Southampton: Saints preparing offer for defender with excellent record

Southampton are said to be preparing an offer for a defender who has been key to his side’s excellent defensive record this season.

According to Portuguese news outlet A Bola, Saints have been looking at Vitoria de Setubal centre-back Artur Jorge for several months.

His club currently sit in 12th place in the Portuguese Primeira Liga but have the third-best defensive record in the league behind only Benfica and FC Porto.

The report that tells of Saints’ interest in Jorge also says that Vitoria would consider selling him should the right offer come in and that Saints themselves value him at €1.5m.

Given that funds are fairly tight at St Mary’s after a number of failed transfers, this could be a good addition to the defence should they see qualities in the player that are needed at the club.

Via transfermarkt.com, Jorge came through the youth system at SC Braga and progressed his game significantly with 57 appearances for their B side.

He was promoted to their senior side for the 2016/17 season but then spent loan spells out with Mouscron in Belgium and FCSB (formerly Steaua Bucharest) for experience.

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In the summer of 2018 though, he joined Vitoria on a free transfer and has since made 35 appearances.

The report from A Bola credits both Jorge and their goalkeeper Giorgi Makaridze with much of the good work that has gone in to their side keeping seven clean sheets in 11 league games so far this campaign.

This has clearly been the main strength for Vitoria to date given that they have only scored three league goals in that time.

With many of the more established defenders likely to be off the table for Saints in January and next summer, this report may well be accurate.

Recently, it was suggested that former Leicester scout Steve Walsh – credited with finding the likes of Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kante – was doing scouting for Saints and looking at some of their lesser known targets.

With the Portuguese league containing less financial power that the Premier League, it could be a good source of some untapped talent.