Saints have been linked with several players but there has been only one incoming, but the one position that really needs to be strengthened appears to be being ignored.
A year ago after the sale of Jose Fonte we badly needed to replace him, that problem was exasperated when Virgil Van Dijk was ruled out for the rest of the season, meaning that we only had Yoshida and the then virtually untried Jack Stephens able to play in that position.
The out of contract Caceres provided another option but bizarrely only played once and that being in the final knockings of the season.
Our failure to replace Fonte cost the club dearly in the fact of the cheap goals given away at Wembley in the League cup final, but probably ultimately cost Claude Puel his job in that he seemed to realise early after Van Dijk's injury that the two central defenders were two slow and kept getting caught on the break, his only option was to put out teams that barely had two players cross the half way line, but did stop the opposition scoring.
That lead to series of games that saw us score very little and ultimately our opponentsa little more, bizarrely Pule didnt try Caceres so cant be completely blameless, but on reflection he had little choice in his selection.
We all thought that Fonte's replacement would be in by mid summer, let alone a replacement for Van Dijk who was acting up, but none arrived until Wesley Hoedt virtually in the final week of the transfer window.
Throughout the first half of the season there was not a Saints fan who thought that Van Dijk would be here past January and the announcement a month ago that he was going to Liverpool made many think that for once Saints had been pro active and his replacement was already ready to come.
But here we are with the January window ready to shut in a couple of days and there is no replacement for Van Dijk !
Most of our issues this season would have been solved if we had played two quality central defenders in our games, but Pellegrino seemed determined to keep everyone happy and rotated Hoedt and Yoshida.
So we once again find ourselves thin at the back and in the middle of a relegation battle, one in which we cannot afford to lose Wesley Hoedt and leave ourselves exposed.
I would hope that Saints have an under the radar deal in this position on the go, but I'm not holding my breath, not signing a central defender cost us dearly a year ago, we do not want it to cost us even more this season !