Rumours of Southampton interest in Paco Alcacer have made their way to the Spanish media, and haven’t been dismissed out of hand.
The claims, which apparently started in England, revolve around Mauricio Pellegrino being interested in the Barcelona forward, with the idea all pointed towards the winter transfer window.
Pellegrino is said to be ‘desperate’ to recruit upfront and solve Southampton’s really poor scoring record of less than a goal per Premier League game, which is so far worse than under the much derided Claude Puel.
The issue may be more to do with style, last season Pellegrino got Alaves to an impressive 9th in La Liga, but only 3 clubs scored less than them in Spain’s top division.
There’s nothing happening now which is out of the ordinary based on that. For example, Eibar finished a place below Alaves, but still scored 15 more goals and had a better goal difference overall. If it was gung-ho, goal peppering, excitement Southampton wanted, then perhaps Pellegrini wasn’t the man.
Anyway, back to Alcacer. Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo don’t rule out the chances of a move, and say they’ve been informed the arrival of a striker in January at Barcelona could make life harder for Alcacer.
Before Barcelona even consider signing a striker, they surely have to get some big wages off their bill, and that, rather than signing anyone at all, is likely to be top of the January list.
Unfortunately for any Southampton interest, Alcacer isn’t one of the names most often edged towards the exit. He’s not on the highest wages of the fringe players, and without that added signing, it’s probably important he sticks around.
