An ex player and club legend has urged Saints to spend big on a central defender and in doing so smash the clubs transfer record in the January window.
Most transfer rumours seem to start these days with an ex player of a club suggesting who he would like to see sign for his ex employers, amongst the latest is ex Spurs player Darren Bent.
Bent who started a grand total of 32 Premier League games for Spurs in a two year spell between 2007-09 and who most had forgot had played for Tottenham is telling anyone that will listen that he urges his former club to sign Danny Ings to cover for Harry Kane.
Therefore it was good to see a club legend make a similar demand and urge Saints to smash their transfer record this January and therefore start a glut of stories on the internet that have little actual substance but make for a good headline.
"Ex Green Park Rangers and Concorde FC legend Nick Illingsworth has today urged Saints to go out and smash their transfer record to secure the services of a top quality central defender"
Illingsworth said:
" I feel that if Saints just showed some ambition then they could lure back the likes of Virgil Van Dijk or even Toby Alderweireld, failing that even Dejan Lovren, yes there was bad blood between the players and the club on their departure, but that mainly due to injuries sustained by the players when wild horses dragged them away from St Mary's against their wills."
"Now that Les Reed has gone then they will be totally willing to take a salary drop and return to St Mary's, the last hurdle and stumbling block of their return is out of the way"
When questioned where Saints would find the money from Illingsworth was to the point.
"The last 12 transfer windows have seen a lot of money come in and only a fraction go out, by my reckoning and from what I have heard from within the club, we must have around £458 million in the bank unspent at the moment, that would enable us to smash the transfer record several times and still have change for the club to buy the fans the now traditional Xmas drink in December."
Illingsworth is well qualified to comment on buying central defenders being one of the few players to be considered a legend at more than just one club.
A five year spell at Green Park Rangers in the mid 80's saw him make a record number of appearances for the club, possibly due to his calm cool collected manner on the ball but mainly due to also being the manager, meaning that he was always the first name on the team sheet.
He then spent the best part of a decade at Concorde FC in the 90's/ 00's leading them to mid table obscurity on a number of occasions as well as a Sunday Senior Cup Final appearance which was lost in extra time due solely to those around him.
If anyone is qualified to speak about the art of central defending it is him, having not only watched poor defending at St Mary's for years but having taken part in a fair bit himself over a 40 + year career in local football.
So there you have it from the horses mouth a bit of transfer gossip that truthfully has as much credibility, substance and likelihood of happening as does the rest of those rumour mongering ex player statements.