Southampton continue to be a major player in the summer transfer market by agreeing to a fee with Hull City to acquire Shane Long and accepting a bid from Crystal Palace for Jack Cork.
The Long fee is for $20 million and will see the Republic of Ireland striker move from the KC Stadium to St. Mary’s just eight months after arriving at Hull from West Bromwich Albion. The striker scored seven Premier League goals in total last season, three with West Brom in 15 matches and four with Hull City in the same amount of appearances.
Assuming Long completes his medical and agrees to personal terms with Southampton he will be expected to challenge for the starting striker role alongside Graziano Pelle, who arrived at Southampton earlier this season from Feyenoord. Both men will look to fill the void left by Rickie Lambert, who left the Saints earlier this season on an $8 million deal to Liverpool.
Cork is poised to become the seventh player sold by Southampton this summer after the club accepted Palace’s $5 million bid. The relatively small transfer fee reflects the breakdown in negotiations between the Saints and Cork, who has one year left on his contract. Fearing he would leave the club on a free next summer, Southampton decided to accepted the fee and move on.
Assuming Cork passes his medical and agrees to personal terms, expect him to slot in nicely alongside Mile Jedinak in the Eagles midfield after Kagisho Dikgacoi left the club for Cardiff City earlier this summer.
Thus far this summer Southampton has sold Lambert, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers and Dani Osvaldo but have acquired Pelle, Dusan Tadic, Ryan Bertrand, Saphir Taider, Fraser Forster and, if all goes well, Long. There’s no sign of business slowing down at St. Mary’s, however, as Tottenham are pressing hard to acquire Morgan Schneiderlin and striker Jay Rodriguez.