Sources close to Southampton Football Club have claimed that Manchester City's Gavin Bazunu has already put pen to paper on a move to St Mary's, although it may be that the deal will not complete until after July 1st.

Portsmouth supporters will know Gavin Bazuna very well, he spent the season just ended on loan at Fratton Park, playing in 44 of the 46 League One games that he could have taken part in.

Now sources close to St Mary's are saying that this is a done deal with the 20 year old keeper Saints having already agreed terms with both Manchester City and the player himself and already put pen to paper, whether that is an interim agreement to sign after the contract anniversary on July 1st is unclear.

Bazunu is highly rated at the Etihad and the fee is said to be in the region of £10 million although City have insisted on a buy back clause being inserted into the deal.

Indeed City are said to have offered him a big pay rise to stay with them, but he has declined to sign that saying that he wants first team football.

The question is whether he would get that at Saints anymore than he would at City, at just 20 he has no experience above League One level, playing 29 games for Rochdale in season 20/21 and then the aforementioned time at Portsmouth.

But is that enough to make him ready to be thrown into the Premier League fray, Saints fans will remember Angus Gunn arriving at St Mary's from Manchester City in 2018, he was at 22 a little older than Bazunu, and he had just completed a successful year on loan at Norwich City.

He undoubtably had talent and was a better bet than either Alex McCarthy or Fraser Forster at the time, but the combination of a lack of experience and playing in front of an awful centre of defence blew his confidence and some would say he has never recovered.

Also the question is where does this lie in the goalkeeping rosta, at the moment it is totally unclear, we think Alex McCarthy signed a new deal back in the Autumn, but there is no confirmation from the club.

Mateuz Lis is said to have completed a medical on a free transfer and Saints are also linked with Bartlomiej Dragowski from Fiorentina, but is there room for all three or for that matter four with the arrival of Bazunu.

So will the plan be to have three keepers plus Lis out on loan, or more worryingly is the plan to start with McCarthy & Bazunu with no further incoming.

Photo: Action Images

dirk_doone added 10:40 - Jun 9 If Man City insist on a clause in the contract, couldn't we have one that says they have to take McCarthy and loan him to Pompey?
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underweststand added 10:53 - Jun 9 What a good idea dirk doone. McCarthy would certainly stabilise their position in L1 - for a year or two - after which he would be a free transfer for them to sign permanently. We could subsidise his salary - as we did when Forster was at Celtic - and then sign a few more keepers before August to give us a good cover.
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SaintNick added 11:11 - Jun 9 That genuinely made me laugh Dirk,
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KilkennySaint added 13:18 - Jun 9 Bazuna has played 10 times for the Republic of Ireland so at least his has some experience playing at a high level. I've seen him play regularly and is a good keeper, he was man of the match when Ireland lost 2-1 to Portugal, he saved a penalty from Ronaldo in that game. i think this would be a good signing for us.
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halftimeorange added 15:51 - Jun 9 I can hear the boo boys on his back already due to the Portsmouth connection.
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Block8 added 17:58 - Jun 9 We've left ourselves in a position where we desperately need a first choice goalkeeper. If he is to be our no 1, then we will definitely need to sign a commanding centre half. The lack of a dominant figure anywhere in our defence has proved to be very costly thus far and needs addressing!
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NewburySaint added 14:36 - Jun 10 No wonder Gunn lost his confidence if he was playing in front of our centre backs at that time - he needs to work on his positioning……..
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