Southampton: Report reveals details on potential swap deal with Spurs

Southampton face a dilemma this summer with club captain Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg attracting interest from other clubs.

The Dane only has a year remaining on his Saints deal too, meaning that the club may be forced to cash in on one of their prized assets.

Spurs are said to be the main suitors of the 24-year-old, who would normally fetch a significant fee. The Coronavirus may well limit spending for clubs this year, meaning that less will be available to spend on incoming players.

According to Football Insider though, there may be an agreement with Spurs on the horizon that would suit both parties more.

They report that a deal could be struck that would see Spurs pay for Hojbjerg with a fee and with Kyle Walker-Peters moving to St Mary’s permanently as part of the transfer.

Saints would want to replace Hojbjerg if he were to depart in the near future, and clearly Walker-Peters wouldn’t be the man to fill the void.

However, Ralph Hasenhuttl is in need of additional full-backs and the 23-year-old was brought in on-loan as high-quality cover in January.

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He has only made one appearance so far after the Premier League was suspended, but Hasenhuttl clearly likes what he sees after making the move for him in the first place.

Selling Matt Targett in the summer and loaning Cedric Soares out before the imminent end of his contract means that Ryan Bertrand and Yan Valery are the only senior full-backs other than Walker-Peters.

Saints would obviously see Hojbjerg as the player with more value in this situation and would be within their right to charge Spurs a decent fee on top of Walker-Peters.

In many ways though, these sort of deals could be the way forward for Saints in the short-term.

Whilst the strain on budgets remains, and whilst the club have many players out on loan that they would rather get rid of, part-exchange deals are sensible.

In this example, Saints could fill their full-back void and get money for Hojbjerg on top to pursue another midfielder as a replacement.

A similar deal between Saints and Celtic was mentioned by the Daily Echo yesterday.

Hoops midfielder Olivier Ntcham has reportedly attracted Saints’ interest, and the club would be willing to let Fraser Forster move the other way if an agreement could be reached.