Fresh details emerge as Southampton failed to secure transfer for Brazilian wonderkid | OneFootball

Following the sacking of Ralph Hasenhuttl as manager last November, Southampton were really struggling in the Premier League and were on course for a relegation to the Championship if things did not change.

Dragan Solak and Sport Republic, who completed a takeover of the Saints in January 2022, clearly had fresh ideas and appointed then-Luton Town boss Nathan Jones to replace Hasenhuttl, but it ended up being a complete disaster.

The Welshman won just one of his eight league matches in charge of the south coast outfit, and the damage had pretty much been done when he was sacked in February earlier this year and replaced in the interim by Ruben Selles.

Jones was gifted new players in the January transfer window of 2023 as well, with Carlos Alcaraz, Paul Onuachu and Kamaldeen Sulemana being among the significant recruits.

Failing to get the best out of his new side though, Jones was sacked after just three months in charge at St. Mary's Stadium, but could things have been different if the club landed a top Brazilian talent before the transfer window had opened?

According to a report by Trivela in Brazil, the Saints were in talks last December with Brasilerāo Serie A outfit Santos in regards to their talented young striker Marcos Leonardo, with the selling club believed to be keen to strike a deal with the clearly cash-rich Premier League buyers.

However, Leonardo himself, along with his representatives, decided to outright turn down the advances of the Saints, believing that they would not be a good choice for his career.

And as it happened, Southampton signed a very different player in Onuachu instead from Genk, who failed to score in 11 Premier League matches and is now out on loan at Trabzonspor.

Who is Marcos Leonardo?

Leonardo is a 20-year-old forward, who at the time of Southampton's reported interest was 19 years of age and had scored 21 goals in 57 outings for Santos in the 2022 season in all competitions, as well as notching six assists.

And he's carried on that scoring form into the 2023 campaign by hitting the back of the net 13 times in 27 Serie A appearances for Santos, with 21 goals in all competitions from 45 outings - a better record than the previous campaign.

A much different type of attacker to the one that Southampton signed in the form of towering Nigerian target man Onuachu, Leonardo stands at 5 ft 9 in and is a more creative, tricky forward and would have fitted the club's obvious transfer strategy at the time.

Do Southampton have a chance of re-entering the race for Marcos Leonardo?

Whilst Sport Republic would most likely love Leonardo, with Southampton now in the Championship a deal will absolutely not be happening.

Trivela report that Brighton & Hove Albion, Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Chelsea, West Ham and Newcastle United have all been interested in the Brazil youth international in recent times, but it is now Bayern Munich who have taken a real interest after initial talks with Leonardo's camp at the TransferRoom Summit in Lisbon this week.

There are some huge clubs in there that have been watching Leonardo, and it's fair to say that Southampton's initial approach was ambitious, but ultimately the fact they were in relegation trouble meant that their chance of signing the Brazilian had sailed.