Southampton could potentially make “a bit of a wildcard signing” in Manchester City and England U19 winger Samuel Edozie this summer.
That is according to Pete O’Rourke, who was speaking to This is Futbol about the Saints’ potential transfer plans going into the final few weeks of the window.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Southampton have attempted to make a late bid to hijack Edozie’s potential move to German side Bayer Leverkusen.
The same tweet suggested that Leverkusen had already agreed a fee with Manchester City for the transfer of the two-time England U19 international, and with little updates over the past week, it seems that the 19-year-old’s move to the Bundesliga may now not be as certain as it once was.
And O’Rourke believes that Edozie could potentially be interested in a move to Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side this summer with a breakthrough into the Manchester City team unlikely.
He said: “I think for Southampton, he could be a bit of a wildcard signing that they’re maybe going to make a move for, and somebody that they might get the best out of, because he’s not going to break into that Manchester City team anytime soon.
“So I’m sure it’s a move that would appeal to Edozie as well.”
TIF Thoughts on O’Rourke’s comments…
We believe that Southampton fans would be excited about the prospect of signing a youngster from one of the world’s best football academies, but we do think that the signing would prove to be a little bit of an unknown.
The London-born winger made 12 appearances for Manchester City U23’s in the Premier League 2 last season, scoring two goals and providing one assist, according to Transfermarkt.
However, Edozie has only had 25 minutes’ experience of competitive first-team football during his career at the Etihad Stadium, coming off the bench in City’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Leicester City in the 2021 Community Shield.
Therefore, we believe that it will be hard to judge the quality of Edozie’s potential signing for Southampton until he plays some first-team minutes for Hasenhüttl’s side.