Southampton: World Cup Scouted – Hannes Halldorsson
By Chris Hughes
Yesterday football fans were treated to an unmatched four World Cup matches – offering a host of possibilities for today’s World Cup Scouted piece.
There were plenty of options in truth – Pione Sisto led the way for a long while but with Southampton having so strongly been linked with the Dane before it seemed like something of a cop-out choice, hence the perhaps off-the-wall selection for the second post in this series.
In case you missed the first entry into this new weekly column, World Cup Scouted will be a regular piece in which I look at a player who has performed well on football’s biggest stage, and suggest them as a potential target that the Saints should keep their eyes on.
Southampton’s goalkeeping hierarchy will almost certainly have a shake-up this summer – with Alex McCarthy now first choice he needs to have that reflected with a new contract and in doing so the Saints will have two highly-paid stoppers on their books. Therefore – in my opinion – Fraser Forster should be moved on this summer.
However there’s no point in splashing out on an expensive back-up, and I voiced my desire for the Saints to bring in Dean Henderson in my wishlist last month. However, another very interesting option would be Icelandic goalie Hannes Halldorsson.
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Granted, this is definitely an off-the-wall suggestion, but the experienced goalie has shown to have some real talent and yesterday produced a couple of a brilliant saves – one of them of course being a penalty save to deny Lionel Messi.
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Halldorsson currently plies his trade in Denmark with Randers, and even though his national side have gained somewhat of a cult following, there’s no way the Danish team can demand that much of a fee for a goalkeeper of such an age – even more so when you consider that his contract expires in a year.
If the Saints are to move Forster on, there’s absolutely no point in spending big bucks on a new back-up goalkeeper – they may only play a dozen times all season. Instead, being shrewd in the market is instead a much wiser idea, as the Saints should instead prioritise spending more on forwards and attacking players.
Therefore there is a lot of logic behind signing Halldorsson – he’s proven to still be athletic at 34 and last season at club level he also kept nine clean sheets in all competitions.
He’s also a late bloomer having not made his Iceland debut until the age of 27 – despite this he’s still notched up nearly half a century of caps. His experience and level-headed nature could be great for the dressing room too. Southampton’s only real players who show natural leadership are Maya Yoshida and Steven Davis, so having another voice like that in the squad could do great things too.
Previously Southampton would probably have never thought to scout the Danish top division but that’s the beauty of the World Cup and the point of this series – to suggest players that the Saints may not of otherwise batted an eyelid at. And who wouldn’t want that famous Icelandic clap at St. Mary’s?