Mauricio Pochettino spoke to the press on Thursday afternoon ahead of Saturday's Barclays Premier League game at Fulham.
Here are the key points from the briefing:
On transfer deadline day…
“To be honest I’m not excited at all about this whole situation. We know and we ‘re aware that there’s one day left and there’s over 24 hours to go which is a very long time in football.
“I do like it (deadline day). I enjoy it and I also feed off the excitement of other people about it, and it’s also something that is widely followed on TV so I do follow and I do have that feeling.
“For sure we’re going to be looking at what other clubs are doing and analysing that, but we also have the tranquillity and the calm to know that our squad is already good enough and that there won’t be that many ins and outs.”
On Dani Osvaldo's potential exit…
“At the moment there’s no news regarding Dani Osvaldo but, as I said before, there’s still a day and a half left to finish the transfer window activity and there are many things that can happen in that time.
“For me the biggest talking point of the day is the game against Fulham – anything aside from that is an individual matter that will be decided upon when it has to be decided upon, but in my role as manager the most important thing is the group and in terms of that the most important thing is the game on Saturday against Fulham.”
On Jack Cork link to Swansea…
“Jack Cork is a very important player for us so there’s no possibility that he’s going to leave this club.”
On Jason Puncheon going to Crystal Palace…
“Yes, the Club has informed me about that situation and the Club is negotiating in terms of that at this very moment.”
On Danny Fox’s departure…
“The first thing I’d like to make public is my gratitude and my thanks to Danny Fox for his amazing professionalism and attitude during the entire time he’s been here at Southampton. We want to wish him all the best because as a player and as a person he’s shown great characteristics both as a player and as a person so we wish him all the best at Nottingham Forest where he has a new challenge there. Matt Targett is going to be training with us and he has a chance to get into the side if we see that he’s able to perform at the level that we expect.”
On Fulham…
“We also need to be aware that Fulham are wanting to get the three points as well off us. It’s going to be a very tough game against Fulham – they’ve made a lot of changes, a lot of signings, so they’re going to be very aggressive at their stadium on their pitch and very much wanting to get the three points as well off us.
“Fulham have quality players, but they probably had some problems at the beginning of the season that made things hard on them, but they’ve changed now and made a lot of signings, so they’re going to be a very dangerous side, and as all teams they’re going to be wanting to get three points and it just goes to show you that the Premier League is a very competitive league until the end and nothing is decided yet.”
On team news…
“It’s possible [that Victor Wanyama could play]. There’s the injuries that we have already through Dejan Lovren and Gastón Ramírez who are recovering from their long-term injuries, but the good news is that we’ve had Rickie Lambert back this week and he’s been training very well throughout this week. We’ll see how he trains tomorrow and will be on the list for Saturday.”
On Sam Gallagher…
“[Shows reporter a picture of Gallagher cleaning boots]. From that moment on I was aware of him. He was cleaning boots a year ago. He has grown a lot in a year! We have something in our water here.
“What’s clear from his performance on Tuesday is that Sam Gallagher has the quality and has the ability to perform in the Premier League. In our experience we have to pace them a little bit to make sure that we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves with his performance, but it’s also clear that he played very well against Arsenal and it just adds to our list of home-grown players who have talents for the future.”
On bringing players in…
“It’s clear that many times we look outside for players who are perhaps already in-house.
“It’s clear that Sam Gallagher’s performance on Tuesday showed that he can compete, can keep on learning and that he can keep on learning from players such as, Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez. He needs to keep on training to make the most of the minutes that we have, he needs to compete in the time that we give him, so Rickie, Jay and Adam need to be inspiration for him in which to improve upon his own performance.
“I’m saying that right now someone who fits the profile of the player that we’re looking for is not easy –it’s very complicated to actually find that player and it’s also clear that with Sam Gallagher’s performance against Arsenal on Tuesday, that made us quite confident in the sense that we might give him a chance and keep counting on him because he has shown that he can perform quite well in the top-flight.”
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