In Gordon Strachan's short time in charge, he has brought in five players. Of those, Paul Williams has been very impressive at the back, shoring up the gap left by Dean Richards. Having arrived as cover, Williams is now an automatic first team pick. Presumably this was Strachan's intention anyway despite the quotes int he press, but Williams has easily earned his place. In the midfield, Paul Telfer has quietly been adding some steel. We have looked far more solid with his presence on the right and it enables Anders Svensson freedom to get forward more in the centre. Again, few really rated Telfer before his arrival, I know I didn't, but I have been pleasantly surprised so far. So, Strachan has solved both our defensive and midfield worries, at least in the short term, for the princely sum of zero. The other arrivals from Ecuador were agreed before Strachan's arrival, but Delgado and Chala come with excellent international records. If Delgado starts scoring, then we will have added sufficient depth in attack to our squad. Mike Williamson, Saints other aquisition will be appearing in the under 19s and will hopefully come through in the next year or two.
So with five new additions to a squad already containing a fair amount of dead weight, would it be prudent for Saints to invest further ?
We are still being linked with Bobby Zamora of Brighton and Brett Ormerod from Blackpool, but would they add anything to the team ?
On Zamora, Rupert Lowe said: "We have not made any approach. It is incredible how these stories surface. Gordon goes to watch a game and suddenly we are supposed to be buying a player. I have talked to Gordon about him but then we discuss all sorts of players and don't necessarily act on it.
"I leave it to Gordon to say who he wants and we take it from there. It is my job to carry out the financial side of any transaction."
Now, there's no doubt that Saints are watching Zamora and will continue to do so. Perhaps it would be better to see how Delgado does before adding another name to the squad. Saints have Pahars and Beattie as the first choice strike force. Delgado will be direct competition when he's fit. Behind those three, we have Rosler, Davies (also useful out right), McDonald, Caceres, Rodrigues and El Eyene. While the last four are still young, they are old enough to be playing in the team. Any further additions will just make it harder to see them reach their potential. If they aren't up to it, then by all means offload them and then get someone else.
On Omerod Saints are said to have increased their initial £1 million bid to £1.75 million. Gordon Strachan said: "I paid a surprise visit on a friend of mine there - and it was a surprise to me because he was out. I also took in the game as it was a chance to meet our neighbours, put faces to names and also to look at Peterborough."
Chairman Rupert Lowe added, "Yes, we did bid for him. But our offer was rather less than £1million. It is fair to say that there have been no developments."
Again Omerod is certainly being watched, but the same reasons apply as before. Saints have always been prudent with their funds, which in this day and age means wages as much as transfer fees. I think that we have a squad capable of surviving in the league without too many further additions ( a left sided midfielder would be nice).
While it's nice to speculate about transfers, and while Gordon Strachan may well wish to bring in his own choices, there is no immediate rush and I think we can afford to see what our current players are capable of.
