Ex Saints star Leandre Griffit has started a rumour mill meltdown after hinting that a big star could be on his way to Southampton.
Mario Ballotelli has been hinting that he would like a return to the Premier League in the past few weeks, although he has said he would join former club Manchester City for free as that is where he truly enjoyed his football.
Since leaving City in 2013 the Italian has been a bit of a nomad, joining AC Milan, Liverpool, AC Milan again and then Nice whom he joined on a free transfer in August 2016, his time at Nice has not been without controversy, but he has found form and this season has scored 10 times in 13 appearances.
He has only signed one year deals at Nice and is only under contract till the summer so would be available for a fairly low fee and at 27 still has some good years left in him.
Balotelli is being linked with Saints after a tweet from former Saints player Leandre Griffit who said when commenting on Saints.
I think the fans will get a Nice gift this winter .. some big names is coming.😷😷, canot say it , .@SouthamptonFC @SouthamptonFCFR
This has prompted some Saints fans to go into a mini frenzy although nothing really concrete has come out into the press other than this tweet.
Further frenzy was forthcoming when Balotelli was not named in the Nice squad to face Monaco who themselves started another Saints alleged target, striker Guido Carrillo.
That has seen social media suggesting that the Italian striker was on his way for talks with an as yet unamed club.
So will bad boy Balotelli be on his way to St Mary's to save Saints, certainly if he did arrive it would fire the imagination of the supporters and offer Saints some fire power up front.
One advantage of the deal if it happened is that this is one Saints player Liverpool would be unlikely to be chasing in the future, both player and Liverpool do not seem to have fond memories of one another.