Cedric Soares sounds more like a medical condition than a footballer, but the media is reporting Saints have pipped Stoke City for his signature.
Soares name came into the Saints frame a week or two ago as did the names of several other right backs across the continent, now it seems Saints could be about to sign the 23 year old Portugese right back signalling that they are resigned to losing Nathaniel Clyne.
Stoke had been hoping to land the player, but the local Stoke paper is saying that they have been beaten to his signature by Saints and that view has been echoed across several other news sources.
Soares who will be 24 in August has had three good seasons with Sporting and this has lead to him being capped at International level for Portugal.
His profile looks just the sort of player that Saints will be targeting in future, it will be sad to see Clyne go, but the reality is that for a club of the standing of Saints the key to success will be buying players with potential and bringing them to the top of their game and when they exceed their worth to the side selling them on.
This process was highlighted last year with the departure of Luke Shaw, then Shaw was doing a £10 million pound job for the team, it was a no brainer to sell him for £28 million and then bring in Bertrand for £10 million and Saints have to continue this process taking a step forward as a team each time.
You get the feeling that Saints are happy for Clyne to go as long as they get the right money, a lot has been mentioned in the press this week about Clyne's attitude in the England squad leading Roy Hodgson to comment that he cannot expect to just walk in the side, of course we all empathise with Clyne's predicament with Phil Jones being picked ahead of him, but the feeling in football is that he has perhaps got a bit too big for his boots lately and that being the case Saints are comfortable moving him on now.
However it might not be so easy for Clyne to find greener pastures although there is a lot of paper talk the reality is that if United aren't interested then Liverpool offer no better than Saints and indeed are a club at the crossroads, this season will be one that makes of breaks Brendan Rodgers and the smart money is not on the former.
Of course though it needs to be for the right price and with the right replacement and Saints are working hard to do that, for the price Soares looks to be a great capture, although ideally we would still keep Clyne thus offering us cover and options.