has been interest from two League One clubs over the past few days with a third club, again in League One, making enquiries. All these clubs are vying for promotion and are formally of at least Championship status."

On Echo website this morning.....

SAINTS are hoping to tie up a deal for Southend striker Lee Barnard today – with Matt Paterson moving in the opposite direction.

The Daily Echo understands the Shrimpers have accepted a £175,000 bid for the 25-year-old, who has scored 17 goals in all competitions this season.

As part of the transfer, academy product Paterson is set to move to Roots Hall.

The 20-year-old frontman was at Southend’s training ground yesterday to finalise his switch.

Barring any last minute hitches, or late bids from elsewhere, both sides are hoping to have the transfers completed by the weekend.

As revealed by the Echo earlier this week, Saints had put in an initial bid of £150,000 for Barnard, That was then trumped by a £175,000 offer from Leeds.

Both were rejected by Southend, but Saints look to have won the day with their latest effort.

The Shrimpers have been resigned to losing their top scorer this month.

Barnard is out of contract in the summer and has indicated he would not pen a new deal at Roots Hall.

With Southend in financial difficulties, they are keen to receive what cash they can for their most prized asset.

They seem to have decided Saints’ offer of a six-figure sum, coupled with a striker to help fill the void left by Barnard, is about the best case scenario they could hope for.

Another plus-point for Barnard - I hear that he is not cup-tied because he was suspended for a crucial match

Sista

Hope he signs in time.

Now just a midfield player to sign and Transfer Window excellent from my viewpoint, might see a few quick departures next week which would be fine as squad needs some pruning of those clearly not in APs short or long term plans.

Great thing for me is Barnard, Fonte, Seaborne would all have been targets in summer but the business all sorted now.

See Charlton have reported Crystal palace to Football league for non payment of outstanding transfer fee due in December. Bit more financial pressure on Palace so wonder if Danns bid might be on the cards. Palace players only got their Dec pay after the Fonte deal went through.

He is a player that always seems to slip under the radar so don't know much about him.

I see David Prutton has gone to Colchester on loan.

Stock, Danns or any creative midfielder please. Who we have do not create and Schneiderlin does not always do what is expected of him. For example when he came on this evening, I don't think I subsequently heard his name mentioned once after that. I know Schneiderlin's a good player but we need consistency and he isn't consistent.

I am inclined to agree with you PU although, at the moment, my overriding feeling is that it doesn't matter at all till next season. I had thought we were in with a good shout for a play-off place but after the loss of another 2 points tonight it has now hit me that there is no way we will do it this season.......so does it really matter if we forget about strengethening the team this month?

Just 2 points from the last 3 league matches has put the kybosh on our chances for this season. Looking at the strength of our squad (even before the recent signings) I think 2 points is a disgraceful return and 7 should have been possible
















Hope I feel better in the morning.

According to SSN we are on the verge of signing Jason Puncheon. I hope this is true as he is a very good player.

Poor Plymouth Argyle - they were my childhood team, the lads in the avenue took me to Home Park and lost me, more than once

Sista

He can't have figured in Plymouth's plans as he is on loan with MK Dons.

Not gonna feel too sorry for Argyle, I don't like 'em and their reserves smashed our reserves 7-0 yesterday.

I agree think we have blown play offs now as to many teams above us will win a fair number of their games, we will catch some of them but not all of them.

I only hope we sign someone who is in APs plans for next season otherwise may as well wait to then, though if we do get puncheon one less for MK Dons when they play us.

I have said before but if we don't go up this year and looking more likely we wont I expect Lallana and Schneiderlin to go in summer. Both will believe their careers will suffer if another year in Div 1, hard to argue with that.

I don't understand the logic, sorry.
If we can strengthen our squad and start to get some improved performances then ii feel we need to buy when we can. Why leave everything until the close season? Leaving things until they are more necessary achieves two things in my book.
1/ The price my well increase as clubs will have a better idea of how they are doing and what they need.
2/ Leaving things till late has very often cost us a missed opportunity and lost points.

I say we should have bought better and with less in the numbers that we have.

If AP has specific targets then fine buy them but if he cant get who he really wants now is it worth getting another squad player who ends up on the bench next season. Possibly some of the targets may be out of contract at end of season so can get cheaper.

That said if he wants danns, and I'm about him, then you would think Palace administrator would want some money.

We do need midfield strengthened with for me a ball winner as well as creative player. I think we lack a real ball winner, midfield dynamo type and have missed Hammond in last couple of games

See we are being linked with Falkirk midfield player Scott Arfield, looks a young player so probably one for the future rather than straight away. Looks like Danns is front runner now for the midfield recruit as problems with Puncheon move as MK Dons have to agree? Shows you how daft the rules are when Plymouth who own the players contract cant do a deal without the loan club agreeing, how dumb is that!!