Southampton are keen to bring Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain back to the club where he started his career.
A product of the Saints' academy, Oxlade-Chamberlain left St Mary's Stadium in 2011 to join Arsenal, before heading over to Liverpool six years later. However, injuries have limited his minutes at Anfield in recent years.
Oxlade-Chamberlain managed just two Premier League starts last season as he fought his way back from a nasty knee injury, and has not been considered a key player in Jurgen Klopp's side since his debut campaign at Anfield in 2017/18 - in which he made 32 league appearances.
talkSPORT claim that Southampton are ready to give him the chance to play regular minutes at his boyhood side with a loan move for this season.
Klopp is a huge fan of Oxlade-Chamberlain and would ideally prefer to keep him around, but sources have confirmed to 90min that those in charge at Anfield have warned the boss that some of Liverpool's fringe players will have to leave this summer.
One of those could be Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has just two years remaining on his contract and could be shipped out now before his value starts to tumble even further.
While Klopp may prefer to keep Oxlade-Chamberlain, he may end up deciding to offload him to make space in the squad for young Harvey Elliott, who has been shining in pre-season and has proven an ability to operate in a central role at times.
However, it is beyond unlikely that Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has also been linked with West Ham, would be allowed to depart without promise of a sizeable fee which could be reinvested in the squad.
Southampton have also enquired about another deal for forward Takumi Minamino, who spent the last six months on loan at St Mary's.
Minamino's return of two goals from ten appearances hardly set the world on fire, but with top scorer Danny Ings leaving to join Aston Villa, it seems as though Ralph Hasenhuttl wants all the reinforcements he can find.
That has also seen Southampton turn to Chelsea youngster Armando Broja. The 19-year-old, who fired home ten goals with Vitesse last season, is close to agreeing his own season-long loan to the club.
Premier League rules mean teams can only register two loan players at any one time, and with Broja taking one of those spots, Southampton would have to sign at least one of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Minamino permanently if they want to sign both this summer.
Source : 90min