Southampton were priced out of transfer deals, says Mauricio Pellegrino
Thursday 1 February 2018 23:51, UK
Mauricio Pellegrino says Southampton failed to substantially strengthen their squad because they were priced out of deals in the January transfer window.
Southampton sold defender Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool for £75m at the start of the window but only spent £19.2m of that on their own signings - with striker Guido Carrillo arriving from Monaco on a three-and-a-half-year deal.
Southampton were working on a deal for Spartak Moscow winger Quincy Promes but the Russian club's struggle to replace the Dutchman meant the transfer was abandoned on Deadline Day, according to Sky sources.
Pellegrino says Southampton had sufficiently prepared for the transfer window but had bids for their targets knocked back by selling clubs.
"I think we were prepared. The question is in our targets, we couldn't bring our targets," he said.
"Some of them because it was too expensive for us, some of them because they [other clubs] don't want to accept our bids.
"And at the end, little by little, when you lose the target number one, you lose the target number two and the time is passing every single day it is more difficult because they (the selling club) don't have time to replace.
"The market I think in the last two years change a lot, from Pogba, from Neymar, I think the transfer fees are massive.
"When you think about now the transfer fees of the players, it's difficult to bring good players, good quality and that can play in the Premier League, that's difficult."
Southampton have gone 12 games without a win and have dropped into the relegation zone ahead of Saturday's game against West Brom at the Hawthorns.
Pellegrino refused to criticise his players and says he will judge his squad at the end of the season.
"At the end of the season will be the moment to draw a conclusion about our performance, about what every single player did in this period of time and after to analyse," he said.
"And maybe in June it will be easier, right now it's difficult to talk about."
