Saints fans have been a quick to jump on the fact that the club have yet to confirm any signings in the transfer window, but as always it is a case of slow start and hectic finish to any transfer period, here we look at what is happening elsewhere.
Saints have yet to make a signing in the summer transfer window which has now been open for Premier League clubs for 10 days, but they are far from alone, of the 20 Premier League clubs 10 including Saints have yet to make a signing of any sort.
But of the 10 clubs who have made signings, 7 of those have made only a single incoming deal so far and of those only Arsenal with the £27 million capture of Saliba have spent anything over a million pound, the other 6 are free transfers or low price speculative deals for youngsters from lower league clubs.
So what of the other 3 clubs, well of those Manchester United have not made a signing but they have extended the loan signing of Odion Ighalo who joined them back in January and that has now been extended for another 6 months.
That leaves only 3 clubs who have been active, Manchester City lead the way with 4 signings and big money spent, £41 million on Nathan, Ake, Ferran Torres (Valencia) £21million and then two 18 year olds Yan Couto and Pablo Moreno for low fees.
Chelsea have also spent big, Timo Werner from RB Leipzig for £47.1 million, and Hakim Ziyech from Ajax for £36million.
The third club is a Brighton who have made 4 signings, Adam Lallana on a free transfer is a coup, bt it will cost them in wages, Joel Veltman at £900 k could be a bargain, his career has been halted due to an ACL injury in 2018 and at 28 he could be a good signing, the other two Jensen Weir and Zak Emerson are youngsters.
So Saints are far from alone in not making any major signings, indeed only Manchester City, Chelsea and Brighton done made any serious business so far.
The market is also slow because many players are on holiday, they have basically been in training of some sort for 13 months, so the moment the season finished they were off on holiday for some rest and relaxation, but that makes it very difficult to do transfer deals, as medicals have to be passed and forms signed etc and that requires a physical prescence from the player, therefore this is the lull before the storm, the players will return in the next week or so to their clubs and then the silly season can begin in earnest.