da fezbet： New Southampton manager Mark Hughes will almost certainly have identified the players he wants to bring to St Mary’s this summer, in order to ensure he stamps his own mark on the team before the start of the new season in August.
da imperador bet： The south coast outfit handed the Welshman the post on a permanent basis after he saved the club from relegation having taken over with just eight Premier League fixtures of the campaign remaining, and he was rewarded with a three-year deal as a result.
Having gone from an eighth-place finish to a 17th-placed one, it is clear to see that the squad is perhaps not as good as it may look on paper, and that reinforcements are needed to take them back into the top-half of the table.
Hughes, who faces a big conundrum on what to do with a 28-year-old first team star in the next few weeks, slowly moulded the side that he wanted during his time with previous club Stoke City, and he will want to make a good start on doing the same this summer to ensure that he feels like he has his own team going into the 2018/19 campaign.
Here are three signings that will ensure the Welshman makes his mark on Southampton…
One of Southampton’s biggest issues during the 2017/18 campaign was their disappointing defensive record, which stemmed from not replacing Virgil van Dijk and Jose Fonte with the quality and experience of players that they perhaps needed to.
Wesley Hoedt and Jack Stephens in particular often struggled from an aerial point of view against more physical centre-forwards, and if Hughes could bring Borussia Monchengladbach centre-back Vestergaard to St Mary’s it would certainly go some way to solving the issue.
The 6ft 6in tall Denmark international is highly-rated, strong in the air, good with both feet, a threat in the opposition penalty area and rarely misses a match.
Hughes pulled off a huge coup when he brought the Switzerland international to Stoke City from Bayern Munich in 2016, and he may well be desperate to be reunited with the 26-year-old again at St Mary’s after he confirmed he will be leaving the Potters following their relegation to the Championship.
Reportedly available for just €14.5m (around £12.7m) because of a release clause in his contract, the winger, who showed how good he can be at this level even in a struggling team when he scored eight goals and provided a further seven assists in 36 Premier League appearances last term, would add some much-needed quality, creativity and goal threat to a Southampton frontline that often struggled in 2017/18.
While Dusan Tadic became an influential figure during the run-in, he, Nathan Redmond and Sofiane Boufal all struggled to make much of an impact from wide positions during the 2017/18 campaign in general.
It is an area that Hughes will like want to freshen up this summer in order to boost a team that scored just 37 goals in their 38 Premier League matches last term, and bringing exciting Celta Vigo winger Pione Sisto to St Mary’s would do exactly that.
The Denmark international is lightning-quick and unpredictable, but has shown he is more than just that and can be hugely influential in the final third – he scored four goals and provided 10 assists in 34 La Liga appearances during the previous season.
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