Reports in Italy are suggesting that Southampton have made an offer for Bologna's midfielder Mattias Svanberg. How much credence will this rumour have, we will soon find out.

La Gazetta Dello Sport have claimed that Saints have but in a bid for Mattias Svanberg.a 23 year old central midfielder playing for Bologna.

They go on to say that the Southampton bid is around 10 million euros or £8.5 million in our money as they say.

Svanberg is going into the last year of his contract so Bologna could be keen to cash in now, hence what looks like a cheeky bid from Saints, he signed for the Italian club 4 years ago from Malmo for around £4.5 million and his value is estimated around 3x as much at present, but that is in a normal market, whereas Bologna are not in a strong position and risk losing him for nothing in 12 months.

Svanberg is a central midfielder and able to operate either in a defensive or attacking role, he has been pretty much a fixture in the Bologna side over the past 4 seasons, in the season just ended he made 36 Serie A appearances, 31 from the bench and scored 3 goals with the same number of assists.

He has also gained 21 caps for the Swedish full international squad, scoring just the one goal.

If we do sign Svanberg it could either mean the departure of one of our three experienced central midfielders or a change in playing style for Ralph Hasenhuttl with the option to play 3 central midfielders with three at the back and two wingbacks.

Photo: Action Images

SonicBoom added 15:48 - Jun 13 Well on the surface not particularly exciting although if he's another Anders Svensson then let's have him. Does it make you a fixture in a side if you spent 31 of 36 league games on the bench ?
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highfield49 added 17:04 - Jun 13 Let's face it there isn't any real competition for midfield places at present. JWP and Romeu have been pretty much nailed on starters for months and the we have the serial underperformers Elyounoussi, Redmond, Armstrong, Djenepo, Diallo, not forgetting Long and Walcott of course. Smallbone has potential but needs more game time, possibly on a loan deal. Compared to the above Svanberg already looks different class and I've never seen him kick a ball. At present I'm desperately hoping that the incoming coaches can get new life out of the majority of the squad because we simply cannot go into next season with the performance level that we've witnessed for far too long.

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Peterx added 07:32 - Jun 14 The 5 subs is going to mean that we can refresh midfield in games more regularly. Also by all accounts he is energetic. So having someone who is has a big engine and can run themselves into the ground for 30 mins looks like a good option for Saints.
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