Saints are being linked with Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Harry Winks, but is there any real foundation in these claims or is it just his agent trying to stimulate interest in his client and push up his potential salary ?

A few years ago when he broke into the Spurs team as a regular winning England caps along the way, Harry Winks was valued at somewhere around £35 million.

But since then his stock has dropped as he found himself a peripheral player in the first team, ironically after the arrival of Pierre Emile Hojbjerg from Southampton in the summer transfer window of 2020.

Suddenly he went from a 24 year old with the world at his feat to two years later a player approaching 27 and in limbo.

His Spurs career is only 75 starts plus another 55 games as sub, a small total for a player of his age.

Last season he started just 9 games in the league for Spurs the same total as the previous season, in the same period Hojbjerg started all but two of the 76 he could have played.

The pecking order at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium had changed and so had Winks career and he like Dele Alli has gone from a golden boy of Spurs and England, to players who are not fulfilling their potential.

Winks is rumoured to be joining Alli at Everton who are the favourites to sign him, but now it seems Saints have emerged as rivals for his signature, at least according to the rumour mill.

Winks value has dropped drastically and according to transfermarkt it is as low as £14 million and although Spurs are keen to cash in with only two years left on his contract they will be pushing for more than that, hence perhaps why suddenly the name of Southampton FC comes into the picture.

Do Saints need another central midfielder ? That is the question, last season we had James Ward Prowse, Oriol Romeu and Ibrahima Diallo doing most of the duties in the centre of the park, they could be supplemented by Will Smallbone and also Moi Elyounoussi & Stuart Armstrong if needed.

All those players look likely to be in the squad next season, although Will Smallbone could be put out on loan.

But in addition to those we have signed two more central midfielders in Romeo Lavia & Joe Aribo, meaning that as we speak we have 5 experienced specialist players in the centre plus the aforementioned three.

So where would Winks fit in to a Saints midfield, last season Ralph Hasenhuttl in the main stuck to just two central players, although his two new signings suggest a change of formation next year and three being employed.

Saints have been linked with Winks before both in this window and in previous ones and perhaps a few weeks ago it was a signing that would have been needed, but the arrival of Lavia and Aribo means that we seem to have struck the balance needed.

So I am not sure about this transfer now, if we got Winks then it would mean that we would need to sell in midfield and would we want to do that.

I would be surprised if we signed Winks, I think that this is a case of firstly his agent trying to find him a better club than Everton, the Toffees cannot sign any players without permission from the authorities after breaching financial fair play rules, with a new stadium being built and major sponsor deals lost because of sanctioned Russian backers, they are in financial turmoil.

Although they have £60 million from the sale of Richarlison to Spurs, they are under pressure to use some of that to reduce debt and to fund losses for the coming season, so far they have made just one signing out of contract James Tarkowski on a free from Burnley, they are trying to sign Armando Broja and Harry Winks who between them would cost a big chunk of that £60 million.

I am not sure they have the clout to do that, they are obviously going to try and big things up for their fans, but truth is they are in crisis and from that perspective not attractive to a player to join them, especially if another relegation battle looms and without Richalison's goals being replaced that is on the cards.

This smells of Winks not really fancying Everton and his agent trying to tout him around to other clubs.

Photo: Action Images

WestSussexSaint added 09:46 - Jul 12 Unless JWP is on his way out the door I don’t see a need for Winks on top of the guys we have already signed. Priority now is a goal scoring striker.
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dirk_doone added 10:01 - Jul 12 We have to hope that it's only a rumour. Winks would add nothing to our team. As for actually paying a fee for him, Spurs' fans detest him so much that they would club together and pay us to take him away.
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Jesus_02 added 10:10 - Jul 12 Winks may be a half decent player. But I think he is the antithesis of you model, high profile , over valued and middle aged (for a player!).
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Block8 added 10:22 - Jul 12 I'd take Winks but only if we were losing one of our experienced midfielders and there was either a loan or very small fee. He is a good playmaker and that is where we are short regardless of numbers. However I certainly wouldn't want to see a big fee or another high earner sat on the bench!
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DellBoyWally added 11:16 - Jul 12 He would fit our new formation:- 2 gks; 1cb; 2rbs; 5cmfs; 1cf
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underweststand added 12:03 - Jul 12 Not sure that Winks would add much more to Saints squad. Not least because his Spurs salary might be a deal breaker. The fact that he spends so much time on the bench and not in the start line up saya a lot more. Hope we pass on this one.
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IanRC added 16:19 - Jul 12 Please no. Yet another over valued, over hyped Spurs product.
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LoisDeem added 10:46 - Jul 13 Given the obvious comparisons (courtesy of Everton) for the two players, let's play 'Dream Teamers'. Surely Broja is going to be the safer and proven fit for Saints, and less of a gamble anyway. Either way, it's often a case of completing (or almost) the jigsaw puzzle that is team selection. However, and appreciating that he's a striker, Broja's much more in demand and likely to attract a higher fee on the wider market, and this should not be the deciding factor. I'm hoping that Saints are still talking to Chelsea on this one, and that the player could still be enticed for either a further loan or a decent permanent fee. The fact that this is unfinished business for both Broja and Saints does not make any deal less mutually attractive surely. My caveat to this is that a clearly useful player like Winks should have a desire to prove himself, whether this might fit into Saints plans or not. I'd like to sign off by generally commending the reasoned and rational input to the UI pages, where elsewhere it's often he's 'useless, rubbish him' or 'couldn't hit a barn door' (based on four games usually). I'd like to call upon the likes of Matt Targett, Nathaniel Clyne who are still plying their trade elsewhere despite 'not being good enough' as character witnesses -and there have been many more -Shane Long really shone when Dusan Tadic was here. Keep up the good work Saints and fellow contributors!

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