Ronald Koeman spoke a few weeks ago about needing one more player for his perfect squad, with the addition of Romeu & now Virgil Van Dijk he now has that, however there are still issues.
Ronald Koeman will now feel that he has the perfect squad in terms of personnel available to him , of course he would like better quality players, every manager strives to do that, but Koeman knows in terms of what Southampton are able to get, this is as good as he could have achieved and in terms of what he has to hand it would be arguably the strongest squad in Saints history.
But in true Saints tradition nothing is simple, firstly there is the Wanyama situation and secondly the injury issues.
Some Saints supporters were up in arms about the results and claiming that the new signings are not up to standard, that was knee jerk reaction, so far this year Saints have played 8 competitive games, of which they have won 3, drawn 3 and lost 2.
That is not a bad record, but unfortunately we got caught with a crisis at the most vital time when we travelled to Denmark, its fine to criticise the squad, but the reality is that in Denmark we were missing key players through injury and sulking, Bertrand & Clasie through long term injury, Mane was not fit to play and Wanyama was sulking, that was four names who would have been on the team sheet and they could have made a hell of a difference. Add to that Soares who had to be left on the bench for a mixture of the head injury received at Watford and tactical at the back and the now arrival of VVD and our next league fixture could perceivably have those six back, now that is a big chunk of players to be missing.
This is the story of the start of the season, last season although we were a fledgling squad everyone was fit and we could slot players in as they arrived to the unit, this year we do not have that continuity and this has lead to a lot of chopping and changing to the core unit and this has not helped our cause.
Indeed the fact that we have mustered 5 points from our first four games and sit in 10th is testament as to how strong the strength in depth is now and indicates that with everyone back and fit there is no reason why we should not challenge for a top 7 place again and perhaps higher.
The Wanyama situation is delicate, much of the speculation is just that about what has been said and done, pure speculation, indeed shortly after it was announced one so called respected journalist announced on twitter that Wanyama was so incensed he was going to run don his contract rather than be sold, before realising that with two years left this was perhaps not an option and retracting that claim.
That goes to show how much of this situation has been stirred up by journalists, some briefed by other clubs and some not.
But going forward when he has everyone fit and ready Ronald Koeman will feel he has the squad to cope and the strength in depth will pay dividends over the course of the season, in every position he has options which is something he did not have in the second half of the season after injuries kicked in.
So those Saints fans who panicked a week or two ago should take a deep breath, Ronald Koeman did not deserve the vitriol that some aimed in his direction, having just steered the club to its highest league position in 30 years he deserved more than the cheap shots that some so called fans aimed at him.
Yes it was a very mall minority, but they made themselves heard and it was not pleasant, Koeman must have thought what was he doing here if that is how grateful some where for his efforts last season.
Saints are still a work in progress, we are trying to build something, but that is a long term thing, there will be set backs along the way and we have to be prepared for them, we have to trust our manager and board to get things right and so far they have not let us down.