The Italian media is reporting that Saints have been watching a Swedish midfielder playing in Serie A and they do make a good point as to why we could be after this player.

Calcio Mercato are claiming that Saints & West Ham are taking a long hard look at Palermo midfielder Oscar Hiljemark, the 23 year old Swede who only joined the club in the summer from PSV Eindhoven has made a great start to his time in Italy scoring 3 times in the opening 6 games.

That has lead to speculation that Saints are considering him for a bid in the January transfer window.

Although initial thoughts are why would Saints need another midfielder with Wanyama, Romeu & Clasie not to mention Steven Davis & JWP, it could be that Saints are planning ahead of the possibility of losing Victor Wanyama at some stage in the next 20 months or so, the Kenyan will be out of contract in the summer of 2017 and if he has not signed a new deal by January Saints will probably be resigned to losing him and looking to get his replacement in before they accept a bid either in January or in the summer of 2016.

Hiljemark started his career in his native Sweden with Elfsborg and played 61 times in two seasons, earning him a move to PSV in January 2013. However his time in Holland would not be as great as he would have hoped and although he played 49 times in the league for PSV, only 29 of those were in the starting line up and he could not force his way into the team on a regular basis.

Internationally he captained Sweden throughout the 2015 U21 tournament which they eventually won on penalties against Portugal and he has won 6 caps for the full Swedish side.

In the summer of 2015 he moved to Palermo for a fee of 2 million euros plus 500k in add ons, roughly the same as PSV had paid for him.

He would be no stranger to Ronald Koeman who would have managed against him during his time at Feyenoord.

Photo: Action Images

Middlesbrough Polls