Southampton CEO Martin Semmens has explained that the club will have ‘opportunities’ to sign new players in January – though no concrete plans are in place as of yet.
Over the past summer, the Saints signed a selection of new players such as Adam Armstrong and Tino Livramento, as well as fending off offers from Aston Villa for captain James Ward-Prowse.
Even so, after a slow start to the season, which has seen the club fail to win a single one of their opening seven league matches, eyes are already beginning to turn to the next transfer window.
When asked about future plans on the Total Saints podcast, Semmens explained that he had held talks recently about what the club wanted to do next summer, but added that they don’t have any specific ideas ‘in place’ for the upcoming winter window.
He said: “This week, I sat in a meeting and talked about next summer and the evolution and what we’ll do in that window. So we do plan in the long term.
“But also, in reality, a window like January, you can’t really plan for that now because we have to see how we’re playing, and what injuries you pick up and where the team needs developing.
“So absolutely, there are opportunities in January, and we’ve always historically probably done one important move to strengthen the team in a certain area and that’s the kind of thing you could expect. But at this point, we wouldn’t have those plans in place.”
TIF Thoughts on Southampton’s potential transfer business…
Having lost one of the club’s most influential players in Danny Ings, the Saints were always going to struggle to replace his goals.
Will Southampton get relegated this season?
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His replacement, Armstrong, has yet to find his feet for his new club – scoring just once in his first seven Premier League outings for the side.
However, one transfer that could lighten the goalscoring load is Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi. The Japanese international has scored eight goals this season and was recently linked by Italian media with a move to the south coast.
We are a way off January yet, but perhaps one good signing could transform the Saints’ season.
In other news: ‘Deserves the chance’ – Hasenhuttl urged to unleash 22-year-old Southampton ace