It could be a case of one in, one out at Southampton as they continue to eye-up Arsenal’s Keiran Gibbs whilst Ryan Bertrand could return to his former club.
Despite Manchester City’s signing of Benjamin Mendy for a record fee, Southampton could yet lose their star left-back Ryan Bertrand with interest from Chelsea still strong.
The Metro report also suggests that after losing out on Danilo to rivals City, the champions will attempt to sign Bertrand’s teammate Cedric Soares.
The Portuguese right-back is yet to feature in pre-season for the Saints due to his participation in the Confederations Cup, and he could be on his way out of the club is reports are to be believed.
Meanwhile Ryan Bertrand has yet again been linked to his former employers, who have been consistently linked with the Southampton star ever since he permanently left two-and-a-half seasons ago.
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Meanwhile if Bertrand does return to Chelsea it’s believed that Southampton could make a play for Keiran Gibbs, as they continue to monitor the Arsenal full-back.
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Watford have joined the Saints and West Brom in keeping an eye on the Englishman, who is in the last year of his current contract with the Gunners.
However, he has fallen out of favour recently and with the arrival of Sead Kolasinac this summer the 27-year-old has edged closer towards the exit door.
However, it’s believed that the swarming sharks do not want to match Arsenal’s £12 million valuation of the left-back, seeing as they could land him next summer for nothing.
But if the Saints are to receive as much as £30-40 million for a similar-aged Bertrand then a £12 million investment in a seasoned Premier League defender may be a great bit of business for the club.
However all-in-all, it’s safe to assume that the Southampton supporters would much prefer that their impressive full-back duo stay at the club beyond the summer.