Saints will only sanction a January transfer deal if it is “100 per cent right” for the future of the club.

Ralph Hasenhuttl is standing firm in his belief that unless the correct deal becomes available then he is happy to stick with what he’s got.

Saints are interested in a potential move for Birmingham striker Che Adams, but the Blues are understandably reluctant to part company with their star striker, especially as they are currently under a transfer embargo.

Joakim Maehle is another player that Saints have been interested in, but with his club, Genk, chasing the Belgian title and still in the Europa League, they do not want to lose him at this stage.

Hasenhuttl doesn’t feel under pressure to recruit a new right back for the remainder of the season and the only way a deal currently looks possible is if Genk were to offer Saints the chance of a purchase now with the player staying in Belgium for the remainder of this season.

As is stands, a more likely scenario remains a potential move in the summer.

For now at least, the focus remains on getting players out and reducing the squad size rather than bringing players in.

Hasenhuttl said: “If you would discuss every player who is linked with us it would take a long time.

“Typical for our transfer period now is that we have spoken about making this group smaller and I think that showed you two things. One is that we trust in the guys here and create energy in sending a few guys away to make the group smaller and work better with them.

“You can be sure we had our eyes open and if we don’t sign a player in this transfer period we sign one for the summer but do it now.

“This group we are working with at the moment is a group we can trust and they showed we can trust them and they do it better than at the beginning of the season.

“We don’t take anyone in only to take one. We want to show we trust these guys and we try to make this group a little bit smaller so we can work better with them.

“That’s what we try for the rest of this transfer period also.

“It doesn’t mean we don’t take any player but it’s a young one we try to build up for the future and there are a few players we are looking at.”

Hasenhuttl is content enough with the squad he has for the time being and is adamant that if Saints do make a move for a player then it will be on their terms.

“We are interested for our way and I can guarantee you normally a younger player if you sign one must be perfect and we take no financial risk,” he insisted.

“We take a few players away and create a space.

“Only if the package is 100 per cent right otherwise we do nothing.”