With Saints likely to agree terms with Tottenham Hotspur this week for Victor Wanyama, could they be interested in taking a player as part of the deal in part exchange.
Spurs websites have this week been contemplating the future of midfielder Ryan Mason who will be surplus to requirements when Wanyama arrives.
Mason who has been a late developer at Spurs having just turned 25 and only broke into the Spurs first team in 2014/15 season when he started 29 Premier League games plus another 2 as sub, then he was being touted as the next big thing at White Hart Lane along with another late developer Harry Kane and was awarded a 4 1/2 year deal in January 2015 keeping him under contract till 2020. He also won his first and to date only full England cap.
But 2015/16 was not a good one despite a good start for Mason and the combination of injury and the good form of Dier, Dembele and the emergence of Dele Alli meant that his chances in the starting line up were restricted, he made only 8 starts plus 14 as sub and the arrival of Wanyama will push him further down the list.
Spurs fan websites are suggesting that Pochettino is known to have his favourites in the team and that like at Saints he is not keen on rotating things, keeping the same side as often as possible, that means that Mason will get few opportunities this coming season.
Also Pochettino has to sell before he can bring any players of significance in and the word is that they are ready to prune the squad and Mason is on the list of those surplus to requirements.
At this stage of his career Mason will feel that he needs regular first team football and there is no shortage of admirers in the Premier League with Crystal Palace already showing interest.
The question is though whether Saints have Mason in their sights and whether they see him as a replacement for Wanyama, certainly he does not have the physical presence of Wanyama, but he would represent the type of player Saints like to sign, ie with plenty of potential and available at a good price.
It could suit Spurs to offer Saints Mason as part of the Wanyama deal, for them it would kill two birds with one stone and would reduce down the actual cash they would need to release to sign Wanyama, although they have Champions League qualification they are also having to spend big to build their new stadium next to White Hart Lane, this is not cheap and will restrict their ability to spend big on transfers unless they bring in money from sales.