According to the latest whispers on the rumour mill Adam Lallana will be released from Liverpool in the summer and Saints are one of the clubs reported to be interested.
Jurgen Klopp is set to let Adam Lallana leave Anfield in the summer with his contract coming to an end and turning 32 in May he is not part of the future at Liverpool and they have enough players coming though that he would not even be a good squad player as they have plenty of back up.
Saints are one of the clubs said to be looking at him as a short term fix, former manager Brendan Rodgers at Leicester of course the man who signed him from Saints and also Spurs and Arsenal said to be interested.
Lallana left Saints under a cloud in the summer of 2014 after having his head turned by Liverpool and it left a bad taste in the mouth's of Saints supporters, however time is a healer and he was voted in Saints best ever side by the fans a couple of years ago.
It was felt then that he had pushed too hard to go, but in fairness he was being offered a lifetime chance that although hasn't quite worked out as he would have expected, has still enabled him to win trophies including appearing in the 2018 Champions League final as a 30th minute sub.
His six seasons at Liverpool have been wracked by injury, in the Premier League he has started only 82 games plus another 44 as sub, barely half the number he played in his six seasons as a Saints first team regular after breaking into the side in 2008/09 season after a spell on loan at Bournemouth the previous season.
73 of his Premier League starts came in his first three seasons and in the last three he has only managed 9 other starts, plus 29 as sub, a record that not only shows his injury record but how far down the pecking order he now is at Anfield this term he has started just 3 games in the league plus 10 as sub.
So it looks like his career at Anfield is over at the end of the season and he will hope to go out with a bang with a Premier League winners medal.
He will feel that his move in 2014 was justified given the trophies he has won assuming that there is no catastrophic collapse by Liverpool in the next couple of months, but is their a way for a return to St Mary's for him ? would the club want him and more to the points would the supporters accept him back.
The reason that Dejan Lovren was hated when he left Saints was because he was seen as a mercenary, but Lallana has got stick for a different reason, at the time of his departure he was loved, he was the local hero at the peak of his career and he scorned us, it was akin to being dumped by your wife/girlfriend/partner, we felt jilted, we loved him and hated him at the same time.
So would it work out second time ? That is the big question, at 32 and seemingly past this injury issues he could be a good option for Saints and without the need to pay a transfer fee, certainly he would be better than the likes of Sofiane Boufal for instance and given that he has played so little in the last three years he might be fitter than others at this age as his body hasn't taken so much of a pounding.
He doesn't fit the usual signing for Saints of late, but that doesn't mean that the club's policy of signing only younger players is right or cannot be changed, certainly we are lacking a few old experienced heads on the field and Lallana would certainly be that and is still a player who can create things.
The fact that he is on a free would mean that we could afford his wages, so I would put on the table that even if it was only a one year deal, paying around 4 million in wages would be a good overall price for a player of his calibre.
So he could be an option for Saints and with his parents etc still living fairly local it may suit him better to move back down to this area rather than in another part of the country.
The key may be who else would want him, certainly the three clubs mentioned would be more attractive, but he would get less game time there and not much more of a chance of actually winning anything, so from this perspective the deal could still be on, it just depends whether his ambition is to play more games or to get a bigger pay day.
In the summer we will see who is in the frame to sign him and what his own priorities are, but would you welcome him back to St Mary's ?
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