With the start of the competitive season now only 4 weeks away, on the surface not much is happening at St Mary's but underneath Saints are working hard and the next week could see at least a couple of new faces.

The first of those could be Lewis Dobbin as revealed by footballleagueworld,co,uk.

The 23 year old Aston Villa player started at Everton before he was signed by Villa in 2024 for £10 million.

But he has not played a League game for the Midlands club and has spent the last two years out on loan, spending 24/25 season a firstly at West Bromwich Albion where he struggled for game time and then Norwich City, where he fared a little better.

Last season saw him at Preston North End & the 23 year old started to show what he could do, scoring 10 goals in 39 League games, as well as 8 assists, including scoring against Southampton on the final day of the season.

But given that his primary position is as a left winger, although he can also play through the centre, that rings alarm bells on where Leo Scienza will be plying his trade this season.

Saints will face competition for his signature with Wolverhampton Wanderers also interested, they might suit Dobbin better given his home town is Stoke on Trent.

At 23 his career is at a crossroads, he undoubtably has potential, but his time at Deepdale is the first time he has really shown it.

The issue may be down to money, he is on a good contract at Villa Park on wages that he will be unlikely to get elsewhere at present, Preston paid half his wages last season to secure his services, so the likelihood is that Villa will have to loan him out again and try to get a bit more of his wages covered.

The second player linked is more a replacement for Ross Stewart, again it is footballleagueworld who are making the claim.

The man in question is another Scot, Robbie Ure who is plying his trade in Sweden with IK Sirius.

The 22 year old started at Rangers and had a loan spell at Anderlecht before heading to Sweden, in 2025 he scored 11 goals in 30 appearances plus 4 assists, but it is this summer in the Allsvenskan that he has truly ignited.

So far he has hit 12 goals in the 12 games played so far, plus 2 assists meaning his agent has been busy.

His value has risen to around £5 million, so he could be worth a punt, but this was the case a year ago with Damion Downs and he will return to St Mary's hoping that perhaps he can impress and prove a few of his doubters wrong.

The transfer window will start to hot up now for Saints and they will be keen to get the business started, both in and out of the club and within the next 7 days or so we could well see a couple of new arrivals into the club.

However whether it will be Dobbin or Ure is far from certain, most of our signings these day tend to happen under the radar and the club seem happy to let the media speculate on certain players, so they can quietly get on with their business elsewhere.

This time last year many Saints supporters were berating the club for their transfer strategy, but Johannes Sporrs and his recruitment team proved the critics spectacularly wrong last season with the likes of Leop Sciennza, Finn Azaz, Caspar Jander, Tom Fellows, Daniel Peretz & Cyle Larin arriving, most of whom were completly unknown to most Southampton fans.

This gives us some confidence that they have their finger on the pulse and can again make this a good transfer window.

It should also be noted that last season saw several players dubbed failures in previous transfer windows come good, Shea Charles, James Bree, Ryan Manning & Ross Stewart had all been the target of some sections of our support and not in a good way.

So perhaps this season could see Cameron Archer & even Damion Downs perhaps turn from zero to hero in the eyes of the fans.

Don't write this off, as we have seen, stranger things have happened.

All Photos Via Reuters