The Brazilian football media have been full of claims that Brazilian midfielder Wellington is interesting Premier League clubs and that Saints are in pole position, but when you delve further it seems unlikely that he would be a signing that Saints would make.
Wellington whose surname is Martins should not be confused with Wellington Silva, another Brazilian who spent six years at Arsenal between 2010 & 2016.
Wellington Martins is a 29 defensive midfielder who will turn 30 at the end of the month and those first two stats should start to suggest that he is not a player Saints will be looking at, we tend not to look at players of that age and we have two defensive midfielders in Romeo & Diallo so do not need a third.
That is not stopping his agent telling the media in Brazil that his player is about to go to the Premier League on a free transfer after his contract with Athletico Paranaense expired on January 1st.
"We are receiving several approaches for Wellington, we’ll decide soon,” agent Marcelo Robalinho told media outlet O Dia.
"But every day new possibilities arise and this ends up being great for the athlete, not only from the market point of view, but for self-esteem, to see how much clubs like him around the world, including from the Premier League.”
Last week, it was UOL in the Brazilian media who said the Saints are one of the many clubs who have been in touch with the player’s entourage lately.
Now O Dia after speaking to the agent say the same. According to the media Saints continue to be the only side named in the race, despite the chase from several Brazilian clubs last year.
But a look at his playing career does not fill a potential buyer with enthusiasm, there is not a lot of accurate data about, the player seems to have been in the Brazilian top division during his career, but has been nowhere near a cap for the Full International team and this would be a potential issue for a Premier League club in being able to get him a work permit.
It seems that here we have a player who is out of contract at age 30 and an agent trying to get him one last move for money, but all things being taken into account I would be highly surprised if Saints were interested in the player or indeed any other Premier League club, Saints name is being touted around to stimulate interest elsewhere.