With only 12 days to go before the start of the season have Saints made enough signings or have they repeated the mistakes of the past.

A look at our transfer business of summer 2012 shows that we made some crucial signings early on in the window followed by weeks of inactivity before a rush of signings in the last hours before deadline day, in hindsight it can be said that the early arrivals were the most successful of the new players, whilst those who came in the last few days had varying degrees of success with none really being described as value for money or stand out.

Therefore at time of writing the words Deja Vu are springing to mind, it seems as if history is repeating itself, like a year ago we are linked with some big money moves, but again we don't seem to be able to persuade any of our targets to actually sign on the dotted line.

Perhaps the problem is that with aspirations of challenging for the Champions League we seem to be chasing that standard of player, this is great and shows ambition, but does it show reality, to be blunt our targets want European football, Europa League participation at a minimum and not only are they not going to get that in the coming year with Saints, on paper at least Saints are as far away from getting it as any club in the bottom half of the table last year, therefore players aren't going to say no to us, their agents will say the right words etc, but they are going to use us for leverage to try and get a deal at a club who is genuinely chasing not just Europe but honours as well, fine words are just that and in fairness as Fulham's new owner recently showed, there are plenty of Premier clubs outside of the top 7 talking about the next level, why should a potential recruit believe that we have the monopoly on that any more than half a dozen other clubs.

Put simply we are reaching for the moon and struggling to get the clouds let alone the stars, all that happens is that we end up with someone like Ramirez at over inflated prices and wages, basically all that is left over at the end of the window, don't get me wrong Ramirez is a good player, but he wasn't worth £12 million or so nor his big salary.

So far this season we have made only two signings, Lovren is definitely a player in an area that we need, however so was Forren, hopefully the Croatian will be the real deal unlike the Norwegian who quite clearly wasn't up to the standard that we needed, our second signing Wanyama is expensive but relatively unproven given he has just spent a year in the most one sided league in Europe, not only that but he is in a position that to be frank should not have been a priority In strengthening, Im sure he will do well, but at the expense of which other area of the field.

So as we stand we head towards the season having made little improvement to our squad when compared to most of our rivals who were around us last season, lets not forget that we finished only four places above relegation last season and five points, that's a fine margin with not a lot of room for error.

So whilst we have chased big names and indeed spent big, the money has been splashed on only two players, one of whom it could be argued wasn't really necessary, but look at the likes of Norwich, Aston Villa, Swansea, all teams who harbour the same aspirations as Saints next season, they have spent wisely and in key areas, they have improved in more than one area, we it could be said have not.

So the answer to the question posed in the headline is that No ! so far we have not used the transfer window well, but there is still time, the clubs who survive in the Premier League (and believe me when the season kicks off probably only 6 clubs are certain of not being relegated) are those that strengthen by having a strong scouting network and using that properly, buying in good players cheaply, perhaps selling them on at inflated prices and continually repeating the process, those that spend over the odds usually end up struggling.

As I said there is still time, but its now of the essence, we need to make at least one key signing before the transfer window ends and preferably before the season as every point will count, if we do that I feel that although we wont be chasing European qualification as has been mooted, we are good enough to repeat a lower mid table position as we did last year, but lets remember, you cant stand stillin the Premier league as Newcastle found out after an exceptional year in 11/12 and nearly being relegated last term.

Photo: Action Images

davidhosey added 11:15 - Aug 5 The way I look at it Nick we needed to improve 3 areas (after all we scored lots of goals last season)..1)Better start to the season- harder pre-season and fitter players, 2) Better finish to the season, as our high pressing style clearly took it out of Morgan and Cork..Wanyama should give us more energy and cover in the middle of the park to achieve this and 3) improved central defense..Lovren should achieve this. I would love to see a top class striker but I feel the signings have been very shrewd.

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slynch added 11:17 - Aug 5 Didn't Wanyama leave European football to join Saints?
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Iceberg added 11:32 - Aug 5 You need to remember that the signings we have made have all been younguns with their careers in front of them. One decent striker and we are done. I believe we have more than enough talent and squad depth to be able to hold our own in the middle of the table this season. As far as I am concerned European football is a pipe dream and will remain so for a long, long time.

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stmichael added 11:34 - Aug 5 Do we have good cover for every position? The answer is probably yes. have we strengthened the weekest area which was probably centre backs? The answer is yes. Have we lost anybody (namely Shaw). No Do we still have the resources to strengthen further? probably yes. We were a top 10 side anyway from xmas on so with the improvements we can a good crack at the top 8. That and a cup run would be great. The rest can come later , Rome wasnt built in a day.

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stmichael added 11:34 - Aug 5 Do we have good cover for every position? The answer is probably yes. have we strengthened the weekest area which was probably centre backs? The answer is yes. Have we lost anybody (namely Shaw). No Do we still have the resources to strengthen further? probably yes. We were a top 10 side anyway from xmas on so with the improvements we can a good crack at the top 8. That and a cup run would be great. The rest can come later , Rome wasnt built in a day.

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 11:38 - Aug 5 Wanyama wanted to play in the Premiership and we were lucky that the likes of Arsenal didn't come in for him cos he's just the type of player they need in their midfield. I think this time next year, after Wanyama has proved himself, there will be a lot of big clubs coming in for him. We've missed out on a few players this summer by aiming too high with some of our targets. We aimed high with Lovren and Wanyama and got them so that's great but I think we are still a couple of signings short of being an established top half side. The one that's really annoyed me so far is Steven Caulker going to Cardiff. Why the hell did Saints not go for this player? He's one of the best young English centre backs around and he'd have def gone to Saints instead of Cardiff. We missed out there cos at the moment we'll have the unreliable Yoshida still playing and he could be a weak link. And by aiming for Damiao and Osvaldo we've missed out on Bony, Hooper, Van Wolfswinkel, even Remy will score goals at Newcastle next season. Beyond Lambert its hard to see where our goals are going to come from on a regular basis.

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brady100 added 11:46 - Aug 5 Nick makes some valid points, ever the optimist I am confident our squad will benefit greatly from a year in the premiership. However in my opinion we desperately need to sign a striker and possibly a more direct, quick winger before the season begins. Pre season has already clearly highlighted our shortcomings, turning dominance and possession into goals/ results. The Celta Vigo game was a prime example of this. In Lallana, Ramirez and to an extent Punch, we have three skilful players, though are often wasteful or make poor decisions in the final third. Much has been made this summer of Saints chasing unrealistic transfer targets, while we watch our rivals pick up the players we SHOULD be in the market for. An example of this would be Loic Remy, a French international who would be available for between 8-10 million (well below what it is reported we are willing to pay for Osvaldo or Damiao). Again Saints seem to have ignored an excellent signing such as this and Remy now looks to be heading to one of our closest rivals, Newcastle. Having said that Gervinho's move to Roma could prove the catalyst for Osvaldo’s exit.... watch this space!!

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sidsaint added 12:49 - Aug 5 About 50%. 2 good signings but the other 2 we were linked with, Banega and Damiao ,would have made it perfect. A number of other clubs are buying strikers at a rate of knots and I feel we are short of proven goal scorers
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brady100 added 16:38 - Aug 5 Also...... why we arent competing to sign Toby Alderweireld from Ajax is a mystery to be. He's a ball playing CB, strong in the air and can competently play RB. No brainer for me.
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Whatsforpud added 17:03 - Aug 5 We started last season scoring freely, but conceding even more. When we later tightened up the defence, our goalscoring dried up. Have we now got what it takes to score , but not concede? No one knows, but I believe in evolution not revolution. The amount of money spent is no indication of potential success. The arrival of Wanyama means that we seem to be overloaded in midfield. Will Davis and Ward-Prowse find themselves further down the pecking order. That would be a shame for the latter, as I believe Cortese is keen on bringing on local talent.

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thegeneral added 19:17 - Aug 5 I don't think we're doing too badly. I think Jay Rod could well become the star man at St Mary's, Gaston i think will be a far better player with a season under his belt, Shaw has grown in confidence and experience, spiderman is one of the best midfielders in the league. Boruc got better and better as fitness improved, Cork was superb in every game, Yoshida established himself and Punch i thought had an excellent season. We struggled last season more against teams that came to ours and stuck ten men behind the ball, Lovren reportedly is an excellent passer of the ball which can turn defence into attack in a heartbeat and wanyama can do the same, this should make a big difference. Our central defence could still be a bit dicey, i don't think Hooiveld or Fonte are good enough for this league and Yoshi needs to improve his concentration but there's a lot of teams in the premiership that lack talent in this area.

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ExiledSupporter added 21:22 - Aug 5 I very largely agree with Nick. As has been the case for some time our aspirations towards the summit of the Premier league are unrealistic without spending megabucks which is just nonsense. Worse still our strategy for recruitment is a shambles and lacks focus, consistency, quality of judgement and any concept of value for money. As a result we have accumulated a mix of misfits, depressingly average last minute signings and one or two better prospects and blown vast amounts of cash. Regretably I do not have remotely the same confidence in this season's signings; I had no impression that we had to outbid a host of clubs for Lovren (who according to reports...I haven't seen him play yet...hasn't exactly made a major impression) and Wanyama ( only Cardiff interested at that price) who arguably is supposedly filling a role that was hardly a priority. I find it very difficult to reconcile the sacking of Adkins as so necessarily vital and urgent with the completely different 'set of rules, that apply to Reed. Can anyone else make sense of this apparently contradictory standards?

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sydney_saint added 21:54 - Aug 8 So far.
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