Southampton deadline day signing was back up option – Had talks with other player ‘weeks before’

After keeping Southampton in the Premier League last season, Ralph Hassenhüttl was keen to revamp the squad this summer.

That’s precisely what he did as four new players arrived at St Mary’s, including centre back Kevin Danso on loan from Augsburg.

It seems, though, the 20-year-old was not Hassenhüttl’s first choice when it came to bolstering his backline this summer.

Kicker reported yesterday that Southampton had shown interest in Werder Bremen defender Felix Uduokhai prior to that.

That caught us by surprise as it was the first time we had heard such a rumour, so we decided to investigate, and a little digging revealed more to the story.

Once again it was Kicker with the information, with the newspaper claiming back on August 13th that Southampton ‘were busy weeks before’ with Uduokhai and had even contacted Wolfsburg about a potential transfer.

Wolfsburg said they wanted €15m for the 21-year-old and that was seemingly the end of it as the newspaper doesn’t mention how the Saints responded to that.

Although, given they then went and signed Danso on deadline day, paying £3.6m for a loan fee, it’s probably safe to assume they baulked at Wolfsburg’s asking price and went elsewhere instead.