SAINTS are set to land one of football’s red hot properties in Sofiane Boufal and there’s good reason why he’s just the tonic the club needs, not least the Eden Hazard comparisons.

Things have been a little strained so far this summer at Saints, with players leaving again, a winless start so far under Claude Puel’s fledgling reign and not enough spent to fully appease supporters and rectify weaknesses in the squad, especially in attack.

But Boufal, who was the second highest scoring midfielder in France’s top flight behind Hatem Ben Arfa with 11 goals last term, is one of the most exciting talents emerging in world football.

He signals an intent from Saints to try and push forward again this term and will likely bring an extra cutting-edge in front of goal.

There’s a reason why the 22-year-old has attracted interested from the biggest clubs on the planet with scouts from all around Europe coming to watch him at Lille last term in France’s Ligue 1.

Barcelona, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain have all registered an interest, so Saints are competing with the big boys here with this deal.

PSG have witnessed first hand his powers in the French league. He has run rings round some of their players in the past.

Boufal has been compared to Chelsea star Hazard - incidentally a player that Puel brought through to the Lille first team while he was in charge at Les Dogues - which gives some indication to what kind of player Saints will be getting if a deal can be struck.

Rio Mavuba, the Lille captain, has stated that Boufal reminded him of Hazard, which is some praise considering the Belgian wizard was the superstar of the club’s last Ligue 1 triumph in 2010/11.

Boufal can play out wide on either flank or as a number 10 behind the strikers, which is where Puel could well be planning on utilising him in the diamond 4-4-2 formation.

The Angers academy graduate, who moved to Lille in January 2015 after helping his side to promotion from Ligue 2, will bring the unpredictability and dribbling skills that Saints have missed since Sadio Mane’s departure.

Dangerous anywhere in the final third, he loves to carry the ball. He loves bursting forward, stretching defences, taking on opposition, finding space where there seemingly is none and creating chances from nothing.

He will add that bite. That fear-factor back into Saints’ attack, which Mane brought in bucket loads and saw Liverpool spend more than £34m on.

In saying that, he is different from Mane in that he’d rather keep the ball at his feet opposed to using his pace to run onto the ball, as Senegalese often did.

Boufal should look at what Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez, who also rose from the obscurity of Ligue 2, has done in England and feel that he can follow a similar path.

If and when he does arrive at St Mary’s, he may well have to wait until next month to make his debut after being kept out since May with a knee injury that he is still recovering from.

It’s an expensive transfer, a record breaking one at that. It is expect that the deal will come to more than £20m.

Saints have been bitten in the past by expensive transfers. Italian striker Dani Osvaldo and Uruguayan Gaston Ramirez spring to mind.

But Saints have to act. They have a wallet bulging with profit from sales.

Remaining frugal and careful in the transfer window may well avoid the costly flops of the past, but there is also little reason not to take that risk on a product with massive potential like Boufal.

He has the scope to be a true superstar, although an unpolished diamond at this stage.

It has been said that he occasionally has the tendency to hold on to the ball for too long or be selfish and take a shot rather than passing to a better-placed team-mate.

Still, the money is there to spend at Saints and he looks like he could be the real deal, a livewire that can exhilarated supporters and have opponents running scared.

If he lives up to his undoubted promise then by golly the bean counters can lick their lips in anticipation at more profit, not that Saints fans will care for that.

Boufal was born in Paris but decided to represent Morocco, the birthplace of his parents, on the international stage. He made his debut against Cape Verde in a 1-0 African Cup of Nations victory in March.

What gives Boufal further potential to thrive in the notoriously tough Premier League is that he has had to battle hard to be where he is today.

While at Angers’ academy he was considered too small - standing at 4ft9in as a 19-year-old - and its something he has previously admitted stunted his development.

But Boufal, who thanks the Angers medical team for getting him past those issues, didn’t give up and has subsequently grown both physically and technically as a player.

He is now 5ft8in, still fairly small, but that aids his low centre of gravity, enabling to glide past opposition.