Callum Chambers is the latest of the young Saints to be surrounded by speculation that he is about to be lured to the big clubs.

Barely a day goes by without a rumour in the press than one club or another is about to launch a multi million pound bid to sign up one of our youngsters, now Callum Chambers is about to be lured to Arsenal and around £10 million will change hands in the process.

Arsene Wenger and his Gooners have reportably offered Sagna a two year £75k a week deal to stay at the Emirates, Sagna wants three years but at 31 Arsenal believe he is a little old to be on that long a deal.

Therefore they are rumoured to be turning their attentions to St Mary's and Callum Chambers.

At the start of this season Chambers was virtually unknown even to Saints supporters, his total first team experience had been 6 minutes in the League cup win at Stevenage, but with an injury to Nathan Clyne, he was thrust into the opening game of the season at West Brom and put in a strong performance, however after putting in three straight starts plus a cameo as sub, he found himself sitting out every game from the bench with the returning Nathan Clyne preferred.

It would be December before Chambers got his chance again, with Clyne injured he came in against Manchester City and put in a sterling performance, he would stay in the side and even when Clyne was fit to return at Everton it would still be Chambers that would start and in the main since that has been the case.

Now it seems there is little to choose between them, Clyne seems to get the nod when perhaps a more attacking option is needed, hence his selection for the last two games ahead of Chambers, but where strength and pace is needed the nod goes Chambers way, at this stage Chambers gets forward well but his final run and delivery in the final third is still not as good as Clyne's hence the ex Palace man being preferred when we want to punish the opposition going forward.

However if Chambers continues to develop then it wont be long before he is first choice ahead of Clyne, in recent weeks when he has played there are many who feel that he is now ahead of Luke Shaw in that development and that as a full back he is a better player, of course that is only opinion and opinions vary, but it is good that we have a player who can be considered to be at that level.

So what will Saints do in the summer, will they cash in on Chambers or even Clyne for that matter, they are in the luxurious position of having choice in the right back position .

One option could be to use both in the team, certainly there is a case for employing Clyne as a wide man in midfield with Chambers anchoring the side behind, there is even talk that Chambers could play in the centre of defence or in midfield himself, he is one of those players who is a natural athlete so can adapt.

But Mauricio Pochettino as a manager has not shown much of an appetite for trying moves like this, his dropping of Rickie Lambert on Saturday and varying the formation a little was very out of character and perhaps forced due to the fact that he had an injury to both Cork & Wanyama, usually the manager relies on players tried and trusted in a position and sticks to that, however that doesnt bely the fact that we should try something differentonce in a while and our problem in the near future will be we have two Premier league quality right backs and won't keep both happy for too long.This is one of the drawbacks of having so many youth players coming through, you get good players in the same positions.

So Arsenal are hovering for Chambers and Manchester United too, of course this is just paper talk fueled by agents, Chambers signed a four year deal last summer so Saints have time on their side and dont have to sell, i would hope to see that four year deal improved in this summer so we can keep Callum here for a few years yet.

Photo: Action Images

BaselSaint added 11:23 - Mar 19 Surely that we have good cover and options at right back is essential and not a luxury to be moved on. We have come a long way in the last few years which makes the mooted 10 million seem a bit of insult and I find it equally insulting that any Saint either younger or older who shows promise is automatically assumed to be there for the taking! I don't look up to clubs Spurs at all...in fact its hard to beleive they are above us. This type of speculation will never stop now that we have a bigger profile in the EPL. I guess we will just have to get used to it.

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cheltenhamsaint added 11:47 - Mar 19 Very good balanced article as always Nick. I do think that Chambers "moving" to CB is a likely consideration for the management. Noel Blake, the England U19 manager, plays him there and has public stated he thinks it will be his future position. With the dearth of quality CBs at full England level, but more competition at RB, I think Saints will sell this idea to him in the close season I read an article with Chambers a couple of weeks ago where he stated that the Saints had discussed with him moving to RB (he previously played midfield) and had the impression that he valued that input and direction for his career. We can expect a lot of paper rumours over the summer for our young talent. The likes of Chelsea and Man City, plus a few others to a lesser degree have an immediate problem to solve as they can only register 17 overseas players in their squad (it is a bit more complicated than that but that's the gist for starters). The rest (max 8) have to qualify as "homegrown". Chelsea have 4 with Cole, Lampard and Terry over 30 with Cole likely to leave for 1st team football. Man City have 5 (including Clichy who qualifies) but only Hart is considered as a regular. In short, just these two clubs have to find about 8 homegrown players for their EPL squads next season. Arsenal, Man Utd, Spurs and all the rest may have to find a few too. But we do not for obvious reasons. We may not be able to compete financially but we can put a dent in the squad depth of a few of the teams we are aspiring to catch up league position wise. This gives us a possible in road to the existing hierarchy providing we do not give away our assets. This is also why such huge sums are been banded around for English players who have shown they can perform in the Premier League, irrespective of their age and experience

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SaintDavo added 16:21 - Mar 19 another one ? If we believe all of these 'rumours' we wont have a team next season :)
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SaintNick added 17:10 - Mar 19 We might not have a team but we will have £100 million in the bank lol
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trampslykeus added 20:12 - Mar 19 According to the published lists on the PL website, we have 18 players in our '25'. This does not include Luke, Calum, James, Sam etc who are under 21. However, players included who I would not expect to be on the list submitted next September are Forte, Do Prado , Fox, Hooiveld and possibly Kelvin Davis. I think our emphasis must be on keeping as many players as possible but if they do go, we must get top prices. Forte

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cheltenhamsaint added 22:09 - Mar 19 My interpretation of the rules for next season are 1. Clubs can register a maximum of 25 senior professionals 2. Of which, at least eight have to be "home grown" but there is no limit (other than 25 max) 3. You can register as many under 21s as you like irrespective of nationality 4. Home grown includes foreign players who have been at an English club for at least 3 years prior to reaching the age of 21. For example, Schneirderlin is classed a "home grown" hence why Arsenal are interested in him amongst other reasons and the "big" clubs are trying to buy 16 year old talent from the continent (for future seasons)) Can't see anything in our squad make up to cause any concern for us, other than it being targeted by other clubs, and I actually think Cortese and Pochettino saw this rule coming and planned for it by introducing the academy players as soon as possible. Other clubs have taken a short term view and most supporters of other clubs have no idea about this rule as yet. It will be a hot topic in the summer (for next season) and there will be a degree of panic at certain clubs, but not ours, which make the market for home grown players over inflated. Or the relegated clubs will see their talented players plundered to fulfil the squads of the likes of Man City and Chelsea, plus a few others

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