🦁 PL Previews: Saints hope smart recruitment can kickstart a new era | OneFootball

Southampton dropped like a stone last season as injuries and defensive lapses saw them struggle in the lower echelons of the Premier League.

But a summer of smart recruitment and patience with the manager could well see them climb up the table this term.

Click here to see all of our season previews so far.

Transfers 🔁

In: Armel Bella-Kotchap (VfL Bochum, £8.6m), Romeo Lavia (Man City, £12m), Gavin Bazunu (Man City, £12m), Sékou Mara (Bordeaux, £9.4m), Joe Aribo (Rangers, £6m), Mateusz Lis (Altay, free)

Out: Fraser Forster (Tottenham, free), Shane Long (Reading, free), Eddie Beach (Chelsea, free), Harry Lewis (Bradford, free), Ramello Mitchell (West Brom, free), Will Smallbone (Stoke, loan), Dan Nlundulu (Cheltenham, loan), Kazeem Olaigbe (Ross County, loan), Caleb Watts (Morecambe, loan)

Transfer balance: -£48m

Key fixtures 📆

🔑 Key player: James Ward-Prowse

Southampton could spend hundreds of millions this summer on a plethora of new players and the most important member of the squad would still be James Ward-Prowse.

The England international has been one of the more underrated players in the Premier League over the past half decade but seems to finally be getting his dues from people outside of the south coast.

Always fit, always performing, and always there to bail the Saints out of a sticky situation. Only David Beckham has scored more free-kicks in Premier League history.

Ward-Prowse will no doubt be doing exactly the same this term but the real question is for how long?

What has changed since last season? 🤔

Boss Ralph Hasenhüttl could probably consider himself pretty lucky last season that there were three worse teams than Southampton come the middle of May.

The Saints won just eight games all season and claimed a single point from their final seven matches.

But the new owners, who took over back in January, have stuck with Hasenhüttl and backed him in the transfer market this summer.

Highly-rated Manchester City goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu has been poached as has his former club-mate Romeo Lavia, they’re joined by Bochum captain Armel Bella-Kotchap and exciting talent Joe Aribo also arrives after three excellent years at Rangers

Predicted XI 🔮

(4-2-2-2) — Bazunu; Walker-Peters, Bella-Kotchap, Salisu, Perraud; Ward-Prowse, Romeu; S. Armstrong, Elyonoussi; Aribo, Adams

Where will they finish? 🏆

Premier League: 17th FA Cup: Fourth round Carabao Cup: Third round

Click here to see all of our season previews so far.