Saints are set to take their summer spending close to the £40m mark as they prepare to complete the signing of Wesley Hoedt.

The 23-year-old Lazio centre half is expected to undergo a medical at Saints after a fee of around £15m was agreed with the Italian club.

Lazio dragged their heels over the weekend meaning his arrival has been slightly delayed, but that is a not a major issue for Saints who are hoping to get this deal over the line.

Hoedt will be the third summer arrival at St Mary’s following in the footsteps of £5m Jan Bednarek and Mario Lemina, who cost around £18m.

Hoedt’s signing leaves Saints with a possible surplus of central defenders, but most importantly covers them for whatever transpires with Virgil van Dijk.

Should a club get desperate and submit an astronomical bid for the 26-year-old, there remains a chance he could be sold.

But in the far more likely event that that does not occur, he will still be a Saints player when the transfer window closes at midnight a week on Thursday.

Nobody is quite sure how van Dijk will react in that circumstance.

Having made it quite clear he wants to leave via a formal transfer request, he could just accept his fate and come back into the first team fold.

If he does that Saints would have a surplus of centre halves with van Dijk joining Hoedt, Maya Yoshida, Jack Stephens, Bednarek and Florin Gardos in the ranks.

However, Saints would look a little light if he cannot get his around his situation and continues to cause a level of problems that leaves Mauricio Pellegrino opting not to select him.

Added to that van Dijk has not played since January and, having not featured in pre-season due to the issues surrounding his future, will take some time to be fit and available again anyway.