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According to a report in The Daily Mail, Southampton are reportedly in talks to sign Olympiacos right-back Omar Elabdellaoui in a £6m deal, but his addition would go against what manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has said previously that he wanted to add to his squad this month.
What’s the word, then?
Well, The Daily Mail report that Saints had targeted a £10.5m move for Genk full-back Joakim Maehle after Cedric Soares joined Serie A giants Inter Milan on loan, but the Belgian top-flight leaders refused to sell.
The Daily Mail report that the 27-year-old looks set to be the Euro 2016 winner’s replacement if he arrives at St Mary’s before Thursday’s transfer deadline, even if Hasenhuttl often chose to use Yan Valery ahead of Cedric since he succeeded Mark Hughes last month.
Elabdellaoui has been a Premier League player before, although he made no appearances for Manchester City but did have nine outings for Hull City, as per Transfermarkt, during a loan spell in the second-half of the 2016/17 campaign.
What did Hasenhuttl say previously?
In an interview conducted with Sky Sports earlier this month, the 51-year-old said when asked about the club’s transfer plans:
“We are looking, but we’ll only do a transfer if it helps us immediately and also for the future.
“It’s a package. If you find a young player who has potential and quality then we’ll think about a transfer.”
From those comments you would expect that Southampton would be looking at signing younger players with huge potential to improve and grow with the club, and the interest in Maehle certainly made sense from that point of view.
Signing Elabdellaoui certainly wouldn’t be as easy to understand however, given he is 27 years of age and has hardly set the world alight during his career to date, especially aside from his spell in Greece.
Check out the video below for Emma Conybeare’s rundown of which clubs need what in the January transfer window…
