Saints are being linked with Portugese and an American central defenders but the news won't please the supporters.
Saints are being said to be ready to bid for Artur Jorge of Vitoria Sebutal, the 25 year old has been having a great season for the club whom he joined from Braga in the summer of 2018.
But what won't raise the supporters hopes is the fee, said to be in the region of £1.3 million for the player who can play either at centre back or on the right side of the defence.
However perhaps comparisons can be drawn with another Portugese defender Jose Fonte who when he signed for Saints in 2010 for a similar fee as that being asked for Jorge, he had also played for Vitoria Sebutal and like Jorge spent most of his career before joining Crystal Palace at the age of 24 being loaned out to lower level clubs and never really establishing himself.
So it seems Saints are hoping that history can repeat itself, I would guess that this would be a cheap gamble for Saints, they feel that at this price they have nothing to lose and Jorge could be better than several of the central defenders we have on option at the moment.
It would not necessarily mean that we would not sign a more expensive central defender as well, but for the money it is worth a shout.
So I would be optimistic about this deal should it happen, I like many don't know much about Jorge, but we need to bring in new personnel in the back four as to be blunt three of them are just not up to the job.
Also being mentioned is New York Red Bull's Aaron Long who is said to be being offered to the club for £4.6 million, at 27 he has extensive experience in the MLS and also 15 caps for the USA, but that is not the experience that Saints need at the is period in time as the MLS is far from the levels of the Premier League.
So on this signing I would be less optimistic than I would be should we sign Jorge, the money to be spent will take a significant chunk out of the budget and he is not proven.
The reality is that if we are to survive then we need to bring in at least one central defender proven at Premier League level and there are plenty of options out there including Ben Gibson at Burnley.
I won't get too wound up at this news today, this is the start of the January Transfer window silly season where players agents start to push their clients into the spotlight, football club's don't tend to reveal their transfer targets or plans so that they can avoid dutch auctions with other clubs, so being linked with a player is far far from actually being interested in buying him so should not be used as another stick to beat the club with, the reality is that this news has not come from Saints.