Press reports are saying that Saints will be heading up to the North East to ease their central defensive woes.

Saints are being linked with Middlesbrough's Ben Gibson as they look to not only get in a belated replacement for Jose Fonte but also Virgil Van Dijk who looks extremely unlikely to play for the club again.

Gibson at 24 is highly rated on Teeside and was ever present in Middlesbrough's Premier league side last season, who although were relegated only conceded 53 goals, better than 10 other Premier League defences and only 5 more than Saints themselves.

The only drawback is cost, Gibson in today's inflated market place is being quoted at £25-30 million and that is a little too high in my opinion.

At 6ft 1 he is versatile and can not only play in the centre of defence but as a full back suggesting he has little bit of pace.

Manchester City have been linked but that is probably a step too far and he ould at best be a squad player there, West Brom are also lurking.

If Saints could land him for nearer £20 million and line up someone like Wesley Hoedt or Kevin Wimmer alongside him then that would be money well spent and still allow us to either let Virgil Van Dijk stew in the reserves for a while or stil have plenty of change left from his transfer when it happens.

Gibson although only having 1 season in the top flight has plenty of it in the Championship having spent three seasons in that division for Boro including their promotion year as a regular after breaking in to the side as a 20 year old in 2013/14 season.

Prior to that he had loan spells in League 2 with Plymouth, in the conference with York City and then in League 1 with Tranmere Rovers, his rise was not meteoric, but he has learned his trade and having had a succesful spell in the Premier League last term is now available at the right price to return.

He has not yet been capped at full International level although he was called into the squad back in March but was a non playing sub.

Middlesbrough fans rate him highly and being the nephew of Boro Chairman Steve Gibson he is known for his loyalty to the club and the area.

Photo: Action Images

janecook added 12:35 - Aug 8 Hope we get him but I doubt we will he is out of our usual price range. Whats happening about us signing Mario Lemina?
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Webbinho added 13:01 - Aug 8 Wishful thinking I feel. Out of our bracket. If we manage to get 50m for VVD, Celtic get 7.5m straight off. I just don't see us spending a large chunk of that on a single CB. Normally we reinvest about 50% of fees received and the rest goes into the ever inflating wages fund. If we sign 2 CBs I'd expect the combined fee to be around 20m.
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bstokesaint added 13:16 - Aug 8 English players are notoriously over-priced. It probably explains why we've done so well from our academy previously.
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WanderingSaint added 13:22 - Aug 8 From a defence that conceded 5 more goals than a defence containing Stephens and Yoshi? No thanks. Never been a fan of buying CBs from relegated clubs. Definitely not for £20m. Really don't think he'll improve what we already have.
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SaintBrock added 19:54 - Aug 8 Agree with you WS. I can't see Jack Stephens handing his place back now can you?
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saintpaz added 22:21 - Aug 8 hope we ask a lot more that 50 million for Van Dijk as we can get it easily
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LoisDeem added 14:29 - Aug 9 Irrespective of the 'Scouse on the stair, right there, a little scouse with clogs on, going Klip klippetty Klopp on the stair' thing -there has been a lot of urban mythology and mystery surrounding the central defensive berths -I give you Fonte, Caceres and Gardos. "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been paid out to so many for so little return" (with a respectful nod to arguably the best defender in history) Anybody like to try and shed light on it? I'm assuming also that Yoshida's contract will be taken care of -though he comes across as a little too trusting?

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