According to media reports this morning, Tottenham are offering central defender Vlad Chiriches in a part exchange deal for Morgan Schneiderlin.

If the North London club do dangle this carrot in front of Saints, then the board might need to be doing some serious back tracking given our failure to land a central defender so far, that is assuming that Ronald Koeman actually rated the Romanian.

Chiriches arrived at White Hart Lane last summer for £8.5 million from Steau Bucharest but his time with Spurs has not proved fruitful, playing only 16 times plus 1 as sub in the Premier league.

In many respects he looks the type of player that Saints should be looking at, however apart from his appearance record and the fact that he has 25 caps for his country, I know little of him, but from that point of view I knew little of Dejan Lovren this time last year either.

But the big stumbling block could be Saints refusal to sell Schneiderlin, although assuming that the two players arrive on loan from Inter Milan today we will be well stocked up on midfield players and the irony of the situation will be that Morgan Schneiderlin as good as he is is perhaps the one player that we could have afforded to lose at the beginning of the transfer window and by the end of today it could be even more so.

So if Koeman rates Chiriches who is also being chased by Roma should Saints go back on the bold statement made by Ralph Krueger or should they stick to their guns and refuse to sell him to Spurs or anyone.

My first instinct is that we should do whatever is best for the squad as a whole and if Ronald Koeman has a plethora of midfield players but is short in central defence then this is a deal we should consider.

However there is more to it than that and with Saints supporters already up in arms about the five departures so far, the damage done to moral amongst the supporters and their confidence in the board could far outweigh the benefits of doing the deal.

However I do think as poor as the PR has been from Saints this summer, they have in Krueger someone who is prepared to do what he feels is best fro the club rather than worry about what the fans might think, he seems confident in the ability for the club to come back stronger after rebuilding.

Perhaps Saints fans need to ask themselves this question, if we were offered Lionel Messi by Barcelona but had to sell them Schneiderlin would we prefer Krueger to stick to his word and refuse the deal or would we prefer him to do what would be best for the team ?

If the answer is the latter then we all have to consider that the princible should be the same whether its Messi, Suarez or a much needed central defender.

The only question that Saints should consider is that if Chiriches is good enough and that it is in our best interests to do the deal.

Photo: Action Images

law101 added 09:28 - Aug 5 Looked the standout weak link for Spurs at home to Saints last year and was bullied by SRL. Most Spurs fans I know have him down as a liability when he plays but is relatively young and will improve. Not the sort of commanding CB we need imo.
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law101 added 09:28 - Aug 5 Looked the standout weak link for Spurs at home to Saints last year and was bullied by SRL. Most Spurs fans I know have him down as a liability when he plays but is relatively young and will improve. Not the sort of commanding CB we need imo.
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Whatsforpud added 09:32 - Aug 5 If he wasn't good enough for Spurs, would he be good enough for us? We have an international player in Yoshida, but he is not an automatic pick for us. It would be a major embarrassment for the management if they had to admit that Schneiderlin is for sale after all, just a week after making such a definite statement.
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landsdownsaint added 09:53 - Aug 5 So your saying we sell statistically the best midfielder in the PL for a central defender Spurs are desperate to get rid of!? And that comparison with Messi is ridiculous!
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ItchenNorth added 10:14 - Aug 5 No no no. Spurs can do one. We need to go out and buy someone who wants to come here not be part of some half cocked deal to suit Spurs.
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Jesus_02 added 10:26 - Aug 5 I don think that it’s a deal we should consider for a plethora of reasons. The largest is that we are now being linked with all of the “top” teams fringe players basically this is just a way of re-establishing the “natural order of things”. If Chiriches was daft enough to sign for Spurs and they where daft enough to pay 8.5m for a players that they then don’t deem good enough why on earth should we come to their assistance to make a nice round piece of business for them. If we continue to strengthen other sides, financially as well as providing them ready made premiership players then we will never succeed. Like it or not the game is played both on and off the field.

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BarnetSaint added 10:26 - Aug 5 Levy and pooch can do one. No thanks.
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COYS1947 added 10:39 - Aug 5 The Messi comparison is the same as the comedian who asked a woman to sleep with him. "Certainly not! What kind of woman do you think I am?" she replied. "Would you sleep with me for 1 million pounds" "Yes" she replied. "Well now we know what kind of a woman you are lets discuss the price." I trust Krueger/Koeman to do what is best for the squad and club.
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Mugger added 10:56 - Aug 5 Marecelo Brozovic is your best bet I think. He is the next big thing in holding MFs in Europe and will cost half of what Spurs are offering for Schneiderlin. Let's face it, there is a pecking order in football for better or for worse. Spurs realistically can't hold onto a player when Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Man United or Man City come calling. It is too big of a step up in a player's career particularly as players enter the peak years. Likewise, when the next level down - Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham - come calling for a player, it is difficult for players at clubs at the level below them - Southampton, Newcastle, Swansea etc. - to say no. Football is a short career and you never know when these opportunities will come along again and/or if you will break your leg and never play again at your current club - leaving you wondering what could have been. Suck it up Saints fans. Get Brozovic (for about GBP 10m) to replace Schneiderlin and bring in John Anthony Brooks and Johnny Evans to add some solidity athleticism and experience to your defense. You will lose one good player, but the squad overall will be stronger.

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zonehead added 12:24 - Aug 5 Whatever just do something! Rodwells going to Sunderland for 10 mill thats a good buy gone
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bstokesaint added 12:53 - Aug 5 This is a matter of principle now. If we let Morgan go after all these assurances then we will make a statement that we are weak.
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surreysaint added 13:29 - Aug 5 The 'no more sales' statement was stupid and i think it will come back and bite them. I agree with Nick that of all the positions we could afford to sell at the end of last season, Centre midfield was it. Vic, Corky, JWP, Davis and Harry Reed can all play there and if we bring in Taider as well, I think we could have afforded to let Morgan leave, and still do. He's a good player but we would still be well stocked in that position. Chiriches was hugely hyped but wasn't really given a consistent run in the team so i think it's too early to judge. He'd be a gamble but we badly need a centre half (or two!).

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no7saint added 13:57 - Aug 5 If the board were offered Messi in exchange the supporters would of course understand it, that's very different to this situation - do you let a proven PL player who delivers week in week out go in exchange for one that isn't/hasn't? Although we appear well stocked in midfield we missed both MS and Wanyama to fairly lengthy injuries last season, if Cork had left mid-season as was rumoured I strongly doubt we would have had the season we had.

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Pecky3 added 14:46 - Aug 5 I cannot believe what is happening in the club. IMO we need a 2nd goalkeeper as well as Boruc, two central defenders and another striker as a minimum. If spurs don't want this guy then he is obviously not what we need! When oh when are we going to make a top signing. I am beginning to despair!!
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saintmark1976 added 14:50 - Aug 5 This whole situation really is starting to become silly now. The season kicks off in less than a fortnight and the board have sold most of our best players,replacing them with two untried small money transfers and a loan signing. Now we appear to be involved in negotiations for more loan players from Italy and a failed centre back from Spurs. Should the board now sell Spider-Man then we may just as well all pack up and go home.If they were to tell me today was Tuesday I would ask for a second opinion. Quite frankly this is fast turning into a nightmare. Truly,how the happy clappers can see it differently is totally beyond my comprehension. All I can hope is that there are three teams in the Premiership that are in a worse state than us. Apart from possibly Aston Villa I just can not think who however.

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stmichael added 17:09 - Aug 5 horrendous mismanagement and its not over yet todays signing(s) shows what a shambles we are in.. taking players we don't want or even need to get rid of one we don't want!! If it wasn't our club I would be wetting myself with laughter5..
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thegeneral added 17:15 - Aug 5 Why is there an increasing air of desperation about our transfers when we've been told about this elite team of 20 people doing statistical analysis on and watching players all over the world? If this was the case Koeman would have been presented with a shortlist of players. Are we to presume that the majority of our targets have not wanted to come?, and now we have to try and shuffle together a bunch of second and third choices, after all the team/squad now is a far less exciting prospect than it was just a few weeks ago, if i was a young decent pro looking to push my career on i don't think Southampton would look a great prospect, couple that with Les Reed's appalling reputation in the game, its hard to imagine any really exciting players joining us. I really hope i'm wrong but i just don't see us replacing the quality we've lost.

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SanMarco added 18:25 - Aug 5 Totally agree with all the 'if he's not good enough for Spurs...' comments. I do think Schneiderlin should be sold (if only so I don't have to keep looking up the spelling) - I reckon Ron could 'over-rule' RK and RK would sell because he 'listens' to the manager. My worry is that this feels just like 2 years ago. Everyone knew we needed a quality CB (in fact we had the same personnel as we have again now) and we waited and waited and waited... Not sure we will get away with it again. Still I will not cast judgement until I see exactly who comes in - it might not be as bad as some people think...

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BarnetSaint added 19:54 - Aug 5 Day after day, week after week and still we wait. Since his appearance on talk sport, Kruger and co have disappeared again. If he, reed and better still kat liebher suddenly make an appearance, with a strong message of intent, backed up by quality in comings, it will put an end to a lot of doubt, negativity and concern a lot of us are expressing.
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sidsaint added 19:54 - Aug 5 Agree with most of the above. We have always needed 2 centre backs as a priority. Plus a striker and possibly a keeper and full back. We do not need more midfielders. We still haven't signed Corkie on a long term contract. Looks like we will be facing Liverhampton with the youth team unless RoKo is a genius.
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