It seems Saints are already looking at their options to replace Matteus Fernandes as West ham United look to increase their offer for the Portuguese midfielder and they could be shopping in the North East.

According to The Mail Online Southampton have set their eyes on Coventry City's Jack Rudoni as a replacement for Matteus Fernandes, but with Rudoni making Noises about staying with the Sky Blues, the latest reports suggest that Southampton have already made an offer to Middlesbrough for their attacking midfielder Finn Azaz.

Despite his exotic sounding name, Azaz is a London born Republic Of Ireland international, so will already be familiar with potential team mates at St Mary's Gavin Bazunu & Ryan Manning.

Saints are said to have started the bidding with a £12 million offer to Boro, but with Azaz valued at about £14-15 million, that is a little lower than Boro will want to accept for their star player.

Azaz has been linked with Saints before, two years ago after a loan spell at Plymouth for his then club Aston Villa, there were rumours that he could join Saints, in the end he opted for a second year at Home Park.

In his first season in 2022/23 he helped Plymouth to promotion from League one with an impressive 8 goals and 9 assists, in his second season on loan he came up against twice, he failed to score or get an assist, but in the other 44 games in the league he scored 11 goals with 10 assists.

This earned him a move from Villa to Middlesbrough and last season in his 45 games in the Championship he scored 12 goals and 11 assists, again an impressive total.

So that has led Saints to see him as the ideal replacement for Fernandes, should the man from Portugal depart.

All Photos Via Reuters

saintmark1976 added 21:11 - Aug 20 Yes, all very interesting I’m sure, but please can we buy a proper goal scoring forward with a proven track record ?
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kevleykeegle added 21:37 - Aug 20 He’s an attacking midfielder, not a forward.
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Colburn added 21:41 - Aug 20 Decent player, not the quickest but has some style. Tends to score a few goal of the month candidates as well as being a good provider. I would have him for 15 million and keep Fernandes, the 2 together would be great. I don’t get why we didn’t sell Dibling for 37.. we could have brought in Fellows, Azaz and a right back for that money.. We need to offload some of the notgoodenoughs soon

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Bowlercow added 21:53 - Aug 20 St Mark Players with a proven track record at this level include Armstrong, Stewart,BBD and Archer What we need is a provider and a settled team and forward line
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1teeminants added 22:28 - Aug 20 Colburn It seems saints fans moan when we sell our best players and moan when we try and keep them. I say well down to Spors etc for standing their ground .
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Jesus_02 added 00:11 - Aug 21 Fernandez has been our best signing for ages to ship him out and replace him with a couple of championship hopefuls would be a disaster. When will we learn?
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StillaSaint added 00:33 - Aug 21 Well said Jesus .... He has been and we need to keep him at all cost , if we want to be a prem team next season . Selling our best players isn't the way forward . Remember Alcaraz , as soon as we loaned him out we lost the run we were on . Now look at the impact he has at Everton . Its painful to watch for me . Lets not repeat
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