The latest player to be linked with a move to St Mary's is currently playing in England, a rarity in saints transfer rumours.

Saints are being linked with a move for Manchester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho, reports in the media say Saints are looking to take him on loan whilst City would prefer to do a permanent deal at around £20 million.

Iheanacho joined City in January 2014 and after an initial loan spell in the MLS made an impact last season scoring 8 times in 26 Premier League appearances plus another 60 goals in 9 other appearances.

But his playing time has stalled this season, he has started only 5 Premier League games with another 14 off the bench scoring 4 times.

He is an undoubted talent but at 20 he has not yet the maturity to push himself ahead of the big names in City's team hence they are willing to do business and would prefer to sell than loan.

Saints look likely to lose at least one of Shane Long and Jay Rodriguez in the summer if not both, although a change of manager could keep Long at the club and with Charlie Austin's fitness in doubt as well as his ability to play in Puel's system, Saints will be in the market for a striker in the summer.

Photo: Action Images

darthvader added 09:18 - May 16 Blimey 60 goals in 9 other appearances that's pretty good going
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mgprobert added 09:38 - May 16 Your headline is misleading - it reads as factual, rather than the usual end of season "been linked" and "is reported" speculation. That said, it would be very good news if it ever came about
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SonicBoom added 10:38 - May 16 Twenty mill for a 20 year old who is mainly a sub. F off City.
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highfield49 added 10:57 - May 16 So now we have Tosun and Iheanacho signing I can't see any future for Gallagher, Long and JayRod. That said, I haven't seen much future for these three guys for most of the season and they all probably need new challenges to get their careers kick started again. The ever reliable media already have Long signing for Reading and JayRod on his way to Newcastle with Gallagher heading for Leeds, Sheffield Utd and several other Championship clubs. The transfer merry go round is ready to roll and some quality fresh faces at St Marys would be a definite boost after a frustrating season.

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GeordieSaint added 11:21 - May 16 This kid knows where the net is but doesn't do a great deal outside of the box. Probably the sort of player who would fit very well with the football we have played this season. I can tell you he was thought very highly of under Pellegrini but Guardiaola doesn't seem too fussed.
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Webbinho added 12:32 - May 16 He tends to score when he plays, would be a great option. Not convinced it will happen tough, having just paid out 16m on Gabbiadini
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bstokesaint added 12:40 - May 16 As Darth has observed any striker who is scoring more than 6.5 goals a game has got to be worth £20m! That's phenomenal. Joking aside I've learnt with Saints that we rarely make much of a fuss of incoming targets and most turn out to be red herrings. I'd just be happy with a couple of two or three real quality signings provided we can keep exits to an absolute minimum. It's hard saying no to a proven goalscorer (particularly if they can work off Gabbi) and when you have two players prone to injury currently occupying that spot. The key for me though is a decent signing to pair VVD and a playmaker to make chances. This season we haven't done this. I'm sure Puel's tactics may be a factor, but I'm not convinced Tadic does enough.

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 13:11 - May 16 bstokesaint - I think Tadic suffers because of Puel's tactics. The ball isn't moved forward quick enough and by the time Tadic gets the ball he's marked, everyone of our attackers is marked and he has no room to do anything. Everyone's got thier back to goal, the opposition have got numbers beihnd the ball so all we can do is knock around our back four and start again. He doesn't have these problems with Serbia. As for Iheanacho, the lad is class. Have you seen his goals per shots ratio? At one point he'd scored 12 goals from 19 shots! The only reason City would let him go is because they've got Aguero and Jesus. I can't see Saints getting him because some of the biggest teams in Europe would be very interested. It would be a massive coup but silly season has already begun where we get linked with everyone, our players get linked with everyone and 90% of it is bullsh

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BoondockSaint added 14:37 - May 16 I'll stickup for Tadic too...he was fine when playing with Pelle and Mane, either him feeding them or them creating space for him to work. I feel the only reason Puel was not playing him was he's the only player trying to move the ball forward, not side to side!
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aceofthebase added 18:50 - May 16 Tadic moves the ball forward! He is more likely to do a 360 and wait for the defence to get organised.. We can do better than Tadic but no-one seems to want him and judging by Nicks rules, that makes him a championship player.
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BoondockSaint added 19:17 - May 16 Hi aceofthebase- Look at these stats: https://www.whoscored.com/Players/29474/History/Dusan-Tadic While playing practically the same number of minutes, his goal and assist totals are about half of what they were last season. But last year he had Pelle, Mane and Koeman. This year, until Gabbiadini came in, there was no quality finisher to pass to. As REEDOREEDYREEDZ points out, he doesn't have this problem when playing with Serbia. Yes I know his penalties were awful, but that's no surprise on this team....

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aceofthebase added 19:55 - May 16 Thanks Boondock much appreciated but I'm not very happy to base my opinion on stats prefer to base it on what I see.
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