Southampton have turned down a second bid from Fulham for defender Matt Targett, believed to be in excess of £10m.
Fulham are keen to sign the talented young left-back after he impressed on loan at Craven Cottage last season, but Southampton are now rumoured to be holding out for around £15m. Slavisa Jokanovic is eager to recruit another left back to allow teenage sensation Ryan Sessegnon to continue to play in the left-wing role where he flourished during the second half of last season and Fulham have already failed in attempts to sign Manchester City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko and Swedish international Ludwig Augustinsson from Werder Bremen.
Targett, who formed an excellent understanding with Sessegnon down the Fulham left flank last term, made 21 appearances as the Whites won promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs. Saints boss Mark Hughes was unwilling to allow Targett to leave St. Mary’s earlier in the summer, viewing the Southampton academy graduate as indispensable back-up to England international Ryan Bertrand – but Targett has apparently made it clear that he wants to have the opportunity to play more first-team football this year.
Jokanovic has already signed Maxime Le Marchand, who played most of last season at left back for Nice, but the French defender is more naturally a centre half. It remains to seen whether Fulham will return with an improved offer for Targett, having already spent in excess of £60m since securing their return to the top flight in May.
With a Mawson deal almost confirmed do you think Slavisa will submit another bid for Targett or whether he will be satisfied with LeMarchant playing at left back?
It’s a tough one. Targett had an excellent second half of the season for us last year and has the capacity to improve as he remains young. He knows the set up and could fit in very easily with little need for adjustment. But £15m seems a very steep price. We could try loaning him again I suppose – but I’ll suspect the club are already considering other targets. It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that there would be better value out there at this price.
Time to call Mark Hughes’ bluff, walk away and buy Bryan from Bristol City for around £6m!
Tell Mark no deal look elsewhere,some good players out there for 10 million
Targett did well, but a price of £15 million is very high. The argentinian at Ajax looks pretty good value at a lot less….
I dislike teams that think they can “buy pots” on instinct. They are all over the place.With the Targett saga and the fact I have been a Fulham supporter since 1958 , you can see why. Mr Fayed’s promise to make us the “Manchester United” of the South came to nowt , although we were in The Premier for 13 seasons. Sothampton do seem to want to play hardball
if Taggett wants to leave he should ask for a transfer otherwise a maximum bid of £11 million otherwise go for Bryan at Bristol City for 6 million.
Love targett but not at any cost, suggest we don’t go above £10m, call Southampton’s bluff & then move on & buy someone else, Shame if we don’t secure his services but we don’t want to be seen as a soft touch in the transfer market. Can’t help thinking Hughes is behind this, after all he walked out on Fulham for a bigger club, QPR! & he seems to hold a grudge against us because he made a massive mistake in walking away after 1 season.