The steep price that makes Daniel Peretz’s Southampton move even more of a bargain

Southampton fans would have been fearing this summer that Daniel Peretz would only be known as a loan signing they fell in love with, rather than a permanent fixture.

Indeed, after collecting an excellent nine clean sheets from only 26 appearances on the South Coast last season, Peretz retreated back to his parent side in Bayern Munich in the off-season, with the ugliness of Spygate coming to the surface.

Even with Southampton's Championship promotion dreams being ripped into the shreds, it's clear that Peretz felt an immediate connection to his St. Mary's environment, which led to the 26-year-old coming back home for £7m in early June.

Stating that he always wanted to stay in his heart, shortly after resigning on the dotted line, Saints fans will be confident that their side can compete near the top of the division again, with such a steady pair of gloves in between the sticks, as opposed to a constantly nervous Gavin Bazunu being reinstated.

Securing his services for £7m feels like an insane bargain, after he kept a stellar three clean sheets from his first five second tier outings, with the big spending currently going on in the Premier League only rubber stamping the idea that Peretz's return was a shrewd steal.

The steep price Coventry City is willing to pay

Coventry City will need to splash the cash in order to give Premier League survival a good go.

Leeds United forked out £100m plus on brand-new signings last summer, after winning the Championship in style, and this excessive spending tactic helped them buck the trend of newly promoted sides being immediately relegated by finishing in 14th spot come the end of the gruelling 38-game marathon.

The Sky Blues look set to drop £30m on just one player in Carl Rushworth, with transfer expert Fabrizio Romano reporting that the current Golden Glove holder for the second tier is set to rejoin Frank Lampard's men permanently, much like Peretz's sensational homecoming.

This does feel like a very steep amount to drop on one individual, considering Rushworth has never tasted Premier League football back at Brighton and Hove Albion.

Still, in this modern climate, you have to sometimes spend big to get what you want, with Southampton feeling rather smug they'd managed to land Peretz for only £7m.

Peretz vs Rushworth last season

Of course, the Coventry fanbase will be buzzing with the 25-year-old returning, whatever the price tag might be, as he kept 17 clean sheets from 46 Championship appearances as an everpresent part of the promotion-winning machine.

Yet, looking at his numbers next to Peretz's just further proves how much of a bargain Eckert and Co. have managed to land with their Israeli star.

Coming in with a 77.1% save percentage last season, next to Rushworth's slightly lesser 73.2%, Peretz also trumps his Premier League-bound counterpart in terms of accurate passes, with a 66% pass accuracy average just beating the 25-year-old's 64%, despite his glowing reputation as an easy-on-the-eye stopper.

With Peretz also well accustomed to the pressures of top-flight football, having featured irregularly in the Bundesliga with Bayern, alongside boasting one Champions League runout in Bavaria, it does feel absurd that £7m was enough to win him outright, while the Sky Blues had to cough up the big bucks for Rushworth.

If the Halifax-born keeper ends up pulling off some incredible saves next season to keep Coventry up, he will be worth every penny.

But, at the moment, Peretz's deal does stick out as a bargain, next to the current Championship winners spending a club-record amount on Rushworth.

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