MANOLO Gabbiadini is edging closer to Saints’ exit door, but goalkeeper Fraser Forster could be set to make a dramatic return to the first team.
Italian side Sampdoria are understood to have offered Gabbiadini a way out of St Mary’s via loan deal, with a view to paying £10.75m for his services.
Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl is keen to offload the striker in order to free up some funds, so he can begin signing players that suit his style of play.
And with Gabbiadini attracting plenty of interest from Italy, including AC Milan, he looks set to be following Steven Davis out of the club sooner rather than later.
Gabbiadini spent two years at Sampdoria from 2013, playing 47 times.
Manolo Gabbiadini
And if he returns to his former side, he will join fellow ex-Saint Gaston Ramirez.
Ramirez was another player who failed to live up to the expectation that came with his signing.
After Gabbiadini left Sampdoria, he joined Napoli where he made 56 appearances and found the back of the net on 15 occasions, before agreeing a deal with Saints in January 2017.
Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl
He was signed by ex-boss Claude Puel on a four-and-a-half-year contract a month before the EFL Cup final against Manchester United.
In the early stages of his Saints career, he proved to be quite the acquisition after scoring a handful of goals in his opening four matches, including two at Wembley, but he was unable to continue that form.
Fraser Forster
According to reports in the Daily Mirror, Forster could be about to make a return to the Saints first team.
Forster was dropped on Boxing Day in 2017 following a 5-2 defeat to Tottenham at Wembley and hasn’t been seen since.
He fell behind Alex McCarthy in the pecking order, before Saints signed Angus Gunn in the summer, which left the former Celtic keeper with his weekends off.
Alex McCarthy
However, the report suggests that Hasenhuttl is keen to give Forster a chance in goal, so that he can continue his plan to observe his entire squad.
The 6ft 7in shot stopper joined Saints in 2014 for £10m and then signed a new five-year deal at the club in 2017.
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