Earlier this season it was reported that Saints were looking at Bayern Munich keeper Daniel Peretz, currently on loan at HSV Hamburg. Now these rumours are re surfacing, but is Perez really an upgrade on Gavin Bazunu.

According to several football media sources in Germany, including cfbayerninsider Saints are about to sign Daniel Peretz with immediate effect.

But as we reported a couple of months ago, is Peretz really an upgrade on Gavin Bazunu.

On the face of it, he looks like he could be, he is a 25 year old Israeli International whose parent club is Bayern Munich, but then when you look at the stats, it does not look too exciting.

He started his career with Maccabi Tel Aviv, where he made 71 appearances in the Israeli Premier League, after breaking into their first team in the 2021/22 season.

His form there led to a move to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2023, but then it all started to go wrong, in the following two seasons he made just 4 Bundesliga appearances plus 2 in the national cup and 1 in Europe, just 7 appearances in total.

That led in the summer to a loan transfer to fellow Bundesliga Club HSV Hamburg, however despite his expectations to be the number 1 at Hamburg, it seems that they were not too impressed when he arrived and he has not played a League game with just 2 outings in the National Cup to his name.

So the question is whether Peretz is any better than our current options, the fact that Bayern Munich signed him for around £4 million and to be blunt his valuation has not increased.

The German giants have a plethora of keepers with Peretz being 1of 3 out on loan at the moment, indeed Alexander Nubel now on loan at Stuttgart for a third season after two seasons on loan at Monaco, is a case of how signing for Bayern Munich is different from actually playing a game for them.

So is Peretz any better than Bazunu, Alex McCarthy or even current 3rd choice George Long who on loan from Norwich aged 32 has substantial experience in the Championship and League One.

The stats say no and the real downside is that in the last 2 1/2 years Peretz has played just 7 first team games and that for me is the real worry.

If we are going to bring in a new keeper, he needs to be commanding and experienced, we need someone who has the respect of his colleagues and can marshal a defence that lacks a leader and organisation.

Perhaps Peretz is one for the future, but from his track record so far, I do not think he is the man to come in and replace Gavin Bazunu.

This is not sticking up for Bazunu , as I frequently seem to have to do on the message board of this site, if for instance Aaron Ramsdale should return from loan at Newcastle this month, something that could be on the cards after he was axed from the Newcastle first team on Tuesday after the return from injury of Nick Pope, I would be delighted.

Similarly if we made a cheeky bid for Viktor Johansson from Stoke I would be quite excited, he and Ramsdale would both be upgrades on Bazunu, but if we are going to replace him , then it needs to be for someone with a proven track record.

Daniel Peretz does not seem to have that experience and would therefore be a big gamble.

All Photos Via Reuters