Saints are upping the ante to improve their squad and this time its Poland we are looking towards with a bid to Legia Warsaw.

Saints are reportably chasing Legia Warsaw's Slovakian midfielder Ondrej Duda. The 20 year old playmaker was apparently the subject of a bid from Saints a month ago, when they allegedly tabled a £4 million offer for the player.

Legia Warsaw felt that this was not enough and that they would receive better offer in the summer after the Polish season ended. Now with that drawing to a close Saints are reported to be about to put in another bid with rumours of Inter Milan and Aston Villa also sniffing around.

However neither has pu their money on the table so far and legia are keen to sell so that they can finance their own rebuilding programme this summer.

Ronald Koeman knows that he needs not only a bigger squad but one that has players capable of putting pressure on those with regular starting spots as well as offering options to change tactics.

Ondrej Duda.would not be viewed as a potential starting regular but a good squad player with potential, the only drawback being his career is dogged by injury, so far this season he has only managed 12 starts in the league although he has scored 5 times.

He has also played for Slovakia twice scoring the only goal against the Czech republic in a friendly in the second of those games.

Photo: Action Images

mesquita added 12:36 - Jun 3 Interested to see the Saints recognise the need for additional guile in midfield to support Tadic. We lost something when he became less than 100% fit partway through the season. Just question whether Duda is good enough yet but pleased to see the need is recognised
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SaintBrock added 13:23 - Jun 3 Don't we have a 20 year-old international playmaker on our books already?
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TimSaint added 15:09 - Jun 3 Saintbrock - do you mean the one who can't score, has no pace and cannot establish himself in the side ? Too much over promise and too much under achievement. Provided we make it through the qualifiers, which as we will be seeded should ensure this, we will need more depth in our squad for the Europa League. Why not sign him, if he is available at a good price ? He may turn out to be a gem. I watched the Slovakia v Czech Rep game on tv, as I was over there for skiing and Duda look very promising. Ron clearly doesn't trust our youngsters yet, so I fully expect further signings similar to those of Duricic and Elia.

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IanRC added 17:47 - Jun 3 Personally I think Duricic and Elia have been pretty poor, although Elia started well. Think JWPis starting to come good and hopefully a year older he will be a regular starter (and scorer).
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mesquita added 17:53 - Jun 3 I am assuming that you mean Harry Reed. His own quotes today on international duty say that he sees himself as a defensive midfielder not a playmaker. He disagrees with the comparison with his lookalike Scholes. So, more a Schneiderlin than a Tadic and in any event not yet quite ready for a TOP 4 Team regular
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TimSaint added 10:57 - Jun 4 IanRC - agreed that Elia and Duricic have hardly set the world alight. Elia came with a promise of walking through fire to play for Ron / play in Prem, but proved to be a bit of a damp squib after a promising start. (He can take corners though, which appears to be a bit of a problematic area for the rest of the team !!). Duricic didn't get a lot of game time and see offered with injury. He showed glimpses of what he could do, but nothing really impressive. The 2 fit into Ron's signings criteria in that they have Dutch League experience, so perhaps he is branching out a little now with Duda ? I just hope if we get him, that he offers a little more quality than Elia and Duri, as we will need this if we are to push on in the Prem and Europa Leagues next season. As for JWP, I expected the competition for places to have driven him on this season, but he has proven to be something of an overrated set piece specialist that has provided a handful of assists and a solitary goal from the spot. I think he needs to get his head down, have a good U21 tournament (with Matt Targett) and kick on for next season, to prove his potential to Ron and us fans !!

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TimSaint added 11:06 - Jun 4 Mesquita - Harry is 20, yes, but we were referring to JWP, who despite being involved with the first team for so long already, does not turn 21 until November this year
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