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Let The Silly Season Begin

The football season is over so let the silly season begin, lasting a little bit shorter than the Cricket Season but a lot longer than Scotland at a major tournament, there will be plenty of twists and turns in the next few months.

Saints supporters have to batten down the hatches and keep their nerves as rumour followed by counter rumour is going to hit the press before a lull when Roy bans the agents from the World Cup.

But some good has come out of this mayhem, employment figures on Merseyside have dropped dramatically as Estate Agents have been forced to take on hundreds on extra staff to cope with the influx of soon to be Ex Saints players who are already spending their time viewing properties in the area.

Likewise in North London where French & Spanish speaking Estate agents can name their own salary and up in Cheshire they are offering free play stations with every property bought in Alderney Edge, competition is sure to be fierce.

But on a serious note the next few weeks are going to be full of rumour, the fact is that historically very little business is ever done early in the transfer window, the selling clubs are keen to get a dutch auction going and the buying clubs look to knock them down in price.

It doesn't help that players also head straight off on holiday as do managers, of course there are some deals done, but the reality is that after a hard season which for a player has lasted from the end of June to mid May, their first priority is to head off to the beach.

This year there is a World Cup so I would think little business will be done till after that finishes, that actually helps Saints as with Roy Hodgson stating he does not want his plans disrupted by transfer dealings, I would hazard a guess that our stars will still be Saints players when the fun starts in Brazil.

That won't stop clubs making tentative bids, but Saints will know they hold the strongest hand, players on long term contracts who are in demand, there is no need to sell early, keep pushing the price up.

But that won't stop the press, they will be in full frenzy mode, until the World Cup starts they will have little concrete to print so will have to sometimes run with the most innocuos rumour with some papers being more culpable than others, to give you an idea of the tabloid press, on Budget Day which saw some of the biggest reforms in Pension regulation in the last century most of the more serious papers carried headlines about this, The Sun though announced that Bingo Tax had been reduced on its front page, that perhaps tells you that the tabloids know their market and what sells papers and it is not headlines about how Luke Shaw will not make his mind up till he returns from the World Cup.

So enjoy silly season, its all good fun and remember, at best we could hang on to all our players, at worst we could have a massive transfer kitty that would if spent well improve the squad and allow us to keep progressing, some think that progress is only made by not being a selling club, that is far from the truth, ask Liverpool the foundations of this season were built when they sold Fernando Torres for £45 million and bought Luis Suarez for £17 million.

We should not fear the future, but embrace it

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