Saints have made their first foray into the transfer market of the January window and as expected it is the loan signing of goalkeeper Daniel Peretz from Bayern Munich, but it is hard to see that this is an upgrade on Gavin Bazunu.

The rumours about Daniel Peretz joining Saints have been doing the rounds for a while and now Southampton FC have confirmed that the deal has happened.

Group Technical Director Johannes Spors said: “Daniel arrives with proven ability both domestically and internationally.

“He has played at the highest level and we’re delighted to welcome him here where he adds further quality and depth to our goalkeeping department.”

Peretz himself had this to say:

“I’m really happy to make this move to Southampton, it’s a great club in a good league and I’m really looking forward to getting started.

“I want to help the team to get back in the Premier League. Although it’s a tough goal, I think it’s realistic. There are a lot of games to go.”

There are many Saints fans who will be happy with this signing, they have been on social media criticising Gavin Bazunu and claiming that he is the worst keeper in the Championship and that anyone would be better as a replacement.

Perhaps now they are going to find out, although I truly hope that if Peretz gets in the side, that he does well, as I am first and foremost a support of the club and not individual players, his career stats do not suggest he is an upgrade on Bazunu.

After breaking into the Maccabi Tel Aviv side in 2021/22 at age 22, he spent two seasons as number one choice, playing 71 times in the League, also making a number of appearances in European games.

That lead to a transfer to Bayern Munich, but in 2 years at the club, he managed just 4 League Bundesliga appearances plus 3 in cup competitions.

In the summer of 2025 he was loaned to Hamburg, where he was expecting to be the number 1 choice, but that did not work out and it would be October before he played a game and he would appear for Hamburg in just two German cup games.

That means that since Joining Bayern he has played just 9 club games in the last 18 months, hardly the experienced and for that matter match fit keeper that we need if we are going to upgrade from Gavin Bazunu.

Indeed if we want a more direct comparison of Peretz to Bazunu, Mateesz Lis would spring to mind, although Lis had played a lot more League games that Peretz and arguably in a better standard League in Poland & Turkey than the Israeli top flight.

Peretz current value according to transfermarkt.co.uk is around £1.7 million, less than half the £3.7 million that Bayern spent to bring him to Germany.

In contrast that is exactly the same value that Mateusz Lis is currently valued at on the same site, with Gavin Bazunu himself being around £8 million.

So for me this transfer is not really an upgrade, if we go on the data alone, we are taking Bayern's 3rd choice keeper behind 1st choice Manuel Neuer & back up Jonas Urbig who is himself valued at about £10.5 million.

I am not sure what Saints are doing here, they seem to rate Peretz, certainly Johannes Spors would know a lot more about him than I do, but Bayern Munich do not rate him and neither do Hamburg.

But he is on loan and if there is a option to buy then I would hope that is a low one, I am not sticking up for Gavin Bazunu and complaining about us buying a keeper to replace him, I am just pointing out that if he has come as a back up, then fine. But if he is going tom step straight into the side, then firstly he is certainly not have the sharpness that comes with playing in competitive matches where he has only played 2 in the 13 months.

Yes he has played for his country this season, but he conceded 5 goals in each of the 2 games, so even that is not exactly encouraging.

The truth is that whoever plays in goal, they are not helped by a defence that lacks leadership and organisation, our goalkeeper is constantly exposed due to poor marking, both in open play and from set pieces.

If we are going to change Gavin Bazunu then bring in a keeper who is vocal and organises his defence and has the experience to command respect.

But having said all of this, I am a Saints supporter first and foremost, although I have reservations about his track record, which is not impressive, I truly hope that if he plays, then he proves me wrong and he plays a big part in securing promotion.

All Photos Via Reuters