Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur are believed to be lining up big bids for jay Rodriguez in the January transfer window as they come under increasing pressure after poor starts.
Saints fans will be both amused and alarmed to hear that Brendan Rodgers and Mauricio Pochettino are allegedly looking to St Mary's in the shape of jay Rodriguez, such is their desperation that they are willing to offer huge sums of money for a player who has yet to kick a ball in anger since the start of April when he was injured at Manchester City.
Both are under pressure at their clubs, Rodgers for how after losing only one player in the summer and spending somewhere in the region of £140 million on a host of replacements including the trio from Southampton, his Liverpool side is in complete disaray with most of their signings misfiring leaving them 11 points behind Saints going into the International break.
For his part Mauricio Pochettino is under pressure for a different reason, he inherited a squad that had a lot of money spent on it the previous season and a shed load more this summer, yes some was recouped by selling players but most of that was on players already out on loan like Jake Livermore or bit part players, in short Pochettino was seen as a man to get the best out of an expensive squad that had finished 6th last year and take it forward.
Now he like Rodgers finds that his reputation is on the verge of being in tatters Spurs like Liverpool are 11 points behind us and without a couple of 90th minute winners at West ham and Villa, Pochettino's side would be lying 17th only a point off the drop zone, showing how thin the line between mid table and meltdown they are treading.
So both men will be phoning St Mary's in the coming weeks and placing their bids, but should Saints fans be scared ?
The answer is no, whichever way it goes there is cause for optimism.
The first scenario is of course that Rodriguez does not want to go anywhere, it could be that he will see Saints as a much better opportunity for glory than either Liverpool or the North London Soccer Chickens, at Liverpool he could find it hard to get into the team with so many big money signings and at Spurs he would be walking into a disaster zone with a squad that clearly are not that enamoured with their new manager as shown by their performances.
If Rodriguez stays then he will be another asset to Saints who would then have a strong squad to push on in the new year.
But their is a question whether he will come back the same player and that may be something Saints will consider when the bid comes in, he would be valued at something approaching £25 million and given that Saints have Pelle, Long, Mane & Tadic in the offensive positions the club itself may feel given the gamble on his fitness that now could be a time to cash in, 3 months ago any talk of selling Rodriguez would have been met with rage in the Saints support, but now they can see just why Saints might consider selling, £25 million in the transfer kitty plus the unspent money could really enable us to kick on with a stronger squad in the New Year, in this respect the next six weeks will be crucial, if Saints are still up there then they have some tough thinking to do.
So whether Rodriguez goes or stays will be a positive for Saints, but the good thing is we are in control of our own destiny, we are comfortable enough to make the right decision and we now have a manager in place who can make those decisions no matter how tough.
The coming weeks are going to be interesting both on and off the pitch, if come the opening of the transfer window Saints are in a League cup semi final and still holding on to a top four spot then holding on to players is going to be a lot easier, the real question though is whether we would want to.