Southampton set to announce ninth piece of summer transfer business

Southampton are set to announce the signing of Chelsea defender Dynel Simeu as their ninth piece of summer transfer business.

Football reporters Fabrizio Romano and Nizaar Kinsella confirmed on Wedesday that Simeu had turned down the offer of a new contract at Stamford Bridge, whilst Hampshire Live’s Tom Leach revealed on Thursday that the deal was all but done.

Further details from these sources suggest that a fee of £1.5m could be due to Chelsea from Saints is performance-related add-ons are met in his career at St Mary’s.

Simeu, 19, is expected to join the Saints B team for the upcoming season with the potential of pushing into the fringes of the first-team.

Southampton stepping up their youth recruitment for the future?

More from Saints Marching

• Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 2: Arrivals
• Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 1: Departures
• It’s time to talk about Gavin Bazunu
• Rain clouds on the horizon? Southampton beat Plymouth Argyle
• A lament for Southampton legend James Ward-Prowse

Saints will be wanting to revitalise their academy over the next few years. The production of first-team potential has not been consistent for a number of seasons and needs to improve if the club are to retain many of their ideals.

Current manager Ralph Hasenhuttl is more open to including youth talent in his plans when compared to the two manager before him, but he still needs players that can improve and push his squad and not those to purely fill a space.

Simeu’s arrival potentially marks the change in approach. He has captained Chelsea’s Under-23s on occasion and looked a strong presence in defence at that age group, but now it seems he wants a fresh start and a better chance of senior football

New post-Brexit rules mean that players from Europe cannot be signed as freely as they once were and now more emphasis could be put on making the most of players let go by other clubs. Simeu is an impressive capture given that he was playing in one of the most renowned academies in England.

Now it is up to Saints to make sure they are in the mix to sign a few more of these players into the future to ensure the production of their own academy is at a good level again.