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Southampton About To Break The Bank For Greek Forward

As the transfer window heads towards its last couple of weeks, Saints are said to be about to break their transfer record to land a centre forward from Athens based club Panathinaikos, so lets take a look.

Rumours have started to come out of Greece that Saints are preparing a bid that will likely see their transfer record smashed.

According to givemesport.com are reporting that the man in question is Fotis Ioannidis from Panathinaikos.

The 24 year old centre forward has seen his value and reputation soar over the past year, in 2023/24 he hit 10 goals plus 5 assists in 20 games in the Greek Super League for the Athens club in the regular season and then added another 5 goals and 2 assists in 8 games in the Super League plays offs.

Overall in 4 seasons for Panathinaikos, in 144 Super League games he has hit 40 goals and 14 assists.

But it has been the last season that his value has increased and that has been helped by winning 11 caps for the Greek National team where he has scored twice plus another 2 assists.

According to media outlets in Greece Southampton are the front runners for his services and are preparing to match Panathinaikos's value for Ioannidis, that is claimed to be 30 million euros, which is around £27 million in English money, way above our previous transfer record.

Saints are not the only game in town, Leicester City are said to have already had one bid turned down, but have not yet come back with another as of yet. Likewise Ipswich whose near £20 million bid was turned down flat in June

The big question is whether Saints have a genuine interest in the 6ft 2 striker, or if it is either Panathinaikos or the players agent trying to generate interest and put up the price, we shall soon find out.

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