Since Southampton made their way back to the Premier League, their progress has been a story to look forward to. However, such inspiring a story have faced challenges and the biggest challenge that came the Saints’ way is to keep their best players at the club. In the last three years, we have seen Arsenal, Manchester United and especially Liverpool luring the best Southampton players away and now Manchester City are also planning a big-money raid on them as per reports.
Virgil van Dijk has been a man mountain at the heart of the Southampton defence since he moved to the south coast of England from Celtic and his good showings have not gone unnoticed. Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United all remain keen on the Dutch stopper but it is Manchester City who are leading the chase as per reports. Well, an offer of worth £50m might be too good to turn down but Southampton must look for a replacement of the Dutch international before letting him leave and here are three players they could turn to.
Daley Blind
Blind started the season as more of a regular under Mourinho and now seems out of favour at Manchester United. Despite first-choice pairing Eric Bailly and Chris Smalling missing through injuries, we saw Mourinho opting to play Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo at the heart of the defence.
Reports claim Benfica stopper Victor Lindelof is looking to be on his way to Old Trafford in January which means that Blind’s path back to the first team gets even harder. A calm and composed defender like Blind could prove to be a solid addition to Southampton considering the way they play.
Ben Gibson
Ben Gibson has been the stellar performer for Boro this season in their comeback campaign to the Premier League. The Englishman has been a rock in Aitor Karanka’s stubborn defence which has proved to be really hard to break. A brilliant reader of the game and someone who can lead the back four, he is much ahead of his age in terms of maturity and composure. Still only 23, he also fits in Southampton’s philosophy of signing younger players.
Mamadou Sakho
Lallana, Lambert, Lovren, Clyne and Mane- Liverpool have signed these many players from Southampton in the last three years. Southampton now should go back to Liverpool to fill in the void that will be created by van Dijk’s departure.
Mamadou Sakho is frozen out of the Liverpool squad for unknown reasons despite the fact that he is a quality defender and an inborn leader of the back four. Sakho would be a huge addition to Southampton defence with his experience at the top level and Liverpool are unlikely to stand in his way.
