Saints fate in the Premier League will ultimately be decided by how well they perform in the transfer window in the coming weeks.

There arent many Saints supporters who consider that we had a succesful summer in transfer dealings, the failure to land signings of note in the three key areas, Goalkeeper, Central Defence & genuine wide players meant that we suffrered an appalling start to the season and the knock on effect still continues to hinder us with a string of errors.

The injury to Jose Fonte now accelerates the situation and it would be unthinkable not to make a major signing in this area and to be totally blunt to not do so quickly would be folly, indeed on Saturday we face yet another relegation six pointer away at Aston Villa to go into that game with the central defensive options we currently have could prove disastrous.

So Saints have to act quickly, as i write its rumoured that Saints are bidding for Davide Astori of Cagliari , newspaper reports admittably not sometimes  the most accurate of sources are saying that we have bid less than the asking price, if thats the case then we need to up our offer and fast, of course we all applaud a Chairman who wont be forced into paying silly money, but the fact is with so much at stake in the Premier league, then we have to gamble and perhaps pay a little over the odds, Im sure every Saints fan backs a transfer policy where we wont be browbeaten into paying well over the odds, but the Alexander Buttner saga showed that sometimes you have to take a hit and in this league the odd million or two is sometimes worth the risk.

Football clubs are judged on results and those results at the end of the season add up to where you finish in the league, llikewise transfer policies are judged on the success of the transfer window purchases which in the bigger picture usually add up to where you finish in the league, I totally understand some of our purchases, Jay Rodriguez will be the natural replacement for Rickie Lambert  and is a great back up player, but we now need experienced Premier league players to come in and do a mans job, in some respects our dealings are replicating Arsenal's although on a lower scale, they have failed to sign experienced players and are now finding themselves struggling to qualify for the Champions League whereas a few years ago they were contesting the final, we need to now get in men to do a mans job in this transfer window.

All football clubs and managers make mistakes, what distinguishes the good from the bad is not that they have made that mistake, but what they do next.     

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StSaint added 11:48 - Jan 7 Sometimes it's irrelevant how much one club pays if the player wants to go to another. A recent example was when we had to take less from Arsenal for Theo than we would have got if he went to Chelsea. According to the papers we have bid £2M more than Liverpool for Astori, though if the player digs his heels in and wants to go to Liverpool, then what can we do? I think you are over simplifying the process and stating that not getting Buttner was our fault is complete guesswork. As an aside, if we had signed him we might not have seen the emergence of Luke Shaw, so perhaps it worked out for the best.

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splurty added 11:53 - Jan 7 Whilst i am very excited about the two piossible signings Italian cb astori and the young Brazilian coutinho if they happen, but I am concerned that they can hit the ground running as we need them to do , I feel a couple of wise old head signings could be more important to keep us up at this stage of the season ,friedel / given would be great in goal ,and Dawson or a fit Dawson type attacking cb would help no end and a pacy winger like Matty Philips to cross the ball to the back post for standard Ricky finishes ie not try and walk the ball in for the perfect goal finishes . And a massive fingers crosed that lallana /fonte are back ASAP

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john_d added 12:01 - Jan 7 I agree with above comment that we should be targetting premier league experience. Re Buttner I have been led to believe that deal fell through as the player / agent were made aware of the Man Utd interest so created obstacles to our deal to buy time to see if Utd made an offer.
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SaintNick added 12:23 - Jan 7 Of course its complete guesswork as to whether Buttner would have hampered the progress of Shaw, but as Shaw wasnt picked for the first lot of games he would probably have played and given he is more of a left wingback than full back he could have been used in the wide left position a real problem for us defensively in the first parts of the season. I thik we need to look at our transfer strategy overall, last summer we signed eight players, only three can be considered regulars, Clyne,Yoshida & Ramirez and none can be considered outstanding success yet Go back to the start of last season and the toal signed since the summer of 2011 is 14 and again only 4 are now regulars, some cannot even get in the squad now

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SaintJez added 13:20 - Jan 7 proven premier league players... Astori and Coutinho? Hmm... I don't know too much about Astori but I believe he's meant to be quite good though by no means certain he'll settle quickly - which we urgently need him to! and is Coutinho an admission that Ramirez hasn't worked out?! They play in the same position so I'm really not sure why we are looking at that as a priority unless Ramirez is on his way out (Fiorentina maybe?!)

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likesadrink added 16:52 - Jan 7 Saint Jez, anyone that understands football and watched us regularly can see it's blindingly obvious that Gaston is our most talented player. A joy to watch IMO and will become world class. Coutinho will be bought in as cover for Lallana and a replacement for Puncheon, he plays on the wing or the centre (same as Gaston) to have Lallana, Ramirez and Coutinho behind RL or J Rod is a seriously exciting prospect! I've watched a lot of Astori, as important a signing as Gaston IMO, solid CB good in the air with superb technique. Amazing time to be a Saints fan right now!

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 16:54 - Jan 7 Nick, at the start of last season we were buying for the Championship so its no wonder that not many of them are regular starters. We only got Sharp a year ago in January and he wasn't given a chance in the Prem. We only signed him to help get us up. I think Clyne has been an excellent signing. He'll be a top Premiership player, as will Ramirez. Yoshida has come on leaps and bounds from his awful first few games and he will continue to improve. Astori should be a good signing. Of course its always a risk buying someone from abroad as you don't know how long it will take for them to adjust to English football. But to be fair, the Saints scouts have done a fantastic job of finding the right players for the club in the last couple of years. The only disappointments have been De Ridder (£1m) although he was brought for the Championship, possibly Mayuka (£3.5m) although he hasn't been given a run in the team. Boruc was on a free. Gazza I suppose has potential. So I think the club are quite clever in buying players that have a high chance of being successful for us. Coutinho is a winger. Quick, skillful and immensely talented. But even more lightweight than Lallana. He might not be cut out for the Premiership, but I'm sure that if we spend a lot of money on him then the club is 100% confident that he will cut it. What amazes me is what Adkins said last week that we won't be signing a keeper. We're in desperate need for a top keeper, its already cost us about 6 points! I reckon he has too much faith in Gazza and Boruc. I can't see the mistakes coming to an end.

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SaintJez added 18:19 - Jan 7 I didn't say that Ramirez wasn't talented. It's just that it takes more than talent to be a success at a club. I don't think he's yet achieved as we all expected or hoped he would and he's had some worrying comments attributed to him regarding interest from Fiorentina especially. it makes you wonder how well he is settling. Saints aren't a big enough club (yet!) to pay 10 million for someone as cover and I'm not convinced Coutinho will be comfortable playing wide in this system. Could be fun trying, and we may be great to watch, but our defensive frailties may cost us.

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sidsaint added 22:28 - Jan 7 We seem to be buying young foreign players for the future, a great concept, but if we go down they will not see their future at Saints and we may not get our money back. An Italian chairman seems to have good contacts in Italy, I'm not sure these players are first choices of NA. British players will probably be more difficult to get as there will be a number of clubs after them. Whatever happens any new signings will have to come in soon and bed down very quickly. Surely a reliable keeper must be our number one priority.

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scummerlou added 09:47 - Jan 8 Not sure about this latest "Italian Job".....do we really need to spend close to 20M on DA and PC??? The need for a Good CB is well stated, although agree with earlier StSaint comment wrt him actually wanting to come to the Saints, already getting another football mercenary in the offing. IMO it should be a Prem league CB we spend on, Dawson, Upson, Hangeland, or Samba might all be possible targets, and all would know what is needed to help us stay in the EPL. As for Coutinho...very exciting prospect on paper, but maybe Matt Phillips at 2/3 price would be less of a risk?? wouldnt mind seeing Aaron Ramsey on loan til the end of the season, utilise this so called "special relationship" with Arsenal, which always seem to be a one way relationship (they have jst sent Djourou out on loan, might have done a job for us)

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SaintNick added 10:18 - Jan 8 When you sign a player already in the english leagues there are a lot less risks involved than signing players untried in this league. Dont underestimate the culture shock that a foreign import might suffer, take Astori, I dont know anything about his background, if he doesnt speak English and has a wife and kids, you put him in a hotel for a month whilst he finds somewhere to live and he is all alone, unhappy as he is missing his family, probably has no one to talk to with Cortese probably the only other person at the club who speaks Italian and we then expect him to play to his best week in week out right from the off

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 11:07 - Jan 8 If we got Astori then they'd take good care of him off the pitch and help him bed in. We have plenty of Italian (Guly, Ramirez, Boruc) speaking players and staff, and Spanish (Fonte, Guly, Ramirez, Gazza) and Dutch (Hooiveld, De Ridder, Yoshida) too so buying from abroad shouldn't be a problem from that point of view. As for how Astori would adapt to the Premiership? Who knows? But he'd definitely be better than the centre backs we currently have! The trouble with buying proven Premiership players is that they are expensive, especially at this time of year. You'll always pay over the top because if they are that good then clubs don't want to lose them. Cortese looks for value, I can't see him paying over the odds. How much would Lescott or Dawson cost? (Only in theory, as both players and clubs have made it clear that they are going nowhere) Probably £10m for a 29 or 30 year old. Its not Southampton's style to pay a big fee and wages for aging players, even if thier experience could be just what we need. But maybe that policy should change to keep us up this year. I can't think of any realistic targets for a proven Premiership centre-back. Maybe Chris Samba if he wants to come back to England, trouble is he's on over £100k a week at Anzhi. Hangeland - No chance. Upson - Past it. I think Distin is still excellent, even at 35, and his contract is up at the end of the season, but Saints will never go for it. So if its a toss between buying Scott Dann for £8m or Astori for £12m then I'd go with the Italian every time.

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SaintNick added 12:34 - Jan 8 How do we know they take good care of him off the pitch, as far as i know we dont have anyone designated to do that, they arrange a hotel for a player and agree how long he will be there and then perhaps help him find a house to rent, after that he is on his own, im not sure how many actually speak italian, Guly probably, Boruc & Ramirez possibly as they spent two years there, as for Spanish Guly would speak Portugese as would Fonte but not sure how that would help an Italian. Dann Or Astori lets be blunt we know nothing of Astori and by all acounts he is more a ball playing centre half who reads the game rather than a big physical one, my concern would be the time spend settling in, which by then we could well behind idf things dont go well in January and the wigan game

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bstokesaint added 12:52 - Jan 8 Nick, I don't think our summer signings were that bad, in fact Ramirez was something of a coup for the club. He is a quality player. Clyne is also class, has huge potential and was a great signing. I also happen to believe that both Davis and Yoshida put in a good shift every game and to be fair to the latter joined when we had the worst defence in the league! However, I do agree we didn't strengthen enough in all of the right areas. The goalkeeping situation is a farce right now. I'm sure every Saints fan would be split on who they believed was our number one. Maybe the real problem is that all three of our keepers do everything right in training and then bottle it on the big stage. It can't be easy knowing that each slip or mistake will ultimately cost you your place. One thing that is for certain is that none of them is in the class of Flowers, Wright or Niemi of recent years and we need one of that calibre urgently. We also need a decent CB. Fonte and Yoshida should be given credit where it’s due. They have improved greatly as our recent results suggest (excluding the Cup). We do need a very minimum of three (ideally four) decent players though fighting for those spots to keep every player on their toes. Given our excellent academy I know we will always have decent young English players, so I’m not sure I care too much where the additional players come from provided they can do a job and don’t leave us at the drop of a pound coin..

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 13:43 - Jan 8 Nick, the point I was trying to make is that generally Saints have a good record of keeping foreign players happy and we also have enough foreign players in the squad to make the newbie comfortable. If Astori joined he wouldn't be the only one using an interpreter and would have Guly, Ramirez and Boruc who know some Italian and could help him out. The big question mark over Astori, if we manage to finalise the deal, is how quickly will he adapt to playing in the Premiership. Its the fastest league in the world, whilst Serie A can be at a walking pace. I think we all agree that if he took months rather than weeks to adjust then it could lead to our down fall. The clubs transfer policy should probably be ignored for the signing of one or two experienced players like Sylvain Distin or Christopher Samba to help sure things up defensively. And we defenitely need a top keeper. The situation is bizarre. Its costing us points.

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scummerlou added 09:13 - Jan 9 I hope it doesnt come down to a DANN / ASTORI choice, not sure either are what we require at the moment. Dann has not got the a good record wrt injuries and also 2 relegations on his CV, and as I mentioned earlier, I have nagging feeling that Astori is looking for money first. Was hoping also that we would have had someone in by the Villa game, but have faith NA will come up with something!!!

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