Over the past few seasons, Saints have brought in players from Manchester City's large youth ranks, both on a permanent basis as well as on loan with varying degrees of success, now it seems we are going to do so again.
According to A The Daily Echo Southampton will once again be heading to the summer sales at the Etihad Stadium.
They have been queuing at the door for the past 3 summers for the sale to start with Taylor Harwood-Bellis arriving on a permanent basis in 2024, Shea Charles in 2023 & Gavin Bazunu, , Romeo Lavia, Juan Larios & Sam Edozie in 2022. There may have been a couple more, I have lost count so many have arrived.
There have been varying degrees of success here, all bar Juan Larios have established themselves in the first team squad and the sale of Romeo Lavia covering all the transfer fees paid and more and only Larios failing to fulfill his potential albeit due to injury.
No it seems that we are going to shop there again and it is a player that Will Still knows well, the player in question is Juma Bah.
He played last season under Still at Lens after arriving on loan in January after joining Manchester City from Real Valladolid days earlier.
He was so keen to join City that he paid his own £5 million release clause from Real Valladolid to leave the club.
This was all a bit of a mess, he had originally joined the Spanish club from AIK Freetong in August 2024 on loan and then been signed on a permanent basis in January 2025, then it got hectic as he was transferred first to City and then out on loan to RC Lens.
That made it being on the books of 4 clubs during January.
He had impressed at Real Valladolid, making 12 appearances in La Liga and they were loathe to lose him, but they had no choice as he paid the release clause.
After joining Will Still at RC Lens he then made 10 appearances in the first team in Ligue 1, 8 of them in the starting line up after a couple of appearances as sub early on.
At only 19 the 6ft 5 Central defender is seen as part of the first team in the future at Manchester City, but they want him to continue learning his trade elsewhere.
Whether it will be at St Mary's though is far from certain, obviously the Will Still connection means that the media are putting two & two together and suggesting that this would be his destination, but there are several other clubs in the mix to take him on loan.
Having already made his mark in two top flight European division last season, it will be a question of whether City & the player see his next step being a Premier League or European top flight club or one in the Championship such as Southampton.
The other question will be whether Saints actually need another centre back, at the moment they are top heavy in this department, even if as expected Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Jan Bednarek & Armel Bella Kotchap depart the club, it still leaves Ronnie Edwards, Nathan Wood, Jack Stephens & another promising youngster in Joachim Kayi Sanda, in that department, not to mention James Bree & Charlie Taylor who can also play in this position.
So we are well served in this position, we don't need the added expense of another central defender, not unless we move on at least 3 of the last 6 mentioned above.
That may well be the case, the Retained List just announced is not a statement of intent list, most on it are under contract so have to be retained, so that does not mean all are staying.
So we could well see a couple of those names moved on to make room for Bah.
I'm not so sure on this one, Saints will be short of experience in the back line if Bednarek & THB depart, Ronnie Edwards seems to be the one player who will be in the side next season, he is young himself, I can't see Bah being thrown in alongside him for the youngest pairing in the division.