As we begin to say goodbye to a brilliantly breathless summer of football, thoughts immediately, and inevitably, turn to the Saints’ season ahead. After a rough slug of a season last year, we were much in need of a feel-good summer followed by a strong preseason filled with quality recruitment. Well, a narrow survival was indeed followed by a long hot summer, dominated by a heatwave the likes and lengths of which we haven’t seen in years. We have also witnessed something else not seen in years: a successful England World Cup campaign.
When I say successful, I mean that at the time of writing, England is in the World Cup semifinals; their best FIFA World Cup since 1990, only ever bettered by their win in 1966. Yes, it feels as though the whole of the summer has been overtaken by football, as demonstrated by the football-themed promotions that can be found on everything from Coca-Cola’s bottles to this Spin & Goal World Cup game, and it’s not quite over yet. But while there is still more to enjoy, we must also prepare for the new season to avoid the relegation battles of the past season. But how is our preseason shaping up?
We have recently landed the exciting signing of England Under-21 goalkeeper Angus Gunn from Manchester City in a £13.5 million deal. He will now share the goalkeeping duties with Alex McCarthy and Fraser Forster, who is rumored to be up for sale. So far already this summer, boss Mark Hughes has brought in Scotland midfielder Stuart Armstrong from Celtic for £7 million as well as Norway’s Mohamed Elyounoussi from Swiss club Basel for a further £16 million. It looks like we have lined up Denmark center-half Jannik Vestergaard, too.
Leaving us, however, is winger Dusan Tadic, who has signed for Ajax for upward of £10 million and striker Guido Carrillo, who has left to join La Liga’s Leganes on a loan, despite only joining in January for a club record £19.2 million. That said, the Argentine failed to score in any of his 10 appearances for the club, so no one’s shedding any tears here. Another big signing who faces an uncertain future is Sofiane Boufal. The £16 million pick up from Lille, who signed in 2016, was made to train with the under-23s late last year after an alleged bust-up with boss Mark Hughes not long after the Welshman took the reins, and I can’t see him having much of a future at St. Mary’s after that.
Consider the number of players we lose to Liverpool each summer. So strong has our player recruitment been in the past that while we were fighting for survival, Liverpool was playing Real Madrid in the Champions League final with a team littered with ex-Saints, so we must have been doing something right. Somewhere along the line — I’m looking at you, Mauricio — we stopped buying the right kind of player for the right price and started overpaying for disastrous rubbish instead and ended up scrapping for our lives. If we can get back to those days, and I firmly believe we will, then the future is bright. The future is red and white.
