Southamp­ton have been linked with a move for a young French defend­er who is owned by Sport Repub­lic.

As the sea­son begins to draw to a close, Saints’ direc­tor of foot­ball Jason Wilcox will be busy draw­ing a list of tar­gets for the sum­mer trans­fer win­dow.

Indeed, a lot will depend on what divi­sion they end up in next term, as they remain firm­ly in the hunt for auto­mat­ic pro­mo­tion.

Rus­sell Martin‘s side sit fourth, nine points adrift of Leeds Unit­ed at the sum­mit with two games in hand, so they could still yet secure a top-two fin­ish.

Until their des­tiny is revealed, Wilcox and Mar­tin will have to tar­get play­ers who could join them in the Cham­pi­onship or Pre­mier League.

With that said, a report has just emerged link­ing them to a tal­ent­ed young French defend­er.

Southampton linked to Joachim Kayi Sanda

Trans­fer jour­nal­ist San­ti Aouna has claimed Southamp­ton could sign Valen­ci­ennes FC defend­er Joachim Kayi San­da this sum­mer.

Kayi San­da cel­e­brat­ed his 17th birth­day in Novem­ber but has already gained a decent amount of first-team expe­ri­ence play­ing in the sec­ond tier of French foot­ball.

Southampton’s own­ers Sport Repub­lic own Valen­ci­ennes, so it seems it would be a pret­ty straight for­ward deal to do.

Fur­ther, the Ligue 2 out­fit are in need of cash, so Saints could help out their sis­ter club and sign the high­ly-rat­ed cen­tre-back at the end of the sea­son.

Kayi San­da, who is likened to Bay­ern Munich star Day­ot Upame­cano, is attract­ing inter­est from sev­er­al poten­tial suit­ors hav­ing impressed in his 17 senior appear­ances.

He is the cap­tain of the French under-18s side, which evinces how high­ly thought of he is across the chan­nel.

Joachim Kayi Sanda could be a Taylor Harwood-Bellis replacement

Southamp­ton fans have enjoyed the lux­u­ry of hav­ing a play­er as good as Tay­lor Har­wood-Bel­lis in their side this sea­son.

How­ev­er, unless the South Coast­ers get pro­mot­ed, he will be return­ing to his par­ent club Man­ches­ter City in June.

The Eng­land under-21 inter­na­tion­al has a £20m option to buy in his Saints con­tract, though, that will only be acti­vat­ed if his side go up.

That would leave a huge gap in Martin’s defence and the club would cer­tain­ly need to dip into the mar­ket for a replace­ment.

Kayi San­da could be the per­fect Har­wood-Bel­lis heir, and giv­en he is aged just 17, he has plen­ty of time to improve and devel­op.

An inter­est­ing sum­mer win­dow awaits.

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