Southampton: Does a move for Gary Cahill make a lot of sense?

In the past week or so Southampton have been credited with a potential interest in Chelsea’s experienced centre-back Gary Cahill.

This comes as despite the arrival of Jannik Vestergaard for a hefty £18 million over the summer, the Saints remain fragile at the back and without defensive security they could seriously struggle to stay afloat in the Premier League this season.

We say this even though Southampton do have a really respectable bunch of centre-backs on paper – both Yoshida and Stephens are passionate and versatile while Bednarek has great potential. Hoedt has yet to find his consistency but on the face of it is a solid, ball-playing defender while the aforementioned Vestergaard is a towering figure in front of the goalie. However, something isn’t working.

One obvious weak point is the lack of leadership or experience and that’s where Cahill could come in. Granted, Yoshida has played over 120 times in the Premier League for the Saints but he remains a periphery figure having not made 30 appearances in one season since 2013.

Outside of the Japanese international, the Saints’ centre-halves are all scarily inexperienced at this level, and that could go some way in explaining the mental fragility.

Although Cahill’s role under Maurizio Sarri has been limited, he still boasts around 300 Premier League appearances to his name, with just shy of 200 of those coming with current employers Chelsea. However, with Antonio Rudiger and David Luiz preferred at the heart of defence, he may be forced to move on.

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The Saints could massively use this experience of his as his nurturing under some of the world’s best coaches at Chelsea will have made him incredibly well-drilled and disciplined.

We’ve seen how Danny Ings has developed having been coached at Liverpool for three years and that logic can be applied to Cahill too. Let’s not forget how both Oriol Romeu and Ryan Bertrand have thrived since leaving the Blues for the south coast.

Once big contributing factor to the Saints’ poor form of the past 18 months is definitely the lack of leadership. Steven Davis has slowly fallen down the pecking order and the lack of ‘captain material’ in the current squad is very low. With Cahill they would bring in someone who could unite the dressing room and put a shoulder around the more inexperienced heads.

The only concern regarding a move for the the Blues’ club captain would be his wages. With big-earners like Fraser Forster still on the books its unclear how much money Southampton have to spare on wages, and there’s no doubt that even with a pay cut Cahill could be looking for a high five-figure weekly packet to leave the London side.

Granted, there are always people that believe the club should just smash their wage structure to ensure Premier League survival but it may not be as simple. Only time will tell.