With the rumour mill hotting up that saints are preparing a bid for Blackburn defender Scott Dann, it seems that it might cost somewhere north of £6 million to land him.

With so many Dan's already in the squad, Fox, Harding, Seaborne & Butterfield to name but four, perhaps its no surprise that we are in the market for a player with the surname Dann, but the fact of the matter is that in this case its not going to come cheap, in fact to tempt Blackburn we are going to have to pay more than we forked out in total for all our other Dan's.

£6 million is the figure quoted in this mornings papers, is that realistic ? well given that Dann signed for Birmingham three years ago for a fee purported to be £3.5 million + .5 million add ons three years ago without having played in the Premier and that Rovers themselves signed him last year for a figure quoted to be that very £6 million, I think its fair to say that they are going to want to try and recoup their money back or at least very near it.

Blackburn like most clubs relegated from the Premier will have to be watching the purse strings and Dann is sure to be a big earner on their books, one which they might feel they need to get off them to reduce costs.

After moving to Ewood Park last season Dann was a virtual ever present in the side, a ruptured testicle keeping him out for a month over Xmas being his only absence, there are some who might question signing a player who has been relegated from the Premier two seasons in a row, but the fact is that this cant be attributed to Dann on his own, Blackburn of course were a deflated team with internal wranglings and protests against their manager from the very start of the season, they were dragged down by the situation which in turn dragged down the players with it.

At Birmingham the previous season you could say that Dann had a direct influence on their relegation, with Birmingham sitting safely in mid table, he was injured in the January and didnt play again for the rest of the season, although initially Brum stayed in mid table and even won the Carling Cup, Dann was not part of that due to injury and so could only watch as the Blues suffered a complete collapse at the end of the season and a relegation that had looked totally unlikely up until the final few games.

But is he worth six million ? well Birmingham certainly thought he was worth £4 million three years ago before he kicked a ball in the Premier, Blackburn thought he was a year ago and now with three years experience in the Premier behind him they would say that he most certainly is, but will Saints pay that ?

They most certainly will, for the right player at the right price, the question now is how  many other irons in the fire do Saints have, certainly our last two forays into the transfer market for a central defender have ended in controversy, Elliot Ward & Kaspar Gorkss both having agreed terms and been kicked into touch as they were about to sign the contracts in January 2010 & August 2011 respectively, both found their deals gazumped as Saints went for another target for some reason and this could be a similar situation for Dann, will Saints feel that Dann is there number one target or will haggling over the price and trying to knock down Blackburn cost them the player ?

This isnt just a Saints thing though, it happens at many clubs, the fine line has to be walked between not paying over the odds and not trying to get the price down so much that you lose your man.

But Saints cannot afford to wait around for too long on this one, they need to be up and running from day one in the Premier, there is no room for error when you are playing for big stakes, the season is now a little over three weeks away, if they are to give the player time to settle and merge with the squad, they need to have made the signing in the next 10 days, what is often overlooked in football is the upheaval a player may go through when joining a club, if Dann or any player joins on the eve of the season, juggling all that entails alongside looking for somewhere to live and if he has children perhaps find a school for them etc, all of these things effect a player being totally focused on what he is being paid to do.            

Photo: Action Images

SingaporeSaint added 11:02 - Jul 24 Worrying times - if I was the owner I would not be happy spending this money on Dann.. I also do not see the strategy here - Dann is a ball playing centre half, he's the secondary player of a pairing, not a talker or a leader and not particulary quick either but a decent footballer.. The leader was Roger Johnson at Birmingham and Samba at Blackburn. Blackburn were dreadful at the back once Samba left. We dont have a leader at the back. We also lack pace (at c half). We need a quick, talker of a C half - this doesnt have to be the ball winner as Jos could potentially do this.. We were in for Mariappa and I saw a strategy but we let him sign for Reading for 1/3 of the price quoted here. I think we've sat back and enjoyed the Euros and the summer and not been quick enough in the market - we are now entering the last chance saloon with prices going up and at risk of panic buying.. I would make an Adi Akimbiyi joke if he hadnt already got a decent payout off us this summer! (J Rod's agent). I'm not convinced on the strategy with J Rod either - I thought he was a secondary striker to play with Lambert but in the friendlies we have only played one up front and by all accounts Lambert is not looking too good in that formation - I dont think J Rod is strong enough to be the lone front man.. We have Luke Shaw and Clyne as good young fullbacks but we play them as wingers in the friendlies.. Possibly to get used to overlapping but seems a bit odd.. I cant see Butterfield getting starts in the prem league - Gareth Bale must be licking his lips.. I also dont know why NA went on record and said we are looking to sign 2 centre halves - why say that? It just makes every team and agent put a few more quid on their centre halves when we come calling... I'd be getting on the phone to clubs in Northern Europe right now if I was NA, as for 4M you would likely get a very decent centre half who can speak english well - but he has to get on with it as most European seasons will start in a couple of weeks and will not be wanting to sell their leaders. A few weeks ago a number of us put up posts saying that we havent been overly impressive in the transfer market to date. I dearly hope there is a strategy which I am not seeing - but I'm not convinced at all..

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winchesterbob added 11:13 - Jul 24 Scott Dann; relegation Jonah?
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Sanguin added 11:25 - Jul 24 You can add Ammar Jemal to the list of centre half signings that broke down!
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Santos added 11:41 - Jul 24 Personally I have not seen much of Scott Dann to know what type of player he is, but worringly I have read a lot of Rovers sites and they seem pretty united that they are not going to miss him (and I'm being polite here). Imho we already have similar in Fonte and Hoover, what we do need is a younger Jahdi type big strong quickish type I fear Dann could be whatever price money wasted.

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SaintNick added 11:46 - Jul 24 Being a Steve Kean signing and the rovers fans aversion to Kean, I think some of that might be based on that they are lumping him in with Kean
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tiptop added 21:59 - Jul 24 Hear what you're saying Singapore. Good observations. Our transfer tactics? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. We are only nibbling on rumours. But so far the whiffs of rumour we've heard have been true in particular Rodrigez, Buttner, Clyne...Dann? What we need in a center half: Pace. Strength. Ability to play the ball. A leader by example(Jos' strength). A calm head (Fonte's biggest flaw IMO). I hope that someone like the strong, cultured center back from Montpelier touted on the forum comes our way. As for left side lets hope that is work in progress....but time is ticking. How many back up options did NA have after Buttner I wonder?

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NPsaint1 added 00:36 - Jul 25 A ruptured testicle!!! That must have hurt.
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