Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has ruled out a loan move for Tottenham defender Kyle Walker-Peters this month.
Hasenhuttl has said that a loan does not make sense for Southampton, as he believes it would take a month for a player to learn his system.
Football Insider reported earlier this month that Southampton and Crystal Palace are both interested in the defender. Tottenham are said to have slapped a £15m price tag on his head for a permanent deal.
Speaking to Football London, Hasenhuttl said this:
We spoke about alternatives in the full-back, we don’t have too many. Yan Valery is not ready yet to return.
[Kyle] Walker-Peters is a player playing in this position. I don’t want to speak about rumours, we have a few players we are looking at, and looking for longer term.
Only for loan, it doesn’t make sense for me for three or four months, it takes one month to know what we do and it is not so easy for someone coming in.
READ SOUTHAMPTON VERDICT
Whilst Hasenhuttl has dismissed the idea of a loan for Walker-Peters, he did not appear to rule out a permanent swoop for the right-back. If the Saints could land him this month on a permanent deal, he could be a good addition to their squad. He has recorded a WhoScored rating of 6.77 in the Premier League this term, and 6.97 last season, which is higher than any current Southampton fullback. This suggests that he would improve Ralph Hasenhuttl’s options in the fullback position going forward.
He is also only 22-years-old, which means that he has plenty of time to learn and develop his game under Hasenhuttl. As the Austrian boss says, it could take time for a player to understand his way of playing, so signing Walker-Peters at a young age when he is ready to learn could be a very smart piece of business for the club.
