A week ago Kyle Walker Peters looked to be at St Mary's only to make up the numbers, but whilst it is still early days yet, he has pushed his way into the right back spot and showed promise, but will it be enough to earn him a permanent move to Saints.

When Kyle Walker - Peters arrived at St Mary's back in January he came with stories of his potential and promise, but not with a track record that backed that up, about to turn 23 he had started just 9 Premier League games for Spurs plus another 3 off the bench, add to that exactly the same record in cup games and just 24 appearances did not suggest that he was a talent about to burst through.

He missed the trip to Liverpool having signed only 2 days before, but started the next game at home to Burnley, he had a tidy performance before coming off after 73 minutes as Ralph Hasenhuttl brought on another striker to chase the game.

I felt after that game that he looked tidy and had promise, anything else I put down to a lack of game time at Spurs.

But he was not in the side for the next game due to injury and Ralph preferred James Ward Prowse at right back leaving Yan Vlaery on the bench for the win over Aston Villa.

That was the case too at West Ham with both Valery and KWP unused subs in a disappointing defeat.

For the following game and last before lockdown Walker-Peters was again an unused sub with Valery getting the nod ahead of him, we all know what happened there.

For the return Valery was preferred at Norwich and did ok but there was little pressure after the first 15 minutes of so, KWP was put on at the end to run the clock down in injury time.

So a week ago KWP did not look to have a career at Saints, but a poor performance by Valery who clearly has issues and is not the player he was a year ago, saw him come on as a half time sub.

This was not a great performance by Saints but again Walker - Peters struck me as a tidy competent player who could hold the ball well and pass it, what also struck me though was his reluctance to take a man on and get a cross in, but again I put that down to this being a lack of game time.

It was no surprise when he was selected for the trip to Watford and in truth my feelings on his performance were exactly the same as my previous two, competent, used the ball well and not out of place.

But again I felt going forward he lacked something, he would go so far and then turn back and play a simple easy ball sideways or even back, he rarely gave the ball away, but he seemed to lack confidence to take his man on.

So the big question is whether this is merely a lac of game time and the confidence that comes with that, or is it a fatal flaw in his game ?

Certainly we have to ask why he has had so little time on the pitch at Spurs, reaching 23 he has never made the breakthrough, so can he make it at Saints.

I think we will find out in the next few games, he has the potential that is clear, but can he become a true Premier League class player or merely a competent back up.

Certainly Ralph Hasenhuttl seems to have seen something he hadn't before, against Arsenal Walker-Peters boasted a 95% pass accuracy, attempted two crosses and created one big chance perhaps suggesting that with game time under his belt he can be a threat going forward consistently.

Ralph Hassenhuttl was impressed with that display leading to his selection of KWP to start against Watford, but says improvements can still be made especially in his crossing and forward play.

So it seems that Kyle Walker- Peters will be the man tasked with the right back spot for the remainder of the season, he has a chance to show that he can be the answer and that could give him the confidence that he needs and for the first time in his career to have a run of games in a side.

Will it be enough to earn him a move to St Mary's, certainly Tottenham Hotspur will hope so, they are desperate for him to move to St Mary's as it seems they do not have the money to buy Pierre Emile Hojbjerg otherwise.

Saints are reported to have names their price for the Danish midfielder and that is £35 million, Spurs are said to want around £15 million for Kyle Walker -Peters, but in my mind that is a gross over inflation given the players age and lack of experience.

I would suggest that his value is somewhere near half of that figure but not much more and this will leave Spurs still unable to find the hard cash to buy Hojbjerg, hence the rumour they are looking to give us two players in the transfer to enable them to finance the deal.

So to answer the question asked in the heading of this article, yes Kyle Walker- Peters could be the answer, the next six games will give us a big indication of that, but it will not be at the £15 million Spurs valuation, perhaps £8 million at a push, if we want to spend more than that on a right back we would be far better shopping in Europe where experienced International players can be found for not much more.

Photo: Action Images

NYC_Saint added 13:24 - Jun 30 I think both prices are inflated for the sake of negotiation. PEH with one year on his contract is not IMO worth 35mn especially as it’s uncertain how much cash any team will have to spend on transfers. I think 25 mn for PEH sounds more than reasonable and say 5 for KWP. So KWP plus 20mn for PEH sounds good and both clubs (well Levy) can crow about how they held out for the bigger numbers for each player... levy can even claim to have gotten 25 mn for peters it will just mean he dropped 45 on PEH

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kristianJ added 14:03 - Jun 30 A good analysis of KWPs strengths and weaknesses. Thought he played well against Watford but would like to see him go forward with a bit more confidence. I think with coaching/encouragement this will come. His other issue is that whilst defensively he looks pretty solid he is fairly small. Other teams will target him with crosses the same way they used to do with Cedric. I think if we could get £18-£20mn plus KWP for PEH we should do it.

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saintmark1976 added 14:25 - Jun 30 K W P currently appears to be better than Valery but in all honesty that’s not saying a lot is it? Add in the fact that he lacks the physical attributes to be a proper defensive full back, I don’t see him as the solution to our problem.
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halftimeorange added 14:38 - Jun 30 I like KWP and, at 5' 8" (about the same as Cedric) he's nowhere near the shortest to play in the EPL - I think Alan Wright of Villa might have been and Wright was, like so many of smaller stature, difficult to shake off the ball, hence his long career. His lack of game time at Spurs is down to better players at that club but, we have no-one better unless you count Cedric. I accept the point about crosses but, Saints have a relatively height-challenged squad which, to me, is more of a problem. I agree with NYC Saint's valuations and I hope Saints give KWP a permanent deal.

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davidargyll added 16:46 - Jun 30 To me the key to how good JWP is/can be is how often he was passed to by the rest of the team, ie did they trust him. I would say most definitely YES, as opposed to Valery whom to a man they all clearLy all think is worse than useless.
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KriSaint added 16:52 - Jun 30 I say yes. Ashley Cole was a good player (and he had small-man´s syndrome didn´t he?), so KWP´s height doesn´t worry me. KWP actually won headers vs Watford and played well in generel and showed good attitude. His lack of game time at Spurs is - as mentioned by somebody else - only because of huge competition for that right back position at Spurs. Ralph can un-doubtedly teach him a lot and make him significantly better. I honestly believe we will be happy with him, based on what I´ve seen so far. We sold Targett for 16 million, so anything below 8 million pounds for KWP would be ok with me.

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carolinasaint added 19:21 - Jun 30 Completely agree with the general assessment of KWP--competent, not out-of-place, a vast improvement over Valery, whose 1st half v Arsenal was among the worst performances of any PL player that I can remember. Nonetheless, I feel we can get a variety of competent RBs for under 10 million so I wouldn't give up more than that. Mind you, PEH isn't worth anywhere near 35 mill (maybe more like 20 mill with only 1 year left on his contract...and he's actually not all that good, so even that's flattering him imo. KWP and 10 million for PEH seems about right to me. Not that Levy cares what I think.

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underweststand added 14:11 - Jul 2 When "comparing" players, it often comes down to the question of pace, skill ..and height (at least as a far as uull backs are concerned) but is it really a worry?. Looking back I had a similar feeling about Nathaniel Clyne (who proved me wrong is a very short time) and showed both pace and some good ball skills. Neither Shaw or Targett were giants and Ward-Prowse did a half decent job at FB recently and he's barely average height to begin with. I thought KWP looked confident and wasn't caught out in possession (ala Valery) and certainly showed pace going foward. As long as we get a reasonable deal in the PEH transfer, I'd be happy id we got Kyle for a "humane fee".

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