It has been stated that all of the funds generated by incoming transfers will be reinvested back in the squad, but can Ronald Koeman actually manage to spend all of it ?

Saints have raked in around £90 million pounds from the sale of various players and compensation from the departure of Pochettino to Spurs after taking into account dropping Bournemouth a few bob etc, so far they have spent around £18 million of it, meaning that still in the kitty is approximately £72 million pounds, although there will be some payment to Chelsea for the loan fee of Ryan Bertrand coming out of that.

That is a lot of money to spend in a short period of time and the problem is that there is a few people out there ready to start complaining if Koeman doesn't spend every last penny.

But will he be able to manage that ? given that as I write we could be bringing in two new signings from Inter Milan in return for loaning them Osvaldo, that would be starting to bring the squad up to something near full strength and then it might be a question of Koeman either spending money for the sake of it or saving in for a rainy day or a rainy January transfer window.

I would prefer the latter, if we make the key signings we need.

At the moment the Inter loan signings aside we are linked with Forster and Van Dijk from Celtic with a combined joint fee of around £18 million and Javier Hernandez from Manchester United for around £15 million, if we made those signings then we would still have around £40 million still in the transfer kitty.

A nice problem to have but if all of the above signings were made just where would we spend that £40 million, we would be pretty strong in all departments, perhaps we would still need a decent wide man and another central defender but that apart it would be hard to really improve the squad other than ironically jamming it too full with the need to perhaps sell someone on.

Perhaps be the time to bed in the squad and then to strengthen it further in January and indeed the summer window of 2015, I tend to look at the medium term rather than the short term and Im fiully prepared for Koeman to perhaps still have £15-£20 million in the kitty come the end of the transfer window and I would rather that then spend for the sake of spending, god knows we have seen enough of that over the past two years.

Rome wasn't build in a day is the old adage and that is the same for football clubs, it cannot be denied that their have been mistakes made since the departure of Cortese, but we cannot do anything about them now, all that matters is what we do next and we as supporters should not add to the weight on the shoulders of those in charge of the club both in the boardroom and on the bench by demanding that every penny is spent, that doesn't mean that we should have large amounts of cash left, I do think its important that we invest at least £40-50 million in the next few week, but if we make the right signing then having some left over would be a solid foundation for the future.

Photo: Action Images

Stephen added 09:35 - Aug 3 Are you sure they said 'invested in the squad' or was it simply 'invested'? I'm hoping it simply means invested and we can build our marketing and improve our stadium.
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SaintNick added 09:48 - Aug 3 I think they said all transfer money received will be re invested back into the squad, dont forget this doesnt include the £80 million or so we receive from the Premier league etc so that gives us money to invest in the infastructure
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bstokesaint added 09:57 - Aug 3 I'm happy with loan signings for now. It buys us a little time to get the permanent signings in. It's a good move in my opinion. The only thing worse than flogging all your players is 'doing a Spurs', ie spending a fantastic sum of money on a load of average players.
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saintandy11 added 10:09 - Aug 3 If we can get the 3 above mentioned players then plus 1 more good CB then i would be happy (maybe another RB to give Nathaniel some back-up or do we have another one on the production line?). Unlike some of the knee jerkers on here i don't think we are too far off last season and we don't want to end up like Spurs, spend millions on average players that nobody else wants and we can't shift. I would rather we don't splash it all now but keep most for January, let the boss see what we have and where we need to strengthen for a push up the league in the 2nd half of the season.

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1970 added 10:34 - Aug 3 I don't think we need to spend all the money just be smart, I agree with Redmond from Norwich but 18 mill for the Celtic pair no chance Mark Bunn was U21 international sat on the bench at Norwich he'd be a couple of mill tops, I'm not trying to scrimp on the fortune we have to spend but same value imo, Hernandez would be great but no chance i hope Ronko knows what he's doing cos some of the players were linked with I'm not sure about like Wickam, Bendnter,Zaha,Young,Campagna, Schelleto ,Frer, Rodwell,Forster to name but a few. Guidetti looks half decent so does the young CB at WBA Dawson he wouldn't cost the earth but not for this season but defo next, and Vlaar I would also love to see Carlos Vela and Ever Banega come in and sell Ramirez is Boruc staying any one know? See Lambert missed a pen 4 scousers priceless COYR.

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Rednose added 10:38 - Aug 3 I like the way RK appears to be doing things at the moment, quietly, conscientiously and professionally. Sorting the playing style and then identifying what positions we need cover, quality or both. In Blackadder styeley I'm sure this is all a cunning plan. I guess with bringing players in and retaining others the wage bill has also been increased, so that has to be paid for under the heading investing in the playing staff. So as long as the Saints continue to progress this season and we can strengthen when needed, I think there's no problem if not all the money doesn't find its way back into buying players. After all a lot of money has been pumped into the club over the last 5 years with little to no return to the investor (Liebherr's).

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eurosaint added 10:46 - Aug 3 It was something along the lines of: All money raised through the sales of players will be made available to the manager, to improve the squad. (Not a direct quote, but words to this effect). More recently Krueger said that could include using some to improve the wage budget etc, and could be used as Koeman saw fit as long as it was to improve the squad. Personally, I think we need 2 new CBs rather than 1. I felt we needed another before we let Lovren go, so still need 2 really. We could also do with another forward, quite prolific if possible. I don't necessarily think it has to be a striker, as it looks as if we'll play with wingers in (possibly) a 4-3-3 formation, but needs to be a proven goal scorer. I'd like to think that we don't spend too much of it yet. It would be nice to find that we have some available in January, if it's needed. Also, if we could manage to achieve a league position of 10th - 12th without spending all of it, that would be enough encouragement for better quality players to join us next summer at which point we'd also have a lot more cash available, but agents and chairmen will have forgotten our mass exodus so they won't try to screw us on purchase prices. We can forget about this years TV money and prize money as it's already been used to balance previous losses, the training ground upgrade and the installments owed on previous transfers.

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slynch added 12:15 - Aug 3 A mistake made last year was buying the Marque Signing, Osvaldo. Not because of his subsequent lunatic behaviour which was only partly predictable but because it used funds that could have been used to develop better fringe players. Football is a team game and a team game of about 20 squad players. Having marque players is like driving on very slick tyres but with no spare. Get a puncture like Saints did last Christmas and you're stuck waiting for the AA while the rest drive past you. The fair play rules make a big impact. I think the Lambert millions went into last year but the rest went into this year's. I think there is a couple of experts that contribute to this page that know the workings of that beast better than I. The "Fire Sale", or as I look at it a "Harvest", that occurred this year was more orchestrated than the press and most people think, allied to that was Saints' marque players and Liverpool and so on playing into the board's hands. The millions will be invested in players but it will not seem like all off it because he was talking about salaries and of course agent fees etc etc. I want to see some of it invested in 6k more seats to reap more money which will allow the club to grow and then do better in the future in the shadow of the Fair Play Rules.

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Zambucco added 13:03 - Aug 3 Virgil van Dijk, £8m? Javier Hernandez, £15m? Ron Vlaar £4m? Fraser Forster £10m? Jack Rodwell £8m? Rounded up £45m tops Then we can lose Schneiderlin and Rodriguez for £50m and they won't be missed Ship out Hooiveld and Yoshida too they wouldn't get a look in. Kitty £72m plus £50m £122m minus £45 Total £77m still in the bank! That's all we need to spend money on. Stop them at one end and somebody to put them away the other end. For me we then have a team to push for top 6. possibly higher The future is bright, the future is Red & White Stripes! COYR!

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Mahmoud added 13:45 - Aug 3 Lets be clear here: Southampton may have 60 million from TV rights and 100 or so million from players sales but not all of that is available for transfer fees. About 40-50 million is available for fees alone. Southampton have debts to pay and most transfers are NOT paid in one lump sum; they are paid in installments. Arsenal paid for Oxlade-Chamberlain over 5 years before the rules changed, limiting payments to 2 years. However, most importantly, money HAS to be allocated for wages. Player departures may have freed up wages but bringing in players is considerably more expensive. Example: Rojo signs for 16 million. His signing on fee and agents fees will increase that by 1-2 million. If his contract is 40k/week for 5 years, that is 10 million. Add on bonuses etc and the total deal is for 30 million. Southampton have to make sure that the money is there, otherwise you become Portsmouth. In simple terms,double the transfer fee and you wont be far wrong. So to take the example above: Virgil van Dijk, £8m? Javier Hernandez, £15m? Ron Vlaar £4m? Fraser Forster £10m? Jack Rodwell £8m? Rounded up £45m tops That is about 90 million taken from the club. not 45 million

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SaintDownUnder added 14:31 - Aug 3 Spot on Mahmoud. Wages are our biggest barrier to growing a team capable of a top 4 finish. To the point that Slynch makes, our current stadium capacity and commercial income wont suffice. Put it this way how many kids in China are walking around wearing Saints shirts? I expect much of the money 'harvested' recently to be invested in wages - if you want to attract world class players then $100k a week or $5mil a year is fairly standard...... that soon adds up. Again I reckon Hernandez would move to saints in a heartbeat if we matched his Utd wages. We have a wonderful opportunity to build a sustainable path to the champions league, but only if we invest wisely and don't knee jerk. Invest the cash in wages and quality signings. Top of our shopping list should be x 2 central defenders.

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sidsaint added 14:54 - Aug 3 Our priority before all the movement started was a central defender. We haven't brought one in but we have lost our best central defender. 2 new centre backs therefore a priority. I can't believe we are going to sign Rojo or Hernandez but believe we need to strengthen at full back and up front. However no need to panic yet as we have reasonable cover in the academy. The loan swap(s) with Osvaldo will strengthen the midfield and if they are really good we can sign them permanently after the loan period if not it will have given the likes of Targett and Reed another year's maturity. The likes of Sinclair, Rodwell are still good young English players who could do well at Saints where they will play regularly rather than sit on the bench to maintain the top clubs requirements for home grown players. Lets get the centre backs in, the loanees from Osvaldo and a couple of young English stars to develop. As for the goalkeeping department presumably we will get Foster when Celtic are out of the Champions league but surely we want to keep Boruc as well. And most important of all sign Corkie for another 3 years. Interesting to see Chambers playing centre back for Arsenal. Mo Po missed a trick there.

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IanRC added 19:51 - Aug 3 Sorry for Rickie but Liverpool deserved it, Rodgers will be looking for a new job soon. Agree we need 2 quality CBS. Otherwise things seem to be progressing nicely despite the prophets of doom.
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1970 added 19:52 - Aug 3 I think you'll find the money for Shaw was all about paying the debt in full then reduce the wage bill by getting rid of 50k a week Osvaldo, but more importantly how can you promote 12 youth players with a budget Saints have,some would have to go Laughapools silly offer for Lambert was all that was needed another 40-50k a week gone that's why the club didn't want to sell another 40-50k a week player in Lalana,so as wages go i expect Saints to be one of if not the smallest wage budgets in the prem based on the whole squad of course, don't get me wrong we still need players just not necessarily replacements for all those that have gone ie..Chambers we have Clyne and now Jack Stephens if he's good enough, Targett and now Bertrand in the wings Debayo they all cost very little, JWP can replace Lalana so were left with replacing Lambert, Lovren with Vlaar and Hernandez not bad i think.coyr.

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montecristo added 09:22 - Aug 5 we should have kept Chambers and moved him to center half to replace Lovren. Stupid stupid Board.
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