The Saints have sold Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Callum Chambers, Dejan Lovren and Dani Osvaldo has gone to Inter Milan on a Season long loan. Or other words we've lost our main striker, main playmaker, three of our starting back four and a lunatic who we were happy to see the back of. That three of those players have gone to Liverpool is also unusual and of course our first game is away to Liverpool! But it has to be said that Liverpool have paid well over th odds for both Lovren and Lallana. In addition the money that Arsenal played for Callum Chambers was also ridiculous.
At one point it looked like it was going to be worse as Tottenham wanted to buy both Morgan Schneiderlin and Jay Rodriguez, but the club drew a line over that deal and said that they would not be sold. (Schneiderlin was deeply unhappy about that decision and it still remains to be seen, with two weeks of the transfer window left to go, whether he will still leave the club.)
To replace these players the club have used the knowledge of new manager Ronald Koeman and bought in Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic from Dutch football as replacements for Lambert and Lallana. From preseason matches both look like adequate replacements. We've also bought Shane Long from Hull City to play off Pelle and hopefully they will quickly form a free scoring striking partnership.
In defence we bought new goalkeeper Fraser Forster from Celtic. At six foot seven and an England international he appears to be a good buy. We've also taken Ryan Bertrand on a season loan from Chelsea and today have bought Florin Gardos from Steaua Bucharest who is an international centre back. Finally as part of the deal that took Osvaldo to Milan we've taken a defensive midfielder Saphir Taider on loan to St Mary's. Both of the loan deals mentioned are believed to have clauses which allow us to make the loans permanent transfers at the end of the season.
So on paper we seem to have replaced all the players that left with equivalent replacements. We also have more players coming through from our wonderful Academy, so the season ahead, which could have been a complete disaster, at least now looks like it will be ok.
Where do I think we will finish? Somewhere between 10th and 13th. If Koeman gets the team playing as a team sooner rather than later we could even match last years eighth. But equally if the team doesn't gel quickly enough then below 13th could be the alternative. These may be famous last words but I don't see us being in the relegation battle. That's especially true after Crystal Palace let Tony Pulis leave today!
A good start would be three points at Anfield!
