Ralph Hasenhuttl has been impressed with Takumi Minamino on loan this season and could be keen to buy, if so he could benefit from the fact that Liverpool like Saints have a bloated squad and in these dark days for football, they need to clear the decks.

Back in December both Saints and Liverpool fans felt very optimistic, with a third of the season gone Saints sat 4th on 23 points and Liverpool were joint top with Spurs on 25 points, Manchester City looked far from unbeatable back in 9th with only 19.

But neither club realised that a horrendous injury list and loss of form would reduce them to also rans in the first two months of the New Year.

Saints fans have a lot to moan about, but our demise has been a lot less of a drop than the Merseyside club, this time last year when football was suspended, we sat on just one more point than we have today from the same number of games, whilst Liverpool were runaway Premier League leaders and Champions elect.

At the start of this season both sets of supporters had high hopes for this season, but so far at least it has not lived up to expectations, Saints supporters berated the club in the transfer window for failing to spend money, but the truth is that no clubs have any money, there were only 20 incoming transfers for Premier League clubs and almost five times that number out, very little money changed hands in terms of transfer fees.

It could be said that the best deal done in January was the loan of Takumi Minamino to Saints, although he has been in a struggling side, he has looked a class act and one that in a winning side could pull a lot of the strings.

Now the rumour on Merseyside is that the Reds have to sell before they can buy and they have a host of players that have underperformed this season and they need to get them off their books.

A recent poll of fans suggested that of the squad that number could be as high as 11 and Minamino was seen as one of those who should leave.

The good news for Saints is that Liverpool will not be looking to make a massive profit on the sale of the Japanese International, they got him for only £7.6 million from Red Bull Salzburg and would probably accept around £11 million.

The bad news is that firstly it seems Sevilla have set their heart on the player according to the media and the second is that Saints have to find £11 million.

Let's not have a plethora of posts about Gao's lack of investment, firstly read the political sections of the papers, China and the West are in a war of words and have been for several years, sanctions are in place and diplomats being expelled all over the place on both sides, even if Gao wanted to invest he couldn't due to his Government's current relations with the UK and the rest of the western world.

Saints are losing money due to the pandemic and so are Liverpool and even Manchester United who last summer took out a £60 million loan to keep the wolf from the door, owners don't throw money at losses, they borrow against the club.

All clubs will be needing to rejig their squads and not only get money off the books, but try and get in transfer fee's as well, but the truth is most clubs have to sell to spend.

Without going too deeply, if rumours are true Saints might be in a better position than some, if Spurs do want Jannik Vestergaard then it might be a deal we want to take, a year ago the main comment I read about Vestergaard seemed to be from the wags of social media saying " I would drive him there myself" every time he was linked to a club, that comment was funny once, 1973 I think it was, but is tediously boring these days.

Last summer we bought Vestergaard's replacement in Mohammed Salisu, we just didn't manage to sell Vestergaard, so I would not be surprised if that deal happened this summer.

So what are your thoughts on Takumi Minamino, have you seen enough to suggest he would be an asset or have you already made your mind up he is not good enough.

Give your opinion in the comments section below and click on the link to vote in our poll.

https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/members//polls/2623/should-sa

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 11:59 - Mar 29 This is a puzzler. Everyone admits his skill, and the two excellent goals he's scored, but in Saints' set-up we need everyone to DAJFU - with tackling back and muscle, and it's obvious in those games we've seen that - opposition defenders can swat him like a fly. Not meaning to be rude, but unless we can afford to play him up front and feed him with the ball continuously, he's unlikely to contribute much more to the team. My heart feeling is that we need his skill and goal-scoring talents, but (head says ) with too little money in the bank to make mistakes, I wonder if his fee (and salary) might be better spent elsewhere? Ralph has 9 games left to find the answer and decide.

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felly1 added 17:04 - Mar 29 Dont think we need another wide attacking player. Two nice goals but very little else from Minamino . Main priority has to be a full back or two .
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stmichael added 11:00 - Mar 31 I have been underwhelmed by him to be honest. If everyone is fit he is not playing is he !!
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