Words to the above effect were reputably uttered by Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field when he realised he had gone into the season without strengthening his army sufficiently.

Saints fans are muttering something similar at the moment as they read news of multiple targets in the transfer window, but with the deadline closing for eligibilty for Sunday's game against Liverpool we still have not secured the services of a central defender for the game.

Whilst I am confident that Katharina Liebherr and her board have the best interests of the Club at heart I have to say I am not so confident in the ability of the person responsible for the transfer business, I can only assume that this is Les Reed, due to his own statement to the very fact.

Ralph Krueger found it neccessary to publicly defend Reed in the meida recently describing as a very honest and truthful person, this is all very well and Im sure that Les is just that, but this does not make him good at the job of procuring ew signings for the club.

Given that Dejan Lovren put in a transfer request originally over 2 months ago and joined Liverpool 3 weeks ago the fact that we have not secured a replacement is of big concern and to be blunt unacceptable.

Whilst we do not want to be overcharged for any signing, we do have to accept that given that we ourselves has overcharged Liverpool Man Utd & Arsenal and the urgency we now have that we are going to have to pay over the odds a little ourselves.

Of courseI am commenting from afar, but it strikes me we are making matters harder than it should be for ourselves by making derisory offers for players and drawing out the process, our bidding for Fraser Forster started out at under half of what we were actually paying for him, a casual observer would dedeuce that whoever is doing the bidding does not know the true worth of the player, or if he does he is treating the selling club with contempt.

What we want to see is potential signings identified, offers made and the deals concluded quickly, this just isnt happening at least in the case of a central defender and this is our most key position.

If Shane Long does turn out to be a genuine signing then we could feasibly plunge him straight into the game at Anfield as he has experience in the Premier, but a central defender is different, it would be hard enough to throw in a player with Premier experience at such short notice as we have now, let alone a foreign import without experience at this level.

Of course Saints will say that they are looking to make the right signing rather than just any signing, I would say that we have had more than enough time to do that.

So Saints need to pull their fingers out, the Premier League is worth a lot of money even for just moving up a place or two, making a crucial signing even if a million or two overpriced could be worth it in the long run and lets face it we can afford it and its better spent well than in the bank.

Photo: Action Images

REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 17:12 - Aug 14 Jesus02 - In the weeks and months following Cortese's departure the players knew Pochettino would also go. At this point many key players were looking for their escape route. Shaw handed in his transfer request straight after the United game, Lambert got tapped up by Liverpool early doors, Lallana too, Schneiderlin thought he had a gentleman's agreement, Lovren couldn't wait to go after the exodus started, Chambers saw the bright lights of the emirates, it was rats jumping from the sinking ship. Saints sinking from 8th to the bottom half. Champions League nowhere in sight. It’s incredibly hard for any club to keep a player who wants to leave. Even now with our stance with Schneiderlin, it’s not going to work. He's not going to be training well, he's going to be poisonous in the dressing room, we can't risk playing him in a competitive match. If he can't play how can we keep him? If a £20m offer comes in on deadline day from Spurs then they will sell. The rot set in once Cortese and Poche left and the CL dream disappeared. Not the new board’s fault. They might’ve hung on to Chambers if they had the stubbornness/stupidity to refuse the move, shatter his dreams and still expect him to be 100% committed to Saints. But that wouldn’t have been productive. As we are seeing with Schneiderlin.

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