You can tell the transfer window is about to open with gusto when Premier League clubs are said to be queuing up for Championship midfielders, lets look at the latest to be linked with Saints.

A year ago Flynn Downes was joining Swansea City from Ipswich Town for the princely sum of £1.5 million, a year and 37 games in the Championship for the Welsh club and he is being said to be being chased by Southampton, Wolves & Crystal Palace and all that after Leeds United were said to have cooled their interest.

Downes didn't exactly have a great season in his last year at Portman Road, he started just 17 games with another 7 off the bench in League One, he had fallen out with the management after Ipswich had reportably refused to sell him to Crystal Palace in the summer of 2020.

Last year Ipswich manager Paul Cook told him he was not in his plans for the 2021-22 season, relegated him to the U23 squad and he subsequently joined Swansea for a fee of around £1.5 million.

He has had a steady season in Wales and indeed he played the full 120 minutes against Saints in the FA Cup against the Swans back in January.

But does that merit allegedly 4 Premier league clubs chasing his signature ? His value is said to be only slightly above the figure paid for him a year ago, although it is likely that Ipswich took a low fee to get him off the books with the question being asked about his attitude.

Also why would Saints be looking for another central midfielder if as suggested in the media they are only days away from signing Mattias Svanberg from Bologna.

For his part Downes is at 5ft 8 inches not one of the tallest and seemingly in the mode of Harrison Reed.

Saints are said to be in the driving seat, although this seems more like his agent touting him around than anything else, he still has three years left on his four year deal at Swansea and if he already wants to leave there, that should ring alarm bells.

I am not sure that this deal has got legs, but if he could be landed for £2 million then perhaps this is the new Saints way of doing things, making money from buying players very cheaply and selling them on at a profit.

Photo: Action Images

highfield49 added 17:06 - Jun 27 Svanberg or Downes? Hmmm, tough decision to be made. We can only trust that somebody at the club actually knows what they're doing.
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Block8 added 21:12 - Jun 27 We'll have to wait and see, although, going forward, perhaps if we got our boys loans at a decent level we may find a few gems?
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andoverpedro added 11:02 - Jun 28 no not for us , why oh why do we keep looking at small neat little players even Man City realise this and mix it up with physicaility de bryne, fenandinho, walker, stone , etc and they have quality all round we need to have a more physical team to be able to cope with the premeirship as we dont have the quality on the ball they have so we need to battle first , win that then play your football just like we did under Poch and Koeman

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