Southampton: Manchester City revive interest in Mario Lemina
By Marc Walker
Manchester City have reportedly revived their interest in signing Southampton midfielder Mario Lemina after rejecting moves for other targets.
According to SkySports journalist Dharmesh Sheth (transcribed here by the Express), City have moved on from pursuing Real Madrid’s Mateo Kovacic after being quoted £80m, and Southampton midfielder Lemina is another name on their list.
The 24-year-old joined Saints from Juventus for around £15m last summer and impressed in spells of his first season with the club whilst making 29 appearances.
On City’s interest in the Gabon international, Sheth said:
"If Guardiola is there long-term, he wants to play the same way and will have to find an identical replacement for Fernandinho.We are told Southampton midfielder Mario Lemina is on a list of their targets. Quite how high we don’t know, but he’s someone who has interested them.If Guardiola is there long-term, he wants to play the same way and will have to find an identical replacement for Fernandinho.We are told Southampton midfielder Mario Lemina is on a list of their targets. Quite how high we don’t know, but he’s someone who has interested them."
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Lemina was mentioned for a transfer to City back in June, and it appears that he has become their number one choice now after the current Premier League champions missed out on Fred and Jorginho to Man United and Chelsea respectively.
His style is perhaps slightly different to what they are looking for and he looked more comfortable as a box-to-box midfielder rather than being positioned defensively for Saints last season.
Starting his career with Lorient, he then moved to French giants Marseille for two years before joining Juventus initially on-loan.
An £8.8m permanent move to Turin saw him feature fairly prominently but he then transferred to St Mary’s a year later.
Lemina gained Champions League experience at Juventus and played 12 minutes of the 2017 final as his side lost 4-1 to Real Madrid in Cardiff.
Saints will not let him move on easily after only a year and normally demand an extra season if a player becomes in demand. With Mark Hughes’ squad coming together nicely ahead of 2018/19 too, they will not want preparation and competition within the team to be affected.
Oriol Romeu and Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg often switched in and out of the team with Lemina during 2017/18 and the central-midfield areas perhaps remain Saints’ most competitive.