One of the joys of being second in the Premier league is that you get linked with just about every player on the continent.

Saints are apparently battling with European giants Napoli, Schalke and Swansea for the services of Besiktas midfielder Veli Kavlak.

Kavlak 26 joined the Turkish club for £600k from Rapid Vienna in 2011 and although born in Austria and capped for them at International level he is also a Turkish citizen through his parents,

Described as a box to box defensive midfielder with a reputation as a bit of a hatchet man he is out of contract next summer and therefore able to discuss terms with other European clubs from January.

Saints being linked with him could be one of two things, firstly it could merely be agents talk after all Saints are well served in the midfield department, however as mentioned in last weeks training ground press conference, as a club we now have an extensive scouting network and Kavlak might have come into our radar, certainly we are now very pro active rather than reactive and that being the case it could well be we are considering our options should Morgan Schneiderlin or Jack Cork leave the club next summer.

Photo: Action Images

ItchenNorth added 13:04 - Nov 10 I wouldn't say Swansea are a European giant !
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Zambucco added 13:21 - Nov 10 I just have a feeling we'll be saying goodbye to Jack Cork. All other players have been offered extended contracts, but Jack hasn't. Yes he's having a great run in the squad, but I think that's just to raise his profile and therefore his value. With rumours like this and others circulating, I believe we have two more signings planned for midfield. It wouldn't surprise me if we added additions to the defence and forward line too. This will be imperative if we are still in top four come January and we want to maintain this. Although I'm the eternal optimist, I'm not yet ready to start dreaming of Top four yet, top six yes, but we will need to strengthen to cope with tiredness and injuries as the season progresses. Although our style of play is not as energetic as MP the players will last a little better. As I think that fatigue played a big part in our downturn in form at the latter part of last season. But #wemarchon #COYR

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BoondockSaint added 15:28 - Nov 10 We could use a hatchet man to keep the divers in the league honest and get in their heads a little. We all have a list of players that after they get stepped into either go quiet or go completely bonkers and get red carded.
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