Southampton eye audacious move for former Liverpool target

Southampton will back underfire manager Mauricio Pellegrino in the January transfer window as they target an audacious move for Spartak Moscow star Quincy Promes, claims The Daily Telegraph.

Pellegrino was only appointed Southampton manager in the summer but has endured a miserable start to life in the Premier League with the Saints now in the bottom three.

The 46-year-old has batted away suggestions he will be the latest Premier League manager to be sacked and is instead focusing on re-investing the £75m they made from Virgil van Dijk’s sale to Liverpool at the start of the month.

Southampton are still in talks to sign Monaco outcast Guido Carrillo in a deal worth £20m and are now hopeful of prising Promes out of Russia for a fee in the region of £30m.

Promes has established himself as one of the best players in Russia since joining Spartak Moscow from Twente in 2014 and the 26-year-old has been heavily linked with a move to Liverpool in the past.

The Netherlands international has scored and assisted 75 goals in 101 league games for Spartak Moscow since August 2014 (53 goals, 22 assists), more than any other player in the division during that period.