Southampton, who gained promotion through the Championship play-off final at the end of May, is getting ready to make an instant return to the Premier League.
Now that the celebrations have died down, attention is turning to the upcoming season and how Russell Martin can keep the St. Mary’s team in the top tier.
The success of Southampton’s summer business endeavors will play a major role in all of this; they have already made significant progress because of Taylor Harwood-Bellis’s loan from Manchester City, which was extended permanently once promotion was assured.
Although it looks like the team is getting close to making a second off-season acquisition, fans shouldn’t have high expectations for the deal.
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Ryan Fraser played with the Saints on loan the previous season, just like Harwood-Bellis.
While Harwood-Bellis, 22, is making waves in the professional game, Fraser, 30, was more interested in salvaging his career at Newcastle United, where he was frozen out.
Although Fraser played a significant role in the play-offs and scored some vital goals for the team that won promotion, BBC Solent producer Alan Blackmore is not sure that signing Fraser is a particularly good move for Southampton.
Blackmore expressed his opinion about the possible transfer during a recent Saints and Sinners podcast episode, saying, “He’s never going to go back to Newcastle is he.” In my opinion, that is…”Wee Man” is appealing to me. He’s a squad player, in my opinion.
“I believe he performed admirably in the Premier League, most likely for one or two seasons at Bournemouth from 2016 to 2018.”
“After that, I would say that he’s a fine man to have around at thirty years old, but I would be astonished if he started every Premier League game given that he didn’t start that many in the Championship.
“My point is that I don’t think he’s a terrific signing. If you want to be direct with me, while I believe he is a decent signing for many reasons, he is not a terrific signing. I rate him as an average signing at 6.5 out of 10.
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