AC Milan, Inter Milan, Arsenal and Liverpool are all in the race to sign Eintracht Frankfurt defender Evan N’Dicka according to the media, now it is claimed that Saints will join them.
Calciomercato.com‘s Daniele Longo has confirmed the interest of the aforementioned clubs adding that the Bundesliga side are likely to ask for a fee of around €25million to sell the young centre-back this summer.
Now, Sky have claimed (via MilanNews) that Saints are also in the race to land the 20-year-old.
Some will sneer that we have no chance of signing him if we are up against the likes of these so called super clubs, but that is not always the case.
It is times like this when you find out of a player or more importantly perhaps his agent is chasing money or success, for a 20 year old like N.Dicka
The French U21 International joined Eintracht Frankfurt from Auxerre in July 2018 and has played in the Bundesliga 42 times so far, 15 of which have been this season, this means that he is an undoubted talent but does not have the experience to step straight into the first team of a top top club.
Comparisons can be drawn with Virgil Van Dijk's move to St Mary's back in 2015, Liverpool were also said to be interested, but failed to bid, they didn't take him off their radar they merely were prepared to wait and indeed pay more to get a player who in 2015 was untried in a top league, but in 2017 had proved himself in the Premier League and was now ready to step up.
That is where Saints fit in nicely in the transfer market and where hopefully players and their agents see the benefit of continuing their footballing education at a club like Southampton to prepare themselves for a bigger move.
This will perhaps provoke uproar in some who will say we have to stop being a selling club, but I have been saying for 6 years now that being a selling club is the only way forward for clubs of our size.
If we are not selling players, that means we have no one that anyone wants, some are very naive if they think that merely telling a player he is not leaving is the end of the matter, we have to play the game to our advantage not try to fight against it or indeed even drop out of it.
Therefore our job will be to convince Evan N'Dicka and his agent that if he plays for us and gets the experience and reputation that Van Dijk did here, then he will be able to command a far bigger financial package when the big clubs come calling.
Liverpool and the top English clubs are littered with £25 million signings that never quite make the grade as they can't get regular games in the side and whose career does not hit the peaks it really should have.
We will perhaps find out later in the summer if N'Dicka and his agents ambitions are for footballing or financial success.