According to various news sources Saints are very close to a £8.5 million deal with Napoli for a central defender.

Saints could be about to add Napoli central defender Kalidou Koulibaly according to several media sources today, costing the club £8.5 million he is sorely needed after Saints display in defence in their last two games where sadly Yoshida showed that he is not up to a more permanent role in the line up.

Certainly Saints need strength in the back and Koulibaly would fit that bill, how close to the truth the reports are, are yet to become clear and the interesting thing will be whether Ronald Koeman will stop there or will still add Virgil Van Dijk to the squad should he secure Koulibaly.

According to Tuttosport in Italy, the players representatives are due to meet with representatives of Saints in the coming days and it could be that the Dutch manager is looking to re vamp his defence this season, that would spell bad news for Jose Fonte who as he approaches 32 in the coming months could lose out if Saints were to land Koulibaly and Van Dijk to add to Steven Caulker.

This would be harsh on Fonte who has been a great servant for Saints and the next fortnight will tell us of Koeman's intentions, certainly the manager isn't afraid to make harsh decisions.

Photo: Action Images

Olley added 14:29 - Aug 17 The plus point for Koulibaly, is that he can play CB, RB & DM, therefore this is a strength which with the injuries, suspensions [already picking up to many yellow cards] and limited quality available, would help our multiple aims this year [win a trophy, Europe and top 10 in the league] but to be honest I want the best CB we can buy, as, this is very key for us, so if that is Virgil [not sure it is], then let's get him!

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Jesus_02 added 14:34 - Aug 17 Is there anyone apart from Fonte that came from L1 left?
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SaintBrock added 15:06 - Aug 17 Kelvin of course but I understand where you are coming from. Surely we can't be three times lucky with CBs that the big clubs have missed?
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saintsnutcase added 15:17 - Aug 17 Interesting to see that Toby has just commented that our defensive CMs last season made our centre backs look good. Schneiderlin is the big miss.
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bstokesaint added 17:27 - Aug 17 Nick, I wouldn't feel too sorry for Fonte just yet. Anyone coming in needs to prove themselves first. If we're lucky enough to sign one, yet alone two of said defensive targets, I would not assume either would be shoe-ins. There can't be many players who would have done better in that position for us last season than Fonte (and Toby). One step at a time.
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saintmark1976 added 19:20 - Aug 17 Nick, with respect can I ask you a simple question? Is it possible that you can write a post just once without giving Yoshida a slagging off? Truly,was the fella any worse than the rest of the defence at Newcastle and at home to Everton? Give the guy a break please because from were I was sat on Saturday he was the best of an admittedly very poor back four.
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perazi added 22:18 - Aug 17 Remove the blinkers Nick. Yoshida hasn't been the weakest link in defence so far; the full backs have been ordinary and our Captain probably more responsible than Maya for some of the slack defending. I think we will will only get one of Van Dijk or Goulibaly. As others have noted though, Goulibaly has the ability to cover at RB and from what we've seen of Cedric so far we do need good cover.

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WanderingSaint added 23:37 - Aug 17 Not sure it's the defence tbh. We cannot take corners. In both games everyone was up, delivery was crap and they broke. You could see the first one coming on Saturday ages before it actually happened. Spider wouldn't have let that happen in either game - saintsnutcase is right.
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SanMarco added 08:37 - Aug 18 Aren't there two different arguments here. 1. Maya although good cover is not good enough as first choice if we aspire to top 7 upwards. 2. The defence needs midfield cover and is not getting it. Both are true in my opinion. It is interesting that the main defence of our old mate Danny Fox was that he was not getting adequate support from ahead of him so Maya could I am sure make the same argument...

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