With Saints likely to agree terms with Tottenham Hotspur this week for Victor Wanyama, could they be interested in taking a player as part of the deal in part exchange.

Spurs websites have this week been contemplating the future of midfielder Ryan Mason who will be surplus to requirements when Wanyama arrives.

Mason who has been a late developer at Spurs having just turned 25 and only broke into the Spurs first team in 2014/15 season when he started 29 Premier League games plus another 2 as sub, then he was being touted as the next big thing at White Hart Lane along with another late developer Harry Kane and was awarded a 4 1/2 year deal in January 2015 keeping him under contract till 2020. He also won his first and to date only full England cap.

But 2015/16 was not a good one despite a good start for Mason and the combination of injury and the good form of Dier, Dembele and the emergence of Dele Alli meant that his chances in the starting line up were restricted, he made only 8 starts plus 14 as sub and the arrival of Wanyama will push him further down the list.

Spurs fan websites are suggesting that Pochettino is known to have his favourites in the team and that like at Saints he is not keen on rotating things, keeping the same side as often as possible, that means that Mason will get few opportunities this coming season.

Also Pochettino has to sell before he can bring any players of significance in and the word is that they are ready to prune the squad and Mason is on the list of those surplus to requirements.

At this stage of his career Mason will feel that he needs regular first team football and there is no shortage of admirers in the Premier League with Crystal Palace already showing interest.

The question is though whether Saints have Mason in their sights and whether they see him as a replacement for Wanyama, certainly he does not have the physical presence of Wanyama, but he would represent the type of player Saints like to sign, ie with plenty of potential and available at a good price.

It could suit Spurs to offer Saints Mason as part of the Wanyama deal, for them it would kill two birds with one stone and would reduce down the actual cash they would need to release to sign Wanyama, although they have Champions League qualification they are also having to spend big to build their new stadium next to White Hart Lane, this is not cheap and will restrict their ability to spend big on transfers unless they bring in money from sales.

Photo: Action Images

law101 added 08:46 - Jun 20 NO NO NO NO NO!! Every Spurs fan I speak to says he is a waste of space.
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aceofthebase added 08:53 - Jun 20 Yeah let's help Spurs out so they can succeed and build a new stadium. I don't think so!
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LordDZLucan added 08:55 - Jun 20 I spoke to a couple of Spurs fans outside White Hart Lane last season before the Saints game and they were very scathing about Ryan Mason. I'd go for straight cash and not a penny less than £12.5m, the amount we paid for him. If Spurs can't come up with that then let him see out his contract with us. We can't let so called 'big teams' like Spurs be seen to do us over.

4

SonicBoom added 09:18 - Jun 20 I wouldn't like to write anyone off but I really don't see what he would add other than another body to the squad.
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SanMarco added 10:06 - Jun 20 I agree with law101 and would add an extra couple of NOs. Totally agree also with Lord Lucan over fee/making him see out contract but we know it wont happen
2

highfield49 added 11:22 - Jun 20 I really can't see why Saints should even think about signing Mason. Let him go to Palace or wherever and insist on cash for Victor. As for Victor maybe, just maybe, Leicester could up the bidding and we could squeeze a few more quid out of Spurs.
2

SanMarco added 11:48 - Jun 20 Ron doesn't seem interested which is a pity...
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Chainatlad added 11:53 - Jun 20 Totally agree with the No for Mason. As for Wanyama he wants to go so let him go now, as fior the fee, my understanding is we pay Celtic 25% of any profit so a fee of around what we paid is actually about as much as we can expect with only 12 months left on his contract. Have every faith is Romeunext season so use the money on a player that we need.
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saintsnutcase added 12:10 - Jun 20 "We won't do any business with Daniel Levy at Spurs". Oh yeah.
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GeordieSaint added 13:00 - Jun 20 Some very negative reactions here. I like Mason very much and although it is probably just paper talk I reckon he would fit in very well at Saints. He is a possession type player more in the Jack Cork mould. It would be nice to take someone in a deal from Spurs and watch them flourish with us while Wanyama sits on the bench for them.
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1970 added 13:35 - Jun 20 If we were forced into signing any Spuds players then Bentualebe may be, but the rest can stay at spuds and rot on there bench we all remember there highly rated goally Tommy forecast, and Mason is no different, they haven't created a single player for years, they'll argue they produced Kane but in truth the 19 or so other clubs he was loaned to did all the coaching not spuds , good luck Victor your another laughing stock coyr

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