According to the latest rumour Chelsea are looking to replace Diego Costa with Graziano Pelle in a move that seems yet another bizarre twist to the strange and mysterious world of Jose Mourinho.
Diego Costa cost Chelsea £32 million in the summer of 2014 and that looked a snip as the Spanish striker scored 20 Premier League goals in only 24 starts plus another 2 appearances as sub for the Stamford Bridge club.
This season has seen the 27 year old seemingly at odds with Jose Mourinho resulting in the infamous bib throwing incident at Spurs, but bizarrely it seems that Mourinho would rather replace Costa with 30 year Graziano Pelle and is about to launch a January bid for Saints Italian striker, a move that smacks of desperation for Chelsea.
Normally you would not expect a team of Chelsea's calibre to look at a striker who will turn 31 in the summer, especially when Costa's record this season although not spectacular is still steady in that in 12 (2) league outings he has still netted 3 goals and two of those goals have been the difference between drawing and winning and earned four points.
Manchester United and Juventus are also being linked with Pelle and could spark a bidding war and the big question will be whether Saints will want to cash in on Pelle now.
Some would describe this as being ludicrous given the form that the Italian is in, but Saints strategy is based on selling players at their peak and getting in their replacements, when Rickie Lambert left 18 months ago some were up in arms and pointed out the strikers goal record, but the reality was that he was slowing down and most of his goals came not from open play but from set pieces or penalties and the £3.5 million from Liverpool has since proved a shrewd piece of business.
The same logic could come into play with Pelle, he will be 31 in July and that is old in strikers terms, if Saints were to receive a stupid bid, say £15 million for the Italian from one of the three named clubs it could be hard to resist and although some supporters would argue, it would be logical to accept given that Pelle as good as he is has perhaps 1 more season at his peak after this one.
But if we apply this logic to why Saints would consider selling, it also needs to apply to Chelsea, United and Juventus and if they were to offer us silly money their supporters should be very worried as it smacks of a short term solution.
In the case of the two English clubs they have been used to buying players at their peak for top dollar, so to buy a 30 year old should rng alarm bells, it would suggest they are not building a side for the future to win them trophies but that Van Gaal and Mourinho are fire fighting, desperately looking for a few wins now that will keep them in their jobs in the short term.
If I were Pelle I would not want to join any of these clubs, as Lambert's move to Liverpool showed, sometimes moving for the money can prove suicide for you actual playing career, if the man known as Super Rickie Lambert had stayed at St Mary's another year then he would have got more game time and he would perhaps have still been in the England squad, instead he quickly found himself the forgotten man.
Which also perhaps emphasise's why Saints should be looking ahead to their next move, they showed they were not afraid to move on a player who was a fans favourite at the right time and they reaped the rewards, to continue to flourish as a club we have to keep doing this and when it does happen we should not be afraid but realise the motives behind it.
Those who say we are a selling club if we do so are not looking at the bigger picture and about how a club the size of Saints needs by neccessity to do its business thus allowing it to continue to prosper and grow.