SO what sort of summer transfer window has it been for Saints?

Overall, it's difficult to argue that the squad is now stronger than it was at the end of the season.

Jelle van Damme, Mikael Nilsson, Peter Crouch, Andreas Jakobsson and Alaeddine Yahia have all come in and the only exit of real note has been Fitz Hall.

The importance of keeping the likes of James Beattie, Kevin Phillips and Antti Niemi also cannot be underestimated.

Yet for those positives, it is still hard not to feel that the past few months have been something of a missed opportunity.

At the end of last season, the priority seemed pretty obvious: a strengthening on the left and a creative midfielder.

Admittedly goal-scoring ones are rare, but a player with real pace would have done nicely.

Injury to Michael Svensson and the departure of Hall also made cover in central defence a priority, which was addressed yesterday.

But, overall, what have we really got?

For now, it mostly seems to be additional squad players.

For all the deepening of the squad, therefore, it is hard to really see significant improvements in the actual team unless the likes of Matt Oakley and Marian Pahars get fully fit.

Two years ago, the priority was rightly to improve the overall squad.

But that time has passed and you have to ask whether it would have been better to put more resources into, say, two players who would almost certainly make a real impact, rather than five who might make a difference.

Compared to two seasons ago, when Saints finished eighth and reached the FA Cup final, there are certainly more good players at St Mary's, but the starting eleven is probably weaker.

Hopefully the likes of Martin Cranie, Leandre Griffit, Yoann Folly, Matthew Mills, Dexter Blackstock and Leon Best will flourish this season.

The knock-on to that, though, will be a worsening of the problems associated with having a big squad.

The policy of the past few years of gradually improving the squad was continued this summer.

But thequestion that needs to be addressed in January is this: At what point does this strategy actually conflict with the prospects of building a great team?