Saints supporters will be please to hear that the club is being very proactive in their transfer market planning, at least according to the rumour mill, most can be taken with a pinch of salt at this stage, but it is good to see that someone is putting Southampton in the frame, read of for the latest potential summer buys.
The first thing to take into account before we get too excited is that at this moment in time the rumours are just that, rumours, however at this time of year when clubs are linked with players, the media are fuelled by rumours as selling clubs and agents try to put their product in the market place and secondly with a squad that numbers well into the mid 30's at present, there are a lot of players that need to be leaving St Mary's before we can truly make concrete plans.
We need to know just who is leaving and who is going to be staying, whether the club are happy with that or not.
As I said I would not get too excited just yet, there is a lot of wheeling and dealing to be done just yet and Johannes Spors must be a busy man at present.
But according to eflanalysis.com we have a number of players on our radar, but you will not be surprised to learn that the eldest of them is 23, we will be looking for potential firstly not experience, although one would hope that we will get the right balance before the window slams shut.
Saints have already made one signing, 20 year old Joshua Quarshie from Hoffenheim for £.5 million, but it is unclear whether he will be part of our squad next season, or loaned out.
Max Johnston, Sturm Graz's 21 year Scottish right back has been reported on The Ugly Inside before as being on the club's radar although that has gone quiet of late.
Another target is Chile international Lucas Sepeda, he is one that on paper could be interesting, currently playing for Colo Colo and turning 23 in October, he is a regular starter and scorer in their first team and with a career total 115 games, 19 goals and 12 assists has potential.
Market value at present is around £2.5 million.
Another player who fits the Saints blueprint is Elfsborg's Besfort Zenelli, another who will turn 23 before the end of the year, he too has good experience in Sweden and has played for their International side.
He is described as in the mould of former Saint Pierre Emille Hojberg and he has started all of Elfsborg's Swedish League games so far this season, scoring once and with 4 assists, he has been heavily involved in creating goals for his team.
He too has a good balance of potential and experience and with a transfer value also around £2.5 million, it is clear that Saints are looking at players in Countries where they can get value for money.
That is no bad thing, in football it is acknowledged that some nationalities are over priced, whilst others are more realistically valued.
One area of the field that is uncertain is that of the goalkeeping position at St Mary's, whilst it is generally accepted that Aaron Ramsdale will be in the Premier League next season, but Gavin Bazunu's injury sustained late in the season at Belgium is unclear.
It certainly ended his season when he returned to St Mary's in early April so with Standard Liege's final game being played on 29th May, almost two months later, it was clearly not a slight knock but something more serious.
So how long will Bazunu be sidelined for is the question ?
That is leading to speculation that we may be looking for a new goalkeeper and that has lead to us being linked with Lazio's Christos Mandas.
He is the oldest of the 4 players being linked, he has already turned 23, indeed turning 24 in September he is almost ancient.
A Greek international, he joined Lazio in the summer of 2023, he has a career total of 115 games, firstly in his native country where he played for firstly OFi Crete & then Atromitos and then in Serie A for Lazio.
He has not been number 1 at Lazio though, but he was a regular starter for Lazio in their Europa League campaign playing 9 of the 12 games and also in the Italian Cup, in the League he played just 9 times.
If Saints were to get him they would expect to pay around £5 million.
So on the face of it Saints fans will not be getting too excited, if we signed all 4, then we would probably have paid no more than around £15 million.
But sometimes we need to look under the surface, Southampton have always been a club that looks for the players that give value for money, that means unearthing young talent and counterbalancing it with players with experience nearing the end of their career.
Ted Bates did it well and Lawrie McMenemy refined it and the blueprint has been in place ever since.
This will be a busy transfer window, but the once thing that is certain in it, is that to free up transfer fee money and also get wages off the books, we need to sell and no who has definitely gone, before we can truly implement our planned transfer strategy for next season.