Southampton Hold Talks with Goalkeeper

Saints are reported as having held talks to bring Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale to St Mary's, with reports saying that the keeper would be open to a loan move, Russell Martin is said to have spoken personally to Ramsdale.

One thing that has come out of pre season is that Southampton do not have a keeper good enough to see them through a Premier League season, Alex McCarthy is a good back up keeper, but he cannot play the ball around with his feet, so we would have to scrap our possession football game and Joe Lumley despite impressing in his 18 minute cameo against Getafe on Saturday is unproven at Premier League level.

So it will be music to Saints supporters ears that the club are making efforts to sign Ramsdale.

givemesport.com reports that Southampton have been in contact with Arsenal and that Russell Martin himself has spoken to Ramsdale about a potential move.

The problem at the moment though is not the player himself, but Arsenal, who if they are to lose Ramsdale, would prefer it to be on a permanent basis and at a fee approaching £25-30 million, that is perhaps not in Saints transfer budget, let alone matching his wages.

The good news is that Ramsdale would prefer a loan move, he still sees his future at the Emirates in the long term, but he is not prepared to spend a second season in a row on the bench.

So the deal is stalling at the moment, but Arsenal have accepted that the player won't be with them for the coming season and are prepared to let him go on loan, but only if they cannot find a buyer, so they seem prepared to hold on to him to the final week of the transfer window to try and entice a buyer, before letting him go out on loan.

Although Ramsdale is a top class keeper, there are few option in the Premier League for him to go to, most teams in the top half are sorted for a keeper and in the bottom half, it is probably only Southampton desperately needing a goalkeeper.

Nottingham Forest are said to be a club that is interested though, however they do have quite a few shot stoppers on their books, Matt Turner arrived last summer for £10 million, ironically from Arsenal, but played just 17 games, losing his place in January to Matz Sels who joined the club in February from Strasbourg, they were both joined by Brazilian Carlos Miguel.

So Forest have a number of experienced keepers on their books, so although on one hand they seem to be well served in that department, on the other they can afford to wait until the final week of the transfer window and them try to take Ramsdale on loan and if they fail, they still have Premier League standard keepers.

That is something that Southampton cannot afford to do, if they were to hang on to the final week and then fail in their attempts, that could prove to be the key moment of our season and not in a good way.

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