Saints Could Be In For Chelsea Defender !
Saints are reported to be interested in bringing Chelsea's former Bounemouth loanee Nathan Ake to St Mary's in the summer.
Chelsea look set to let Nathan Ake go in the summer, although it is still not certain whether that will be on loan or permanently.
Ake spent the first half of the season on loan at Bournemouth and Saints fans will remember he opened the scoring for them in our 3-1 win down at The Vitality Stadium.
He was recalled by Chelsea at the start of January, but in two months has only featured in two games both in the FA Cup.
Having turned 22 last month, Ake has only started 1 Premier League game for the Blues plus another 4 as sub, the first four of these was back in 2013 the last of which was almost three years ago.
Although he has spent a lot of the last two years on loan, firstly at Reading, then last season at Watford followed by this season's spell at the Cherries, he is still not close to getting a Premier League chance at Chelsea rarely featuring on the bench for them since his return from loan at the start of January.
So now rumours are starting to emerge that he is set to leave Stamford Bridge in the summer with Saints coming up against his former loan club Bournemouth is the battle for his signature, indeed the Cherries tried to sign him permanently in January but were knocked back by Chelsea.
It looks like Ake's agent wants his client to move though and the media is definitely being briefed on this one to alert clubs to the fact that his client is open to offers.
He can play either as a central defender as he did for Bournemouth or as a left back where Watford deployed him and he won their young player of the year award, and even as a defensive midfielder, so from that perspective he fits the model that Saints look for in a player.
Bournemouth offered Chelsea £18 million for Ake in January, although that was a deadline day desperation bid, so given that he will enter the final year of his Chelsea deal in the summer, it might not take that much to prise him out of Chelsea's hands.
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