According to media reports Saints have put a firm bid on the table for Burnley striker Jay Rodriguez, the 6ft 1 foward was of course a target in the January transfer window.

Burnley are now in the position of seeing Rodriguez enter the last year of his contract having failed to tie him down to a long term deal and after a flourishing end of the season know that he will be in high demand and as such are rumoured to be willing to listen to offers in the region of £8 million.

Rodriguez who hit 15 League goals last term would of course be attracted to Saints due to the fact that not only are they now in the Premier, but he might be far more likely to get a decent run of games for Saints than he would be in a more established top flight team.

Saints initial bid is believed to be a little short of Burnley's valuation, but of course this is normal in the grand scheme of transfer haggling and in truth is probably a fair price for a player yet to play in the Premier and at 22 just starting to bloom rather than being well established his league career so far consisting of 86 starts all mostly in the last two seasons plus 36 as sub with a goals tally of 35.

In certain respects if Saints can land Rodriguez then that would surely be the attacking options sorted, Lambert, Lee, Sharp & Rodriguez would be a decent looking attack on paper, the only concern being that none are proven at Premiership level.

My only worry should we sign J Rod is that although decent in the air and fairly tall at 6ft 1, he isnt the bustling striker Lambert is and for a team that channels eveything through that player we would have no direct replacement should he be injured or suspended and as we saw at times last season, this somewhat thwarted our attacking options, but perhaps Nigel Adkins is planning on a little variation.

Its unlikely that Burnley will accept Saints initial offer, at least not now, they are likely to prefer to wait a while and see what other clubs come in and start off the auction hoping to push up the price a little, from Rodriguez point of view he will of course want to go to a club that could offer him opportunitys, that could be Saints, but equally if Everton came calling as rumoured, they too might be able to offer him a decent chance to prove himself and they have a record of taking players from the lower divisions and giving them their chance.

So a sign of life in the transfer market, but dont be fooled, the real cut and thrust is still a while away.

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 12:47 - May 24 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18182424
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landsdownsaint added 13:01 - May 24 We need defenders and a bull in the midfield before we start offering silly money for someone who's no better than what we have!
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simmo400 added 15:06 - May 24 2 full backs is the priorty, foloowed by a strong midfielder.
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ThereIn76 added 16:22 - May 24 You can never have too many good strikers. Still think we should go for Jutkiewicz as he's more of a Lambert-style target man. But if we don't get J-Rod someone else will.
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slynch added 18:14 - May 24 This team is available on free transfers: GK – Hahnemann/Kingson DF – Pantsil, Upson, Craddock, Garrido MF – Gera, Vieira/Zenden, Reo-Coker, McFadden/Larsson FW – Gudjohnsen, Carew/Benjani
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Whatsforpud added 13:44 - May 25 Re Therein76's comment, you can have too many strikers. Sharp & Lee have only just arrived, thinking they were brought in for regular Premier action. An attacking midfielder would be money better spent.
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SaintStu7 added 16:09 - May 25 We don't need another Striker. I totally agree with previous comment, Lee and Sharp were brought when we were top of the Championship and we have Lambert and Barnard. They are untested but could all be a great success. We need to give them a run and if they all flop then we would have to spend big at xmas on a proven goal scorer... hopefully it wont come to that!
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