Mauricio Pellegrino has played down suggestions that Saints are about to complete a £16m deal for Juventus midfielder Mario Lemina.

Reports have suggested that Lemina is set to undergo a medical at St Mary’s tomorrow ahead of the move.

However, after the 2-0 win over Sevilla, the new Saints boss said: “I don’t know anything about him.

“We are studying the market with some options.

“It is difficult to bring in important players and hopefully some of them can come in to make us stronger.”

Daily Echo:

Pellegrino was pleased with the victory in the final game of pre-season and reflected: “It was a difficult game because we play against a really good team, a Champions League team who the last few years were on the top of Europe, not just the top of Spain.

“We realise how we had to confront these type of games.

“We were running too much from my point of view and we have to improve our capacity to have the ball under pressure.

Daily Echo:

“It is a process and I think we are in a good way because the spirit of the team is good.

“I think more or less we improve our dynamic and we were strong in the middle, something that happened last Wednesday on the pitch, and we had to keep going."