With under a week remaining of the transfer window, Saints have made another signing, but Southampton supporters are a little underwhelmed to say the least, not only because it is hard to see where he will fit in, but because there is still no striker over the line.
Whatever Saints fans feelings, the arrival of James Bree is a positive move and at a reported £750,000 although it is not a signing that will excite the fans, it is one that is an inexpensive gamble.
In real terms this is below his market value, transfermarkt has him worth £3 million, but with only a short time left on his contract with Luton Town, it seems that they had to cash in or face losing him on a free transfer.
Although only 25 he has considerable experience, he started at Barnsley making his League debut for Barnsley in the Championship aged just 17 and went on to get considerable experience over the next 3 seasons leading to Aston Villa to signing him almost to the day 6 years ago.
At Villa he struggled to get into their side even though they were in the Championship at the time, and in January 2019 he went out on loan to fellow Championship club Ipswich Town.
In 2019/20 he went out on loan to Luton Town and was a mainstay in their side and joined on a permanent basis the following season.
There he would rack up further appearances meaning in total he started 119 league games for the club plus another 13 on loan.
But as of yet he is yet to make a Premier League appearance, his time at Villa coincided with their spell in the Championship.
But we do get a player with over 200 appearances in the Championship and League One and we have signed in the past plenty of players with experience only at those levels who have stepped up to the plate in the Premier League, although in fairness we have signed a few that haven't.
It could be said that the Championship is a higher standard overall than the Scottish Premier League.
Bree might not add the class that we crave, but at a time we are struggling for genuine full back options, he fills a gap, although it suggests that Tino Livarmento's reported set injury setback is going to rule him out for the most part of this season.
Southampton manager Nathan Jones said:
"James is obviously someone who I know well from our time together at Luton, and he has the qualities both on the pitch and also in terms of his character to help us here.
"While we have really talented players in the full-back positions, we have been lighter on numbers than we would have liked, so the addition of James to the squad really helps us to address that. He’s also comfortable playing at centre-back too, so that versatility helps gives us another good option in a number of areas.”
That versatility might be of help to us, especially with a raft of games coming up and perhaps Bree will bring us some leadership and experience in the defence.
James Bree said:
"I'm absolutely delighted. As soon as I had the chance to come to this huge club, a Premier League opportunity for myself as well, and obviously get to work with my old gaffer, I knew it was the right decision straight away and I didn't have to think twice about it.
"It's something I've dreamed of since I was a little kid, making my Premier League debut and obviously for a team as big as Southampton. It's something you dare to dream about.”
So in essence this signing is going to excite few people, however it is a cheap gamble that might just pay off, there will be those cynics who will once again be saying that this is the club preparing for the Championship, but that was not the case when signing Mislav Orsic or Charly Alcatraz, nor the raft of players signed last summer.
The club are still trying to land that elusive striker and they have shown that are not jumping in and making a panic buy as was the case 5 years ago with Guido Carrillo.
Saints stepped back from Nicolas Jackson, they were aware that he had seen a transfer knocked back in the summer due to failing a medical and studied those records and took a step back, Bournemouth didn't but they too pulled out when they he again failed their medical.
The hope is that we are nearing another signing, but it does concern me we are still linked with 20 year olds, we truly need some experience at a top level up front and by experience I don't mean 1 season.