Southampton

Image source, Getty Images

Brazilian defender Welington has joined Southampton following the expiry of his contract with Sao Paulo.

An agreement was reached in the summer regarding the 23-year-old but he stayed at Sao Paulo until the end of their season.

Welington made 164 appearances for the Brazilian top-flight side, also being a part of winning teams in the 2023 Copa do Brasil final and the 2024 Supercopa do Brasil.

He will wear the number 34 shirt at St Mary's.

Nick Mashiter
BBC Sport football news reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Southampton are prepared to let striker Ben Brereton Diaz go this month.

The 25-year-old was among a list of names circulated to clubs before the transfer window, with the Saints looking to trim their squad.

A number of Championship sides have already enquired about the Chile international.

Brereton Diaz joined from Villarreal for £7m in the summer but has failed to score in four starts and six substitute appearances in the Premier League.

Ronnie Edwards, who joined from Peterborough in July, has already joined QPR on loan until the end of the season, while defender Charlie Taylor may also be allowed to leave.

Southampton are also terminating Maxwel Cornet's loan from West Ham, with the forward having played just 71 minutes in the Premier League this campaign.

New boss Ivan Juric is looking to keep Chelsea loanee Lesley Ugochukwu, who struggled to play under former head coach Russell Martin.

Juric said: "The people from Chelsea are not stupid. He is a really young guy - 20 years old - and it's not always easy to work with youngsters. I think he has really good potential."

Sheffield United are considering re-signing a forward - either Southampton and Chile's Ben Brereton Diaz, 25, or Las Palmas and Scotland's Oli McBurnie, 28 - in a bid to boost their promotion hopes. (The Star, Sheffield), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Friday's full gossip column

Katie Stafford
BBC Sport journalist

Southampton boss Ivan Juric has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game at home to Brentford (kick-off 15:00 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Midfielder Flynn Downes, who is yet to return to full training, will be assessed on Friday to see if he is fit enough to return to the matchday squad.

• There are no new injury concerns but Saints will be without Mateus Fernandes as he serves a one-match ban for collecting five yellow cards.

• On the players' mood: "They are really motivated and want to change this moment. They know they need to be better than before and put more energy into being more clinical to win the game."

• He said the plan for the January transfer window is to "reduce the squad" and he will meet with the owners next week to discuss his "ideas."

• In response to what changes he hopes to make at Saints going forward: "It's important that we become winners and not losers. In the last two games, we conceded from set-pieces. We haven't conceded in open play. We need to get better in attack."

• He said the best thing for Tyler Dibling would be to stay at the club and continue to develop as talks about a new deal continue.

• On Sheffield United being interested in Ben Brereton Diaz: "I prefer not to speak directly about the players."

• Meanwhile, Juric wants Chelsea loanee Lesley Ugochukwu "to stay" with the Saints because "he has lots of potential", despite only making three Premier League starts for the club: "Chelsea are not stupid and he's 20 years old."

• On Saturday's visitors: "Brentford are really good. They have had their coach for a long time and you know what they want to do. Tactically, they are really good."

Follow all of Thursday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Adam Blackmore
BBC Radio Solent sports editor

Image source, Getty Images

With Southampton doomed at the foot of the Premier League, it is hard to know what a good 2025 looks like or even if it could ever be described as 'good' with relegation almost already guaranteed.

Ultimately, the easy answer to a good 2025 is staying up. But, given that nobody has ever stayed up from the Saints' current position, the real question is what does a good 2025 look like with relegation?

The answer to that is damage limitation.

If Saints are able to gauge whether Ivan Juric is the man to get them back up to the Premier League by the summer, if they can limit the financial damage of going straight back down and if they can limit the damage of squad depletion, then maybe 2025 can be as good as it can be given the circumstances.

Keeping as much young playing talent as possible after relegation will be the most important factor, particularly Mateus Fernandes and Tyler Dibling.

Listen to live commentary of every Saints game on BBC Radio Solent, and download and subscribe to Goin' Home With Adam and Jo on BBC Sounds to get all the post-match thoughts that matter

Image source, Getty Images

We asked what Southampton's New Year resolutions should be.

Here are some of your replies:

Gavin: Saints need to hit the ground running in the Championship next season. Start preparing for that immediately.

Simon H: To accept we've failed this year and commit now to building for the long term. Get behind Juric and make sure he stays for a while, I've got a good feeling about the man and reckon he could put a good team together if properly supported.

Lee: Simply to offload some players who have underperformed or are simply not good enough in the transfer window and perhaps get a striker. As for the remaining games, some wins and performances that'll put some confidence back into the team and us fans in preparation for another Championship campaign.

Simon W: We have now 18 months to build a team capable of competing in the Premier League (while getting promoted from the Championship). That means settling on a way of playing that is effective and realistic, and base the recruitment around that, which means moving on from Bednarek, Stephens, Armstrong, Aribo, etc, who have been proved to ultimately not be good enough for the Premier League.

Tom: There's no way we will stay up, I'm just hoping we can at least go down with a bit of dignity and fight. Then a proper rebuild is in order, the board surely must have learnt by now they can't keep going on like this.

Matt: To beat Derby's record low tally of 11 points. We're not a terrible team. It's the fact the Premier League is so very strong and our recruitment has again been poor. I wish we would invest a lot more on recruitment as our black box has been broken. A new strategy towards recruitment is desperately needed to get an edge on other teams. Perhaps the Championship is the best place to work on that as we have to be stronger when we return to the Premier League.

Image source, Getty Images

The transfer window is now open and Southampton are one of the first clubs to be active, sending 21-year-old defender Ronnie Edwards to Queens Park Rangers on loan for the remainder of the season.

Edwards made his Premier League debut in December.

"I was used to playing regularly in the past and I have missed that," he told QPR's website. "Hopefully I can get that here."

Southampton have made themselves "into a bad team" this season, says former midfielder Jo Tessem.

A 2-1 defeat by Crystal Palace on Sunday rooted the Saints to the bottom of the Premier League table, 10 points from safety at the midway point of the season.

Speaking on BBC Radio Solent's Goin' Home with Adam and Jo, Tessem said: "The problem is, we put ourselves in a position with Russell Martin where we gave away so many points and goals, continuously making the same mistakes, that we made ourselves into a bad team.

"We made ourselves lose confidence. We all knew it was going to be tough coming up from the Championship, and that if we could get ourselves fourth from bottom then it would be a good season for us. We knew there were going to be struggles but you have got to find ways of winning games - and we haven't.

"When you build up that losing mentality, which we have now, you can see confidence drop so much quicker when things go against us than it used to. Now, we are not even used to winning games.

"Now I'm thinking, if we had helped these players earlier in the season, would we have been able to create more wins? Would we have lost as many games we lost when we gave the ball away? When we took high risks and lost games because we the risk was too high?

"Maybe the confidence would have been different, but this is football and we will never know."

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

Christmas is boxed off.

We're almost through the confusing days before New Year and January is within touching distance.

And we need your help - what is Southampton's New Year's resolution?

It could be a new player to sign, a tactical system to implement, an off-the-pitch matter or something else entirely.

Let us know

Things are looking bleak for Southampton.

The season has reached the midway mark and the Saints find themselves rock bottom with just six points following Sunday's defeat by Crystal Palace.

Derby's 2007-08 season was so bad that Paul Jewell, who took charge of 24 games during that time, said his managerial career "never really recovered".

The Rams finished that campaign with the lowest points tally ever seen in the Premier League (11) and a -69 goal difference. They won only one game.

Yet after 19 games they had seven points - one more than Southampton do now.

But Southampton can take heart from Sheffield United's 2020-21 season.

The Blades looked on course to replace Derby as the Premier League's worst team when they entered the season's halfway stage with just five points.

Unfortunately for Derby, Sheffield United - although they still finished bottom - had 23 points come the end of the season.

Image source, Getty Images

We asked for your thoughts after Sunday's Premier League game between Crystal Palace and Southampton, that finished 2-1 to the Eagles.

Here are some of your comments:

Palace fans

Paul: Palace are still wasteful, but the amount of chances being made, got them out of trouble. There was a similar situation against Arsenal, where the result could have been so different. Hopefully Eberechi Eze's confidence will have improved greatly after the goal.

Pedro: We wanted a statement win. We got a squeaky victory. We'll take that but we've got to do better. We're capable of more. We'll get there. It's the hope that kills you.

Sam: A game closer than Palace fans would have anticipated and Glasner and his players would have hoped, but in the end, good to get the three points. It was especially relieving to see our second home win of the campaign. Southampton were good in the opening 15 minutes but the Eagles dominated from there. Great to see Eze back on top of his form and finding the winner with a magnificent volley.

David: Trevoh Chalobah has been outstanding in defence and scored important goals including this one. Some of our forwards need to learn how to finish from him.

Southampton

Anthony: I thought we played better against West Ham, but this game seemed to show that our players are not up to standard. Also, the managers substitutions were too late and ineffective. So, Saints are doomed and we might as well get used to it. Horrible season.

Steve: Halfway through the season with 19 games left: 12 wins needed and with the six points we already have, on paper we can stay up. Being realistic, we haven't a hope in achieving that so we should plan for the Championship now and experiment with the players we have. Just don't want to go down with less than 12 points.

Mike: Ivan Juric would do well to realise that serial failures like Joe Aribo, Jan Bednarek (especially him) and obviously Adam Armstrong have no future at the club having all been previously found out at this level. There are plenty of others but these guys have been stinking up the club for years.

William: With Russell Martin gone, we're back to the awful football that got us relegated in the first place. Our plans lie broken and in ruins, and after this season we'll be starting all over again with a new coach, who I suspect will get neither the money he needs nor the time.

Chris Wise
Final Score reporter at Selhurst Park

Image source, Getty Images

If Southampton's name is mentioned in conversations about football at your New Year's Eve party, I expect someone will utter the words 'they are gone.'

It would be hard to provide a solid argument against that theory. When West Brom produced the most astonishing escape from relegation from the Premier League 20 years ago, they only had 10 points at the halfway stage of the season.

Southampton are now 50% of the way through their campaign, and have a mere six points to show for it.

There has though been improvements in Ivan Juric's two games in charge. They do not look as defensively vulnerable, and seem more comfortable in what they are being asked to do.

I would be shocked if Southampton go through the next 19 Premier League games and do not earn comfortably more points than the first half of their campaign.

But will it be enough to stay up? We would be talking about the greatest of great escapes if they did.

Kelly Somers introduces highlights and analysis from Sunday's six Premier League fixtures.

If you missed Match of the Day, you can catch up now on BBC iPlayer.

Listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Everton 0-2 Nottingham Forest

• West Ham United 0-5 Liverpool

Southampton and Ipswich are both keen to sign 29-year-old Rennes and Finland midfielder Glen Kamara in January. (TBR Football), external

Want more transfer news? Read Monday's full gossip column

A new episode of Goin' Home With Adam And Jo is available to download and listen to on BBC Sounds.

As they travel home from Selhust Park, hear Adam Blackmore and Jo Tessem dissect Sants' final game of 2024 being a loss away to Crystal Palace.

The boys also discuss the year as a whole for Saints, and what players need to go in the January transfer window.

Plus, they're joined by Alfie House and George Rees-Julian from the Daily Echo to chat about whether the football has changed under Ivan Juric.

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

Image source, Getty Images

Southampton manager Ivan Juric, speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "I think the first goal for me is a foul. This goal changes the situation and it's the second goal we have conceded from set-pieces. Like against West Ham we do good things but it wasn't enough today because we conceded really stupid goals.

"Yes [it was a foul on Aaron Ramsdale] it's really difficult for Ramsdale to do something if he has a player pushing him. I don't know what is in the rules, but for me it is a foul.

"Second goal is really hard to explain. Against West Ham it was a similar situation. We are not tough enough in this moment. And it's a real pity because we are competing and creating chances and we concede goals we don't have to concede.

"Against West Ham we did really, really good. Today we did something good and there were some things we could do better. We have players who can compete. We are competing and we have to be much better in the details.

"They are fighting every game. We have to believe, there is no other option."

Were you at the game or following from elsewhere?

Have your say on Crystal Palace's performance

What did you make of Southampton's display?

Come back to this page on Monday to find a selection of your replies

There are six games in the Premier League on Sunday, and we will bring you every moment.

• Leicester v Man City (14:30)

• Crystal Palace v Southampton

• Everton v Nottingham Forest - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

• Fulham v Bournemouth

• Tottenham v Wolves

• West Ham v Liverpool (17:15) - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

All kick-off times 15:00 GMT unless stated

Follow all the action and reaction here

Chris Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League games this season, against a variety of guests.

This week, he takes on musician Emma-Jean Thackray, who is a Leeds fan.

Sutton's prediction: 1-0

Crystal Palace are definitely showing more mettle at the moment, and they were very well organised in their 0-0 draw at Bournemouth.

To be fair to Southampton, the same can already be said for them under new manager Ivan Juric. I know they lost to West Ham in his first game in charge, but they could have got something out of it.

Saints seem to have changed their style - from purists to pumping it - but there is nothing wrong with being direct, and they showed their resilient side when they got a draw at Fulham before Christmas, when Juric was watching from the stands.

I am expecting another close game here, but Palace will probably edge it.

Emma-Jean's prediction: 3-0

Palace look a lot more improved recently and they are my local team now I live in London. So I do have a bit of a soft spot for them, plus Southampton fans were not very nice about them getting promoted ahead of us last season. The bitter person in me wants us to go up and wave as we pass them on their way down.

Read the full predictions and have your say here