With Saints clearly in the market for a striker in the summer, we are going to be linked with every attacking player in Europe and beyond, but the latest name put forward has played under the Austrian before.

Jean-Kevin Augustin of RB Leipzig played for Ralph Hasenhuttl last season after joining the German club from PSG in his native France, his first season there under Hasenhuttl saw him a regular in the squad, starting 14 games plus another 11 as a sub with a further 6 as an unused substitute in the Bundesliga, scoring 9 times plus a further 5 assists.

But since the Austrian departure he has fared less well in his second season and in recent games he has been an unused substitute and since the restart after the winter break he has managed a paltry 36 minutes of action from 5 appearances from the bench.

He had started the season well, 3 goals in his first 5 appearances at the start of the season seemed to indicate that he was starting where he had left off the previous term, but then something went wrong and he found himself more and more on the bench with little game time and he has not scored since that opening burst back in September.

So perhaps RB Leipzig will be looking to recoup the £15 million or so they paid in the summer of 2017 and Hasenhuttl would be their first port of call.

Certainly Augustin suits the way the Austrian wants to get Saints playing being described as having " pace, explosiveness and finishing ability, Augustin also has the energy to press high and hassle down opposition defenders on the ball, that is just the type of player Hasenhuttl will be keen to sign.

The question will be how much he costs, the German club will be looking to at least recoup their money on Augustin, perhaps they would be willing to take a small loss which might make him an attractive proposition as opposed to a bidding war for Che Adams, but with 3 years left on his contract are RBL looking at this season as a blip or do they see him as surplus to requirements.

Photo: Action Images

ChristchurchSaint added 16:37 - May 1 I agree with this. If we are going to get involved in a bidding war for Adams, then trust Ralph and go for a player he knows and believes is right for the job.
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underweststand added 17:46 - May 1 I think Augustin was mentioned already when Ralph arrived, and he obviously was likely to be a target man for us to sign . If we do bid for him, it would be for Ralph to put his word behind an eventual bid. When a manager signs one of his former players, he is also putting his own reputation on the line and it doesn't always work out well, as we saw when Adkins signed Jonathan Forte, Pochettino signed Osvaldo (ouch - that hurt) ..did Boufal play under Puel in France (?)...and finally let's not forget Pellegrino wanted Carrillo - and got him. Even the top six clubs don't always get it right, and a several of them have bought very expensive " duds" in recent seasons. Saints' "transfer pot" is on a more modest level and although we can say that a fully-fit, goal-scoring Danny Ings would be a good long term investment, we have to get it right this time, but history has taught us that even with four front line strikers, there's no guarantees that any of them will be a success.

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TimSaint added 00:33 - May 2 Similar to Obafemi - perhaps explains why RH was keen to promote him to the first team perhaps a little prematurely this season. The defence needs addressing but that is for another thread. Up top, we need to make some changes. I expect we will lose a couple - maybe Gallagher and Austin - keep Long, maybe buy Ings if we can drop the price, or arrange a pay per appearance deal, reintroduce Obafemi and buy 1 striker. Not sure that Augustin fits, as he is similar in style and height to what we already have, but whoever we sign, I will back RH all the way and will have far more confidence in who he buys than our last 2 managers.

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ElSanto added 03:26 - May 2 I honestly reckon Saint brock is some kind of troll bot. He talks absolute diarrhea in every one of his posts. Anyway, no dice for this dude. Che Adams waaaaay more probable to succeed. Him, Ings and Long would be a handful up front.
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aceofthebase added 11:34 - May 2 Why would we want a player who cannot make it into his present team? We should be going for the player who is keeping him out of the side. Second best means another 'average' player sitting on our bench.
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LoisDeem added 11:53 - May 2 Why would we buy a player who's currently dropped? Because if you can trust the manager this can sometimes work, especially if you consider that a team is the sum of its parts. Why some managers have even been known to marginalise some players, or giving them the benefit: sideline them because they don't 'fit'. I will trust this manager to make decisions on incomings, and outgoings, even though like many my natural instincts have been blunted by board level 'interference'. I still shiver at the nightmare thought of another Agustin being heavily promoted by a pantomime one policy politician /chairman in our chequered past.

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