Saints Transfer Window - An Overview Tuesday, 3rd Feb 2015 09:44 Here we take a look at just how successful the transfer window has been for Saints and what it will have done for the squad. The final days of the transfer window turned out to be mixed for Saints, however overall Ronald Koeman will be fairly happy with the strength of his squad. The window opened with Saints being the centre of much speculation, there barely seemed a day when Morgan Schneiderlin wasn't linked with a move to one North London club or another and then suddenly nathaniel Clyne was going to be the subject of a bid from Manchester United not to mention Manchester City's interest in Jay Rodriguez, if a Saints fan believed what the media were saying then we were in for another January meltdown to go along with our predicted one back in the summer. In the meantime Koeman did his business early and in came Eljero Elia on loan quietly, but he soon made his mark and once again Koeman seems to have made a shrewd signing with the deal done the moment the window opened. Then it was a period of inactivity for Saints, at least from the outside, but behind the scenes Saints were working hard at securing the targets that they wanted, rather than throwing money in a panic. In the final week it hotted up and initially it wasn't great news with Jack Cork shipped out to Swansea for around £3 million rather than lose him in the summer, the reality is that with everyone fit we have plenty of cover in the midfield even with Cork leaving and the return of Wanyama and Schneiderlin from injury will relieve the temporary problem we have. Also in was the unpromnouncable Filip Djuricic who joined his Serbian team mate Dusan Tadic, like most signings Djuricic is versatile being able to operate as a forward, an attacking midfielder or a winger and again like most Koeman signings he has a hunger to succeed, our manager seems to have a knack of picking up players who have a reputation to make rather than one to break and as we have seen that works well. There were of course those that got away, with Cork wanting to go Koeman went for Tonny Vilhena from his old club Feyenoord, a regular under the Saints boss when he was at the Rotterdam club, Vilhena now finds himself on the bench most weeks, the player was receptive to the move but Feyenoord felt they would be too short of cover to let him go, however i don't think we have heard the last of his name. Also mentioned in despatches were Jordie Clasie from Feyenoord again and i think although Koeman would loved to have got him now, this will be another target in the summer. As could be Danny Ings, this became a big rumour yesterday morning, but ultimately it was never going to happen, Burnley need him to have any chance of staying up and the player himself knows that he will be a far more marketable commodity in the summer and be able to get far more money than now being a free agent. Final "Deal" of the day was the announcement that Ryan Bertrand has signed a permanent contract and he is now a Saints man through and through,this was announced on the stroke of 11pm as the window closed and I have the feeling that this one was tied up long before the deadline, but Saints have started to get PR savvy and know the benefits of ending the month on a positive note rather than the supporters feeling deflated. So where does the squad stand with the window ? Ultimately it is stronger, Elia has already added something to the attacking options in his few weeks here and hopefully Djuricic will do the same, not to mention the return of Jay Rodriguez at some stage. The only downside is the loss of Jack Cork, whilst as mentioned earlier in midfield we can now cover that loss, Cork was also versatile and if we have a weakness it is we have no real cover for Nathaniel Clyne at right back and Cork did offer us that option. But overall Ronald Koeman will be satisfied, of course we could always have done with an extra player or two but we seem to have come out of it better than most of our rivals in the top 7. Arsenal made twwo signings a 17 year old from Legia Warsaw and Gabriel a central defender from Villareal, Manchester United made no major signings onlt Valdes as back up to De Gea and a couple of youngsters for the future, Liverpool signed no one at all and Spurs only Delle Alli from MK Dons who was promptly loaned back for the rest of the season and West Ham a relatively untried Canadian central defender from Cypriot side Appolion Limassol . If we balance our transfer window against these teams then I would conclude we have had a far better window and therefore should be stronger for the second half of the season. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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