Nigel Adkins has hinted that he would prefer to have had more new signings in place at this time, however in the grand sceme of things we are still on target.
Of course any manager would want to have his summer signings done and dusted early so he can assimilate them into the squad in its pre season training camp, but the truth is that this rarely happens, in a normal close season little business is done till the month before the season, footballers and managers etc only have a short break when they can go off and holiday and spent time with their families etc, so certain select deals aside, football takes its holiday from the end of the season until July and then it starts in earnest.
This summer has been further distorted by the last season finishing earlier to accomodate the Euros, followed by the next one starting late to firt in the Olympics, add to that, Saints went back to training earlier than most clubs due to wishing to fit in the memorial cup alongside the Olympic Torch.
It would have been nice to take half a dozen new players to the training camp, but in the bigger picture it isnt going to make much difference.
Perhaps the thing that has worried many fans is that of the three signings we have been trying to make and agreed deals on, only one has happened cleanly, Steven Davis although in all intents and purposes now a Saints still has the cloud of the issues involving Rangers hanging over him and until FIFA have made their ruling nothing is certain, likewise Alexander Buttner, on this one Saints are the innocent party, but the result is that whoever is to blame, a player who was identified as a cog in the wheel, is not at the club and his arrival is in doubt.
But there is still nearly five weeks to go before the big kick off and thats plenty of time to sign up the calibre of player we need in the key areas, effectively the football store has only been open for business for a week, the targets will have been identified a long time ago, but the tills are only just opening, as it stands Saints pre season so far has not been ideal, but thats mainly due to the issues with Davis and Buttner, if both of those were now signed sealed and delivered beyong any speculation, then we would be right bang on course, they arent but that doesnt mean that everything is chaos, we just need to secure the services of a right back, alledgedly well advanced with Clyne of Crystal Palace and then a class central defender, top that off with a goalkeeper and the completion of Davis and Buttner and things will be bang on target for the final fine tuning of the squad.
So no need to worry yet, ideally we would have everythjing in place with a fortnight to go before the new season, giving our new men plenty of time to fit in with the squad and that date is still nearly three weks away.