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Southampton are ready to pay a club record fee of £13million to bring Sporting Lisbon’s Argentine defender Marcos Rojo to the English south coast, according to reports.
It has been off-season of sales at Southampton so far. They have seen five off their biggest assets as well as last season’s manager, Mauricio Pochettino scoot off in search of greener pastures so far. On the bright side, they have bagged nearly £100million from the sale of their valuables. It gives new boss, Ronald Koeman some real ammunition to bring in the players he wants and put his mark on the squad at St. Mary’s.
Marcos Rojo now seems to be the first step in the rebuilding of the squad for the Saints.
The Argentine has been in the news all summer with nearly all major clubs getting linked to the mercurial left-back. His growing reputation was further enhanced in the summer when he put in some eye-catching performances for Argentina in the World Cup.
The 24-year old played a pivotal role in Alejandro Sabella’s Argentina team that finished runners-up in the recently concluded FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He started six games for the South Americans in the tournament, scoring his first ever international goal, which turned out to be the winner against Nigeria at Porto Alegre.
If the deal goes through, Rojo will become the third permanent signing at the St. Mary’s this off-season following in the footsteps of Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic. The Saints have also been able to bring in Ryan Bertrand and Saphir Taider on loan from Chelsea and Inter Milan respectively.
