FIRST, the good news.

Saints have flexed their financial muscle in this summer’s transfer window to such an extent that only four of their 19 Premier League rivals have spent more.

And it’s hardly a surprise that Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham have splashed more cash, given the resources at their disposal.

Norwich, another club like Saints aiming to break into the top ten in 2013/14, have also spent around the same as Saints’ £20.5m total.

Now, the bad news.

With less than a fortnight to go before the start of the new season, Saints have only strengthened in two areas.

And in one of those, central midfield, Victor Wanyama’s arrival could mean that Jack Cork – one of last season’s more influential performers – loses his place.

At the time of writing, most Premier League clubs have signed a new striker this summer.

Clubs such as Swansea, Norwich and Cardiff have all broken their club transfer record to bring in new attacking options.

Saints, though, are one of the few clubs yet to sign a striker – and time is ticking in the countdown to 2013/14.

If the season was to start tomorrow, Mauricio Pochettino would have cover for every position in the team.

He has three goalkeepers to choose from, and with the arrival of Dejan Lovren he has four senior centre halves – Maya Yoshida, Jose Fonte and Jos Hooiveld are the others.

Danny Fox offers back-up to left back Luke Shaw, while the emergence of Calum Chambers in pre season could well result in Saints pulling out of their search for right back cover for Nathaniel Clyne.

Wanyama, Cork and Schneiderlin can cover the defensive midfield slots.

With Pochettino looking to play three men in behind a central striker, he is not short of options.

Gaston Ramirez, Adam Lallana, Jason Puncheon, Guly, Steven Davis, James Ward-Prowse, Jay Rodriguez ...

Four of that lot will almost certainly miss out when Pochettino names his starting XI at West Bromwich Albion.

Up front, Rickie Lambert – for the moment – remains the Saints attacking talisman, with Emmanuel Mayuka desperate to show he was worth the £3m that the club spent on him a year ago.

So, there are enough bodies for the battles ahead. We can see that.

But Saints still appear light in terms of the quality needed if they are serious about challenging for a place in the top six.

Pochettino said as much towards the end of last season, and we have to presume he was not speaking with his tongue placed firmly in his cheek.

And it would only take a couple of injuries to regulars – say Lambert and Shaw – and all of a sudden the Saints starting XI would not look so strong.

Fox struggled in the early part of last season and never got his place back after losing it to a previously untried 17-year-old, while Mayuka failed to look too threatening in a handful of substitute appearances.

Also, if Clyne does not recover from his current knock, Saints could be entering the season with a teenager, who has never made a professional league appearance, at right back.

To repeat, even if Saints suffer a few injuries, the squad currently appears to have enough depth to cope.

They should easily stay up this season, bearing in mind none of the promoted clubs look to have a huge amount of goals in them while Stoke and Sunderland could also continue their backward momentum of the second half of last season.

But in terms of attempting to reach the top six, then the squad is blatantly light of a couple more international quality signings.

Last summer – and this is worth repeating – Saints spent over £30m on new players, and they finished five points above the drop zone.

So far they have brought in two highly-rated, young internationals at just over £20m.

Cortese and Pochettino must continue to work on bringing in more new signings, if their dream for Saints is to be anywhere near realised in the coming months.