Southampton could be in line for a visit from the Pope, but it won't be a papal visit, Saints have suddenly become favourites to sign relegated Burnley keeper Nick Pope, but what are the chances of it happening you may ask ? Read on.
Saints have been linked with several names to fill what is now the vacant number 1 spot, of the four keeper on the books last season, Harry Lewis is already lined up to join former Saints player & manager, Mark Hughes at Bradford City, whilst Fraser Forster seems set to warm the bench at Tottenham Hotspur & Willy Cabbalero looks set to depart after his short term contract got Saints out of a hole last season.
That leave just Alex McCarthy, his current status is a little unclear in that he is seemingly out of contract, but his agent appeared on the list that Saints had to publish of fee's they paid to agents, where it seems he was paid to renegotiate a deal for his client.
Strangely that deal has never been announced, possibly due to the fact that McCarthy's current wages were never going to be matched, so it was in his interest to see out his contract before signing a reduced deal, that could have been agreed mid season and perhaps even signed to start on July 1st after his current deal runs out.
But McCarthy is not the answer to Saints first team keeper problems, at best he is a capable short term back up.
Several keepers are still being linked as mentioned in the past week . Bartłomiej Drągowski of Fiorentina is being linked in what is a double swoop for his fellow Polish countryman Mateusz Lis, who was said to being signed and then sent out on loan.
Sam Johnstone soon to be formerly of West Brom when his contract expires was painted as the likely candidate back in January, but he has dropped down the rankings to come to the South Coast, Tottenham were interested but signing Forster ends their interest and Crystal Palace are front runners for his signature.
Palace are also being linked with Nick Pope of Burnley, but they seem to have waned as they look likely to sign Johnstone.
Saints have not been mentioned much in Nick Pope, only in passing, but the odds of him signing for them seems to have heightened in recent days with their odds being shortened drastically to 2/1 favourites, jumping over the likes of Newcastle on 4/1, West Ham, Fulham, Tottenham, Bournemouth, Manchester United are also named on the list with odds between 6-16/1.
Palace's rating in this list has gone out to 18/1.
So why have Saints odds shortened so much, certainly it hasn't been the rumour mill, this has barely mentioned Saints being in for Pope, who has a year left on his contract at Turf Moor and with relegation Burnley have to trim their wage bill.
There could be several reasons why Saints are now favourites, the obvious would be that suddenly there has been a rush of money on Pope to go to St Mary's, although this type of market is a fun one and that means quite a low limit on the maximum bet that the bookies will take on it, due to the possibility of someone close to one of the parties leaking it when it is a done deal.
Or it could be because someone in the football industry usually an agent, has leaked something and that in itself has reached the bookies and they have slashed their odds in reaction.
Likewise it could be a chain reaction on other clubs in the betting, with Spurs seemingly dropping out after doing the Forster deal and Palace linked with Johnstone, suddenly two & two could be put together to make in this case 2/1
So Nick Pope is the current bookies favourite but that does not mean that he is anywhere near signing for Saints.
Would he be a good signing for Saints ? undoubtably, he has been in fine form and his height and presence is something we have lacked, but the one blip is his ability to play out from the back, Burnley don't play in this way so he has not been called upon very often for them to use his feet and distribute the ball.
At International level for England over the past year he looked likely to overtake Jordan Pickford in the pecking order, but with the Everton man out of form and making rash decisions, he could not quite oust him with a question mark over his distribution talents.
From a Saints perspective distribution is also an issue, Ralph Hasenhuttl likes his keepers to play out from the back, another issue could be age in that Pope has just turned 30, will the club alter it's usual strategy of signing players who they can improve and have a potential sell on value, although Pope will have at least four years left in him at the top level, he wont have much potential to get a decent fee at 34 or 35.
This would be a real leap of faith for Saints if they signed him.
So this deal remains to be seen, but I have to say if it happened it would be a coup for Saints and one that would go a long way to showing Saints fans that the club mean business.