Over the summer Southampton have quietly gone about their business in the transfer market and although there have been no breath taking signings, the squad is in better shape than a year ago.
When the new owners arrived back in January it was made quite clear very quickly that this was no Manchester City or Newcastle situation where vast sums would be made available for transfer fees, but a case of building on the foundations already in place.
No boasts were made about challenging for the Champions League or other such targets, all that was said was that the arrival of Sport Republic would mean that money would be available to enable to do what we do best a lot quicker.
At the time I took that to mean that we would be able to buy players before we had sold others and that seems to have been the case this summer.
Business was done early in the signings of Gavin Bazunu, Mateusz Lis & Armel Bella Kotchap and they were followed in July by Romeo Lavia, Joe Aribo & Sekou Mara.
This has seen around £50 million spent so far and so far the only major outgoings of regular first team players have been Fraser Forster & Shane Long on free transfers at the end of their contracts and Armando Broja who returned to Chelsea after their loan spell.
So if we discount goalkeeper Mateusz Lis who is likely to be loaned out after being signed on a free transfer it is a case of 5 in and 3 out, a net gain of two to the squad.
Now that doesn't sound a lot, but for a club the size of Southampton that is a significant improvement both in terms of quantity but also quality.
In the goalkeeping department we have lost Fraser Forster, he had a good season last year, but age was catching up on him and he was never the most mobile keeper, Gavin Bazunu looks far better suited to the way we are looking to play.
In defence we have added Armel Bella-Kotchap who looks a decent player from what I have seen from him, so from this point of view however he turns out he is one more player in contention in this department and that has to be good, although i still think we need an experienced leader in the centre.
In midfield we have added two central players, Romeo Lavia a defensive lynchpin and Joe Aribo a more attacking option who can also play up front if needed and also out wide.
Up front Sekou Mara has arrived, in many respects comparisons can be drawn with Armando Broja, Mara is almost exactly the same age as Broja was when he arrived ie just about to turn 20 although they seem to be different sorts of players, Broja a more bustling traditional type of centre forward whereas Mara seem to be more of player who relies more on speed and guile than pure strength from the little I have seen of him.
So overall whilst the squad is not quite yet complete and if Ralph Hasenhuttl is to be believed there is still another acquisition to be made, I would contest that at this stage ie a week before the season we have a more all round squad than a year ago.
Of course whether that turns out to be the case we will soon find out, many think the main issue is goals although I am not convinced, if we take Brighton as benchmark , last season they were 9th we were 15th, they scored 42 goals, that was one less than our 43, the difference was how many they let in, they conceded only 42 whereas we let in a whopping 67, we were the 13th top scoring side in the Premier League, but the 17th worst defence.
We need to bridge the gap between Brighton's -2 goal difference and our own -24, I would suggest that with a good organiser at the back we could have prevented 15 goals last year, I think we may find it hard to increase our fire power by that amount, if we want to improve we have to build at the back first.
Up front last season our 4 strikers scored 16 goals between them, with Broja's 6 goals and Shane Long's 1 now off the books, it means we are looking for the 3 strikers currently here to bridge that gap.
So is it a lot to ask for at least another 7 goals between that trio, I would say not, if Broja had scored 12 goals last season and we finished 17th I would be worried, but he only hit 6, I would say that Mara has the capabilities of getting that number, I would say that Adam Armstrong could also hit 6 and if he does then we only need to get Che to repeat his total and suddenly we have increased our scoring capabilities.
Joe Aribo has also shown he is a midfielder who can score, one problem last season was how few goals were scored from midfield, James Ward Prowse got 10, most from free kicks or penalties, but other than that all the other midfielders underperformed, Moi Elyounoussi scored 4, but you have to say that Oriol Rmoeu's 2 goals were a couple short of what you would hope for, likewise Stuart Armstrong's brace, but the real issue was the failure of the wide players used to notch, in the past Nathan Redmond would be good for 5-7 goals, but he hit just the one, Theo Walcott, Nathan Tella & Moussa Djenepo did not get one between them and truthfully that is underperformance, even two goals from each would have improved our lot greatly.
So I am hopeful for the next season, over the past two years we have finished 15th, if we are realistic that is just about where we should be, there are now 12 clubs with greater resources than us, we are battling for the middle ground with Palace, Brighton & Wolves, if all goes to form & resources then we finish between 12th and 16th, of course this isn't an exact science, in most years two clubs from that 12 will have an awful season and two from our middle four will step up a little.
But make no bones with football in the state it is at the moment and cash being king, pushing higher than 9th will be very difficult.
Some will disagree but I feel that in terms of the make up of the squad we are stronger than a year ago, even if we don't make another signing, some will point to Armando Broja as being a big difference, but a year ago he was a youngster who had scored a few goals on loan in Holland, whether Sekou Mara turns out to be better or worse is yet to be seen, but let's be blunt 6 goals is not a massive total for him to get.
Crucial for us will be for some of those players who had awful seasons to step up to the plate a little, both Armstrong's Stuart & Adam can do much better, if the wide players throw in a few goals then we can start to improve.
I am still worried about the back line, we lack real leadership and that is a big problem.
But in both of the last two seasons there have been causes for optimism, yes we have died in the final third of both those seasons, but in the middle part we have overperformed, many who point to the end of both seasons as a barometer also fail to use those mid season placings including our only top spot in 30 odd years as a similar measure.
If we can push into the top 10 as we did it is not quality that is lacking it is consistency and that comes from the back, until whether we keep a clean sheet or not depends not on slices of luck from slices of the ball from opposition players, but on well organised defending we will always have seasons that are like a rollercoaster.