Saints are being tipped to smash their transfer record to sign a player being described as the next Lionel Messi or Sergio Aquera.

Saints are being linked with Palermo's Paulo Dybala a man who has been compared to Lionel Messi as well as Sergio Aquera and who is the latest sensation in Serie A with 5 goals in 12 games and 2 assists.

Able to play in a variety of positions including up front as well as wide or even off a central striker he is going to be hot property in the January transfer window his diminutive frame standing at only 5ft 9 1/2 leads to the Messi comparisons.

But he is not going to come cheap or without competition, the Palermo president has already name the asking price and that is 40 million euros or around £32 million depending on what exchange rate we get at Thomas Cook.

Dybala has just turned 21 but has not yet been capped by Argentina at full level this is because when called up to their U20 squad a couple of years ago he declined the invitation, his family roots lie in Poland and Italy and perhaps that has something to do with it.

Saints are not the only club being linked with Dybala when he moved to Palermo he was tracked by a number of big clubs including Manchester City and Arsenal are also linked to him in this transfer window.

So why are Saints linked now ? the answer is money, Palermo will only sell for big bucks and with two years left on his contract they are perhaps keen to sell him now knowing that next season he will start to lose value as his contract runs down and they face having to take a smaller offer or lose him very cheaply.

But that it isnt just that it is the size of the fee that means that Saints have the clout to match it whilst the likes of Arsenal don't, after the summer spending spree we have around £20 million left over and we haven't even touched the £80 million or so we receive for being in the Premier League, in simple terms we probably have more buying power than virtually any other club in Europe at the moment and that doesn't even include any potential transfer fee if we were to accept the rumoured offers for Jay Rodriguez.

So Saints are up there because they might be the only club who can actually put their money where their mouths are, however the stumbling block could be wages and whilst say Arsenal might not have much more than £20 million to spend they can afford to pay more in wages, to put that in comparison I would estimate that the Gunners would probably take around £1.5 million per game more than us in match day ticket sales income alone and Im only working that out on standard ticketing prices and it is corporate hospitality that they would make far more per head on than us.

But it is great we are being linked with players of Dybala's standing, it shows that we are considered to be a club with not only ambition but the structure behind to achieve it

Photo: Action Images

LeSaint added 11:07 - Nov 26 There must, indeed, be some money available, but there is a £40m wage bill and the new Marchwood facilities famously cost £30m, so I'm not sure the £80m "haven't been touched"...
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SaintNick added 11:12 - Nov 26 Of course some of the £80 m has been touched with wages etc, but the amount that we would normally have earmarked for transfers etc perhaps £20m is still intact The staplewood £30 million has been over the last 4 years so a lot of that was paid long ago and some was written of by KL
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Stephen added 12:54 - Nov 26 No chance. Far too expensive.
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BoondockSaint added 13:46 - Nov 26 Doesn't sound like our kind of deal. Too much of a gamble. We by low, sell very high, right Brenda?
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Steve_N added 15:31 - Nov 26 Can't see it happening. Far too much for us to spend on one player, plus wages! More likely to attempt to sign this Jesus Corona kid from FC Twenty (?).
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IWOZTHERE added 16:33 - Nov 26 Like the guy said.... more likely to sign Jesus. Him and Moses would be a formidable partnership...could work miracles for us!
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saintpaz added 17:01 - Nov 26 I'm hoping either Nathan Redmond or Scott Sinclair plus Dirk Kuyt and an established striker possibly, but maybe we wont need that striker with Jay hopefully being close to full training by then. Moses we dont need, we have Mane, who dives enough!
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schatfield added 18:27 - Nov 26 Never. Gonna. Happen.
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ericofarabia added 19:21 - Nov 26 Can't see us being able to offer Big Wages due to The FPP thingy. Wasn't that one of the reasons bandied about as to why we let some of our big earners go? Extra revenue needed as only a certain % of income can be used for wages? Or am I talking bollix as per usual?
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HoveSaint added 12:02 - Nov 27 Ummmm no The ability for Saints to make a so called marque signing is not possible due to the so called Fair Play Rules which are a combination of the clubs Profit and Loss, Income and wage bill. This is why we did not spend the full 90m+ gained from sales from the summer, but built in loan deals (Toby and Ryan) which makes sense as these are outside of process, but have a pre-arranged buy deal at the end of the year - expect both of these to be completed. There is a strong belief that FPR was brought in by the usual suspects to lock out clubs like Saints and Athlectico Madird, both of which have bucked the system, due to bigger TV revenues (68m last year for Saints for coming 8th) and investment in good scouting and youth. Until these rules change or there is a big upswing in revenues (bigger stadium, wider global appeal/ fan base = more sponsorship and TV revenue etc) we wont be in the market.

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