Saints are being touted as head of the queue in the case to sign a 16 year old Swedish wonderkid with a host of Swedish, German & Italian clubs also in hot pursuit.

Saints are being linked with 16 year old Rafael York who is aready a regular for Swedish second division club Sandviken.

York has signed a 3 year deal with the club with escape clauses that vary between a current fee of £156k but could drop to as little as £78k as his contract goes on.

But when you see who the quote in the media is from it perhaps tells you that there is perhaps less substance to the rumour than you might think and this is more his agent trying to stir up interest in his client.

“When you see him play, you can’t believe he is a 16-year-old, “ said his agent Michael Kallback. “There is huge interest from half-a-dozen European clubs. “

The fact that Saints are being linked suggests that our reputation for bringing on young players is very high in Europe and that is why we are lnked.

However it would not be a bad thing if we did cast our net for young players in Europe a bit more, Morgan Schneiderlin is evidence that there is talent to be had on the continent at an early age if you look hard enough.

Photo: Action Images

IWOZTHERE added 10:55 - Sep 20 I've seen little of our current crop of youngsters but I get the impression that the conveyor belt has stalled a bit and that the 'golden years' were the exception rather than the rule. I refer of course to the era of top youngsters developed, from Bale through to Schneiderlin. Disappointing though it was to sell them,without many of these sales, the club would not have survived in it's present form. Having sold the 'crown jewels' where are we now? Where is the next 'diamond' coming from? Matt Targett may come back stronger, but he's no Luke Shaw. JWP may fulfil his potential? Harrison Reed was 'built up' and must be pretty peed off as his chances of getting a game look pretty slim. RK was forced into playing Targett who struggled at times.... He may think he needs experienced cover at left back A window signing there would effectively close the door on these guys' chances of a first team game as we now have a large Eurosquad? of senior players. We have built a massive reputation on the strength of developing younger players and giving them the chance of first team football. It would be costly in the long term if we lost that reputation and became less attractive to young players with potential.

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halftimeorange added 11:19 - Sep 20 You are right, IWOZTHERE that the number of genuine prospects has dwindled of late but that is because of an upheaval in the youth camp caused by Cortese towards the end of his tenure. There are a couple to keep an eye on. Dominic Gape can pass a ball, Bevis Mugabi, if he's injury free is a marauding right full back or midmielder and Marcus Barnes is the best prospect, a freescoring bullying CF. All is not lost.

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bstokesaint added 12:09 - Sep 20 Ever since Forren was supposed to be the next big thing out of Scandanavia I've been sceptical of these headlines.. I'm thinking Swedish League 2 is probably not a particularly great standard.
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