Southampton: Gabbiadini to stay at Saints despite enquiries from Italy

The agent of Southampton striker Manolo Gabbiadini has confirmed that the Italian striker will stay with the Saints despite enquiries from clubs in Italy.

In an interview with Sky Italia, Silvio Pagliari confirmed that his client was due to stay on the South Coast and wanted to help put right Southampton’s poor performances in recent seasons.

Gabbiadini transferred from Napoli to the Saints in January 2017 and hit the ground running with a number of important goals. His inconsistency since then has perhaps summed up the performances of the team as a whole, but he certainly still has great talent.

In the interview, Pagliari said:

"Gabbiadini definitely stays at Southampton, and we have to overturn last year’s performance in which we did not do very well. The team suffered a lot, a few goals, a very strange championship despite being very strong.A few requests came from Italian clubs, but he feels at the top in the Premier League. It’s another worldGabbiadini definitely stays at Southampton, and we have to overturn last year’s performance in which we did not do very well. The team suffered a lot, a few goals, a very strange championship despite being very strong.A few requests came from Italian clubs, but he feels at the top in the Premier League. It’s another world"

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45 appearances for Saints have so far yielded 11 goals for the 26-year-old, with perhaps his most vital strike winning the crucial match against relegation rivals Swansea City at the end of last season.

He had been linked with a host of Serie A teams including Bologna and Lazio after being largely limited to substitute appearances under Mark Hughes.

In his previous spell in Italy, Gabbiadini had turned out for each of Atalanta, Bologna, Sampdoria and Napoli and even spent time at Juventus even though he didn’t play a game for them.

He has proven his ability to be a goalscorer wherever he has played and currently has 76 strikes in 297 career matches. A certain amount of variety can also be found in his style on the pitch, leading to him playing a number of different attacking roles so far.

Both Charlie Austin and Shane Long are likely to provide competition for the Italian international in 2018/19, with Guido Carrillo loaned out and Sam Gallagher possibly on the move too.

Attacking signings could also follow Stuart Armstrong, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Jannik Vestergaard and Angus Gunn to St Mary’s this summer with options fairly limited.