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Where Do Saints Need To Strengthen ?

There is much speculation linking Saints with just about every player on the Continent, but just where do Saints really need to strengthen their squad.

Saints had their strongest ever squad last season, a situation that was built on careful selling and buying of players over the last two seasons to take the squad from a position of being 13/14 genuine first team contenders plus the rest of the squad being kids or make weights under Mauricio Pochettino to 19/20 truly Premier quality players last season.

But the squad will continue to revolve and in doing so evolve and with the money brought In so far this summer it gives new manager Claude Puel the opportunity to further strengthen his squad to compete in Europe.

But where does it need to be improved ?

The first place is in the centre of defence, last season Saints got lucky in that both Virgil Van Dyke and José Fonte where virtually ever present, but after them that position is weak, Yoshida is not up to the task and Florin Gardos has not played a first team game for 18 months, mostly through injury, but there are questions as to whether he is good enough.

There is also the question of how long José Fonte can keep going, I said a year ago his days might be numbered, but he proved me wrong and once partnered with VVD put in another great season.

But he cannot go on forever and we have to look to bring in a central defender not only in the long run to replace Fonte but also to give us cover.

Second area is whether we need another holding midfielder to replace Wanyama, Saints have plenty of options in the centre, but perhaps lack a true enforcer in the mould of the Kenyan, so this is a second area that we can improve.

With Sadie Mane gone we also need to improve our attacking options and there is also the uncertainty about Pelle's future.

If the Italian does go then we still have Austin, Long, Rodriguez & new signing Nathan Redmond, that is a good base to start with and one that most Premier clubs who finished beneath us would love to have, however it can be improved.

If Pelle, stays then we perhaps need one more option, if he does go then we need another central striker as Austin won't play every game and then perhaps another forward to play off him, last year we hoped Juanmi was that man but it was not the case.

We also need a back up keeper, I would hope that the plan would be to get Gazzaniga out on loan for some confidence and experience and we need to get a decent back up in, perhaps a mid 30's Premier experienced keeper happy to play the role as second choice.

So the reality is that as it stands, Saints need to bring in at least another three players, four if Pelle leaves, however with money in the bank from transfers and perhaps a bit more from the proceeds of last season, we should have enough to bring in players of the quality we need to have a good season on all four fronts.

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