Saints are set to try and tie up the signing of Manolo Gabbiadini today with a meeting scheduled between the representatives of all three parties.
Italian sports papers are reporting that Manolo Gabbiadini has turned down other clubs and is determined to sign for Southampton, however the stumbling block is still Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis, who although now a long way under his original demands of 25 million euros is still not sanctioning the deal till Saints meet his current terms.
The clubs are not too far apart on the actual initial fee, Saints are only 1 million euros short of the 18 million asking price , but it is the finer points of the contract that now need to be resolved so that the deal can be completed.
With that in mind all three parties, Saints, Napoli and the players agent will meet in Milan today to try and finally resolve the situation and let the player move to St Mary's.
If the deal can be reached then things will move fast with Gabbiadini prepared to travel straight to Southampton for a medical and the signing could be tied up by this evening.
The big question though is whether Saints will sell to fund the deal with West Brom rumoured to be about to launch a £15 million bid for Jay Rodriguez.
Personally I would be disappointed to see J Rod leave the club, he has shown that he still has an eye for goal and if playing regularly could well hit double figures in the Premier League this season, a total that would be decent given the game time in the Premier league that he has.
But Saints may feel that the problem up front is not quantity of strikers but the failure of them to score on a regular basis, I blame the constant rotation for that which has seen only Nathan Redmond played with any real regularity.
But the club who have been very patient with J Rod over the past three years since his initial injury may take the view that it is time to move him on and selling him to West Brom for £15 million represents a good deal for the given that they would still have Long, Redmond, Tadic, Sims, Boufal and new signing Gabbiadini in competition for the three attacking positions, not to mention Charlie Austin on his return late in the season.