Wanted man

DALE Stephens: transfer target

Saints eye swoop for latics ace Stephens
DALE Stephens has emerged as a transfer target for Southampton.

The Athletic midfielder only signed a three-year contract at the start of this season, but he could leave on loan today to join the npower League One promotion-chasers on the South Coast, with a transfer fee to follow at the end of the season.

If highly-rated Stephens (21) — the club’s vice-captain and top scorer this season with 10 goals — were to depart, it would leave a huge hole in the side which manager Paul Dickov would want to fill immediately at this crucial point of the season.

The window for loan signings shuts today at 5pm.

“If somebody left then we would need to bring someone in,” were the guarded words of Athletic chief executive Alan Hardy this morning.

Southampton manager Nigel Adkins is known to be in the market for a midfielder prior to the deadline.

Morgan Schneiderlin, a player of a similar ilk to Stephens, is expected to miss most of the rest of the season because of a knee injury.

With Oscar Gobern about to sit out the last of a three-match ban picked up for a red card against Bournemouth, Saints are currently left with only two available central players in Richard Chaplow and Dean Hammond.

A move for Reading’s Brian Howard stalled recently.

Adkins knows exactly what Stephens is about, having witnessed him in action against teams he has managed three times this season; once with Scunthorpe United in the Carling Cup and twice in the league with Southampton.

With play-off ambitions having been replaced by a battle to beat the drop, cash-strapped Athletic would be grateful for a transfer fee for Stephens.

But Dickov would certainly be loathe to lose a player he described recently as forming the best central midfield partnership in the division, alongside Dean Furman.

With only eight matches left in which to pick up points to stave off fears of the drop to League Two, the Athletic boss will be desperate to bring in top-quality cover should Stephens go.

Sam Mantom went back to West Brom earlier this week after his loan expired and only Ritchie Jones, the untried Medi Abalimba and, at a push, Chris Taylor, appear to be current options in the middle of the pitch.