yesterday we carried a story that Werder Bremen were worried that Saints might turn down the option on Eljero Elia and prefer to put in a lower bid, but another side of the story is emerging from Germany.

Yesterday we releayed a story from the German Media regarding Saints clause to buy Elia from Werder Bremen and how the Bundesliga Club were desperate to offload and worried Saints might renege on the deal and try to get him a lower price.

Now however there is a different slant on the story published in the German sport magazine SportBild (not to be confused with Bild who carried yesterdays piece)

They reckon that Southampton have until April 30th rather than the end of May to complete the deal for Elia and that the price agreed to do so is €5.5m. At today's fortunate exchange rates that converts to just over £3.9m which for a player who has just been called up to the Dutch national squad sounds very much like a bargain.

When Elia joined Saints that would have meant the price would have been nearer £4.6 million meaning that Saints if they excercise the option could be forking out aroung 3/4 million less than they anticipated for the player, indeed if the Euro exchange rate hits 1.5 to the £ as is predicted in the next month or so then the price to Saints could be as little as £3.6 million and that represents a good price for a player with his experience.

Indeed the strength of the pound against the Euro in the coming months could see Saints and indeed many clubs preferring to shop on the continent rather than in the inflated Uk market, especially when they can pay so much less for a player now due to the currency exchange rates.

Photo: Action Images

Saintpaul120 added 17:16 - Mar 12 I'm so pleased you clarified that the strong pound, to which you referred, was against the Euro as, against the US Dollar, it's blo*dy weak!!
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TimSaint added 11:49 - Mar 13 Not sure that we would be signing anyone from the MLS anyway, so it would have to be about the Euro, or other European currencies, such as Czech and Croatia. Guess we could go for Bradley Wright-Phillips again, as he scored quite a lot in the mls last season, plus he had a good partnership with Nathan Dyer - oh but that was in skate night clubs, not on the pitch lol !!

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