It seems that Takumi Minamino's agent has been working overtime this week with the media full of stories about who is the latest club on the continent to rival Saints for his signature in the summer.

When Takumi Minamino joined Saints on loan on the final day of the January transfer window there was no option to buy, it was seemingly a case of Liverpool having too many options in the attacking positions.

Like every other club Liverpool are having to trim their squads to trim their budget, as was shown by Minamino being allowed to go out on loan and the fact that with central defensive problems they signed a player from Preston who was about to go to Celtic in the Scottish Premier League for £1.5 million.

This was not buying a youngster with potential, it was a club who in normal times would have been looking at the Premier League or a top foreign league having to cut their cloth due to the reduction in income.

But Liverpool didn't appear to want to let Minamino go permanently and Jurgen Klopp said this about him when he left for St Mary's:

"When Southampton came up, there were not a lot of clubs where I thought it made sense to let him go, but Southampton made a lot of sense.

"He is there for 17 games now I think and with the situation Southampton are in, if Takumi stays fit then he has a good chance to play 17 games.

"That then helps everybody, it helps Southampton and it helps us.

"The only thing Takumi was lacking was a couple of games in a row.

"That was difficult here, I’d have loved to keep him just to have the options but in the end, because Takumi is a long term project and always was - we see a lot of potential in him, it makes a lot of sense that he gets a chance to play maybe 17 Premier League games and comes back in a completely different mindset, confidence level and all these kind of things.

"I hope it’s a win-win situation."

So it seems that Jurgen Klopp rates the Japanese attacking midfielder, although I did find t strange he should talk about potential for a player who had just turned 26 and had played over 200 games both in his native Japan and for Red Bull Salzburg.

But now suddenly and without warning the media is full of stories about Saints facing competition from the continent as they strive to sign Minamino permanently in the summer.

"Liverpool loanee facing transfer tug-of-war with Sevilla and Southampton interested" is one headline,

"Club director will do ‘everything possible’ to snatch Southampton signing" is another, with the Daily Star proclaiming : "Liverpool flop Takumi Minamino may be given La Liga move after Southampton start"

Suddenly Minamino is being talked up for a transfer after only 2 games for Saints, the second of which he lasted only an hour in a below par display, although in fairness he wasn't alone in that respect in the team.

The stories then go on to claim that the main club after his signature are Sevilla in Spain, but there are others.

So where are all these rumours coming from? The answer can only be that his agent is trying to drum up interest for the summer.

The reports suggest that Liverpool may be willing to let him go for around £10 million, a small profit on the £7.25 million they paid in January 2020 when they activated his release clause.

From a Saints perspective it is too early to say whether he is worth a punt in the summer, his performances have suggested that he has the ability and he certainly scored a decent goal up at Newcastle, if he plays well and is available then Saints will have some thinking to do, Theo Walcott has been touted for a permanent free transfer move in the summer and we are not short in the attacking department either out wide or up front.

I would suggest that in this financial climate we would not go for both Walcott & Minamino due to the cost of wages, unless we have offloaded one of the current options.

But with almost four months to go until the transfer window opens and the first week of July before any real deals get done with players wanting to collect their loyalty bonus's before they leave a club, all of this talk is very premature, there is a lot of football to be played before Liverpool, Saints & even Sevilla who have probably just found out they are interested this morning, make any decisions on the player.

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 09:59 - Feb 17 Needs to get more involved. Difficult coming in to a struggling team though. Highly talented..
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1teeminants added 10:54 - Feb 17 Tadanari Lee scored almost an identical goal against Derby from the left smashed into the roof of the net at St Marys. That was about the only thing he ever did so let’s wait and see.
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saintmark1976 added 11:08 - Feb 17 Can he play at right fullback against Chelsea and Leeds?
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ronniedavies added 11:31 - Feb 17 Don't rate this guy, and not sure why we needed him. He was pretty Minimalist (pardon the pun) against Wolves and Newcastle (apart from his goal) and is just another lightweight in the team. Plus to accommodate him in the team Ralph is sacrificing our natural striking partnership of Ings & Adams by dropping Adams to the bench and moving Redmond up front which isn't working.

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SaintPaulVW added 12:35 - Feb 17 We may need a new LB or at very least fullback cover. Theo will be available on a free. We will have lost close to £40 million this year. Unless Minamino really shows in the limited time he has available why this move makes sense I'm not sure it can happen.
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obelisk added 14:19 - Feb 17 Saints form is going to have to improve considerably if they want to attract the likes of Minamino. And vice-versa of course. For something a bit different to help add a spot of variety to that attack I'd be looking for the next Ricki Lambert.
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SanMarco added 14:38 - Feb 17 The guy scores a good goal and half the known universe wants to sign him. He has the excuse of being rusty but on what I have seen so far we might as well go for Theo instead if he is a free transfer. To be brutal and unsentimental I wouldn't go for Theo either. This is all set up for a situation where if he is very good over the next 15 games he will stay at Liverpool or go for more than we can afford. If he remains as mediocre as he has been so far then why would be want him? There may be a 'plays quite well occasionally' middle-way but as stated by ronniedavies he looks like another light-weight to me, too easily shrugged off by stronger opponents.

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underweststand added 15:11 - Feb 17 Agree with most of your comments Nick. Hard to make a definitive judgement on one-and-a half games (after we lost both and everyone came in for criticism). YES it was a good goal v. Newcastle, but I'd like to see him in a few more games when he's more involved and it isn't bucketing down with rain. This "Spanish rumour " may well be a bit of "Fake News" from his agent to drum up more interest, and Klopp's comments about him being "a good player who can't get in the side "is guaranteed to keep an eventual transfer fee up to a good level, but won't get him any closer to a first team start at Anfield. Liverpool seem highly unlikely to retain the title, and may even struggle to get a CL place for next season, and so their owners, who seem to have " bottomless pockets" will no doubt splash the cash in the summer and L'pool will (with regret) make suitable noises about losing a good player every time he scores another goal, but it won't ever get him off their bench on a regular basis with Firmino, Salah and Mane their automatic strikers. If he shows up well with Saints, he will fall in love with the club and be a good buy at a low-end price that is affordable for us. Regardless of whether we have strikers who are 5'6" or 6' 6".. it matters not as long as they can get the ball in the net, which has become increasingly difficult at the moment. Let's revive this thread again in late April, AND if he's still of any interest to u,s or he will go to Spain. (LOL) Alternatively, we might repatriate Elyounoussi who seems to have no problem scoring for Celtic.

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