Fulham are expected to come back with an increased offer for Matt Targett and force Saints to consider cashing in on their academy product to help fund another potential incoming.

With the transfer window closing a week tomorrow and Saints needing to sell before they can buy, interest in a player on the fringes of the first team is certainly tempting for Saints.

The Daily Echo understands that Fulham made an offer for Targett early in the window but have yet to come back with a second bid.

However, the noises now coming out of Craven Cottage, where Targett spent the second half of last season on loan as the club fought their way into the Premier League, indicate another bid is likely to arrive soon.

Saints are believed to be holding out for £15m, with Fulham said to be valuing him at around £10m, though it is possible a compromise can be struck with 22-year-old Targett understandably keen to get regular first team football.

Les Reed will want to try and achieve the maximum possible value for Targett with Saints needing to sell players before they can fund a further transfer move this summer.

Ideally, Saints would like to bring in another attacking player before the big kick-off against Burnley, but to get somebody who could make a difference will likely cost them a sizeable fee as well as wages.

That would mean having to move on a couple of players.

Targett could be one of them with Fraser Forster also lined up for a possible loan move to Burnley, which would generate a small fee and remove at least some of his wages off the payroll for the season.

There has also been interest in a few of Saints’ other fringe and younger players, several of whom are not expected to feature regularly under Mark Hughes, and it could be that the club cash in to able to trade in the market.

Targett joined the Saints academy aged just eight and rose through the ranks.

He made his first team debut in 2014 but has only played in fits and starts.

Ryan Bertrand’s form has limited him to just 42 appearances over the past four seasons and with the former Chelsea man expected to remain at St Mary’s this summer it leaves Targett again looking at the possibility of playing second fiddle in what may well prove to be a wing back position this time out.

Targett, who started out as a Scotland youth international before switching to England, played 21 times for Fulham after joining them in January, including the play-off final against Aston Villa at Wembley.

Some of the academy staff who worked with Targett as a youngster are also at Fulham, including Huw Jennings and Malcolm Elias, as well as Steve Wigley.