Forget the last six weeks, Saints season will be shaped from hereon in.

Despite a lot of press bluster about who is going where in the football world, the fact is that in May & June there is rarely anything major done, what does happen has usually been agreed before the end of the season as Footballers like to take holidays too and be you a player or manager you are tied up with football between the first week in July and mid May, leaving you just a small gap of six weeks to have a break.

Club nowadays though dont just trust their players to go away for that time and then come back without monitoring them in between, so most will insist their players come in on at least one occasion during the six week break so that they can monitor weight and fitness levels.

But its the last week of June/first week of July when professional clubs in England start to get the wheels turning again, the squads will be got together in full for the first time and the process will begin of getting them back to full fitness for August in Saints case there is now just a little under six weeks till the season opener.

Buit its not just on the training ground that it starts to happen, off the field as well we will soon start to find out just what is really rumour and what has substance, in The Championship the real dealing happens now, its fine for the premiership teams to fly players home in the middle of their holidays to sign a contract, but money isnt thrown around like that in the Championship, the key date is June 30th as this is the date when contracts end, but its not just about a contract ending, its also the date when loyalty bonus's etc kick in, so players are keen to stay at their current club till that date and get that bonus, even out of contract players will usually like to stay unnattached till then and indeed into July as this could also result in their club having to pay them another months wages, a typical case of this was  David James who triggered this ex gratia payment having not found a new club by July 1st, by then his deal with Bristol City was probably all agreed, but by maintaining the illusion he was without a club meant that Pompey had to pay him for the month after his contract ended substancially more than if he had signed for Bristol City the moment his old deal expired.

So one the calendar clicks into July we will really see who means business and who doesnt.

From a Saints point of view it will be interesting, the only major out looks likely to be Alex Chamberlain whilst all eyes will be on how much money Saints actually spend, as this will give a real clue as to our intentions as a club, put bluntly if Saints receive £10 million for Chamberlain, most supporters would expect to see most of that spent on improving the squad, anything less would be seen as an indication that perhaps our owners are not as serious with their five year plan as they once where.

But there are those who would like to think that we already have a substancial amount for a transfer kitty, they would say that we should be in a position to not only keep Oxo but invest another £5 million in new players to go for promotion, they will point to increased ticket prices etc generating extra income so they would say that if we sold Oxo then that should boost our kitty not be its sum total.

As you get nearer to the season starting prices will rise as teams who have missed out on their initial targets have to go for their second choices, in many cases players who started pre season with them and their clubs having no intention of them moving, so that both have to be incentivised to make it happen.

Up till now the transfer market is a phoney war, fueled only by agents out to stir up interest, now the real business begins.  

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