Saints and Liverpool Linked With Swiss Centre Back

Saints are being touted as a destination for FC Basel's central defender Manuel Akanji, the problem is so are Liverpool and several other clubs both in the Premier League and Europe.

Manuel Akanji is a central defender born in Switzerland of Nigerian descent who currently plays for FC Basel in where he has been getting rave reviews in a Basel side that is dominating Swiss football.

He has also been capped by his country and at 23 seems to have that balance of youth and experience that Saints seem to like in a signing.

Basel appear ready to let him got for a fee of around 20 million euros and that figure being around £18 million is affordable to Saints after the sale of Van Dijk.

The problem is that Liverpool and Tottenham are being touted as also being interested as well as Borussia Dortmund, however the key for Saints could be that the player would be far more likely to get substantial game time at St Mary's than at any of the three clubs mentioned who would be buying him as one for the future rather than a first team regular.

That could prove in favour of a move to the South Coast for the 6ft 2 defender who can also play right back as well as in the centre.

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