It is has been an unusually quiet summer transfer window for Southampton in terms of ins and outs, despite Premier League rivals such as Everton and West Ham United being extremely active within the market.

Considering new Saints boss Mauricio Pellegrino was only appointed towards the end of last month it is hardly a surprise, as he needs time to assess his squad and the areas that might need strengthening.

While young Poland centre-back Jan Bednarek has come in and Jay Rodriguez has left for West Bromwich Albion with a number of other youngsters also departing on loan, the south coast outfit have so far stayed firm with the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Bertrand, with the former telling the club he wants to leave.

One area that Pellegrino may be looking at is the lack of goals from the midfielders last season, with Oriol Romeu, Steven Davis, Jordy Claise and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg netting just one Premier League goal between them.

There would be few better options to add to the rectify that problem before the start of the new season than buying Swansea City’s Gylfi Sigurdsson, despite the fact that the Welsh outfit are demanding £50m for the attacking midfielder, who is a target for Leicester City and Everton.

Here are three reasons Southampton must break the bank and sign Sigurdsson this summer…

Incomings

While in previous summers Southampton have often lost some of their best players, they seem determined to stand firm this year and if they don’t lose anyone else from the current first team squad, then they don’t really need to strengthen in too many areas.

Considering they were missing Van Dijk and Charlie Austin for the second-half of last season, only had Manolo Gabbiadini from January and with the likes of Hojbjerg and Sofiane Boufal yet to make a real impact yet, the fully fit squad is looking strong ahead of the new campaign.

If Saints only need to bring in one or two players to the squad, then they should be able to go and spend £50m on one player, considering they didn’t spend too much less on Hojbjerg, Boufal, Nathan Redmond and Alex McCarthy last summer.

He can make a difference

Southampton’s problem last season was a lack of goals – they scored just 41 times in their 38 Premier League matches – and the addition of Sigurdsson could be the difference between the qualifying for Europe or not considering the goal threat and creativity he brings from an attacking midfield position or even out wide.

The 27-year-old netted nine goals and provided a further 13 assists from a range of different positions for Swansea in 38 top flight outings last term, and his expert set-piece ability and leadership could help Saints significantly boost their goal tally.

Statement of intent

If Southampton want to progress and convince their best players – such as Van Dijk and Bertrand – that they want to push on up the Premier League table, then there will come a time when they need to seriously invest in the squad and bring in individuals that will help them do that.

This summer would seem to be an ideal opportunity to bring in quality over quantity as they don’t need to strengthen in many areas at all, and the rest of the division would certainly sit up and take notice of the south coast outfit if they signed such an influential and impressive performer in Sigurdsson.

Do you agree, Saints fans? Let us know below.