Nigel Adkins has hinted that he would prefer to have had more new signings in place at this time, however in the grand sceme of things we are still on target.

Of course any manager would want to have his summer signings done and dusted early so he can assimilate them into the squad in its pre season training camp, but the truth is that this rarely happens, in a normal close season little business is done till the month before the season, footballers and managers etc only have a short break when they can go off and holiday and spent time with their families etc, so certain select deals aside, football takes its holiday from the end of the season until July and then it starts in earnest.

This summer has been further distorted by the last season finishing earlier to accomodate the Euros, followed by the next one starting late to firt in the Olympics, add to that, Saints went back to training earlier than most clubs due to wishing to fit in the memorial cup alongside the Olympic Torch.

It would have been nice to take half a dozen new players to the training camp, but in the bigger picture it isnt going to make much difference.

Perhaps the thing that has worried many fans is that of the three signings we have been trying to make and agreed deals on, only one has happened cleanly, Steven Davis although in all intents and purposes now a Saints still has the cloud of the issues involving Rangers hanging over him and until FIFA have made their ruling nothing is certain, likewise Alexander Buttner, on this one Saints are the innocent party, but the result is that whoever is to blame, a player who was identified as a cog in the wheel, is not at the club and his arrival is in doubt.

But there is still nearly five weeks to go before the big kick off and thats plenty of time to sign up the calibre of player we need in the key areas, effectively the football store has only been open for business for a week, the targets will have been identified a long time ago, but the tills are only just opening, as it stands Saints pre season so far has not been ideal, but thats mainly due to the issues with Davis and Buttner, if both of those were now signed  sealed and delivered beyong any speculation, then we would be right bang on course, they arent but that doesnt mean that everything is chaos, we just need to secure the services of a right back, alledgedly well advanced with Clyne of Crystal Palace and then a class central defender, top that off with a goalkeeper and the completion of Davis and Buttner and things will be bang on target for the final fine tuning of the squad.

So no need to worry yet, ideally we would have everythjing in place with a fortnight to go before the new season, giving our new men plenty of time to fit in with the squad and that date is still nearly three weks away.   

Photo: Action Images

patred added 11:24 - Jul 17 given that the Buttner drama was unforeseen, we are notoriously difficult to deal with. In fact several sources claim as soon as clubs or agents hear that Southampton are on the phone, hearts miss a beat and suddenly the recipients of the calls are unavailable...
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tiptop added 11:27 - Jul 17 Saints move with stealth in the market to try (it seems) to get things tied up quietly as not to attract attention to our potential signings. When the cover is blown like with Buttner I get nervous because other prem clubs could gazump our bid. Saying that this transfer sounds more complicated than ever. Remaining positive!
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SonicBoom added 11:35 - Jul 17 I would rather we were difficult to deal with. Better than clubs or agents turning cartwheels as soon as they know we are on the phone. Anyway, if we really want someone then I believe we will get the deal done.
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Saintpaul120 added 12:22 - Jul 17 My worry with this is with NC's past history in the transfer market. I remember reading a Tweet where a football agent said that Saints were 'difficult to deal with'. Along with NC's 'negotiating skills' perhaps we are being difficult to deal with. Perhaps agents do hide away when they know we're sniffing around. Perhaps potential targets are warned off because of wages structure. We're new in this market; NA has little experience at PL level. Past examples, Gorks, show we can be difficult and perhaps even pedantic and maybe, just maybe, this is why we appear to be missing out on, publicly rumoured anyway, targets. If you look at the GK's who we3re available, now most of them have moved, signed contracts. It's a difficult one but my confidence in getting top class players is waning. Nice article though Nick.

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darkangelv2 added 12:34 - Jul 17 Agreed - no worries yet. SaintPaul - For 'Difficult to deal with' read 'Won't bend over and take the standard agent Bull 5hit'. Cortese will drive a hard bargain - i don't mind if we ruffle the feathers of a greasy agent on the way. Besides, they get it easy compared to the building firm trying to build the new training ground lol! Goal keeper might end up being a bit of a 'panic purchase' however.

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patred added 12:38 - Jul 17 no, read "rude and arrogant"
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NPsaint1 added 12:43 - Jul 17 There is still enough time to get some decent signings made. The issue might be having time to get them integrated into the team so that they can be effective right from the get go. It's all things relative though, we wont be the only team with some green (to their respective clubs) players, so hopefully there will be some normalisation to soften any issues.
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SingaporeSaint added 15:59 - Jul 17 I'm not panicking but I'm not overly impressed either.. I dont think the lack of signings and the quite extraordinary comments of challenging for the title which are in the press, are a good combination. I think they show a lot of naivety. The press will be desperate to throw such comments back at us, which will damage our PR. We have an extremely tough start to the season and we would want new signings to be in place by now or in the next week to prepare for these games.. I am also slightly concerned with the players rumoured appear to be almost all highly rated very young players, of which hardly any have played at the top level, to go with our existing side which has not played at the top level either. It almost feels like a development squad for the future, than one to compete with Man City in a month's time... We need enough capable premiership hardened men for next season to make sure we are still in the league at the end of it..

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1teeminants added 16:23 - Jul 17 We havent done a great deal yet but then not many clubs have and im sure these on going deals will come off ,not sure about Buttner though. I will say this again though some of the youngsters we have are VERY CAPABLE of playing in the premiership IMO .im not talking about starting them from the off but players like Luke Shaw and Jack Stephens will play and play a big part this season so in effect its like having 5 new signings. Anyone who saw our kids on saturday cannot fail to be impressed.

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ThereIn76 added 16:47 - Jul 17 If Nige doesn't sign a new keeper soon, he'll be the understudy to Kelv!
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patred added 18:05 - Jul 17 "I will say this again though some of the youngsters we have are VERY CAPABLE of playing in the premiership" I remember our two dutchmen relying on our youngsters that was embarrassing! we may well think we have the best academy in the world, but that don't win you anything, nor save you from relegation..
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vectis added 07:52 - Jul 18 Let's face it, if we don't get another keeper in and a couple of Centre halves and full backs we WILL be relegated. Seems to me, whether or not NC is "awkward" to deal with or otherwise, it might be that we simply are very fussy about who we sign. So it's not just singing a player who is good enough and plays in the right position - he has to be the right quality, the right age, available at the right fee and willing to buy into the "southampton way" for probably a third of the salary he might receive elsewhere. Add to that the fact that we're newly promoted, favourites for the drop, likely to be fighting relegation for the whole season with no big names and an unknown Manager and that's a lot of caveats for consideration. It's good that we are being picky...but if we end up missing out on targets and panic buying on the last day then serious questions will have to be asked of strategy. That's my opinion anyway. I am still hopeful that some new signings will be in place by next week though. Let's see.

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sidsaint added 10:07 - Jul 18 Agree with vectis 100%. We know what we need, we're buying a player not his agent lets not cut off our nose to spite our face. Having said that we have some good youngsters and we are buying youth however a couple of wise heads with premiership experience would not go amiss to help the cause. Other clubs have got ahead of us in this area as there were some good experienced players around at the end of last season that have been snapped up or linked to the type of clubs that will be around us in the league. Lets make sure that we build on all that we have achieved in the last 2 years.

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Whatsforpud added 11:21 - Jul 18 I would mind betting that most 'lower ranked' Premier clubs (and others) are having these sorts of discussions right now. We won't be the only ones with recruitment problems. Image whats it's like down the road! Like to see a young up-and-coming keeper come in to understudy, and eventually takeover, from Davis. The other day Forecast looked like Bart mark 2.
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1teeminants added 22:23 - Jul 18 Patred ...since Adkins and cortese came in we have signed Cork, Fox ,Hoovield, Sharp, Rodriguez, Clyne, De Ridder, Lee, Steve Davis and we Are after another keeper and cenre halfs which everyone knows... now out of those signings which have played which ones havent come off ?? De Ridder perhaps?? alll the others have proved very good signings All these are young hungry players with immense talent.Why do you always slag Cortese off ? if it wasnt for him youd be watching blue square football . As for our youngsters you probably along with thousands of others werent there the other day .Comparing Adkins and Cortese's policy to those two dutch clowns is laughable. Ask city, liverpool, arsenal etc what they think about Luke Shaw. You cannot compare our youngsters today with what we had when poortvliet was here.

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