Matt Tilling takes a look at what is on his wish list from Les Reed for his forthcoming birthday ! Will he get what he wants !
Dear Les, for my birthday I would like…
With just over two weeks left to run on the transfer window, where do Saints need to reinforce?
It’s my birthday soon. That means I get to write a list of everything I want and send it to someone, right? No? Well I’m writing one anyway, and I’m sending it to Les Reed.
The arrival of my birthday also means the transfer window has a little over 2 weeks to run. We can expect a lot of business to be done in this time. Whilst other clubs seemed to land their main targets early on in the window, Southampton were uncharacteristically slow in doing their business. Until last week, the only signing to speak of was young Jan Bednarek, arriving from Lech Poznan for a nominal fee of £5m.
Whilst Bednarek is one for the future, Saints fans were left to sift through scraps of news, scraps of rumour, throughout July, until Mario Lemina eventually penned a 5 year deal for a fee rising to £20m based on performance.
A record transfer, yes, but when Bournemouth are signing Nathan Ake for £20m, regardless of value for money, the Lemina deal wasn’t exactly back page news. (Just to note — I think £20m for Ake is one of the most ridiculous deals of the summer, and this is after the Neymar transfer, but hey ho).
With Van Dijk still dreaming of the Mersey (terrible things, those ‘viruses’), and after an unusually long spell deciding on who our next manager would be, we can forgive the Saints board for taking their time, but is there any more work needs doing?
In short, yes. If Lemina does what we brought him in to do, namely to accompany Romeu and marshal the centre of the park, he will be a very good signing, but that’s not the only place Saints are lacking.
The Yoshida issue
Maya, Maya, Maya, how you torment us. For what it’s worth, I think the guy does a solid job. Yes, we’ve all seen him hit the odd dodgy back pass, but at the end of last season he seemed to finally deliver on the moderate promise he showed when we signed him. The only issue is, we signed him 5 years ago. Simply put, he is not good enough for a top 6 team. If that is our ambition, we will need to replace him.
The club still seem to think Van Dijk can be re-integrated. I find this hard to believe; I can’t imagine the kind of reception he’ll get at St. Mary’s if he ever were to put on the shirt again. In that light, a new player will be needed.
Wesley Hoedt from Lazio has been touted, with numerous parts of the press suggesting a deal was close early in August. Having not seen much of him, £12m still seems a snip in the current climate. Big, strong and comfortable on the ball, he also fits the Saints mould: young and full of potential. I also trust the Saints scouting team with any new signing, a confidence based purely on previous performance.
Should Van Dijk fail to return, Hoedt would be a good option.
Goals, Goals, Goals…
If the Swansea game told us anything, it’s that putting the ball in the back of the net is still an issue. But will it remain one?
We created 29 chances on Saturday. The problem clearly doesn’t lie with our ability to craft opportunities, more with our lack of ability to convert them.
For me, this isn’t an issue with our midfield (though Tadic will need to start scoring more regularly if he is to get the big move away I think he wants), but more an issue with our strikers. Gabbiadini and Austin are both potent in the box and out of it, so I’d be hesitant to splash out more money on a striker, even if we fail to score more freely over the next few games. Pellegrino’s new philosophy will take a while to stick but, if we continue to play the way we did at St Mary’s on Saturday, the goals will come, and I have every faith that either Gabbiadini or Austin will be the ones scoring them.
We have a strong squad. It’s the same as last year, which is why we were so disappointed with Puel’s style, and it doesn’t need the reinforcement that others in the league may need.
So, another defender please, Les. Wesley Hoedt, ideally, but I’m sure you’ve got some hidden gems stored on that black box of yours.
Either way, it’s my birthday, so sign someone…
Matt Tilling
@tposmatt