Saints could have to break or at least get very near their own transfer record this summer if they are to land some of their reported targets.
Saints transfer record paid out has stood for the last ten years and is the £4 million paid for Rory Delap in the summer of 2001, however Saints are going to have to at least get near that if they are serious of signing some of the players linked with them. Our promotion rivals are already showing their intent will we try to match them or take another route ?
Latest name is Nicky Maynard of Bristol City, Maynard cost City £2.25 million when they signed him from Crewe, so its natural that they will want a handsome profit on their investment and its rumoured they have already turned down £3 million for the striker, likewise supposed January transfer window target Craig Mackail Smith, this morning he has been linked with West Ham and Peterborough valueing him at £3 million plus will be keen to open a Dutch auction for his services.
But do Saints have the money to spend this summer to finance a push towards the premiership ? first impressions would be not at present, otherwise they would already have perhaps landed one or two players as have some of our rivals, whilst there will be some money available I suspect that it will be the sale of Oxlade- Chamberlain that will dictate whether we have a substancial transfer kitty or not and in many respects there is nothing wrong with that.
The problem will be that once we sell him it will push up the asking price of any player we try to sign and the trick then will be to make sure that we dont get fleeced and conversely dont miss out on a player through playing too much hardball, it will be a delicate balance.
Perhaps then Saints would be better looking to sign an up and coming player from the lower divisions before his value skyrockets, there are bargains around if you have the right scouting network in place and we are about to find out if we have.
So far transfer dealings have been quite easy for Saints in that we have been a league 1 club paying out Championship money in both wages and transfers, in many respects more than a player could get from most Championship clubs, we also offered the chance to play in a team that would win a lot more than it lost, so there was an element of glory involved in tempting players to St Mary's, thats now changed and instead of being a big fish in a little pool, whilst not quite being one of the small fishes in a big pool, there are definately a few more sharks swimming around us now and we have to be a lot more careful.
Personally Im not sure i would be happy about Saints paying £4 million for a player its way too much for the division, I would feel more confident of a promotion push if we spent what money we had wisely, Norwich showed that its about having a manager who knows what players to buy and at what price that counts in the division and Cardiff showed that you can bring in Premier players albeit on loan but it guarantees you nothing.
The next few weeks will be a real test for Saints as to their intentions for the season and indeed of just how good the manager and his team of coaches and scouts are, we have to play to those strengths and in the case of Nigel Adkins that perhaps means he will look for underpriced value rather than the overpriced obvious target.