On Monday Spanish newspaper Marca reported Southampton were in the race to sign Zouhair Feddal from Alaves.
It was explained that Mauricio Pellegrino ‘hasn’t forgot’ Feddal, and it was the manager pushing Southampton to sign him.
With a relegation clause, Feddal is able to leave Alaves for just €3m, and whilst there may be questions whether the 28 year old defender is the right level for Southampton, that call surely needs to come down to the manager, especially on such a low cost transfer.
Saturday’s edition of Marca claims Real Betis are on the verge of winning the race, and will sign Feddal for something less than €3m.
Southampton are once again named as interested, the only other side name-checked, but Marca believe Betis will make the deal official at the beginning of next week.
It just doesn’t seem within the realms of possibility that Southampton wouldn’t sign Feddal, and lose him to Real Betis, had Pellegrino asked for the player.
A fee of €3m is Premier League pennies and even modest wages by Southampton standards would trample over whatever Betis are offering.
Unless Southampton have decided to annoy their manager already, it would have to be assumed there was nothing in the claims to begin with, and the club were only linked through assumption.
