Should Southampton fans be excited about their summer transfer policy?

Some supporters heralded the idea of another of this country’s great academy system’s great youngsters arriving at St Mary’s while others lamented again a lack of experience.

Both schools of thought are fully understandable given what we learned from last campaign, which saw the club relegated to the Championship with barely a whimper.

The likes of Romeo Lavia – signed for over £10million before he had ever even played a senior game – were the shining lights in an otherwise dim period.

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Meanwhile, hardened players in the squad including captain James Ward-Prowse hinted to the Daily Echo of their frustration at the lack of know-how amongst the group.

It is rather paradoxical that the club seek to fix that issue, which is likely only going to grow given amid a summer of interest in the club’s top assets, with more of the same.

There may be some merit to it, though, and it should be of no surprise. Sport Republic, speaking to the Daily Echo following the season, addressed it already.

“We recognise that we didn’t get the squad balance quite right, whether that means we should have added more experience it’s hard to tell,” CEO Rasmus Ankersen told us.

“We signed amazing players, had some great growth and some of our best players this season have been some of the young guys and fans have enjoyed watching them.

“The squad balance and identity of the team we didn’t quite get right, there is an element of balancing experiencing and youth that could have been better.”

The clear indication was to expect more pursuits for teenagers and it is hard to blame them when you see the business success of a Lavia or Armel Bella-Kotchap.  

The sales of those two alone will fund the next five or six and you then need a much lower success rate to continue that financial and football growth.

That is very much the desired model for any Premier League team looking to compete with the big boys but without the budget of the big boys – see Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford, for examples of what Sport Republic want to do.

The appointment of Jason Wilcox as director of football, hugely successful as Man City’s academy director, is a further indication.

Looking at Charles, 19, as an isolated signing, our verdict is it is one supporters can be excited about. He is rated at Man City and Pep Guardiola has given him his debut.

Charles’s case was not helped by the fact two under-21 signings were announced the same week but rest assured he is viewed as a potentially key senior player.  

He has been around a first team squad that won a treble and very few young players can lay claim to that, travelling on matchdays with the world’s best.

Charles, an eight-cap Northern Ireland international, is the midfielder Saints have not replaced since Oriol Romeu. A true six, he plays across a backline too.

However, Saints are competing on slightly different terms than a team looking to punch above their weight in the Premier League.

For the first time in over a decade, they are going to have to punch down most weekends. Saints will have one of the biggest budgets in the Championship this season.

As new manager Russell Martin has accepted, the expectation to get promoted is there and Saints can afford to do what they need to achieve it.

That is why supporters do not just want to see young players, as proficient as Martin has proven to be at developing talent, but ready-made winners who can lead them too.

The fan reaction to former Portugal defender Jose Fonte’s openness to a St Mary’s return was much more uniformly received, spare a few different thinkers.

Someone like Fonte will be needed, particularly if the skipper and a few others leave – Theo Walcott, one of the group’s few leaders, has already departed this summer.

🚨 Jose Fonte is open to a St Mary’s return this summer. Contact made and Southampton consider him an option.

Currently loaded on CBs but replacements likely needed. Free agent Fonte, 39, not the only experienced name on list. No offer has been made yet.#SaintsFC

— Alfie House (@AlfieHouseEcho) July 7, 2023

You need those to run the dressing room. With the right people around them, the club’s youngsters new and old will have a better chance at elite development.

Nathan Redmond, although much maligned on the south coast, was correct when he made that point reflecting on his old club earlier this year.

The club want to strengthen in the core areas and an experienced centre-back should be merely one.

Experience does not always guarantee success either - character is a more prudent trait, and the club failed to acquire the right ones in those areas last season.

Mislav Orsic was probably the most experienced player in the squad and he got six Premier League minutes under his belt before a move to Trabzonspor. 

Fans have not been given much to beam about but transfers are in new hands now under Wilcox and head of recruitment Darren Mowbray - judgement is reserved. 

Once supporters see that moves are made to redress the balance of the squad they will begin to feel comfortable getting excited over the talented youth being snapped up.

And although you might not be able to ‘win anything with kids’, we all soon forgot Tino Livramento and Lavia’s ages – that remains the club’s aim.