£6m ace tells club he wants Southampton move and offered deal until 2025

Mislav Orsic should sign a two-and-a-half year contract at Southampton after telling Dinamo Zagreb that he wants to join Nathan Jones’ Premier League strugglers, according to Croatian publication Sportske Novosti.

Southampton, during Wednesday’s hapless, gutless 1-0 home defeat to relegation rivals Nottingham Forest, looked like a team crying out for inspiration. Crying out for a sliver of a threat in the final third. Crying out for a player capable of grabbing the game by the proverbial scruff of the neck, and producing something out of nothing.

In Orsic, Southampton might just have found the man capable of turning those defeats into draws, those draws into wins.

Since joining Dinamo Zagreb from Korean football back in 2018, the 30-year-old has scored 91 goals from the left-wing. 20 of those came last season. Orsic has fired Dinamo to seven domestic titles in just four years; scoring European goals against Chelsea, AC Milan, West Ham and Sevilla.

Did we mention that Europa League hat-trick against Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur? A performance which catapulted Orsic into the pantheon of Dinamo Zagreb legends?

Southampton will sign Croatia star Mislav Orsic from Dinamo Zagreb

Whether the well-travelled forward can exert a similarly talismanic impact on the South Coast, only time will tell. But, at just £6 million, bottom-of-the-table Southampton are signing one of Europe’s most consistent goalscorers for a bargain fee.

Sportske Novosti say that Southampton had a £4.5 million bid rejected earlier this month. The Saints have now agreed terms on an improved offer. Orsic, meanwhile, has informed Dinamo Zagreb of his desire to seal a move to the Premier League, and the Croatian champions will not stand in his way. They will honour a gentleman’s agreement; allowing Orsic to embark upon a new challenge 12 months after he turned down a move to Burnley.

Orsic, SN add, will sign a two-and-a-half year deal until the summer of 2025. The Daily Echo believe he underwent a medical on Thursday.

Southampton are also in negotiations for Terem Moffi, Nicolas Jackson and Carlos ‘Charly’ Alcaraz.