Saints Handed Boost In Pursuit Of Striker
Southampton have been given a light at the end of the tunnel in their pursuit of Manchester City striker Liam Delap, with the son of ex Saints player Rory Delap being told he can leave the Etihad.
Earlier this summer Saints reportedly had a bid of £16 million turned down by Manchester City for teenage striker Liam Delap, however the deal could soon be on after Pep Guardiola confirmed that the teenage forward will leave the Etihad on loan.
"We loaned ‘Macca’ [James McAtee, to Sheffield United], Liam is in that process because we have Erling and Julian and he needs minutes. The EDS phase is done. He has to try and go there and play the other ones.”
This could be interesting news for Saints, clearly when they made the bid for Delap he was interested in the move and he obviously knows new Saints head of recruitment Joe Shields well from their time spent together at the City academy.
A loan deal might suit Saints better now than a permanent move, it would reduce expenditure and enable them to also tackle other areas of concern in the team, such as in the centre of defence.
Delap is still only 19, the same age that Armado Broja was when he joined Saints a year ago, although the Chelsea man was within weeks of turning 20 and had a season on loan at Vitesse Arnhem, whereas Delap wont leave his teens until February and although has played for City in the Premier League twice has little experience of first team football at any level.
City are clearly keen to keep Delap and as mentioned that could now suit Saints.
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