Southampton: Saints Marching’s summer transfer window roundtable – Harry Tizard

Q3) We have already seen Che Adams and Moussa Djenepo arrive, whilst Danny Ings was signed permanently. Matt Targett, Sam Gallagher and Jordy Clasie have also departed. How do you rate this business out of 10 and why?

I would give this transfer window a 8.5 out of 10. Despite the disappointment of not being able to ship off all of the dead wood by the end of the English transfer window, I still believe the majority of those that want out (and we want out) will find a move before the global transfer deadline.

Being able to sell of Matt Targett for a fee that could rise up to £17m is a fantastic bit of business, especially due to the fact that we already had an in house replacement of Jake Vokins. Even if Matt Targett does significantly improve away from the club, I still find it difficult to think his market Value will go any way above the £20m mark. Being able to ship of players like Sam Gallagher and Jordy Classie who wouldn’t have played at all this season is also a particular positive, especially due to the fact it would have freed up a lot in wages (with some of that most probably going into Nathan Redmond’s new contract).

Looking at incomings, the reported £50m outlay on players (at the time of writing) seems to be good business. Danny Ings completed his move very early on in the window due to the structure of the deal that was agreed this time last year. £20m does seem a lot for a player stereotypically known to most for his injuries off the pitch than performances on it, but it seems from the pre-season that he is in the best shape of his career and could be in for a very good season. The former Liverpool and Burnley striker has got plenty of minutes and a handful of goals in the friendlies to warm up for the season – with his combination with our other new signing Che Adams likely to be a potent one this campaign. We have seen already that Danny Ings is a deadly striker, meaning that as long as he stays fit, he will be a very valuable member of the squad.

As mentioned previously, the Saints also brought in new striker Che Adams to help bolster the attacking threat. Brought in for a reported fee of £16m from Birmingham, the Englishman scored twenty two times last season in the championship, helping the blues stay in the league after their points deduction mid way through the season. The twenty-three year old will be playing as a two up top with Danny Ings this season, and is used to this format after building up a string partnership with Lukas Jutkiewicz in the 2018/19 campaign. The pair scored a combined thirty-six goals in the second division last year, meaning that a similar combination this season would be very much welcome by the Saints fans.

An interesting and rather unknown quantity is winger Moussa Djenepo,.The Malawian was brought in by Southampton from Belgian side Standard Liege. After only recently retuning from the African Cup on Nations with his country, his minutes with the red and whites has been very limited – only coming off the bench in the Saints last pre-season fixture against FC Koln. Last season, Djenepo scored three times in the Europa League and looks to be a very hard working player both on and off the ball – with his most promising assest being that he has the confidence to take players on and attack with pace.

From a Southampton perspective, hopefully he can translate these qualities into both goals and assists – but with very little knowledge about the player and the twenty-one year old not having any game time in any of Europe’s top five leagues, it is very much a waiting game to see if he can cut at such a high intensity environment.