With the rumour mill hotting up that saints are preparing a bid for Blackburn defender Scott Dann, it seems that it might cost somewhere north of £6 million to land him.
With so many Dan's already in the squad, Fox, Harding, Seaborne & Butterfield to name but four, perhaps its no surprise that we are in the market for a player with the surname Dann, but the fact of the matter is that in this case its not going to come cheap, in fact to tempt Blackburn we are going to have to pay more than we forked out in total for all our other Dan's.
£6 million is the figure quoted in this mornings papers, is that realistic ? well given that Dann signed for Birmingham three years ago for a fee purported to be £3.5 million + .5 million add ons three years ago without having played in the Premier and that Rovers themselves signed him last year for a figure quoted to be that very £6 million, I think its fair to say that they are going to want to try and recoup their money back or at least very near it.
Blackburn like most clubs relegated from the Premier will have to be watching the purse strings and Dann is sure to be a big earner on their books, one which they might feel they need to get off them to reduce costs.
After moving to Ewood Park last season Dann was a virtual ever present in the side, a ruptured testicle keeping him out for a month over Xmas being his only absence, there are some who might question signing a player who has been relegated from the Premier two seasons in a row, but the fact is that this cant be attributed to Dann on his own, Blackburn of course were a deflated team with internal wranglings and protests against their manager from the very start of the season, they were dragged down by the situation which in turn dragged down the players with it.
At Birmingham the previous season you could say that Dann had a direct influence on their relegation, with Birmingham sitting safely in mid table, he was injured in the January and didnt play again for the rest of the season, although initially Brum stayed in mid table and even won the Carling Cup, Dann was not part of that due to injury and so could only watch as the Blues suffered a complete collapse at the end of the season and a relegation that had looked totally unlikely up until the final few games.
But is he worth six million ? well Birmingham certainly thought he was worth £4 million three years ago before he kicked a ball in the Premier, Blackburn thought he was a year ago and now with three years experience in the Premier behind him they would say that he most certainly is, but will Saints pay that ?
They most certainly will, for the right player at the right price, the question now is how many other irons in the fire do Saints have, certainly our last two forays into the transfer market for a central defender have ended in controversy, Elliot Ward & Kaspar Gorkss both having agreed terms and been kicked into touch as they were about to sign the contracts in January 2010 & August 2011 respectively, both found their deals gazumped as Saints went for another target for some reason and this could be a similar situation for Dann, will Saints feel that Dann is there number one target or will haggling over the price and trying to knock down Blackburn cost them the player ?
This isnt just a Saints thing though, it happens at many clubs, the fine line has to be walked between not paying over the odds and not trying to get the price down so much that you lose your man.
But Saints cannot afford to wait around for too long on this one, they need to be up and running from day one in the Premier, there is no room for error when you are playing for big stakes, the season is now a little over three weeks away, if they are to give the player time to settle and merge with the squad, they need to have made the signing in the next 10 days, what is often overlooked in football is the upheaval a player may go through when joining a club, if Dann or any player joins on the eve of the season, juggling all that entails alongside looking for somewhere to live and if he has children perhaps find a school for them etc, all of these things effect a player being totally focused on what he is being paid to do.