Vilhena Linked With Saints Again
Tuesday, 26th Jan 2016 19:45

Feyenoord's Tonny Vilhena is once again being strongly linked with a move to the Premier League and it is not just only Saints he is linked with.

The name Tonny Vilhena has surfaced a lot in the last 18 months or so, from the moment that Ronald Koeman arrived at Southampton he was linked with a move for Vilhena indeed a transfer window has yet to go past without a strong link.

Now Vilhena is entering the last six months of his contract and Feyenoord would prefer to tray and cash in now rather than lose him in the summer and face getting far less in a development fee.

Saints are of course high on the list of possible suitors for the central midfielder who although only turning 21 a few weeks ago has already made 120 appearances in all competitions for the Rotterdam club.

The drawback though is that Saints have more than enough players in the centre of midfield, Vilhena's ex team mate Jordy Clasie is starting to show his promise, not to mention Oriol Romeu, James Ward Prowse and of course Victor Wanyama.

That is four players for the two holding roles that Koeman likes to play and Harrison Reed would make five but can't get near the squad such is the quality available to Koeman this season.

Ideally Saints would like to sign up Victor Wanyama to a new contract, but as the Kenyan stalls Saints have to decide whether to take the risk on Wanyama signing the new deal or cover the likelihood that he will leave by bringing in Vilhena for his replacement.

The other issue for Saints is that several other Premier clubs are reported to be looking at Vilhena, Leicester City have looked in recent weeks and Swansea City are desperate to replace Jonjo Shelvey and bolster their campaign to beat the drop.

Saints would be the favourites in that Ronald Koeman gave Vilhena his debut at Feyenoord in January 2012 a couple of weeks after his 17th birthday and has always had a close relationship with him, but with other clubs sniffing around and Feyenoord now looking to sell, that may not be enough.

So there is some hard thinking for the club to do in the few days, there are many factors in play, some not within their control and whilst perhaps Saints would have preferred to let Vilhena finish this season at Feyenoord and then bring him to St Mary's in the summer they may have to change their plans and act quickly or face losing him.

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Aussie added 22:57 - Jan 26

I feel like if we did sell Wanyama, he would need to be replaced by a more defensive player to keep the right balance in the squad. We currently have Wanyama (mostly defensive), Romeu (more defensive the attacking), Clasie (more attacking than defensive), Ward-Prowse (mostly attacking). And Reed I think is somewhere in the middle. From what I can tell Vilhena is more like Ward-Prowse than any of the others. Bit of a simplified way of looking at it but still applies I think.

SaintNick added 10:11 - Jan 27 From what I have read Vilhena is a genuine holding midfielder
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SaintBrock added 22:06 - Jan 27 Sound like his agent is upping the ante but if we are really interested then it is likely a deal to bring him here in the summer has already been done or is being done, his agent lobbing in the so-called Leicester interest to try to up the price.
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