The latest report from Europe is suggesting that Spanish La Liga side Valencia are in talks with Saints about taking one of our central midfielders, read of to find out who.
Valencia said by French media outlet L’Equipe to be in negotiations with Southampton over midfielder Ibrahima Diallo over a loan deal to Spain for 2022/23 season.
However L'Equipe claim the stumbling block is that Valencia want to take Diallo on loan, whilst Saints are looking to move on the player on a permanent deal.
They also go on to claim that from Diallo's perspective he is keen on evolving his game and to do that he needs to be at a club where he will have a lot of playing time.
Diallo joined Saints two years ago for around £10.5 million and he has struggled to break into the Saints side with the good form of James Ward Prowse & Oriel Romeu blocking his way.
However when he has played he has not let anyone down and looked a tidy player who can win a ball, hold it and pass it simply and short.
In his two seasons he has started just 20 games with another 25 as sub, but if he was finding it hard to break into the team over the past two years, then it has just got harder with the arrival of Romeo Lavia & Joe Aribo, both essentially central midfielders.
So it seems that with his game time looking to be even more limited the player himself feels it time to move on.
From a Saints perspective the club probably feel the same way, a loan deal would get his wages off the books for a year, but ultimately they would want his wages gone and also to get a transfer fee.
His time at St Mary's has not been a disaster and the feeling within the game is that it has been a lack of opportunity that has been the issue rather than a lack of ability.
The issue though will be those wages, Valencia would not baulk at the transfer fee, likely to be around the £10 million he was signed for, but they may well find it hard to offer him the same wages that he would be on at St Mary's, a common theme over the last 4 years.
Therefore if this deal is to happen then it will more likely be a loan deal, unless Diallo with two years left on his contract would be happy to take a pay cut, a loan deal of course would see Saints still liable for his wages and having to strike a deal with Valencia, that could perhaps see his wages covered as a minimum and perhaps a small loan fee.
I don't think Diallo is on a massive deal in English terms, but in Spanish football it would be quite high for any team that doesn't have Madrid or Barcelona in their name.
There appears to be no animosity between Diallo & Saints here and if the transfer doesn't happen then both would live with that and Diallo battle for a place, but it looks like the best result for both would be the departure of the player.