What Saints do in the next 14 days or so will shape the season, if last season is anything to go by.
A look back at last summers transfer activity shows that all our business was done in two bursts, the first burst happened in the July period when in came first Steven Davis, followed by Nathan Clyne & Paulo Gazzaniga, the July transfer period is perhaps the most crucial as thats when Clubs tend to land their first choice targets, the players they have coveted and been chasing.
Our second burst came virtually on deadline day when Mayuka, Yoshida and Ramirez all came into the club in those last two days of the window, when clubs are signing players so close to the closure of the window, it usually indicates one of two things, firstly that as in the case of Ramirez a club has been involved in some sort of dutch auction, either with the transferring club or the player himself, it usually involves money, or secondly that a club is panicking and that having failed to land their preferred targets they have to scramble to get whats left, its fair to say that this is perhaps an accurate description of last years window.
A look back on it shows that in the main the players we signed early were a success, Rodriguez who was a June signing played his part, as did Clyne and Davis, Gazzaniga has been maligned in some quarters, but basically he was a kid thrown to the lions due to our failure to land a keeper during the whole summer.
The three signed on deadline day have not been so much of a success due to various reasons, Mayuka has played barely two hours of football, Ramirez has been patchy and to be blunt nowhere near the money we paid and are paying him,whilst only Yoshida can be seen as reasonable and i do use the word reasonable in inverted comas here, again he has had a varied season and if most Saints fans were honest they would prefer to see another central dfender come in to partner Lovren.
So a clear pattern emerged last summer and its one that we dont want to repeat, a club whose transfer strategy is going to plan will have most of its signings done and dusted by the end of July, giving the incoming players plenty of time not only to settle in the squad and work with the manager and their new team mates, but settle into their new surroundings, footballers are not robots and like all of us, the less distractions they have around them the better they can concentrate on what matters and that is their form on the pitch.
To throw into what was already a struggling season for the team, three players in their early 20's from completely different parts of the world from here, into a foreign enviroment was never going to be an instant success and that reamains true at any professional club in any part of the world.
So if Saints want to get off to a good start to the season and ensure that it is not one of struggle as most of last season was, the key will be to get in our incoming transfers within the next fortnight, leaving plenty of time for them to become used to their surroundings and getting into the swing of things, the two signings so far should hopefully have a head start in that in the case of Wanyama he has been in Scotland for a couple of years and Belgium before that, it wont be so much of a culture shock, likewise Lovren he is a European and has been in France.
I would hope that Saints being a progressive club would be helping these players to settle in the City off the pitch, in the past too many Clubs in England are willing to pay a player obscene money per week to join them and then wonder why he isnt performing, the answer is often simple, they leave a non English speaking player in a hotel away from his family and after a hard days training then expect him to sorty out somewhere to live, schools for the kids etc for himself, no wonder their form drops, hopefully Saints wont do this and will employ someone to look after signings, many Premier League clubs think nothing of paying a player £40k a week, but balk at paying someone £40k a year to handle all these little problems for a player.
So history is telling us a wise lesson, those players that come in early have a big advantage on those signed in the closing hours of the transfer window, for a variety of reasons, that being the case the next fortnight is crucial, if we do our business in this period and do it well then we are at a distinct advanatage, leave it late again and the chances are we will be playing catch up as we did most of last season.
Of course the real fact is this, if you sign true quality they will shine through whatever the circumstance, however in this modern day clubs need to give themself every advantage they can and make sure that every new signing can benefit from this.