Southampton have revamped their scouting network in the past few years and have added an extra focus on recruiting promising youngsters, that has been evidenced in recent signings in the summer including Tino Livramento, now we are linked with another up an coming talent.
17 year old centre forward Reyes Cleary is the star of the West Bromwich Albion academy side, but with his 18th birthday looming in April next year and the Baggies keen to get him to sign his first professional contract and that is attracting interest from other clubs.
Bayern Munich are said to be keen to sign the youngster as well as Saints, Crystal Palace and Newcastle United.
Many youngsters these days with professional clubs are starting to see that their development is not always best served by playing for big clubs, certainly Tino Livramento could see no pathway to the Chelsea first team hence his move to St Mary's and he is now arguably one of the best right backs in the Premier League,
Bayern Munich like Saints are now also looking towards England for their younger talent and Reyes Cleary is the latest to come to the fore.
He is yet to make the West Brom first team and so far has only played for the academy side as well as the U23 side for whom he has made 6 appearances this season in the Premier League 2 and scored 3 goals.
Only a few weeks ago Saints got a good look at him in the U18 League when they travelled to West Brom, the game was very one sided with the visitors winning 5-1 and Cleary was taken off at half time with Saints leading 4-0 after blitzing the Baggies in a 6 minute spell just before half time.
But Saints will not have been put off by that game and will have watched him on other occasions. Indeed at U18 level this was the only time he failed to score in 5 appearances hitting 8 goals in the process.
Bayern Munich will be a big draw for Cleary they are one of the biggest clubs in Europe if not the World, the big question though will be if at such a young age he want to up root himself to a foreign land away from his family and friends.
That could mean that he will perhaps look more towards England, it could be that he will wait to see if West Brom can return to the Premier League at the end of this season, if they do he may well feel that he can get his chance with them and stay with the club.
If they don't achieve promotion then may well discount Newcastle as they are clearly heading in a different direction than before in terms of transfers and he could find himself way down the pecking order at St James Park.
So that could lead to a choice between Saints and Palace and from that respect Saints have a good reputation for nurturing youngsters.
But as a club we can only have so many and we still have to concentrate on getting in experienced professionals, this summer we got the balance right. but we have to keep doing that.