Southampton: Juventus striker linked; Fonte future decided; Tadic speaks Puel's system

By grvadmin

Southampton could make a move to hijack West Ham’s bid for Juventus striker Simone Zaza, according to The Sun.

Claude Puel is keen to add to his options up front, despite Jay Rodriguez being linked to a loan move away from the club, and has identified the 25-year-old as his prime target.

The Italy international is valued at around £21.5 million, a significant outlay, but it is believed Puel still has a considerable budget available after the sales made earlier in the summer.

The Saints will favour an initial loan move with an option to buy, a way of safeguarding the club if Zaza failed to adapt to Premier League football.

The scored five goals in 19 appearances for Juventus last season, but only five of those were starts.

The arrival of Gonzalo Higuain means Zaza will be unlikely to feature much for Juve this season, paving the way for his exit, but his camp is believed to be favouring a move to London.

Zaza’s father Antonio has said: “West Ham are a solution but need to come up with something concrete. We are taking London into serious consideration as his next destination.

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The Daily Mail report that Jose Fonte won’t be leaving St Marys this summer, much to the relief of Saints fans.

The 32-year-old has been offered a new 2-year deal that will bring him in line with the club’s highest earners, while being informed by the club that he won’t be departing the club before the end of the summer.

Speculation has been rife throughout the summer linking Fonte with a switch to Old Trafford, but nothing concrete has materialised, and Southampton are unlikely to accept any offers at this point.

Fonte is one of the most consistent players in the Premier League, missing just two Premier League games since the start of the 2014/15 season.

Coupled with an impressive Euro 2016 campaign for Portugal, Fonte will be an instrumental part of Claude Puel’s south renaissance.

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Puel’s restructuring at St Marys isn’t going entirely smoothly for Dusan Tadic, according to the Daily Echo.

The Saints star midfielder has revealed that adapting to the new managers preferred 4-4-2 diamond system has been “tough,” and that there’s still work to do perfecting it.

“We need to improve a lot of things. We should be playing much better in everything – in defending and attacking together.” Tadic explained after Saints’ 2-0 defeat at Manchester United. Everyone needs to be on a better level.”

The manager was training his Saints side throughout preseason, but every coach has different ideas about how the game should be played, so adapting takes time.

Tadic emphasised the need for players to develop into their new roles in the coming weeks.

“it’s a very tough system” said the Serbia international, “because if one player is a little bit late it becomes tough for the system – we need to learn things.

“The coach tries to explain to us and it’s hard, it’s difficult, but we still try our best to do good things.”

Featured image: All rights reserved by Ai Kagou

Will also writes for Football Ticket Net, his choice for Southampton tickets.