Southamp­ton look set to lose Che Adams in the sum­mer and direc­tor of foot­ball Jason Wilcox will like­ly be draw­ing up a list of tar­gets to replace him.

Adams is out of con­tract at the end of June and will be avail­able on a free trans­fer if he decides against renew­ing his deal.

The Scot­land inter­na­tion­al sat down with Saints’ media team recent­ly and dropped a sub­tle hint about his future.

It appears as though Rus­sell Mar­tin will have to pre­pare for life with­out Adams, so here are three strik­ers – in the mould of Saints leg­end Matt Le Tissier – the club should con­sid­er sign­ing in the sum­mer trans­fer win­dow.

Sammie Szmodics

Sam­mie Szmod­ics has been in pro­lif­ic form for Black­burn Rovers this sea­son and is the Championship’s lead­ing scor­er with 21 goals.

The 28-year-old has also struck six times in the FA Cup across just three out­ings, tak­ing his goal tal­ly to 27 in all com­pe­ti­tions.

It wouldn’t at all be sur­pris­ing if Szmod­ics is tar­get­ted by clubs in the Pre­mier League, so this poten­tial deal may depend on if Saints gain pro­mo­tion.

As per Trans­fer­markt, the dead­ly for­ward is val­ued at £3.8m.

Joel Piroe

Joel Piroe has endured a top­sy-turvy sea­son with Leeds Unit­ed and it seems Daniel Farke isn’t get­ting the best out of him.

The 24-year-old has still man­aged to net 13 goals in all com­pe­ti­tions and has dis­played his tal­ent in moments.

Mar­tin worked with Piroe dur­ing their stint togeth­er at Swansea City and he was able to max­imise his out­put.

The West York­shire club have favoured Patrick Bam­ford up top in recent weeks, so per­haps they’d be will­ing to move on their £10m sign­ing.

It’s cer­tain­ly a left-field shout but giv­en his pre­vi­ous rela­tion­ship with the Saints boss, it may be a rel­a­tive­ly straight­for­ward deal to do.

Cameron Archer

Hav­ing signed in an £18m deal from Aston Vil­la in the sum­mer, Sheffield United’s Cameron Archer has, at times, looked every inch of a Pre­mier League play­er, despite being in a side des­tined for rel­e­ga­tion.

If The Blades do drop to the sec­ond tier, Saints should con­sid­er launch­ing a move for the tal­ent­ed young for­ward.

Aged 22, Archer has plen­ty of devel­op­ment still to come and he’s already shown in pre­vi­ous sea­sons his abil­i­ty to score goals in the Cham­pi­onship.

So he’d cer­tain­ly be a great long-term invest­ment for the South Coast­ers.

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