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Mohammed Elyounoussi Targeted By Arsenal And Leicester

According to reports in the media Southampton wide man Moi Elyounoussi is on the radar of both Arsenal and Leicester City, despite having barely played for Saints since signing from Basel three years ago.

Moi Elyounoussi is at the moment far from being a success at St Mary's, his first season after arriving in the summer of 2018 saw him play just 16 games in the Premier league and only 3 of them, all substitute appearances came in the second half of the season.

The following two seasons saw him shipped off to Celtic, where he was far from an unmitigated success, his season was interrupted by injury, but even when fit he struggled to get in the starting XI in the SPL side.

Celtic took him back last season but again he was far from a certain starter in the League with 21 games plus another 13 off the bench with only 10 goals.

This season Saints decided to keep him at the club and boost squad numbers balancing the fact that Celtic were only paying half of his wages and we wanted to avoid the issues of the second half of last season when our small squad could not cope with a big injury list.

This saw him come back to favour with Ralph Hasenhuttl and after a hat trick in the demolition of Newport County in the Carabao Cup, he got a start at Newcastle United and scored his first goal for the club.

But it is a big surprise that he be linked with both Arsenal & Leicester City, although he has had some more game time of late his performances have been far from completely convincing and he may find it hard to get in the starting line up now Stuart Armstrong is fit again and when James Ward Prowse returns from suspension.

The link with Leicester is perhaps predictable, Brendan Rodgers has a record of signing players from Saints dating back to his Liverpool days when he signed 3 in the summer of 2014, Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert & Dejan Lovren, prompting speculation he was living in the woods beside Staplewood and then followed that up the following summer with Nathan Clyne.

This summer he returned to St Mary's and signed Ryan Bertrand & Jannik Vestergaard and there seems to be something about Southampton that Brendan Rodgers likes.

But if the link to the Foxes is easily made, the one to Arsenal is a little baffling, if the Gunners have ambition to restore themselves to their former glory why would they be after a player who at 27 has not proved himself at the highest level.

From a Saints perspective the hope is that Elyounoussi suddenly bursts into life and shows the St Mary's faithful just why we signed him, he has done so in little bursts, but he is yet to take the game by the scruff of the neck and really show what he can do.

With a salary said to be around the £60k a week mark, I would say Saints would be keen to get him off the books unless there is a real period where he shows he can put in a good run of form and if the rumours are true then that give him 12 Premier League games before the window closes.

Perhaps the best result all round would be a move, the player himself could kick start a career that has gone off track in the last three years and Saints could recoup some of the £16 million we paid for him and get his wages off the books.

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