Dan takes a look at potential Saints signing Nicolae Stanciu from Steau Bucharest and what he could bring to the club.

In the last few weeks, multiple news sources have reported that Southampton have made an offer “too good to turn down” for Steaua Bucuresti attacking midfielder Nicolae Stanciu, the bid being in the region of €9m.

Stanciu featured for his native country of Romania at Euro 2016 earlier in the Summer who were eliminated in the group stage of the tournament.

Claude Puel is still looking to strengthen his squad ahead of a busy schedule this season and the only position without depth is attacking midfield, where Dusan Tadic currently plays at the tip of Puel’s diamond.

The 23-year old scored 14 goals and made 11 assists last season for the Romanian giants and has also started this current season brightly with four goals in six games.

Stanciu won’t complete the move until Thursday or later because of Steaua’s Champions League tie with Manchester City on Wednesday and is wanted for the game despite the Romanian side being 5-0 down on aggregate.

With Champions League experience, I think Stanciu will be a good addition to the squad as European games will be his most likely source of decent play-time. With no disrespect but we all know that the Romanian top-flight is no where near the standard of the Premier League but 14 goals in a season as an attacking midfielder is a statistic to be proud of.

At the moment it is thought that Dusan will still be the first choice for the tip of the diamond but Puel could find other ways to include Stanciu if he impresses when given a chance. Who knows, Steaua are almost definitely going to be in the Europa League group stage and could be drawn against Saints on Friday.

Photo: Action Images

Ali_Diarea added 13:53 - Aug 24 We should be targeting players that are better than our current squad. We scratch around for bargains in Europe whilst West Ham are linked with Bony and Zaza. We're going backwards, despite European qualification.
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jerken added 14:13 - Aug 24 Good luck to them, Bony struggling to make the grade and Zaza to take penalties?
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Ali_Diarea added 14:19 - Aug 24 I'd hardly call 10 goals in 20 starts "struggling to make the grade" Jerken!
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jerken added 15:35 - Aug 24 You're right, didn't do my homework, but I reckon he had some very expensive helpers"
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