This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
Southampton have received a further blow in their hunt for a new right-back after Matty Cash signed a new three-and-a-half year contract with Nottingham Forest.
What’s the word, then?
Well, the Saints were reportedly amongst a group of three Premier League clubs who had flocked to the City Ground to scout the right-back – Everton and Crystal Palace also expressed an interest in the Forest academy graduate according to The Sun (print version, November 15, page 74).
Cash has excelled so far this season in 16 Championship appearances, taking to the right-back role like a duck to water after being transformed into a marauding full-back by Sabri Lamouchi – the 22-year-old spent the majority of last season as a right midfielder, making 30 appearances in the position.
Impressively, the Forest star has scored two goals and assisted two more from right-back, and his fine form has deservedly seen him rewarded with a new deal.
Yet another transfer blow for the Saints
Cash’s contract renewal means that it will be much harder to lure him to St Mary’s in January, as Forest’s negotiating stance over their academy graduate has suddenly been strengthened quite significantly – it feels unlikely that he will leave just weeks after putting pen to paper, while his transfer fee has also surely shot up.
However, this isn’t the only blow that Southampton have had in their search for a new right-back.
The south coast side were reportedly interested in Tottenham right-back Kyle Walker-Peters, although the Spurs academy graduate is determined to stay in north London and fight for his place under Jose Mourinho according to a report from The Sunday Mirror (print version, November 24, page 72).
It remains to be seen who else is on Ralph Hasenhuttl and Gao Jisheng’s wishlist for the right-back role, although they have not had the best of luck so far with their pursuits of Cash and Walker-Peters.
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In other Southampton news, the players simply can’t afford to forget this message from Hasenhuttl…