RUPERT LOWE believes Saints' activity during last month's transfer window provides further evidence of the club's rising ambitions.

Saints splashed out more than £4m to strengthen the St Mary's squad without selling any of the current high-flying team.

And though the club have reported half-year financial losses of over £3.5m, that was down to investing in the squad with the arrivals of Michael Svensson and Antti Niemi and Lowe sees no cause for concern.

Since then, Federico Arias, David Prutton and Danny Higginbotham arrived during the January transfer window while Neil Moss, Imants Bleidelis, Kleber Chala and Tahar El Khalej all had their contracts cancelled by mutual consent last month.

Lowe, who from the start of the current season believed European football was a feasible target, said the dealings were all part of a strategy to steadily improve the squad.

He said: "They show we are not content to rest on our laurels.

"It increases competition for places and will give us a push for the final games of the season having worked hard to get into a position where we can look up rather than down.

"It is part of our strategy of continuing to strengthen our squad, although you must not spend money you don't have.

"Prutton and Higginbotham are both good players. They are of a good age, they are English, which is good news as it means they don't have the language problems or the same difficulties settling in."

He added: "It gives our squad greater strength, but also greater depth so it is good news for the club.

"We did well - they are a fair price in the current market."

Saints' January deals took their net spending in the transfer market since the start of the 1996/97 season to just over £15m - showing it is possible to fashion a top half Premiership squad without splashing out mega-millions.

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Daily Echo, Saints have reported a deficit of £3,573,000 for the six months to November 30, 2002.

Saints showed a profit of £5.4m for the same period last year - but that was due to selling Dean Richards to Tottenham for £8.1m.

The operating loss for the same period was £287,000 and Lowe stressed the overall state of the club is healthy.

Turnover increased by £1.5m to £16.3m and match-day income went up by 34 per cent to £5.9m, mainly due to two extra games being played at St Mary's compared to the first half of the previous financial year.

Broadcasting revenue increased by 19 per cent to £7.2m from one live and one per pay-view-game in each period.