The players may go off for their summer breaks, but for those running a football club the work for the following season begins the moment the old season ends.
Of course that is not strictly true, plans will be being formulated over the past few weeks, but till the season ends they cant be put into place.
Last summer Saints were quick off the mark in signing Jay Rodriguez, he was officially announced as a Saints player on 10th June, although it would be almost another month (6th July) before the second srrival in Steve Davis.
Saints seemed to do their business last year in two bursts, after Davis, Nathanial Clyne arrived on the 18th July followed by paulo Gazzaniga two days later on the 20th, but it would then be the 29th August, almost on the deadline before the next signing, that being, Mayuka quickly followed by Yoshida and Gaston Ramirez. Artur Boruc arrived at the club three weeks later, being a free agent he was able to sign outside of the dealines.
What this burst of transfer friendly shows is that although Saints started last summer well prepared, their plans clearly did not go to, well plan ! the opening four signings were easy to negotiate in that Clyne and Davis were both for one reason or another free agents, so there was no club to deal with, only the player, Gazzaniga was simple in that we were offering a youngster a great opportunity and his club a good fee, it wasnt hard to do, likewise Rodriguez.
But then we stalled, our problem was we chased too many targets that to be blunt were using us for leaverage, we concentrated on so calld marque signings whilst neglecting the real areas we needed to improve in, not least central defence, goalkeeper and wide players, so although we did some good business, some of it quite frankly wasnt.
That can be guaged in hidsight from the timing os the signings, of those signed in the first tranche, Rodriguez, Davis and Clyne were all successes, the fourth player Gazzaniga did play a part i the season but to be fair, he was never intended to have to be thrown into the team, that happened because of the failure in the second tranche.
If we then look at that second wave, Yoshida has had a fair season, Ramirez poor when considering the fee paid and wages and Mayuka has been a waste of space im afraid, we would have been better served by Billy Sharp or Tadanari Lee. Boruc was clearly not ready to play when he arrived and as for Vegard Forren in the January window, I cannot for the life of me make head nor tail of that one, someone should be getting their rear end kicked by Nicola Cortese for that one.
So as the preparations for the coming season begin, hopefully we will have learned the lessons from the last year and will be older and wiser, if so then there is no reason why we shouldnt get in the key five or six players that we need, a look at our squad shows perhaps 11 players who can truly be considered Premiership standard, probably another 5 or 6 who are decent back ups, leaving around 8 who are perhaps making up the numbers, some because they are young, but others because they arent good enough and i havent included those players out on loan in any of this.
Preparation is the key to this, identify your targets early and get the deal done efficiently and swiftly, of course we shouldnt be held to ransom by clubs, but the Buttner situation showed why its key to do your homework, Buttner would have been an asset to Saints and although he hasnt played much in the league at Man Utd he has shown that used as a left wingback he is Premier quality, perhaps we should go and talk to David Moyes in the summer.