According to media reports in Spain, Saints are said to have already opened talks with the agent of Levante's Jorge de Frutos, how accurate these reports are only time will tell, but who is the player ? Read on to find out more details.
If Saints fans have never heard of Jorge de Frutos, then it is not surprising, not many Spanish football fans would have known the name either up till 6 months or so.
The 24 year old winger had not exactly had a glittering career, at 18 he made a slight impact at his first club CF Rayo Majadahonda in the segundo division B and this lead to a move to Real Madrid, but on arrival he was assigned to the reserve team Real Madrid B.
They shipped him out on loan to La Liga side Valladollid for the 1919/20 season, but his tenure there would last only to the January and he would play just 3 times before joining Segunda División side Rayo Vallecano for the second half of the season.
So last summer he was a player whose career was going nowhere, but top tier side in Spain Levante had seen somethings and they signed him on a 5 year deal last summer paying Real Madrid just £18 million. At 23 years old and with only 3 top flight appearances to his name, this was a big chance for the winger and he seems to have taken it.
So far this season he has made 27 appearances in La Liga and scored 3 goals, but it is not his scoring prowess than has made headlines, it is his assists that are making him stand out, he has 8 so far and only 4 players in La Liga have more including a certain Lionel Messi.
So are Saints truly after a star that is under the radar or is this just his agent bigging him up.
Certainly someone is stirring the pot, Real Madrid are also being named as an interested club and seem to want to buy back the player they have just sold, I'm not sure about that one.
But it might not be just the agent who is trying to market the player like most clubs Levante are under financial pressure to raise funds due to the current pandemic and they may look to do this via player sales. And, according to the Spanish based media outlet SuperDeporte, De Frutos is available for a bargain fee of £13 million; far less than his £26 million release clause.
In England The Mirror reports that Southampton have held talks with the Spaniard’s agent.
But would Saints be interested ? WE have a plethora of wide players at present, Redmond, Armstrong, Djenepo, Tella, Walcott & Minamino, the last two are only on loan, but we still have 4 genuine candidates even if they were not to make the deal permanent.
A look deeper into the players stats reveals that all is not as it seems, his value according to Transfermark has increased this season, but is still only around half of the £13 million quoted in the media reports.
Although he is touted as the next big thing, he is more often than not on the bench for Levante, he has played in 27 of the 28 La Liga games played, but only 12 have been in the starting line up, he seems to be used mainly as an impact sub in the last 20 minutes or so, indeed his first 11 games saw no goals or assists, he has literally exploded into life in the last 16 games.
So from this perspective he obviously has talent, but he has no real track record of utilising it for more than the odd burst, he has featured in the starting line up more of late, but it seems to be Levante are trying to cash in on a player whilst he is on a hot run of form.
At his market vaue of £7 million he might be worth a punt, but unless he continues his run of form, I can't see that we will pay £13 million for a player who at the age of 24 has little proven track record.