Southampton Looking To Get Players In And Out Before Season Starts

Adam Blackmore as Head of BBC Sport for Radio Solent for the past decade or so is perhaps the closest journalist to Southampton FC and he has been talking about the club's transfer dealings this week.

If you want to know what is going on at a football club, then in this day of multi media outlets that are more concerned with page hits, when the local journalists who cover the club day in day out speak, you can assume that it has a little bit more substance.

Adam Blackmore of BBC Radio Radio Solent has been talking this week on BBC Sounds about Saints plans for the transfer window.

Interestingly he suggests that the club are hoping to get at least two players through the door, but also at least three out.

Blackmore had this to say:

"There's lots to be done and I don't know if it will go down to the wire. But I do know they want to get a couple of things done in the next week and we'll see what happens, but just moving a few on would help because it will give the Saints more strength and money. Simple as that.

"They're not going to spend endlessly, they need a budget. If you can get Onuachu and Bella-Kotchap and Alcaraz out in the next week or two then great, you can attack the transfer window a bit better.

"If you can get O'Riley done , but is the Brighton thing a distraction to put pressure on Saints to go Celtic's way? We'll see.

"Carvalho is an interesting one, I think he'd like to play for Russell Martin. One or the other is not bad, but both would be great."

Of course this is just Adam Blackmore's opinion, but you would hope that it would be a bit more informed than most, given his everyday connection with the club.

But it does show that Saints have a strategy for this window, although with the sheer number of players being linked, it is hard to see which of them is a genuine target and which is a stalking horse.

Interestingly Blackmore intimates that Brighton's interest in Matt O'Riley may not be as concrete as some media outlets would have you believe, in this case you would think he would have been speaking to his colleagues at the BBC down in Sussex who cover the Seagulls and perhaps got an inkling of their take on it.

So this could be an interesting week or two and indeed a crucial one if we are to get off to a good start in the coming season, it seems Saints have the funds to do what they want to do, but if they are to really strengthen in all areas, then they need to get a few off the books as well.

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