According to reports from Scotland, new Rangers manager and ex Saints boss Russell Martin is heading back to St Mary's with his credit card and the Scottish giants have already made a bid for one player.

Ibrox News are claiming that Rangers have made a firm bid to Southampton for Sam Edozie.

They say that the Gers have been interested in the player for some time and that now Russell Martin is ready to firm up that interest and they have made an offer to Saints.

The article also claims that Rangers will face competition from several other clubs for Edozie's signature.

However it seems strange that Martin should be keen to sign Edozie, in 2023/24 as he took Southampton to promotion from the Championship, in 46 League games he started Edozie in just 16 of those, he made another 16 appearances as a sub and had another 12 games where he sat on the bench but didn't get on the pitch.

In the play offs he sat out the first leg at West Brom, made a short sub appearance in the home game and bizarrely played 48 minutes at Wembley after one start against Stoke aside, barely playing in the previous 13 matches.

This was not much evidence that Russell Martin rated Edozie as a player and that was emphasised further when he shipped the winger off to Anderlecht after 2 sub appearances in the opening 3 Premier League fixtures.

So why is he so keen to sign a player whom he clearly didn't rate or felt that fitted into his 100% possession football way of playing.

Saints signed Edozie for around £8 million when he joined in the summer of 2022 and still has two years left on his contract, so Southampton are in no hurry to sell.

My personal view is that Saints would be better keeping hold of him, in our promotion season Edozie scored 6 goals with 3 assists that was a good return for the number of minutes played and this compared favourably with Ryan Fraser whom he was in direct opposition with for a place on the left wing.

This may well be the case for the coming season and it may be Saints would rather get a fee now for Edozie and rely on the experienced Ryan Frazer or indeed make a new signing.

However the claim that Rangers are in for him still sounds strange given Russell Martin's previous disinclination to actually play Edozie.

All Photos Via Reuters

Block8 added 09:33 - Jul 9 Say no to Edozie but offer him his best mate Fraser & that's £40,000 a week off the wage bill!
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kenchilds70 added 09:41 - Jul 9 Scottish clubs are like Turkish clubs/ £ shop purchasers / off to the car boot sale Mr Martin.
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beynali73 added 09:46 - Jul 9 I was hoping that RM would take a handful of his favourites up to Glasgow with him...
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WoolstonSaint2 added 11:57 - Jul 9 I think Edozie would flourish at Ibrox. Good luck to him if he leaves Saints
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underweststand added 12:52 - Jul 9 Really can't figure this one. Admittedly Sam was a bit in-and-out in his first season but nevertheless did make an impression at a young age. Now it's 2 ...or is it 3 years on, he has had game time on his loan-out abroad and is now attracting attention from other clubs. We are back in the Championship, so the level will not be quite so challenging and so I wonder who we would look at for another name on the shirt - should Sam finally move? Perhaps we might see Jay Robinson filling that spot, but what happens in the case of a big injury, or sudden loss of form...we would have no obvious replacement. There are still several weeks before the season start, and a few weeks more before the window closes and so there may be some other names we've haven't heard yet, but a.t.m. I'm not totally convinced it's such a good idea to let him go for such a low-level fee.

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SaintJackoInHurworth added 14:35 - Jul 9 I believe Saints have pretty much said there are no negotiations ongoing to sell Edozie, so this maybe just journalists making up stories. I suspect Ibrox News are just recycling a story that has been in the national media for a few days. Personally, I think this season could be a key time to see Edozie develop and that Still could be the man to bring out his best. Having said that we do have Dibling, Armstrong, BBD, Fraser, Robinson and others. Nevertheless, I would rather keep Edozie than Fraser or BBD.

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DoctorSleep added 17:21 - Jul 9 RM please take Slowbone
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mushinexile added 10:25 - Jul 11 Take Fraser and I'll throw in Bazunu and pay your fare back home but Edozie is ours and a proven goal scorer, so you ain't having him.
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