Saints have already brought in six players this summer, but there is still room in the squad for two more, Ralph Hasenhuttl has intimated that he will bring in another striker, but I would say that is not a priority it is still central defence.
Most Saints fans would say that signing another striker is a priority, but personally I don't think that is the case, with the arrival of Sékou Mara we find ourselves almost exactly as we were at the start of last season, we have two strikers in Che Adams & Adam Armstrong, plus a 20 year old striker with experience in a continental league but not in the Premier League, I said almost, a year ago we still had the back up of Shane long.
So ultimately to match last season we need Mara to get six Premier League goals, if he does that and the other two match their totals then we are maintaining the status quo.
But last season brought us goals from other areas and this season we perhaps have a better chance of that with Joe Aribo able to play in an attacking role.
Before anyone gets on their high horse, yes i would like to see another striker arrive and I believe that one will, but scoring goals was not our main issue last term, that was about conceding them.
In 2021/22 we scored 43 goals, that put us 13th in the Premier League top scoring list, but in the goals conceded column we were 17th with only Norwich, Watford & Leeds conceding more, two of whom were relegated.
Brighton who finished 9th scored 42 goals, that's one less than us, but they only conceded 44, that is a whopping 23 goals less than us and there is the issue.
Likewise Wolves in 10th place, they scored only 38 goals but let in only 43.
If we are to progress this season we have to do a lot more work in stopping goals going in than we do in scoring them.
Signing another forward could net us another 8-10 goals, but truthfully we need to bring in a defender who will shore up the defence and save us 12 goals, even that small difference would make a hell of a difference in our League position.
All the best Saints sides I have watched over the years have been built from the centre of defence, whether that was in 1983/84 and the Mark Wright era, 1990 with Neil Ruddock, the late 1990/00's with Claus Lundekvam or indeed 2013-17 when we had Jose Fonte anchoring the team with a succession of quality partners.
The most attractive years to watch the team were the Keegan era of 1980-82, but in those two seasons we were second top scorers in the first season and 3rd in the second, but we couldn't get above 6th, why ? because we shipped goals, 10th best defence in the first season and in the second although we were 3rd top scorers and finished 6th in the League only one team conceded more than us.
So the message is if you build a tight defence it makes it a lot easier in the other parts of the pitch, let in soft goals and you put pressure on your team, don't concede them and the pressure is on the opposition.
So if we are to kick on this term, if we only sign one more player it should not be a striker it should be a central defender and not another 19/20 year old protégé, but one that has been there and done it.
A leader and organiser with experience is what we want to see on their CV.
This will sound familiar, I have been saying it since February 2017 when Jose Fonte's departure and Van Dijk's injury cost us the League cup final, don't believe me watch the video of the three goals we conceded in the final and then point out where the marking and organisation was.
Since then we have had a little excuse for much of that, poor signings taking up wages and space aligned with the situation between China & the West meant there was little money to deal with the problem.
But that is not the case now.
It doesn't even need to be a major signing, there are players available now as free agents that could do a job, Ben Mee was one who we missed out on, but we do need someone with experience.
So there are no excuses now, if we want the likes of Mohammed Salisu and Bella- Kotchap to achieve their undoubted potential they need a mentor, they need a leader alongside them and they need someone who with years of experience behind them can read the game and organise them.
Jan Bednarek is not that man and I expect him to leave this summer, his body language in the pre season friendlies has not been good, he is however a good player, but he is not a leader of men.
Saints have a clear strategy now, but you have to have variety in the side, you stick a class of 19 year olds in a classroom at university you don't give them a few books and tell them to get on with it, you put a teacher in the room alongside it and the situation in the Saints team is no different.
All of those central defenders we have had over the last 40 years such as Mark Wright, Neil Ruddock, Dejan Lovren, Toby Alderweireld, Virgil Van Dijk etc all had two things in common, firstly they had the natural talent, secondly they had a mentor alongside them, someone who at that time was not as good as them anymore but who talked them through games and took them to the next level and the platform for better things.
I can't emphasise this enough , the issue last season was not scoring goals, although of course a few more would have been nice, but it was conceding them and literally every one of those goals conceded could have and should have been prevented.
So the next signing for Saints will be crucial, but I would be more pleased to see a good experienced central defender, looking back at last season, with a little more organisation we could easily have conceded 20 goals less, we won't sign a striker who will get us 20 goals more.