Saints are being tipped to smash their transfer record to sign a player being described as the next Lionel Messi or Sergio Aquera.
Saints are being linked with Palermo's Paulo Dybala a man who has been compared to Lionel Messi as well as Sergio Aquera and who is the latest sensation in Serie A with 5 goals in 12 games and 2 assists.
Able to play in a variety of positions including up front as well as wide or even off a central striker he is going to be hot property in the January transfer window his diminutive frame standing at only 5ft 9 1/2 leads to the Messi comparisons.
But he is not going to come cheap or without competition, the Palermo president has already name the asking price and that is 40 million euros or around £32 million depending on what exchange rate we get at Thomas Cook.
Dybala has just turned 21 but has not yet been capped by Argentina at full level this is because when called up to their U20 squad a couple of years ago he declined the invitation, his family roots lie in Poland and Italy and perhaps that has something to do with it.
Saints are not the only club being linked with Dybala when he moved to Palermo he was tracked by a number of big clubs including Manchester City and Arsenal are also linked to him in this transfer window.
So why are Saints linked now ? the answer is money, Palermo will only sell for big bucks and with two years left on his contract they are perhaps keen to sell him now knowing that next season he will start to lose value as his contract runs down and they face having to take a smaller offer or lose him very cheaply.
But that it isnt just that it is the size of the fee that means that Saints have the clout to match it whilst the likes of Arsenal don't, after the summer spending spree we have around £20 million left over and we haven't even touched the £80 million or so we receive for being in the Premier League, in simple terms we probably have more buying power than virtually any other club in Europe at the moment and that doesn't even include any potential transfer fee if we were to accept the rumoured offers for Jay Rodriguez.
So Saints are up there because they might be the only club who can actually put their money where their mouths are, however the stumbling block could be wages and whilst say Arsenal might not have much more than £20 million to spend they can afford to pay more in wages, to put that in comparison I would estimate that the Gunners would probably take around £1.5 million per game more than us in match day ticket sales income alone and Im only working that out on standard ticketing prices and it is corporate hospitality that they would make far more per head on than us.
But it is great we are being linked with players of Dybala's standing, it shows that we are considered to be a club with not only ambition but the structure behind to achieve it