Southampton have been offered New York Red Bulls defender Aaron Long ahead of the January transfer window.

According to Sky Sports, Southampton have been asked if they would like to sign Long to bolster their defence.

The report claims that he has a release clause of $6m, which is roughly £4.6m, and that Ligue 1 giants Marseille are also interested.

READ SOUTHAMPTON VERDICT 

Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images Sport

This does seem to be an odd link, given that he was also “offered” to West Ham in the summer – only for nothing to come of it. Long is 27 and has never played outside of the MLS, with only 15 caps for the USA to his name. He has a WhoScored rating of 6.87 this season, which is not much to shout about given the significant drop in standard from the Premier League to the MLS.

There does not seem to be anything to suggest that Long would come in and be a marked improvement on Southampton’s current defenders, whilst he would also hold little resale value at the age of 27. As far as transfer rumours go, this one seems quite unlikely given the reasons stated above. Southampton need someone with top-flight experience in Europe who can help them out of the bottom three. 

Would he be a good signing?

Yes

No