Southampton are among a trio of Premier League clubs who are interested in making a potential January move for Vitória Guimarães defender Jorge Fernandes following his impressive start to the season.
Fernandes only arrived at Vitória in the summer from FC Porto for a bargain fee of around £720,000, having impressed during a loan spell with Turkish side Kasimpasa last term, where he made 18 league appearances. However, the 23-year-old has quickly established himself as one of the most impressive centre-backs in Portugal during the first few months of the campaign.
The Portugal under-21 international has helped his team to record five clean sheets in his seven league appearances, with Vitória shipping just two goals whilst he has been on the field. He has also averaged 1.7 interceptions and 1.7 tackles per game and has a passing accuracy of 87% (Sofascore). For context, he has outperformed Southampton’s defensive stalwart Jannik Vestergaard in each of those metrics (Sofascore).
According to the Daily Mail, the Saints join Newcastle and Fulham in possibly being tempted to move for the defender in January, with the 23-year-old now being valued at around £16m just a few months after signing for less than £1m from FC Porto.
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Whilst Ralph Hasenhuttl has already confirmed that the Saints will not be too busy in the market in January, the Austrian did leave the door open for the addition of talented young players who could be developed at St Mary’s. Fernandes certainly fits that category and his form this season demonstrates the huge potential which could be unlocked even further at Southampton.
The 23-year-old has been in excellent form for Vitória and his underlying stats show he is a commanding presence at the back as well as an effective distributor of the ball. That he is outperforming Vestergaard for metric such as tackles, interceptions and passing accuracy shows his quality.
A pairing of Vestergaard and Fernandes on his current form would be brilliant to watch for Southampton. However, the 23-year-old is still inexperienced and it might be a big ask for him to come straight into the Premier League and perform to the same level – but Hasenhuttl has shown he is willing to be patient with players and develop them over time. The transformation in fortunes for Vestergaard is a prime example of such.
