Southampton: Johannes Spors forecasts a quiet January window for Saints

Southampton technical director Johannes Spors does not expect the club to be “extremely active” in the January transfer window following a busy summer of recruitment.

Saints were 21st and three points above the relegation zone when Will Still was sacked on 3 November after three straight defeats and just two wins from the opening 13 matches (D6 L5).

But they have won six of their seven games since then under Tonda Eckert, who was rewarded with the permanent head coach role on 5 December, and now sit ninth – just one point behind the play-off spots.

Southampton conducted 37 transfers in and out of the club in the wake of Premier League relegation, a squad churn that Spors has claimed contributed to Still’s downfall.

“To be clear, we will not be a team in January that is extremely active in the market because we did all these changes in the summer and now it’s more to support the stability,” Spors told BBC South Today.

“We will have eyes and ears open but I also wanted Tonda’s opinion, it’s extremely important for this.

“Sometimes when you come in, you’re very clear in what you see but in another three or four weeks, you might see things differently.

“So, I just wanted to make sure that Tonda has enough time to really have an opinion on every decision we have to take.

“We didn’t speak about that [transfers] too much. After the Norwich and Coventry game, around that time of the year is a good moment to sit down and go more into detail.”

Spors was questioned over whether they would be looking to add a goalkeeper as a priority, but the German said he “does not want to point to one specific position”.

“The goalkeeper position in general, we have George Long who is here on loan, Alex McCarthy has a running out contract, I’m very happy that Gavin [Bazunu] is now again the number one and playing,” Spors added.

“But it is a group where we have to look into this just because of the contract situations but nothing yet is specifically a target.”