Saints are said to be closing in on Mohammed Salisu, but is a 21 year old the answer to our problems in the centre of the defence where we need experience organisation and leadership.
Mohammed Salisu from Real Valladollid in Spain is said to be near to a move to St Mary's, but having only just turned 21 and with only 31 appearances in La Liga to his name, all made in the 2019/20 season, is he or for that matter a number of other central defenders all around the same age and experience truly the solution to our defensive problems.
The Jack Stephens/Jan Bednarek pairing in the centre of our defence is the best we have, but it is way down the pecking order in terms of the best in the Premier League.
The truth is that they do not compliment each other, a good pairing would see one partner being the steel, the player who gets stuck in and wins the ball and the other holding the back line, controlling the defence and talking his fellow defenders through the game.
I feel Bednarek has the qualities to be the stopper, but I am afraid that Jack Stephens does not seem to have the organisational capabilities nor the leadership qualities and cannot seem to read the game.
Time and time again we are caught on the break, Arsenal did it with a hopeful punt down the middle which left us for dead and so did Everton when they scored their goal last week, sides know that we are not organised at the back.
That does not mean that Stephens is a bad player, there is some who believe he is better suited as a holding midfielder, he has many good qualities and I am sure he is a great person, but he is a player caught between two types of central defender, he is neither leader nor stopper and every good defence has that balance, sometimes as in the case of Virgil Van Dijk you have a player with both those qualities.
So another young defender is not the answer to our defensive woes, we need experience, we need leadership and that comes with age, the Saints teams with youth in them saw that flourish because of the old heads around them, Alan Ball and Jimmy Case spring to mind, they talked and they organised and they helped nurture the youngsters, we do not have that in our team.
Last summer we should have brought in someone like Gary Cahill or even Phil Jagielka, they had the age and experience that we needed, they would have helped both Stephens and Bednarek become better players.
Neither have truly had the benefit of a mentor in the back four, Yoshida had the experience, but he himself was not an organiser or a leader, age alone doesn't bring that, indeed he needed quality alongside him.
So although it would be good to see Salisu or another starlet join Saints, if we sign one then we should not forget that we need experience in the centre of defence, Jannik Vestergaard like Yoshida didn't have the qualities needed, he himself would be good alongside a leader, Leicester clearly see that, but he flounders when playing alongside those who are just as at sea as himself.
But if Vestergaard goes we need two new central defenders, Bednarek & Stephens have earned their right to be in the Saints squad, but we have to accept that in the last two years they are not compatible as a pairing, a 21 year old like Salisu might improve our options, but it won't solve the problem of organisation.
Therefore I would like to see two new central defenders in, one a youngster and the other an experienced player, preferably some of that in the Premier League, I suspect that there will be a few currently at other Premier League clubs either out of contract or surplus to requirements.
Supplement Bednarek & Stephens with a young player like Salisu and an old head who can bring them on, not just in matches but on the training ground and we will have the balance right, competition for places and the ability for Ralph Hasenhuttl to change his formation to three at the back when he feels the situation needs it.
When Jimmy Case and Alan Ball arrived or for that matter central defenders like Chris Nicholl they brought balance to the side, we need to get back to that now, most players we seem to chase fall in the promising youngster category, nothing wrong with that, but ask Lawrie McMenemy what the secret to his success was and he will tell you having the right balance of youngsters and old heads to talk them through games.