Southampton: Saints to move for 6ft 2in Italian striker?
By Marc Walker
Southampton have been very active in the transfer market recently, and it seems like they have their next targets lined up already.
According to skysports.com, Atalanta striker Andrea Petagna could be one of the next players to join Mark Hughes’ Southampton squad during this summer window.
The 6ft 2in forward joined his current club from AC Milan in 2016 and contributed to 15 goals across all competitions during the last campaign with six goals and nine assists.
At 23-years-old, he has youth on his side and made his full international debut for Italy in March of last year.
After Stuart Armstrong and Mohamed Elyounoussi joined last week, it is believed that Petagna and Barcelona’s Brazilian Centre-Back Marlon Santos are on the club’s radar as their recruitment drive continues.
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Two barren seasons in front of goal for the Saints have seen goals and creativity go missing from the attack and last season saw Dusan Tadic and Charlie Austin tie for the top scorers spot with a paltry seven strikes each.
Austin’s total all came in league matches and saw him score the club’s lowest number of goals for a league top scorer since well before the First World War.
It seems as though more competition is being added to the Saints squad in all areas of the pitch, and a new striker could provide some motivation for the forwards to up their game for 2018/19.
Italian strikers have been common at St Mary’s recently and have acquitted themselves well on the South Coast. Graziano Pelle became a big fans favourite and Manolo Gabbiadini hit an instant vein of scoring form when he joined from Napoli.
One Italy international that didn’t do so well was Dani Osvaldo. A brilliant goal against Manchester City was followed up by a headbutt on team captain Jose Fonte in training and pretty much summed up the character of the man.