MATT Le Tissier believes Mark Hughes will want Saints to target players with leadership qualities this summer.

The Saints legend revealed that he feels there's a pressing need for new leaders in the current squad and that not since Jose Fonte have the club had a real leadership figure in the dressing room.

“Very much so, but there’s a dearth of them in football in general. It’s been something which has been spoken about for a few years now," Le Tiss said, when asked if Saints need leaders.

“You don’t have those characters, or too many of those characters, around anymore.

"You harp back to a Tony Adams or a John Terry, that type of player who will lift everybody’s performance around them because of the way they are.

“You just don’t see them anymore, even in real top, top teams there’s not that many around that you can say ‘cor blimey, he’s the one they look up to, he’s the organiser’.

“If you can find one of them, especially at our level, it will be difficult to keep hold of him because everyone is looking for one.”

Long-serving captain Fonte, who is currently at the World Cup with Portugal, controversially left Saints after seven years in January 2017 for West Ham in an £8m deal.

The centre-back was a huge influence in the changing room at St Mary's, but left after winning Euro 2016 with Portugal and has certainly left a void since his departure.

Fonte was offered a pay rise at St Mary's after his Euros win but the extended contract he wanted never materialised and there were question marks over his attitude.

Saints have not had a leader quite like him since, according to Le Tiss and Hughes will certainly want to find influential characters this summer after the club's battle against relegation last season.

Asked if Saints have had a real leader since Fonte, Le Tiss said: “No, not really. It’s something a lot of teams have struggled with and is something that is quite high on Mark’s list of signings this summer.

“It was a shame that he, I know winning the Euros was a massive thing for him, and it’s a shame that he let that go to his head a little bit with the attitude he came back to Saints with wasn’t the same attitude he went to the Euros with," Le Tiss, who netted 209 goals in 540 appearances for Saints, added.

“That was the big disappointment for me and it was a shame to lose him because he’d done such a cracking job for us and then it all turned a bit sour.

“He should have left with a better send off and reputation than he ended up having.”

Le Tiss knows it won't be easy to find a player in the mould they want.

“You’ve got to have a good scouting network. That’s how you do it. You’ve got to have scouts who know who they’re looking for," he said.

“You’ve got to be prepared to take a risk on somebody with potential.

“If you can see that in somebody and nurture it. As long as somebody’s got a little bit of it, perhaps you can encourage them to have a bit more of it.

“It takes big characters to do that.”

Saints began their summer spending yesterday with the signature of Celtic's Stuart Armstrong, someone who will perhaps help in the leadership department.