With the transfer deadline tomorrow night, Fulham still has a few holes to fill. Injuries to Brian McBride and Hamuer "Hammertime" Bouazza have left us thin up front. For Bouazza's spot on the left wing, Lee Cook is coming back from injury soon, and seems that he would be the natural replacement. Clint Dempsey has been our attacking utility man, and has provided cover the past couple matches.

How the hell do we pronounce this guy's name?

So that spot is taken care of, but what about McBride? His injury leaves us with 3 strikers, and no real "target man" to win headers and just create chaos. We had a suitable replacement in Heidar Helguson, but we sold him. Lawrie Sanchez had a bid for Walter Pandiani earlier this summer, but he wanted to stay in Spain. We then went on to sign Kamara and Healy, so I can't really fault Sanchez for not bringing in more cover - I mean, McBride is a cyborg, did anyone think he was even capable of getting hurt? But he is, and we could use another head. Latest news out of Serbia is that we're close to signing Danijel Ljuboja from VfB Stuttgart. Judging by his hair alone, I'd say he fits the bill. He's been on trial for the last week, and reportedly played in a reserve friendly for us, so I'd say there's a 75% chance he's signed by the deadline.

And as always, we need help defensively. Somehow we conned Marty O'Neill out of £3.5m for Zatman. I don't know, he's been solid so far, but I have to think he's had some luck on his side. He still can't pass and he still gets caught out of position. Maybe Marty wanted to thank him for scoring the equalizer for Villa last Saturday.

Anyhow, regardless of Knight's quality (or lack of), we're still short in central defense. We didn't get any taller today when we signed 5'8" England U-20 International Nathan Ashton, though he's obviously joining Australian Adrian Leijer in the "one for the future" posse. We may have some relief soon, though. Glasgow Evening Times reported today that Pompey has accepted a bid from us for another Serbian, Dejan Stefanović. Assuming he agrees to personal terms, this is a great signing. Stefanović has been kept out of Pompey's lineup by Sol Campbell and Sylvain Distin, but any club would love to have those two. He'll give us another solid-yet-unspectacular veteran choice, hopefully a slightly more skilled Ian Pearce. He can also play left-back, so that gives us some additional cover in case Liam Rosenior is sold.

I must say I like what we've seen from Sanchez, he seems to have a good feel for what we need. I like the fact that he seems more interested in building the reserve squad with quality young players. Even seeing Matthew Briggs on the bench last season (and get a late run out) was a breath of fresh air. I'm definitely going to keep a closer eye on the reserves this season, and hopefully some will earn some chances with the senior squad.