Southampton are expected to sign another centre-half once a deal for Real Valladolid defender Mohammed Salisu is done and dusted, according to Sky Sports.
With that brilliant, backs-against-the-wall victory against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City still fresh in the memory, you would think that Ralph Hasenhuttl and co would be prioritising additions at the other end of the pitch.
But even after Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek masterfully malfunctioned the Premier League’s most fearsome goalscoring machine, it seems that new defenders are still at the top of the Saints’ summer wishlist.
And, barring a late collapse, 20-year-old Ghanaian Salisu will become Southampton’s first signing of the window.
After seven months of tracking the La Liga ace, AS claims that he is on the verge of agreeing a four-year, £35,000-a-week contract on the South Coast.
Though, if everything goes to plan, Salisu will not be the only new centre-half at St Mary’s.
Sky have previously reported that Eintracht Frankfurt’s £12 million-rated Frenchman, Evan Ndicka, also has admirers at Southampton – and he fits the bill, with Hasenhuttl targeting a mystery man from the continent.
Young, technically gifted and relatively cheap, the 20-year-old Bundesliga powerhouse is most certainly a typical Southampton signing.
Axel Disasi or Reims and Mohammed Simakan of Strasbourg, two more promising talents in the Salisu, mould have also been linked of late.
All the signs, then, point to Jannik Vestergaard bringing an end to his rather underwhelming time at Southampton when the transfer window opens.
The Mail reports that the £18 million giant will be sold, with Leicester City a potential destination.
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