Saints have three international keepers on their books, all out of contract in the summer, but they may look to solve the problem of who plays in goal in the January transfer window rather than gamble for the rest of the season.

There is no doubt goalkeeping errors have cost us points this season, Alex McCarthy although not making many glaring errors shipped far too many goals he really should have saved.

Willie Caballero came in for a couple of games and did a job and Fraser Forster in fairness looked back to his best and perhaps the man to see the season out, until his own error at Wolves for the second goal.

So although Saints could see the season out with this trio and pick up enough points to keep them out of relegation trouble, a change of ownership make give new impetus to dealing with the problem now.

Stories are doing the rounds in the media from the usual "Insiders" that Saints could make a move for Dean Henderson of Manchester United.

Henderson had two good years on loan at Sheffield United to cement his reputation and with David De Gea looking dodgy, returned to Old Trafford in the summer of 2020 looking to take over as number 1 at the club.

But it didn't work out like that, last season he did get in 12 Premier league appearances and was the choice in the cup games both domestic and Europe, but this season he has barely played, a league cup tie against West Ham and a Champions League game against Young Boys being his only outings and in the latter he had to come off just after the hour mark.

Since then he has returned to the subs bench, but turning 25 in March he is not happy with his lot and wants to leave Old Trafford.

He has reportably told United manager Ralf Rangnick that he wants to leave the club in this transfer window, but the temporary United boss has turned him down.

United do have back up should Henderson leave in the shape of Tom Heaton, so do have experienced back up, but would feel a little exposed if they went down to just two back up keepers.

One option could be a loan deal in which Henderson joins Saints until the end of the season and we in return offer them Fraser Forster or Alex McCarthy on loan in return thus giving United a third keeper with Premier League experience.

Saints have been the bookmakers favourites to sign Henderson, but they face a challenge from Newcastle United and with the money they have that could be a big obstacle, however Henderson may feel that with money no object he may be Newcastle's number 1 in the short term, but if they stay up he could find himself down the pecking order as they splash more cash.

Saints do have other irons in the fire, although they are whispering that they are no longer interested in Sam Johnstone of West Brom, that could just be a stalking horse.

The Baggie's promotion push has faltered in recent weeks and they are dropping out of the automatic promotion spots and even fall out of the top 6 if they lose this weekend, with Johnstone leaving for nothing in the summer, they may look to cash in now and Saints would hold a sweetener here in that they could offer a loan deal for either Forster or McCarthy as part of the transaction.

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highfield49 added 11:33 - Jan 19 Another option I guess is that we do a deal for Henderson and loan him back to Utd for the rest of the season. That is presuming of course that he's the real deal and not error prone like McCarthy and Forster. I suppose the ideal situation would be a loan deal with the option to buy in the summer, that way we'll have a clearer idea as to whether Henderson is still a really good keeper or suffering from lack of game time. Though, as you say Nick, the rumours may have all the substance of the guy from Dundee we were signing a couple of weeks ago. Has he joined Rangers yet?

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underweststand added 08:38 - Jan 22 Both McCarthy and Forster have had their chances, but we need to move on and Henderson is as a good as we are likely to get in the present market. He looks impressive enough. With all (four) of our keepers OOC in the summer, it will be interesting to see if we take any of them on board for next season. Personally ........I would re-sign FF (at a more reasonable salary) but we definitely need some new faces in the goalie squad - even if it means looking abroad / overseas for good alternatives.

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