Saints Marching
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Saints Marching roundtable: Dream deadline day signings

By Marc Walker

SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 10: Owner of Southampton Gao Jisheng and head of football development Les Reed during the Premier League match between Southampton and Arsenal at St Mary's Stadium on December 10, 2017 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 10: Owner of Southampton Gao Jisheng and head of football development Les Reed during the Premier League match between Southampton and Arsenal at St Mary's Stadium on December 10, 2017 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /
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PERTH, AUSTRALIA – JULY 23: Tammy Abraham of Chelsea and Shane Lowry of the Glory contest fot the ball during the international friendly between Chelsea FC and Perth Glory at Optus Stadium on July 23, 2018 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
PERTH, AUSTRALIA – JULY 23: Tammy Abraham of Chelsea and Shane Lowry of the Glory contest fot the ball during the international friendly between Chelsea FC and Perth Glory at Optus Stadium on July 23, 2018 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images) /

Ed Waugh – Tammy Abraham

When looking at Saints’ current weaknesses among the squad, there aren’t too many in opinion, however a new striker would not go a miss and therefore believe Tammy Abraham of Chelsea would be an excellent signing and for many reasons despite a poor season on loan to Swansea last season.

For one, the 6’3 striker could be available on a cut price with his parent-club Chelsea very much on the hunt for a new striker and also possessing players such as Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata within their roster – the London club have an awful record of taking risks on playing young players and with Abraham only still 20 years of age, it is unlikely to change under new management in Maurizio Sarri, who will want to hit the ground running.

The former Bristol City-loanee also possesses great finishing ability and has the capability of playing great through balls, an asset many forwards don’t possess (via who scored.com *link – https://www.whoscored.com/Players/317506/Show/Tammy-Abraham). To also put his goal scoring record into better perspective, whilst on loan with the ‘The Robins’, the London born player notched 23 goals in 41 appearances at the mere age of 18, pretty impressive despite these figures being posted in the Championship.

With the Saints looking likely to play a two up top system, Abraham could slot in nicely as Mark Hughes’ solution of a target man due to his height or help stretch opposition defences with his good pace, and is only likely to improve in-time.

In terms of Saints’ transfer window so far, it’s all been quite positive in that we have finally replaced some of departures that have occurred over the past few seasons – Jannik Vestergaard has finally added much need physicality in the centre of the defence that we lost through the sale of Virgil Van Dijk, to add Stuart Armstrong helps pull the strings in midfield that we quite haven’t had since Steven Davis’ downfall in form or the sale of Adam Lallana from three years ago.

In terms of strengthening the side, a new striker is probably a must if we look to play a 3-5-2, Charlie Austin and Manolo Gabbiadini do look a lot sharper so far this pre-season but with the former being fairly suspect to injuries and the former’s form on and off at times, more competition for places is vital – especially where Shane Long’s goal scoring record is uninspiring of late and Gallagher relatively unused in England’s top flight.

To add, keeping Matt Targett is a an absolute must! Don’t know about our fans but do not like losing academy graduates, and to Fulham would be disheartening especially given how much the left-back has improved since the turn of the year – as well looked pretty sharp in pre-season too and therefore could be great cover for Ryan Bertrand and Cedric Soares, and add great competition.