According to media reports in Spain Barcelona are bracing themselves for a January bid from Southampton for one of their strikers.

Saints are said to be interested in taking stiker Paco Acacer from the Nou Camp in January for what would surely be a club record fee.

Alcacer joined Barcelona in the summer of 2016 in a €30 million move from Valencia but scored only eight goals in 28 games during his debut season in Catalonia, including six in 21 La Liga appearances, a decent enough record at most clubs but not at Barca and they now seem willing to move him on.

Alcacer also has 13 caps for Spain and has scored 6 times a decent record although it was not good enough to earn him a place in the squad for the Euro finals in France in 2016 and his lack of game time at Barca has seen him drop down the pecking order in the last year.

Saints are now said to be interested although this could be mainly down to the fact that our lack of goals this season will see us linked with every striker gong.

Alcacer is diminutive at 5ft 9 1/2 and looks to be in the same mould as Manolo Gabbiadini prompting questions as to how we would fit them both in the team and indeed keep Shane Long and Charlie Austin happy at the club.

With still over 10 weeks to go before the transfer window opens and media speculation about Van Dijk leaving in January a situation that would leave Saints seriously minted, this won't be the last rumour leading up to the turn of the year.

Photo: Action Images

SonicBoom added 11:04 - Oct 13 Oi ! Im' 5 foot 10 and no one has ever called me "diminutive".
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Scummer added 11:15 - Oct 13 Oi, pipe down titch.
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kingslandstand1 added 11:50 - Oct 13 Not good enough for Barcelona, so is he good enough for us? Don't do rejects
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charlie357 added 12:11 - Oct 13 What were Bertrand & Romeu if they weren't rejects?
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SaintBrock added 15:40 - Oct 13 Rejects is a bit harsh why not call them 2nd's. Just a few chips here and there and a blemish or two otherwise as good as the real thing. It's not bad being a "second's" club really.
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the_saint added 15:40 - Oct 13 Lamena was a Juventus reject and look at him in the premier
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SaintBrock added 15:50 - Oct 13 The problem for all players is do they fit a manager's style of play? Gabbi obviously suited Puel very well, maybe Austin suited Koeman but neither seems to have been able to adapt to Pellegrino - include Boufal in that assessment. Wouldn't you have thought we should have recruited a manger who could get the best from the not inexpensive-to-buy players we already have rather than one who can only succeed by going out and buying clones of some guys who might have worked his system better elsewhere? Surely a manager has to be adaptive as well as players. There is no evidence so far that Pellegrino is sufficiently flexible to be able to change his ways judging by the rigidity we have seen on the pitch week in week out.

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SaintPaulVW added 17:20 - Oct 13 MP's dream formation, 3 at the back, is crying out for a CF who can receive crosses in from the wing backs and hold the ball up. A few goals would also be nice. If Gabbi isn't really suitable for that, why is this guy?
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SanMarco added 17:29 - Oct 13 Attacking mf is the top of my list but what do I know...
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SeattleSaints added 22:02 - Oct 13 Not sure that Barcelona are exactly "bracing" themselves ;-)
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skiptonsaint added 23:33 - Oct 13 if our non scoring continues we need to make sure if we spend big it is on the right player for the right system We know what we need for 4231 and non of our current strikers seem to fit . Would this guy change it. Worked best with Pelle style big lad didn't it ? so play 352 between now and Jan and assess. Because if we spend 30m and that player doesn't work we could be like qpr that season when they bought big and had a squad that looked good on paper but just didn't work and they went down.

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WanderingSaint added 00:54 - Oct 14 I’d much prefer us to get Troy Deeney from Watford. Shouldn’t be too expensive if he can’t get a game there atm.
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