Southampton fate revealed as Fabrizio Romano says ‘here we go’ for £5m Will Still favourite

Southampton fate revealed as Fabrizio Romano says ‘here we go’ for £5m Will Still favourite

Southampton may have been hoping that the appointment of Will Still would be a decisive factor in their pursuit of a Premier League starlet the new Saints boss knows very well indeed.

 

Thanks to the one-man oracle that is Fabrizio Romano, however, Southampton have now discovered the fate of a defender who played ten games under the man tasked with bringing Premier League football back to St Mary’s.

 

 

It is a month now since Southampton signed Joshua Quarshie from Hoffenheim. The Germany youth star was the first, and remains the only, signing of the Will Still era so far.

 

In the meantime, EFL Analysis understands that The Saints’ pursuit of Lucas Cepeda has hit a snag. The £3.5 million-rated Chile international is ‘ready’ to leave Colo-Colo this summer but Cepeda is not exactly pleased with Southampton’s plan to sign him and then loan him out elsewhere.

 

Links with Elfsborg’s Sweden midfielder Besfort Zeneli and Scottish full-back Max Johnstone have also gone quiet in recent times. Now, via his official X account, Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that a new-look central defensive partnership of Quarshie and Juma Bah will not be in place come the start of the Championship campaign.

 

Juma Bah in action during RCD Espanyol de Barcelona v Real Valladolid CF in La Liga EA Sports

 

Fabrizio Romano says Southampton miss out on Manchester City’s Juma Bah

Football correspondent Graeme Bailey told EFL Analysis that Southampton were interested in the Manchester City teenager alongside a host of other second-tier clubs.

 

The fact that Will Still coached Bah during his loan spell at RC Lens last season, then, was supposed to stand the Saints in good stead. Still described Juma Bah as a ‘very good’ defensive talent. One boasting a ‘significant physical and athletic presence’ partly due to his 6ft 5in frame.

 

Romano now confirms, however, that Bah will instead be returning to France to continue his development in Ligue 1.

 

 

“Juma Bah from Manchester City to OGC Nice, here we go!” Romano writes on social media. “Verbal agreement done for the defender to join the club on loan.

 

“Olympique Lyon and OGC Nice wanted Bah but the player has decided to proceed with Nice.”

 

Bah, who joined Man City last January from Real Valladolid and already has two caps for the Sierra Leone national team, will be playing Europa League football in 2024/25.

 

Nice, coached by Will Still’s Lens predecessor Franck Haise funnily enough, qualified for Europe’s second-tier competition after finishing fourth in Ligue 1 last term.

 

Kamaldeen Sulemana and Paul Onuachu near Southampton exits

While new faces are relatively few and far between on the banks of the Solent, Southampton are making progress in discussions over Paul Onuachu and Kamaldeen Sulemana.

 

Things appear to be going in the other direction for Southampton and Will Still. First of all, we know Kyle Walker-Peters will join a Premier League club when his contract expires this month, with Spurs, Fulham, and Everton all keen.

 

Elsewhere, Paul Onuachu and Kamaldeen Sulemana are leaving, with the former off to Trabzonspor and the latter heading to Atalanta.

 

The Turkish club’s president, Ertugrul Dogan, claims that talks are still live despite there being a clear gap between what Southampton want and what Trabzonspor are willing to pay.

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