Benfica striker Goncalo Ramos has been linked with a move to Southampton, but the feeling was that Newcastle & Wolves were ahead of us in the pecking order, but now it seems that one of them has pulled out.
Saints are being linked with Benfica's Goncalo Ramos, the 21 year old centre forward came to prominence last season when he burst into the Portuguese sides with 7 goals in 17 starts and 12 appearances off the bench.
This season he has followed up his good form with a goal in Benfica's opening two Liga Portugal games plus 2 assists as well as 4 goals in 3 Champions League qualifying games with another assist.
Saints were seen as down the pecking order, but it seems that Newcastle are now not prioritising a Centre Forward and more to the point it was felt that Ramos would not want to go to a club where he would be back up, he wants to play and would not get that up on Tyneside.
Wolves have also been credited with an interest in the 21-year-old and with their record of Portuguese signings that is understandable, but with a plethora of forwards on the books including Neto & Raul again Ramos might feel that his path to the first team might be blocked.
With a contract running to 2026, Benfica are in no hurry to let him go and certainly not cheaply. A fee of around £25m has been rumoured, with media outlet The Athletic also claiming in a piece last night that Southampton have held talks with the in-form forward.
The Telegraph, a newspaper that has in the past few years been close to Southampton as a club in terms of media leaks also make the same claims. going further and stating that the club's owners are willing to back Ralph Hasenhuttl in the transfer market.
Saints would have to break the club's transfer record to land Ramos, but if they did they would undoubtably bring in a big chunk of that fee by selling Che Adams to Everton or even Nottingham Forest.
The have stated that Adams is not for sale and will be at the club next season, but every player has his price and the club's strategy is to buy and sell players over a period of time and this looks like a good piece of business.