Romeo Lavia is hot property at the moment with the media linking him to several top clubs including Chelsea, Liverpool and his former club Manchester City are all said to be interested. But Liverpool may hold the key for Southampton.
The fact that three of the biggest clubs in the Premier League are after Romeo Lavia could be both good or bad news for Saints, all have a carrot to dangle in front of the player himself and also for Saints.
Latest reports suggest that Liverpool are monitoring the situation carefully and are lining up a cash plus player bid totalling around £50 million. Journalist Fabriano Romanzo talking to media outlet GiveMeSport claims the Merseyside club are interested;
"I'm not aware of any contact, but I'm told that Liverpool are following the player because he was one of the best talents in the Premier League.
"Because of that, it's normal to follow him. But, at the moment, there are not concrete negotiations with Southampton and they have not been approached."
The player that is being suggested as makeweight in the deal is Tyler Morton, to whom many will say Who ?
But a look at his career suggest that he could be an astute signing, the 20 year old has played few games for Liverpool, just 9 to be exact with just two of them coming in the Premier League, but he spent the season just gone at Blackburn Rovers.
Out of their 46 games he started 30 and was on the bench for a further 10 appearances before missing the final 3 games of the season.
He played most of his appearances for Rovers as they missed out by a whisker on a play off spot as a defensive midfielder although he can also play as a more traditional central midfielder and although he didn't score he had four assists, two in the Championship and the other two in the cup competitions.
So from a Saints perspective this seems to be an attractive proposition, a young up and coming player who is proven in the Championship.
Turning 21 in October Transfermarkt value him at around £7 million, roughly double his value when he joined Blackburn 10 months ago, so we would expect around £40 million extra in cash should Liverpool secure his services.
But Liverpool won't be the only club in town on this one, and it is said Liverpool face competition from both Chelsea and Manchester City and both have their attractions to the player himself.
At Stamford Bridge head of recruitment is Joe Shields who spend a couple of months at St Mary's in the same role last year, Shields soon jumped ship to Chelsea, but he had been implicit in the signing of Lavia from his former employers.
He is said to be keen to reunite with Lavia at Stamford Bridge and that may well be a draw for lavia, the plus side being his relationship with Shields, but the downside being that Chelsea have a top heavy squad and were a disaster last season, they have a new manager joining on 1st July in former Saints boss Mauricio Pochettino who may or may not be as keen as Shields to land him and this turmoil might discourage the player.
There is also the consideration that Shlelds stock might not be that high at Stamford Bridge after his first transfer window at the club in January saw 7 players brought in for £290 million and the squad not exactly improve.
His position at the club might not exactly be built on concrete at present.
Manchester City are also said to be keen to bring him back to the Etihad, but would they prefer this season or next ?
They have a buy back clause of £40 million, but that is said to only able to be invoked in the summer of 2024, so would City want to join in a bidding war now for a player who is probably not quite ready to step into their first team at the moment, they would perhaps feel that one good season at St Mary's is not enough experience for them to consider him first team material.
So one glimmer of hope for Saints might be that City might be counselling the player to stay one more season at St Mary's, get another years experience under his belt and then return to Manchester next summer, toughened up and ready to step into the City first team.
Certainly it is good news for Saints, a bidding war will push up the price.
So what would be best for Southampton, I would suggest that City "encouraging" the player to stay and then pay £40 million for him next summer would be preferable, but there is also the theory that getting £50 million or more now and including in the price Tyler Morton, a player proven at the level we are going to play perhaps might be just if not more attractive.