Saints start the second week of pre season training with yet more rumours doing the rounds.
The one that seems set to run and run until the player signs for someone is Victor Wanyama, will there be an end to this ? seemingly not with more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing, it seems that at the moment Saints are the only game in town willing to pay the big bucks for him, although like most other transfer targets be it being chased by us or any other club outside of the top 6, the player or at least his agent seem to want to hold out for the best deal and as we found out last summer that can mean lots of delays.
One looking unlikely to happen is Leandro Damiao, the Brazilian striker is now likely to be joining Napoli, or at least they seem at the front of the queue, the problem now for Saints is the same as for most of the players we chase, yes we are willing to offer big money, but clubs like Napoli can offer genuine chances to challenge of honours, including European and Champions league places, for their part Napoli finished second in serie A last season and will be in the Champions League, its this sort of thing Saints cant compete with, Napoli can offer a track record of competing for honours at the highest level both domestically and internationally, whilst Saints at this moment in time can only offer words.
This seems to be the problem with most of the players we are linked with, not just now but in the last two transfer windows, in essence we are trying to jump two levels with our transfer targets and this will always make it hard to land a player, yes money will always be a consideration for a player, but if two clubs are paying around the same, then its going to be about what can be offered in the way of on the pitch, for Damiao its perhaps easy, sign for a mid table Premiership club or sign for one of the top clubs in Italy who are in the Champions League.
Perhaps this should tell us something, concentrate on the type of player suited to the next level above us, not two or three.
On the plus side we are linked with another central defender although this could be lazy jounrnalism as the player in question was not only playing in Spain last term, but is also Argentinian, Martin Demichelis has just been released by Malaga, in my opinion he could be just what Saints need, ie an International who having played not only for his country but for two of the top teams in the World, River Plate and Bayern Munich, in essence he has a bit of experience, however against him is the fact tht he will be 33 in December and this is not the age group that our Chairman likes to sign, however perhaps he could look back to his arrival at the club when Radhi Jaidi came in and for a couple of seasons helped in moulding a promotion winning side to get out of League One, sometimes its not just about youth or players with sell on valuea, but in getting a squad with the right balance.
So will this coming week be just another one of continued rumour and disapointment, or will it yield what the fans are craving for and that is actual signings, the rumour mill is relentless, however there is one thing that can slow it down and that is action in the transfer market rather than words, as supporters we all like to hear fine words from our football club, but we prefer less rumour and more pen to paper.
Of course the season is still over five weeks away so there is plenty of time for thos signings, so there is no need to panic yet, but plenty of clubs are starting to make some good signings now, we dont want to get left behind.