Well respected transfer pundit Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Saints have opened talks with Will Still's former club RC Lens for a forward with a little bit of a strange transfer situation this summer.

givemesport.com are reporting that Fabrizio Romano, a man who seems to be well connected when it comes to transfer deals, is saying that Southampton have opened negotiations with Will Still's former club Lens for Morgan Guilavogui.

The 27 year old can play as a right winger and also as a central striker, but when the article states that Still was in charge of the player at Lens last season, they are not quite accurate, in fact one of Still's first jobs at the French club was to sanction the loan deal to St Pauli for Guilavogui.

The player enjoyed a decent spell with St Pauli in the Bundesliga, starting 21 games plus 5 off the bench, a hairline fracture of his foot saw him injured for 8 games plus another one missed due to suspension, but he was a major part of the St Pauli squad and scored 6 goals plus 2 assists in the Bundesliga, operating mainly on the right, but also down the middle and on the left.

He returned to Lens at the end of the season and now it get quirky, St Pauli exercised their right to buy for 3 million euros, then a day Lens bought him back from the German club for 4.5 million Euros as they exercised their own right to buy back clause set in the original agreement and now they are seemingly set to sell him to Southampton for a profit as yet undislcosed.

It is also strange that Will Still is interested in a player that he seemingly didn't want last season when he was manager at Lens, possibly because his stats in 2023/24 were far from impressive, only 2 starts in Ligue 1 plus 21 sub appearances saw him play just 549 minutes of League football scoring just twice.

Bus his season at the Hamburg based St Pauli club has made him hot property and it seems Lens were willing to have a bit of backwards and forwards movement to buy back a player they had just sold at a 1.5 million Euros loss.

Guilavogui played the full 90 minutes of Lens' 1-0 defeat to Lens in their opening Ligue 1 of the new season on Saturday at Le Havre.

This transfer seems to be at an advanced stage between the two clubs, so it will be interesting to see if a deal will be done and if it is whether Lens have a buy back option.

All Photos Via Reuters

kingolaf added 18:37 - Aug 18 Rubbish. More money being thrown away on bang average players who won’t improve the first team.
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beynali73 added 10:55 - Aug 19 And will be stuck earning lots of money training in Marchwood for 3 years.
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Bowlercow added 11:27 - Aug 19 It could be that Will had to loan him out because Lens needed the money They have been cash strapped for a few years now We will only find out if he is any good when he plays.The EPl and championship are littered with players who came in as unknowns and then surprised everyone. At this stage if Will knows him and wants him that's good enough for me.He said we need wingers if we are going to go to a back 4

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highfield49 added 23:38 - Aug 19 It's usually fun to speculate on these projected deals particularly when very few, if any, of us know much about the player in question. I'm firmly in the "never heard of him" camp but, as Nick has posted, at least the rumour source has some credibility. Guilavogui is 27 so not likely to be offered a contract looking at future development or major profit. Maybe Lens have been offered on of our players, like Dom Ballard, on loan? Whatever happens, we'll all know the outcome of the speculation soon.

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DoctorSleep added 13:36 - Aug 20 givemesport.com aren't exactly up to date with things, they still show us as having Juric as a manager and in the premier league!! So not even going to take this with a 'pinch of salt' As for Romano, he does have a good rep but even he gets things wrong and as seems to be in this case. So quirky is one way to describe it!!
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