Southampton opinion: The Saints shouldn’t make a move for Scott Arfield

The Daily Mail has reported that Southampton are interested in making a move for Rangers man Scott Arfield.

He arrived over the summer of 2018 from Burnley for free, after making just under 200 appearances for the Clarets. This includes over 80 appearances in the Premier League, after joining them in the summer of 2013.

Arfield has also spent a large part of his career in England playing for Huddersfield Town. They gave him his start in England, where the versatile winger would go on to make over 100 appearances for the Terriers.

In total, the 30-year-old made 312 appearances, which shows that he has bags of experience. While that is a very useful skill for Southampton to have, the fact that Scott Arfield is heading into the twilight of his career would suggest that such a move would be inadvisable.

Sure, the Canadian has adapted to his age and transformed into a central midfielder off late, even scoring a wonderful hattrick recently.

Not only that, he has adapted to the Scottish league brilliantly by contributing to 18 goals so far but Southampton have an abundance of central midfielders already.

They have the likes of James Ward-Prowse, Mario Lemina, Oriol Romeu, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and even Stuart Armstrong.

They’ve all flourished, with Ward-Prowse even earning a call up to the England national team. It shows just how well the Saints are stocked in that department and why they do not need another midfielder.

Instead, what the club really need is a new centre-forward. While Danny Ings has done remarkably well for the club, others have struggled. Charlie Austin, Shane Long and even Sam Gallagher have all failed to make an impact, despite their best efforts.

Not only that, Southampton need to focus on buying another right-back, with them depending on Jan Valery at the moment. They’ve sent Cedric Soares on loan to Inter Milan.

The Saints don’t require another central midfielder. Instead, they need to let Scott Arfield do his thing in Scotland.

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Conclusion

Southampton need reinforcements, which is clear by having a look at the players they have at the moment. What they do not need is Scott Arfield and the 30-year-old’s career would only go downhill from there if a move does actually occur. Manager Ralph Hassenhuttl has other areas he needs to address.