With the January transfer window now only two weeks away, speculation will start to mount as to just what Saints will do during it and how it will affect certain players in the squad.
As recent results have shown, whilst Saints are having a good season and have the foundations of a good squad, they are still a fair way away from genuinely challenging for a top five place, both in terms of quality of the starting line up as well as depth in the squad.
This being the case then the question is whether Saints will settle for sticking with what they have and perhaps mixing and matching a little or will they attempt to improve the squad further with new signings ?
For me the issues we have are.
1. Defence - we truly lack another quality central defender, Hooivelt and Yoshida are not good enough and Fonte whilst adequate should really be vying for a place in the line up rather than comfortably head and shoulders ahead of his rivals.
We could do with bringing in another central defender to compliment Lovren, the only problem is January transfer windows generally see overpricing, we could see thi as the priority for the summer rather than now and feel that we can get through with what we have.
2. Midfield - We are blessed in this department in that we have six players up to Premier league standard, seven if you add Ramirez, however in certain respects they are all too samey, we lack genuine pace out wide to add variety to our play and this is where we really could do with strengthening, however that would perhaps give us too many bodies, so although I would expect to see Ramirez leave on loan, I dont expect to see too much incoming.
3. Attack - the burning issue is Osvaldo, we either need to give him the chance to play or get rid of him, at this stage i wouldnt put my money on Pochettino doing either, Pochettino is desperately trying to keep both Osvaldo and Lambert happy, but in doing so he is probably doing little to help either player get any sort of consistency and more worryingly the team get any sort of rythm going in that both are different types of player and when both are on the pitch asking them to keep interchanging means that players around them are constantly having to adjust to suit. I dont expect to see anyone coming in here, although I wouldnt be surprised to see either Lambert or Osvaldo go out on loan to help their World Cup aspirations, if one did wouldnt think it would be anything we couldnt handle.
So I expect January to be quiet with perhaps a few out on loan as the wages of Osvaldo, Ramirez and even fringe players like Fox, Hooiveld or Yoshida would probably be prohibitive in making it viable for other clubs to be able to match their deals.
I dont disagree with this, there will be some who would scream about chasing the top five etc, but I think its clear that this season at least that is folly, we need to re assess the situation, set realistic and stretching targets for the second half of the season and then look to improve further in the summer with signings we have targeted and whom we can sign at their true value instead of over inflated prices.
Its interesting to note that the players that have come in with little fanfare over the past 18 months or so are the players that have done well, Rodriguez, Davis, Lovren, Boruc, Clyne to name five, none of them inspired dancing in the street when they arrived, but they are the ones that have performed outstandingly, then look at the so called marquee signings, Ramirez, Osvaldo even Wanyama, all three have had varying degrees of success, the first two very little and the performance of Jack Cork in the past couple of games has raised the question of why we signed Wanyama in the first place, some still not being convinced about the Kenyan due to his lack of ball control.
There is room for improvement in the squad and i think that next summer will see some old favourites ousted, but I think for January we will play our cards close to our chest and look to continue to work with what we have, although the departure of one or two on loan might free up a place in the squad perhaps for a quality loan signing.