Mark Hughes could be looking to raid his old club Barcelona this summer which will see a little bit of deja vu in the situation for the Saints manager.

Mark Hughes signed for Barcelona back in 1986 but his only season at the club was not successful and with opportunities limited he spent the following season at Bayern Munich before rejoining Manchester United for season 1988/89.

So it is likely that Hughes will draw some comparisons with the situation of Paco Alcacer who like Hughes has struggled to make a true impact at the Campa Nou.

Alcacer signed to Barcelona from Valencia for a fee of around 30 million euros 2 years ago, but has played only 38 times in the Spanish league for Barca in that time scoring 10 goals.

In style he is very much in the mould of Manolo Gabbiadini standing at 5ft 9 inches and although predominantly a central striker he can also play out wide.

How much he will cost is open for debate, it will certainly be less that the 30 million euros the 24 year old cost two years ago, so somewhere around £20 million would be a reasoned guess.

From the players who are being linked with the club it seems that there is likely to be a big reshuffle not only in the midfield but also the attack, the question is will Hughes change the playing style drastically or perhaps look to play two up front with Alcacer playing off a target man.

I would not rule out Guido Carrillo being that man, he showed at Burnley and West Brom last season that he can create goals for others and bring them into play, desperation after Hughes arrived forced him into using the tried and trusted up front, but goals were still hard to come by due to both good chances created and also in converting them.

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 10:35 - Jun 11 OK our first question will be ; Will he be another Carrillo signed from some " big club's "bench .. or is he really good, but just unlucky enough to be in Messi's "shadow" ? Who knows?- even an impressive You Tube clip doesn't tell the whole story, even if he does look good scoring goals against the bottom clubs in their league. Even the best players in "foreign leagues " don't always make it in the Prem. and that's the biggest "unknown " in the whole equation. Salah was a real revelation this season ...(as was Fernando Torres when he played for LIverpool), but his subsequent £50 million move to Chelsea was a total catastrophe...(except for his agent and bank manager). As for Alcacer...? Your guess is as good as Les'.... Mark's......or anyone else's. He could be the new Salah ....or the next Carrillo, but as for the fee?...you can be sure that Barca' won't have too many Saints players they're likely to consider in a "swap deal ".

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patred added 11:05 - Jun 11 he is at best a carbon copy of Gabbiadini. So why bother? Keep Gabbiadini and save the money for a couple of good central defenders. Carrillio has to go surely? We'll just have to take a loss on Pelligrino's last hope
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dirk_doone added 11:15 - Jun 11 When you write, "I would not rule out Guido Carrillo being that man, he showed at Burnley and West Brom last season that he can create goals for others and bring them into play," you seem to forget that the people who read this have seen Carrilllo play. It is becoming increasingly difficult to take either these PR articles or the club's transfer activity seriously.
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Toussaint added 12:32 - Jun 11 You have thought we would have brought someone in quickly if only to appease the fans. Carrillo I think may be better with Hughes as his manager than whats his name. Austin [injury prone ] Long [goal droughts ] and Gabbi [inconsistent cant play alone up top] are more of a problem than Carrillo who has not really been given a chance .if someone starts banging the goals in during the preseason anyone of them could take the # 9

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lemmsy added 13:08 - Jun 11 Personally I think Carrillo has a little more about him than the masses. I understand he looked awful at times but if u look back to the West Brom came he had a terrific effort that foster made a genuine world class save from. If that had gone in ever thing changes. I E, confidence ,monkey on his back & the support at home. I think Hughes will be the judge ,after all he sees h knows more than us!

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NZsaint added 13:28 - Jun 11 I also agree carrillo needs a full sesson.im a fan and want him to stay after getting PL fit wich he wasnt when he arrived he could be good
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DPeps added 13:48 - Jun 11 Our strikeforce doesn't fill me with confidence. There are question marks concerning each player, and for this reason we need to buy someone in this summer. Austin will be injured for half of the season (based on the past), Gabbi needs to played in the right system, Long has never been prolific at the top level and probably isn't going to start now, and Carillo - who knows, seems harsh to judge anyone in his circumstances, but the guy could be another Mayuka. If we're getting someone in then it makes sense to sell as well. This depends on who we get in, but on balance I'd sell Long while he still has market value

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BoondockSaint added 14:22 - Jun 11 It all comes down to how much say Hughes has in shaping the club. By now he should have a good idea of the talent (or lack thereof) he has, and which players actually want to play for the club. Les and Ralph should just let him get on with it. Their jobs are depending on it-they can't afford a third failing manager in a row.
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TeamCortese added 18:23 - Jun 11 My goodness if we're genuinely going in for Alcacer then we need to get the banner out now. He's sh*t! Don't care what other thinks. This doesn't excite me one iota. We need to replace Pelle. Cash in on Austin, Long and Gallagher. Send Carrillo out on loan where he'll get game time and hopefully minimise his loss of value. We need to keep Gabbi and pair him up with someone like Bas Dost or Benteke. This is not rocket science. Les Reed keeps thinking we can play like Barcelona when truth is we're not that good! Alcacer will at best be Juanmi. We also need to get a top, top promising centre back who can partner Hoedt or Yoshi. And most importantly we need more goalscoring and creative midfielders. Davis, JWP, Redmond, Clasie and (to a lesser degree if we have a younger replacement) Tadic need to go. We need to replace them with Promes/Traore, Felipe Anderson, and Shaqiri. Promote Hesketh, Sims and other youth to step up and learn. Defensive and box-to-box midfield wise we are solid. We're nearly as good as the top 6. Hojbjerg, Romeu and Lemina are quality.

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1970 added 18:27 - Jun 11 Why would he go from Barca to Saints? if he is on the bench he must be good enough for a lot of other teams better placed than us this is all just spin we probably wont sign a striker but instead bring in Gallagher, we do need some good players but we are in much need of pace promes looks good plus some-one who can turn and run at goal with pace to replace the ageing davis ,and at the back we are a joke so replacements for those positions are no brainers but again I think the numpties up top obviously watch a different game than us,its going to be very interesting summer, coyr

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helpineedsomebody added 18:34 - Jun 11 when you play eight at the back like he has done in the last 6 games is there any wonder why we dont play attacking football . its counter attacking football thats what we have to look forward too still if he can get the team playing playing for him + a class centre back + a attacking playing midfeilder & if the owner pulls his finger out & show us that he is a good custodion of this club. one of the directors said we will learn from last season ONLY FOOLS LEARN FROM MISTAKES

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underweststand added 08:45 - Jun 12 It seems that a lot of fans (like some Prem club owners ) look for the quick fix and are ready to sack someone who doesn't deliver the goods from Day 1. The decision to sign Carrillo was either (1) an unlucky dip into the Black Box, or (2) a last chance to placate Pellegrino's miserable spell as " manager. Either way, he didn't hit the ground running when coming into a team that was already on its knees. He got almost zero service in his first games playing as a lone striker in a team commited to playing defensively, but still made two good assists in games. Despite a lack of goals (sadly the only measure of strikers) - he didn't look the worst in a Saints shirt in some of the games he played. Everyone starting a new job needs time to adjust to new routines, and Carrillo wasn't allowed that by some. I can recall the nightmare start that Sadio Mane had in his first few matches when one very " vocal fan "....went into print likening him to Ali Dia.(!) Hughes will decide what he wants from Carrillo in pre-season, and IF he isn't put out on loan, may well give him some game time to decide if he really was "money well spent ".

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NZsaint added 14:58 - Jun 12 Well put west stand,couldn’t agree anymore.great post
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SaintBrock added 17:58 - Jun 12 We do not need more strikers unless one or two want out. Most of them will want to give Hughes team a chance. They came to the PL for a reason and will want to succeed before leaving
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