Southampton: Is this transfer window more important that any before?
After an extremely underwhelming campaign last term which saw Saints finish 17th and just scrape retaining their Premier League status for a seventh consecutive season, it is vital for the well being of the football club that this transfer window goes to plan.
Southampton were brought back down to earth after finishing just three points above the drop zone after four consecutive spells in the Premier League’s top-eight last season, prompting Saints Chairman Ralph Krueger to even admit that the club had ‘lost it’s identity’ and that the ‘Southampton Way’ no longer exists.
The structure of the Premier League has evolved to such an extent that the top six and remaining 14 sides are miles away from each other competitively due to the pedigree of players that can be attracted by England’s elite, as seen during the season just gone as nine points separated sixth placed Arsenal and seventh placed Burnley and the gap between Burnley and ourselves in 17th was merely 18 points; in football terms that was just six wins.
What this empathises is the fact that now actually there isn’t a great deal of difference between the ‘best of the rest’ in seventh and those who end up in the relegation scrap; highlighting how vital it is that Saints’ board performs over the next two and a half months in the transfer market.
It would be impossible for the Southampton board to come out and truthfully say that there aren’t enough funds to add to Mark Hughes’ transfer kitty after spending only £19 million of the £75 million received for Virgil van Dijk in January as well as the Premier League prize money in excess of £100 million and of course the income from TV rights.
Next: Alex McCarthy linked with Tottenham
Of course, it would be incredibly unlikely for the board to even dedicate half of that sum to transfers due to the costs of actually running the football club, however realistically there is about £70 million there that should be invested over this window.
With the quality of the squad that Southampton possessed last term, 17th was a major underachievement. Some players did look uninterested at times, as we saw with the whole Virgil van Dijk dilemma, and, with the quality of potential replacements out there, those not fully dedicated to the club should be cashed in on which could potentially raise Hughes’ budget to the brink of £100 million.
More from Saints Marching
- Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 2: Arrivals
- Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 1: Departures
- It’s time to talk about Gavin Bazunu
- Rain clouds on the horizon? Southampton beat Plymouth Argyle
- A lament for Southampton legend James Ward-Prowse
Saints have already been linked with promising additions, with Mark Hughes’ former player Xherdan Shaqiri mentioned as well as a second attempt to bring in Spartak Moscow’s Quincy Promes.
However, during the last three transfer windows we have seen Southampton mess around with their transfers:
In January just gone we sold arguably our best player for that huge fee but didn’t have a replacement defender in line, leading to Saints conceding 26 goals in the 17 league games between January and the end of the season which arguably cost Southampton a possible top-ten finish.
Last summer we only recruited three players during the entire window in Wesley Hoedt, Mario Lemina and Jan Bednarek. Hoedt was the right move, however the Dutchman has been underwhelming this season, Lemina wasn’t really a necessary acquisition but kept the fans entertained for periods over the course of the season and Bednarek only made eight first-team appearances due to being ‘one for the future’.
Finally, in the January window of 2017 we sold Jose Fonte and didn’t sign a proper replacement until it was too late, signing Martin Caceres on a free transfer in mid-February who only went on to feature once for the club!
This isn’t pretty reading for Saints fans and epitomises why last season went so incredibly wrong, a feat that we must not repeat this coming season!
However unlikely fans may think it is, finding our way back into the top-eight is highly achievable next season but only if we invest well. We have a manager who, with the right players, can get us there but wrong choices (or lack of!) in the market could cost us our Premier League status as, in the modern day top-flight, there really isn’t much of a gap between the top half and the bottom three…