Premier League: It's finally September, and the Saints are smiling

Ronald Koeman has done a good job so far at Southampton

Despite doom-and-gloom predictions from some quarters, Southampton have started their post-Pochettino era positively. Andy Brassell takes a look...

Of all the shocks intrinsic in the closing hours of the transfer window - the Falcao move, Steve Bruce's hasty assembly of a mouth-watering line-up at Hull - one of the greatest perhaps comes after careful consideration of the results of the summer's movement. Southampton, supposedly in the process of being picked apart by vultures post-Pochettino, look to have recovered the upwardly mobile swagger that has characterised their trajectory since they returned to the top flight in 2012. 

For owner Katharina Liebherr, her board and the club's fans, rarely can a transfer window have felt longer. The balance sheet looks good, with 92m raked in from the sales of Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers and Rickie Lambert, but the suspicion had been that the vim and vigour that epitomised one of the Premier League's most watchable teams of last season went out of the door with them. Executive director Les Reed's words in April, when he declared that "no club has been given permission to talk to any of our players, and that will remain so", seemed a very long time ago.

Enter Ronald Koeman. Five years ago, the Dutchman's appointment would have had 'disaster in waiting' written all over it, after his reputation had taken a heavy battering in high-profile failures at Valencia and - despite a Champions League quarter-final - Benfica. His successes since speak volumes for his intelligence and humility. His three years in charge of Feyenoord were an unqualified success, after he lifted the Rotterdam giants from the doldrums back towards the top of the Eredivisie into Europe.

That Koeman did so on a shoestring, relying heavily on youth products, must have been the main attribute to make him so attractive to Southampton, even if the coach himself might feel frustration at being denied the chance to work further on the already-excellent Shaw and Chambers. 

The 51-year-old has a transfer budget that he could only of dreamed of in his time at De Kuip, even if Southampton's total spend of 60m in fees still leaves them considerably in profit. That financial muscle was a notable factor in the deal to sign Dusan Tadic, who Sevilla had hoped would replace Ivan Rakitic before being blown out of the water by the Premier League-powered blunderbuss. 

Koeman has used his resources intelligently, covering all bases with Ryan Bertrand and Shane Long (the Premier League knowhow), Graziano Pelle (a goalscorer who doesn't disrupt the team's fluidity), Sadio Man (an explosive attacking threat) and loanee Toby Alderweireld (a potentially top-drawer defender with plenty to prove). The capture of Fraser Forster, meanwhile, seems to bring clarity to an area which has been a major source of uncertainty for the Saints ever since they were promoted. 

What's more is that Koeman seems to have got the disparate parts to glue together pretty quickly. The Saints played with personality despite losing at Liverpool on the opening day, and stuck to their principles to prevail at West Ham on Saturday. That Pelle is off the mark in the Premier League already, courtesy of the tidy finish that tied up business in Saturday's win, is a considerable relief. 

The admiration for Koeman's sure-footed opening in England is reflected in the market. Southampton are now out to 12.5n/a for relegation, having previously traded as low as 5.24/1. The smart bet is to get on them at 2.47/5 for a top ten finish, with scope to add to an already accomplished squad in the winter window if needed, with plenty in the bank. The succession has been a smooth one.