Saints now seem to be shore that they want Weston McKennie to replace Pierr Emile Hojbjerg in the Saints midfield with media reports from Germany saying that they are already in talks with the player.

Sky Sports say that the American who will turn 22 at the end of next week is already talking to Saints with Sky in Germany reporting that McKennie wants to move to the Premier League and is keen on joining Southampton.

They also report that although personal terms have yet to be agreed, McKennie has already turned down Hertha Berlin and made it clear he sees his future in England.

Sky also report that Saints may have to sell players in order to be able to afford Mckennie, but they are already a few million up on deal with Spurs that saw Hojbjerg move to North London and Kyle Walker-Peters come in the opposite direction, add to that another few million they received from Liverpool in transfer add ons for the likes of Virgil Van Dijk winning the Premier league an the shortfall will not be that difficult to make up, especially as was reported on this site a few weeks ago, the club have taken out a borrowing facility for just this kind of situation, where they need to get a deal done now and where they can then raise the money from sales shortly afterwards a bridging loan of sorts.

Saints are likely to be able to raise money from several transfers out, although it is possible that some may only leave on loans, but the hope is that Guido Carrillo, Wesley Hoedt, Harrison Reid and Mario Lemina - who all spent the 2019/20 season out on loan can all be shifted this summer and if that can be managed, then yes Saints will have to cut their losses, but should still realise in excess of the £20 million needed to secure the services of McKennie.

McKennie has served his time at Schalke well, gradually forcing his way into the first team since signing back in the summer of 2016 and has now made 75 Bundesliga appearances for Schalke and 19 appearances for the USA at International level, he also played against Saints 2 years ago in Shanghai for Schalke, a game in which ironically Harrison Reed a player whom has been touted as a replacement for Hojbjerg, scored one of the goals in a 3-3 draw

He has played most of his games in the centre of the park, being used in either a more defensive sitting role, as the central player or as a more attacking option in behind the strikers.

Photo: Action Images

Saint4Life247 added 20:37 - Aug 18 This guy looks like he could fill PEH shoes and some. Highly regarded by many including RH, so will be very pleased if we land this signing. I must say Saints current transfer business has a positive feel to it for once. I'm hoping we also go in for Martin Hinteregger and Chris Wood (we need a target man) COYS!!
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Flamingbankers added 12:58 - Aug 19 Weston seems like a straight replacement for PEH, a more consistent Lemina, perhaps without the 'attitude' of the latter. A great shame we did not bother about checking attitude under Reed - could have saved a lot of money, time and energy. Talk about professional negligence - Reed got away with that very lightly and the club escaped relegation by the skin of its teeth. Frankly, I'd prefer Ntcham from Celtic and swap a player. I also like Reed to stay as midfield back up.

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