Simone Zaza is again being linked with Saints this weekend, but we will have competition if we are to sign him and guess where that will come from and keep coming from.

One of the downsides of losing a manager is that he is privy to all of the players we have been monitoring over the past year, so Ronald Koeman arrives at Goodison Park armed with a lot of knowledge and add the multi millions that Everton now seem to be willing to throw at players, it means that we are probably going to face competition from them with virtually every deal we go for.

This is just a fact of life and the main issue when Saints lose a manager is not so much his ability to pick the side, but the fact he will have had a big input into our transfer strategy and will want some of those players himself.

Saints have been linked with Juventus striker Simone Zaza for some time now, as have West Ham United, but now both of us face competition from Everton.

But for all their money Everton are not an attractive proposition on the field, there is a big rebuilding job needed and they will have to pay over the odds to land their targets.

They are demanding Champions League qualification in the Everton boardroom this season, but this deal perhaps highlights that before they can take on the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea there are a few clubs in their way and Saints and West Ham are two of them.

West Ham especially are a side who with their move to the Olympic Stadium will be looking to make an impact, there will be more money available to spend and with Europa League qualification on offer as well, it will be difficult for Everton to match them in a transfer tug of war.

Saints however have to rely on a different strategy that both the Hammers and the Toffee's, ours is not based on spending money, but building on a solid foundation and this is why we rarely shop for English players these days, continental players still look at their careers first before money, whereas your average English born player will look at his wallet first.

Either way we need to be getting our new manager in place so we can get his input into our strategy, that being the case I would guess the Zaza story is little more than his agent trying to get his client into the shop window.

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 15:41 - Jun 19 yes Toffee's Squid - the confectioner's apostrophe! It is not the end of the world if the nouveaux riche outbid us for a couple of players like this one. It will drain their coffers and we can pick up more sensibly priced players. Players we were after because Ron wanted them will probably end up at Everton. So what as far as I am concerned!!
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Dikki_Gutz added 16:55 - Jun 19 If we'd have kept Koeman for one more year to finish his contract we wouldn't have any of these problems about poaching and new managers and could have found a suitable replacement at our leisure next spring. REED OUT!!
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squidofdespair added 19:29 - Jun 19 Nicky. You sir, have mastered the art of sprinkling random commas into sentences. If ever there is a competition for it you will win. Now we need to work on full-stops. Anyone who has to read out loud (and there will be some on here) are in constant danger of passing out through oxygen deprivation. But all in all, not a bad try. You conjured an entire article out of almost nothing. Squid is prepared to concede that I may have been wrong about RoKo and it looks like he is going.

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A1079 added 19:44 - Jun 19 We cannot forget about chasing anyone of any note whilst we are managerless. No player of significance is going to consider Saints until they know who the manager is.
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BUCK added 20:51 - Jun 19 dikki,whats wrong with people like you, the amount of reports ive read today and you get the odd one saying "reed out". was you saying that when forster signed for 5 years, was you saying that when virgil signed for 6 years. are you completely short sighted and deluded that its actually reed who has made us improve for the last 7 years. are you going to be saying reed out if we hit top 6 next season. your the type of person who will say reed out even if we won the league. grow up will you, clown

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SanMarco added 22:13 - Jun 19 Bit unfair Buck - dear old Les's record is not one of unqualified success. Having said that we haven't done bad over the last few years so 'Les In' for me I think.
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Dikki_Gutz added 01:28 - Jun 20 Buck I could call you gullable for blindly believing in Reed but I won't because I don't believe in name calling I only care about Southampton Football Club. Reed has wasted approx 70m in wages and transfers on lame ducks that he has sanctioned. He has also discouraged Poch and Koeman from staying as he is always interfering with squad selections and these managers achieved good results. Yet another prospective experienced candidate Garcia has suggested that Reed wants to hand him a squad list and tell him to get on with it. Every year it's last minute signings managers leaving - players leaving. The only common denominator in all this is yours truly.

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ElGreco2 added 21:00 - Jun 20 Koeman is bound to know targets that he identified, therefore he's more than likely to still fancy them if he thinks they'll fit. Or, do you honestly think other people decided who to buy? Let's see who Everton go for before we draw any conclusions as to who they have in mind. We do know that Koeman has given Bill Kenwright a list of players he wants and one bid has been made and knocked back. "Big rebuilding job", that was good one, laughed me cock off at that one.

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