The latest player to be linked with a move to St Mary's is Celtic's central defender Kristoffer Ajer, as Saints once again look to the Scottish club for a player or two.

After their unexpected exit from the Champions League, Celtic are said to be looking to rake in some cash to make up the financial deficit and are willing to sell Norwegian defender Kristoffer Ajer.

Saints are said to be interested and not put off by the asking price of around £20 million and could look to try and engineer a deal that would see Mo Elyounoissi move to the Celts on a permanent deal to offset some of the cost.

But Ajer leaving Celtic would not be without controversy, manager Neil Lennon has been complaining that several of his squad are not committed and pundit Noel Whelan went further by naming Ajer and saying that he was one of several who want away from Celtic Park and are trying to engineer moves.

Whelan said.

“The be-all and end-all of it is he doesn’t want to be there, so what’s the point of managing a player that’s not going to give you 100 per cent? You can’t do that as a manager, you can’t have those sort of players in the changing room."

Ralph Hasenhuttl will certainly understand how Lennon feels having had a similar situation with Pierre Emile Hojbjerg and Saints fans will know that feeling after the ex Celtic player Virgil Van Dijk behaved appallingly once Liverpool turned his head.

The 6ft 6 inch Norwegian would certainly add some aerial height to the team, he would also perhaps add some muh needed leadership at the back, Ajer captained his Norwegian club Start in a 1—1 draw against Lillestrøm on 7 April 2015, becoming the youngest ever footballer to captain a team in the Norwegian top flight league the Tippeligaen.

At 22 he has a lot o experience having played 61 times for Start, 131 games for Celtic plus another 17 on loan at Kilmarnock on loan.

It will be interesting to see how this one pans out and if it has any substance.

Photo: Action Images

SaintBrock added 10:32 - Aug 30 A swap for Forster and Elyounoissi if any substance in this rumour.
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SaintNick added 10:49 - Aug 30 Celtic have paid £5 million for Barkas from AEK Athens ,now they are out of the Champions League he will be perfectly suitable for them, so I dont think Forster will be part of any deal
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underweststand added 11:43 - Aug 30 After several weeks of veiled media hints about our "supposed" interest in Olivier Ntcham , perhaps Saints were really after Ayer all the time? As Celtic seem to be very taken with Mo Elyounoussi, maybe there's a deal on the table to suit both clubs.? At 6' 6" he'd be a good squad replacement for the less than impressive Vestergaard , who may well be on his way elsewhere before the season starts.

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highfield49 added 18:50 - Aug 30 In my view the interest in Ajer which social media has latched on to is more likely to have been put up as a distraction from a deal for Ntcham. That said if Celtic want to swap Ajer for Hoedt or Vestergaard that would suit us as well I suppose, but the stumbling block is that Celtic seem to be in need of a cash deal to cover their European losses. They have the added problem now of unloading players who have realised that they are playing for a team in decline who could end up winning nothing this season. As they have Elyounoussi on loan I don't see him as being part of any transfer deal for either Celtic player.

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Peterx added 11:46 - Aug 31 I think we would be crazy to spend 20M plus for any player in this window. To me our market should be the 5 to 8M young unpolished diamonds within our less than 24 years old strategy, and perhaps consider an older free agent or cheaper older player with a year on their contract to play a role while the unpolished diamonds get up to speed.
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ElijahK added 12:05 - Aug 31 I mean I just hope that we do get another central defender, but we desperately need another central midfielder as now as Reed and Lemina are gone we’ve only got Smallbone, Prowse and Romeu but what happens when two can’t play!? I mean I really do hope that reefs transfer funds (which is said to be around 8mill) will help us get a new central midfielder as I’d love to get another defender, but until we get that decent center mid then I certainly won’t be relaxing!

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SaintPaulVW added 12:41 - Aug 31 We moan about Liverpool buying all our players. I guess Celtic fans must think the same about us.
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