With less than a wekk to go in the transfer window, Saints fans are a little worried about the lack of arrivals.
When Nigel Adkins was sacked, his ability to take the club on to the next stage was stated as the reason why he was removed now, well at this moment in time the issue isnt the next stage, but cementing the foundations in this one, whilst it may turn out to be true that MoPO is able to get more out of the squad than his predecessor, it is also the case that there is only so much that he can get, if he doesnt have the right players in the right positions to work with then he is going to do no better.
Last summer we were linked with many players and Nigel Adkins said from virtually the last kick of last season where he needed to strengthen, he didnt receiv that backing and instead found a system imposed on him in which he did not have the players to play it, instead of the rock solid foundations in the centre of defence and in goal, he got some high profile players like Jay Rodriguez who was almost redundant before he started with only one position to fill up front, likewise Mayuka.
In midfield he got the mercurial talents of Ramirez, but it could be said he already had Lallana who in the Premier division is best suited to that hole behind the central striker, now just when we need to plug the gaps we failed to in the summer we once again seem to be trying to build the walls before we have built the foundations and if you do that in a house we all know what will happen.
t this stage I feel that had we say spent £12 million on a Premier proven central defender, goalkeeper and winger, then we would be in a lot better psotion than we are now and could be looking for the marque signings.
Instead we seem to be repeating the same mistakes as the summer, Forren looks promising, but at this stage we do not know if he is up to the Premier division or not, Liverpool certainly werent sure about him after extensive scouting and stepped out of the picture when Saints came in without too much protest, I hope Forren turns out to be a great signing, but to be honest his record is no better than Hooiveld at the moment.
This being the case in this window I hoped that we would go for realistic signings with the experience in this division, the likes of Scott Dann, Paul Robinson or even consider a loan signing from another Premier club like Marin at Chelsea, players with a true pedigree. instead we bid for a 20 year old inexperienced Brazillian playmaker, yes he might be one for the future, but he isnt what we need at the moment and what part of the queue will he be in for a place behind Ramirez and Lallana.
This next week is vital for Saints not just on the pitch where two defeats could send us tumbling back into the bottom three, but in the transfer window, make the right signings to keep us up first, dont gamble by leaving us short in key areas as we found at the start of the season.
Saints are moving in the right directions, but many clubs have thought they were and suddenly found themselves in trouble as Birmingham City did a couple of years back when in mid February all lookedrosy and they were in mid table with 30 points from 25 games, come the last day of the season they were relegated with 39 points, securing only 9 from their final 13 games, a classic case of a club that took their eyes off the ball and what was needed.