Ronald Koeman cannot be accused of lacking persistency and after the arrival of Jordy Clasie he is looking to bring in another player linked last summer.

Latest central defender to be linked with Saints is QPR's Steven Caulker who was allegedly on Saints radar a year ago before moving to Loftus Road.

It was another bad move for Caulker who found himself relegated at the end of his first season at the club and it was deja vu as well as Caulker had suffered exactly the same fate after moving to Cardiff from Tottenham Hotspur a year earlier.

Now Saints are supposedly looking to finally bring Caulker to St Mary's, the media are saying that Ronald Koeman is attempting to take him initially on loan with the option to make the move permanent for a fee of around £8 million if he should impress.

Caulker at 23 has the right blend of youth & experience, although his appearances at Spurs were not that frequent, he played most of Swansea City's first season in the Premier in 2011/12 on loan before joining Cardiff in the summer of 2013 playing in every league game for them before following that up with his move to QPR last season where he only missed 3 Premier League games.

So undoubtably he ticks a lot of boxes and would make a good acquisition for Saints at that price.

Indeed if Koeman could bring Caulker in and even follow him with Virgil Van Dijk from Celtic the joint fee of around £20 million would make good sense and still leave Saints not having spent much more than the money brought in for Clyne & Schneiderlin.

That dual signing would be ideal providing competition in the centre of defence not to mention a potential replacement for Jose Fonte who will turn 32 in December.

A quality central defender is perhaps the last piece in Ronald Koeman's jigsaw, although a squad can always be improved, it is this area that Saints need to now put the piece in place and then they have time to look at what else needs improving going forward.

Photo: Action Images

Jesus_02 added 08:48 - Jul 28 It would certainly be the best time to by as he has just had a poor season. I think if we can get a loan with an option to buy it could be a cracking bit of business. Potentially as good as Bertrand. We would know by January if he is good enough.
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Santos added 09:53 - Jul 28 Surprised this is only just emerging. Caulker was on the fringes of England team a while back and 2 bad moves has stalled everything for him. Has all the attributes and with RK as a tutor could be a good signing. Think as you say we would still need another CB as well as him but seems a good fit this rumour. Lets see.
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ExiledSupporter added 11:02 - Jul 28 As well as Van Dijk...yes; instead of ... No1
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mesquita added 11:14 - Jul 28 Agree with the general sentiments so far chalker and Vvd that's very strong cast with existing
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 11:59 - Jul 28 News flash!! Caulker isn't very good. He had a lot of promise when at Spurs but he hasn't improved enough in recent years. A loan option would be ok, then the club can realise that he's not actually very good, but we would still need a top quality centre back to play alongside Fonte. Van Dijk fits the bill.
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SanMarco added 12:51 - Jul 28 He does seem over fond of getting relegated. That said we are rather desperate for 2 CBs. Imagine if Fonte and Yoshida were both injured on Thursday and were out for several weeks...
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DPeps added 15:00 - Jul 28 Worth a punt on a loan, but if he was that promising why didn't Spurs or Swansea want to keep him? Perhaps Koeman can save him, though
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kristianJ added 17:50 - Jul 28 I agree with Reedy.. He is well over-rated. He is way too easy to turn and gets found out when he come up against top quality CFs. He is also fairly poor positionally. If it's only a loan then perhaps we can coach him, and he might improve, but £8mil looks poor value to me. I'd much rather have the lad from Celtic. That aside, I am fairly happy with our summer business and hope some of the kids get given more of a chance this year.

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saintmark1976 added 20:05 - Jul 28 Why are we even considering Chester,Caulker and Chamberlain? One has been relegated from our league once the other twice and lastly a player not able to make a regular start in the team to which we sold him.Surely we can do better than them can't we?
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