Southampton: Saints to make January move for Cahill?
By Marc Walker
Southampton are reportedly interested in signing defender Gary Cahill from Chelsea during the January transfer window.
After a start to the season that has seen his Southampton side leaking goals, the Mirror understands that Mark Hughes could move for the 32-year-old to bolster his back-line.
Cahill would certainly bring a lot of experience to St Mary’s having represented England 61 times whilst also being regularly involved in high-profile games at club level.
It could be a good move for both the player and Saints if it does materialise. Cahill has been limited to a few appearances so far this season, and his leadership abilities could go a long way to creating a solid defence.
Conceding late goal has been the side’s Achilles heal in the first games of the campaign and saw them drop points against Leicester, Brighton and Wolves.
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After making 285 appearances for Chelsea so far, Cahill has been at the top end of football for a considerable amount of time. However, he isn’t too unfamiliar with the lower reaches of the Premier League either.
He came through the youth ranks at Aston Villa before moving onto Bolton Wanderers for around £5.4m to forge his career and build a reputation as one of the most promising Centre-Backs in the country.
A £7.5m transfer to Stamford Bridge followed and he has been able to chip in fairly regular goals too after finding the net 25 times for the Blues so far.
Cahill was also part of the England squad that travelled to Russia during the summer and reached the semi-finals so has shown he still has a lot to give at the top level.
If he were to make the move to the South Coast in January, he would join each of Jannik Vestergaard, Wesley Hoedt, Jan Bednarek, Maya Yoshida and Jack Stephens in the Centre-Back department.
The club tried to resolve the defensive issues from last season with the £18m capture of Vestergaard, who brought aerial dominance and leadership qualities himself.
However, he has taken time to settle into the high tempo of the English top-flight whilst players like Wesley Hoedt suffer from making mistakes far too consistently.