Southampton join Crystal Palace and Bournemouth in race for Bristol City man | OneFootball

Southampton are reportedly interested in signing Bristol City forward Antoine Semenyo this month.

According to Sky Sports Transfer Centre (09:48), the Saints have joined the race for the 22-year-old, along with fellow Premier League sides Crystal Palace and Bournemouth and Championship leaders Burnley.

Southampton currently sit bottom of the table, two points from safety and Nathan Jones is keen to bring in attacking reinforcements as he looks to lead his side to survival, with Semenyo coming onto his radar after missing out on Danny Ings to West Ham United and another target Arnaut Danjuma set to join Tottenham Hotspur.

Semenyo has attracted plenty of admirers after another impressive season at Ashton Gate, registering six goals and three assists so far this campaign.

City reportedly rejected two bids from Bournemouth for the Ghana international last week, the second of which was said to be totalling £10 million, while manager Nigel Pearson revealed that an offer from Burnley has also been turned down.

According to Sky Sports, the Clarets now prefer to wait until the summer to make a move for Semenyo should they secure promotion to the Premier League, leaving Southampton, Palace and Bournemouth to battle it out in the remaining week of the window.

Last week, Pearson said the offers received for Semenyo had so far not met the club’s valuation and praised him for his professionalism amid the ongoing speculation.

“We’ve received offers of a fashion from Bournemouth and Burnley too. And there is speculation about other clubs. It can be potentially very unsettling for players and that’s why I very much believe in being as frank and open as possible,” Pearson told Bristol Live.

“Antoine is a young man who’s had a pretty good couple of years now, on a personal level in terms of breaking into the side and showing not just potential but his ability to perform at a very good level. The one thing he’s working harder to do now is scoring more goals and, like many forwards, he’ll go through spells of achieving that but even when he’s not doing that he’s still a real handful.

“We know we’ve got a talent in Antoine at the club but we need to protect our interests as a football club and if we get to a point where a deal is accepted that it’s done in the right way. Until that point, Antoine is our player.

“What I would say about him is he’s a really honest player, honest person and he’s dealing with it as well as he can but speculation can be unsettling.”

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The verdict

Semenyo is one of the Championship’s hottest prospects and he has no shortage of suitors.

However, he would need to be incredibly cautious over making the move to Southampton with the club currently in a precarious position at the bottom of the table, while a switch to Bournemouth is also a gamble for the same reason as the Cherries are also in the bottom three.

With that in mind, it might be best for Semenyo to finish the season with the Robins and assess his options in the summer when top flight football can be guaranteed for next season.

But it would not be a surprise to see more clubs attempt to secure Semenyo’s services in the coming week as the race to land his signature hots up.