Southampton will be aiming to be in and around the promotion spaces in the Championship next season.
All the talk this pre-season so far swings in the favour of the Saints going all out for automatic promotion glory, too, with Flynn Downes sticking his neck out the line, to state that the South Coast giants will be in the title-winning conversation come the end of the gruelling 46-game slog.
It's ambitious, but it's a feat Tonda Eckert's men will be aiming to achieve all the same, with the £9m addition of Lewis Dobbin sending tremors through the Championship that the Spygate-haunted outfit mean business, and won't trip up in the playoffs, again.
A lot of cash has been splashed out by the other second-tier clubs, though, so the promotion race could potentially be congested in the enthralling division this forthcoming season.
Swansea City will believe they can be in the promotion hunt, alongside the Saints, with Russell Martin's ex-employers also pushing the boat out this off-season.
Swansea's big spending
It has been a very productive transfer window so far for Vitor Matos' men, who will be looking to finally mount a serious promotion challenge this coming campaign, after so many seasons of unfulfilled potential have passed them by.
For £5m, the Swans have welcomed in Elijah Just to their ranks, with Just fresh off an excellent 2026 World Cup with New Zealand, with three international goals coming his way, alongside the attacking midfielder amassing 14 goal contributions from 33 Scottish Premiership clashes last season with Motherwell.
He was reportedly on the Southampton summer shopping list at one stage, but he opted to swap Scotland for Swansea, rather than the South Coast.
With another weighty £6m allegedly forked out to win Joseph Opoku from Jupiler Pro League team Zulte Waregem, it's clear that the South Wales titans are sick of their middling finishes, and want to finally return to the Premier League.
With the current Golden Boot holder in Žan Vipotnik still remaining on their books, as well, Matos and Co. is building an unbelievable attack that rivals the embarrassment of riches Eckert possesses in Dobbin, Finn Azaz, and his many other bright attacking presences.
A new transfer development will have the Saints even more wary of their Welsh counterparts, with Swansea set to sign another EFL hotshot who will be desperate to steer Matos' men to promotion ecstasy, at Southampton's expense.
Another development will have the Saints sweating
Saints fans will be happy with the majority of their club's transfer business so far this summer, but they will believe a missing piece of the jigsaw still sticks out.
Indeed, Cyle Larin is clearly the main striker at St. Mary's, but he doesn't exactly have much healthy competition for his starting spot at present, with the likes of Cameron Archer and Damion Downs potentially sold.
Unfortunately, Ross Stewart slipped through the cracks this off-season when he failed to agree a new, extended contract, after bagging nine Championship goals last campaign, from only 12 starts.
Southampton's painful heartbreak looks as if will soon become Swansea's immense gain, as reports suggest that the one-time Sunderland attacker will be lining up at the Swansea.com Stadium very soon, with the Irvine-born marksman close to agreeing a free transfer deal.
This surprise development will unnerve Saints supporters, as they will know that Stewart will be desperate to get one over on his former side, if the Swans and Eckert's men are side-by-side in an intense promotion tussle.
At the time of writing, the perennial mid-table side look like clear dark horses for promotion, when formulating pre-season predictions, but Southampton will be focusing solely on their own mission to return to the big time, as they stick out as another great nomination to rise up to Premier League, when excluding the likes of West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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