Why Southampton should leave Ben Brereton at Sheffield United in January
Southampton do not have a January transfer problem that Ben Brereton solves. He is currently on loan at Sheffield United; he has just scored, so the sensible move is to let him carry on doing just that.
Sheffield United are a mid-table side at best this season. So Brereton scoring for the Blades is good news for both Southampton's promotion hopes and the player's resale value.
Brereton's Friday night at Bramall Lane
Sky Sports' live page had him scoring on 30 minutes against Wrexham, and the Blades won 1-0. Before that, FotMob gave him a single assist across roughly 666 minutes of league football.
A forward on a season-long loan that began on the 28th August can live with a slow start. What he cannot do is build a case for recall on one finish.
Saints have seen this all before. He made 13 appearances for Southampton without a goal, then went back to Sheffield United and scored four in 17 league games. Derby County got eight from 41 last season, and their head coach said he wanted to keep him for good.
Read that however you like, but clubs keep asking for him and Southampton have not yet found a way to get goals out of him. A January recall would be a huge gamble that the next version goes differently.
Is that bet worth making when the club has a Championship promotion race to think about?
Eckert's bench and the January queue
Picture Tonda Eckert on Saturday, looking along his bench before QPR visit St Mary's. Cyle Larin is waiting on a fitness check, Lewis Dobbin scored the winner at West Ham last Saturday, and Divin Mubama is still waiting for a first start.
Nobody in that picture is asking for another forward to join the queue. Saints Marching's look at Dobbin's first Saints goal already has Eckert weighing Larin against Dobbin for the QPR game, with Mubama as the late option.
No recall clause has been reported for the loan, so any early return would depend on Sheffield United agreeing. They would hardly hand back a man who has just won them a game.
His Southampton contract runs to June 2028, which gives everybody time. Saints Marching has also floated a Leeds striker as a possible January target if Leeds can find cover, and that is a sign January thinking points not at the Chilean but to someone new.
So leave Ben Brereton where he is. Let the loan play out, see what the next two months bring, and have the conversation in June, once the promotion race has been settled.
