Che Adams is entering the last year of his contract at St Mary's, the big question on most Saints fans lips is whether he will be part of the future or is he about to become part of the past.
Che Adams has never really taken off as a striker at Southampton, in his first two years he was in the shadow of Danny Ings and in the last two he never really had a partner with whom he developed a partnership.
In those four seasons he started 88 Premier League games plus another 36 off the bench and scored 25 goals plus a number of assists. Not a bad total, but he always seemed on the verge of turning into a great player but could never quite make that jump forward, he scored the difficult and missed the easy.
Leeds United seem to have been the main club chasing him and it is leedsunitednews.com who are carrying the story that Che Adams could be about to leave the club, quoting the Sun’s Alan Nixon on his Patreon channel as the source.
Leeds almost agreed a deal for Adams in January, but it seems that they are not in the hunt this time despite a relatively low price of £10 million being cited as the money that Southampton will accept.
The leaders in the hunt for Adams at this price seem to be AFC Bournemouth, whom Adams could well play against in a friendly at St Mary's on Tuesday evening and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
That is a lot less that the £15 million that Saints paid in the summer of 2019 and indeed than the £17 million that transfermarkt currently value him at.
This low price is likely to be because Adams is in the last year of his contract at St Mary's and is unlikely to sign a new deal with the uncertainty over the next year, so do Saints and indeed the player sit it out and wait to see whether the club will be in a promotion push next season, or do they cash in now ?
It seems that they are open to both options, Adams is proven at Championship level, he scored 22 goals in his last season with Birmingham, but that was 4 years ago and his overall record at St Andrews was not much better than his current ratio at Southampton and less than the 28 that Adam Armstrong managed two years ago for Blackburn.
It was Armstrong who started the game at Reading on Saturday with Adams on the bench, from what I saw and it should be noted that this was the first real test of the season, Adam Armstrong looks more suited to the system and style that Russell martin wants to play, he is fast, nippy and with a good touch.
But he would need a strike partner and the question is whether Adams is that man and indeed whether he has the appetite to stay for a fifth season.
So there are several factors in play here on both sides of the fence.
But is there any real interest in Adams from the Premier League ? That is the big question and perhaps why Saints are said to be starting the bidding as low as £10 million, if that is the case it seems that it is Southampton FC themselves who are trying to generate interest.
£10 million is a big figure and one they would lose if Adams stays and sees out his contract and does not sign a new deal, but it is a small price to pay if he helps Saints to promotion back to the Premier League.
Saints will be treading a fine line, they will be hoping to attract some potential buyers at £10 million and push the price up with a bidding war, Adams would be attractive to a lower half Premier League club, but for the player it is a risk, Saints could have a better chance of being in the Premier League for season 2024/25 than say Bournemouth, Wolves or a host of other clubs around them have of still being there.
I would say that if he stays Saints will be happy, but if he goes and they can get £10 million they will feel that they could use the money well and get someone in just as effective.
Sport Republic have been much maligned over the past year, but it should be noted that Rasmus Ankersen was the man who engineered the moves of Ivan Toney, Ollie Watkins, Neal Maupay and several others to Brentford, all players who were unknown but went on to better things, both with Brentford and in some cases after.