Southampton linked with yet another Stoke City player

It’s happening again.

New Southampton manager Mark Hughes has only been in the job for about two weeks, but he’s being linked to the signings of multiple players from his former club Stoke City.

Last week, it was Xherdan Shaqiri and Joe Allen as we had reported. Now, it’s defender Ryan Shawcross’ turn for the tabloid treatment.

According to the Sunday Mirror, as cited by the Stoke Sentinel, Saints are looking to sign towering centre-half Shawcross, who is Stoke captain.

Shawcross was ever-present in the Stoke defence while Hughes was in charge of the Midlands club for over four years.

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Virgil van Dijk was not replaced following his January move from Saints to Liverpool. However, you would hope Saints’ transfer targets would be more geared towards the final third of the pitch, given our goalscoring issues.

As stated with Allen and Shaqiri, Shawcross is an easy link to make as a Saints transfer target. Again, the only certainties in life are death, taxes, and a football manager getting linked to the signing of some of his old players from his previous club.

These stories seem to be cheap, easy articles put together as the international break inevitably produces less click-worthy Premier League-related stories to write.

Remember, Hughes only has a contract until the end of the season which could yet see Southampton relegated.