Southampton will welcome Leicester City to the south coast in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon, and manager Ruben Selles will be desperate for a positive result to narrow the four-point gulf from safety.

Indeed, Saints are currently bottom of the league table after 24 matches with just 18 points, and a win could place the outfit just one point behind Leeds United in 17th, who face Chelsea away from home this weekend.

Despite winning at Stamford Bridge themselves two weeks ago – in Selles’ first outing in the dugout since Nathan Jones’ dismissal – the Hampshire-based club have lost ten of their past 12 league encounters, and further woes against the Foxes could prove to be the hammer blow that eradicates any ounce of confidence in rectifying the sombre situation.

And given that League Two outfit Grimsby Town defeated Saints on their own ground in the FA Cup fifth round a matter of days prior, the importance of a positive response has not been so profound for some time for the club.

With this in mind, this is how Football FanCast expects Southampton to field their eleven against Leicester, seeking to attain an invaluable victory…

How might Southampton line up against Leicester?

Predicted XI: (GK) Bazunu; (RB) Maitland-Niles, (CB) Bednarek, (CB) Bella-Kotchap, (LB) Perraud; (RM) Aribo, (CM) Lavia, (CM) Ward-Prowse, (LM) Elyounoussi; (ST) Sulemana, (ST) Onuachu.

Southampton’s Spanish boss could make as many as six changes to the side that were dismally felled by the Mariners in midweek.

Gavin Bazunu will deputise between the sticks once again, while Ainsley Maitland-Niles could replace Kyle Walker-Peters at right-back; Jan Bednarek and Armel Bella-Kotchap will unite in central defence once again, having kept a clean sheet at Chelsea before shipping just once against the Whites.

In midfield, the impressive Romeo Lavia will retain his robust role, while the “elite” – as dubbed by Ian Wright – captain James Ward-Prowse will return to the fold after making an impact off the bench in the FA Cup, providing two key passes and one assist in that second-half cameo.

On the wide flanks, Joe Aribo and Norwegian star Mohamed Elyounoussi will hope to bring a dynamic dimension to the fold, with the former, a £10m signing from Rangers in the summer, making his first league start of 2023.

Imposing forward and wily young winger Kamaldeen Sulemana will form an offensive partnership once more, hoping to finally break the oppositions resistance and bear fruit for their new outfit, with the “disappointing” – as branded by Jacob Tanswell – Adam Armstrong pushed back to the bench after failing to impress against Grimsby.

Glasgow Rangers are reportedly ‘highly unlikely’ to bring one Scotland international to Ibrox this summer.

The Lowdown: Long-term interest

Rangers’ interest in Lyndon Dykes dates back to 2020, but he ended up moving to the English Championship instead.

Ibrox legend Ally McCoist urged his former club to sign the now-QPR attacker from Livingston, hailing him as a ‘strong’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘quick’ striker who offers ‘something different’.

The Light Blues were also reportedly ‘keen’ on signing Dykes, who played under Michael Beale at Loftus Road, in this January’s transfer window.

The Latest: ‘Highly unlikely’

As per Football Insider, the Teddy Bears are ‘highly unlikely’ to sign the 27-year-old this summer because they would be priced out of a move.

They are keen to sign another striker given the uncertainty over Alfredo Morelos’ future, but QPR want to keep hold of Dykes, even though the Scotland striker would be interested in a move to Ibrox.

The Verdict: Pay the money!

Whatever transfer fee it would take to sign Dykes, Rangers should be inclined to pay it.

The 26-cap Scotland international is not the most prolific, with just six goals in the Championship so far this season, but he offers so much more to the team with his 6 foot 2 stature.

Former QPR boss Mark Warburton has previously hailed Dykes’ ‘outstanding’ work ethic, while Beale hailed him as ‘fantastic’ in a match earlier this season where he did not score but still bullied opposition defenders.

Indeed, the 27-year-old ranks in the 94th percentile for aerial duels won among all forwards outside of Europe’s top five leagues over the past year, and he would offer Rangers a great plan-B option next season.

Furthermore, Beale has already worked with Dykes before, so the Rangers boss would know how to get the best out of him.

Alex Crook has admitted on TalkSPORT Erik ten Hag will be looking to recruit a new central midfielder and striker at Manchester United this summer.

The Lowdown: Players will now be keen to join

It was only last summer when United were finding it incredibly difficult to attract someone such as Frenkie de Jong to Old Trafford because of the season they’d just had and a lack of Champions League football on offer.

Now though, thanks to the work Ten Hag has been able to do in such a short period of time, Man United are looking certain for the top four, potentially in a title race and in the conversation for a quadruple.

Therefore, Man United and Old Trafford could now become an attractive club to join once again if they can offer trophies, Champions League football and a manager who has a clear plan in place for his team.

The Latest: Midfielder and a striker top of the list

Ten Hag brought in a stop-gap striker in January in the form of Wout Weghorst but Crook believes another number nine and central midfielder is the two key positions Man United will be looking to recruit in.

He said: (0:00) “I think a number nine and another midfield player are Ten hag’s two big targets this summer.

“We know how desperate he was to sign Frenkie de Jong at the start of this season, it didn’t happen, mainly down to the dispute between Barcelona and De Jogn about some wages that had been deferred during the pandemic.

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“Obviously, at that stage, Manchester United weren’t a Champions League club but touchwood they will be next season either via the Premier League or maybe winning the Europa League, so I think they’ll become a much more attractive proposition.”

The Verdict: Ten Hag must be backed once again

There shouldn’t even be a conversation within Man United about backing Ten Hag or not because the board have seen first-hand what his signings have been able to do this season with the likes of Lisandro Martinez, Casemiro and Antony all making big impacts on the side.

If Man United can just hand Ten Hag a starting midfielder and proven goalscorer then that would certainly be enough to see them become serious title contenders because as much work as Weghorst does off the ball, he has one goal since joining the club in January.

Also, Man United have struggled for results and performances a lot more compared to when Casemiro plays and he doesn’t, so bringing in a midfielder of his calibre could be exactly what they need to iron out those deficiencies and become a serious contender.

Journalist Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Chelsea could be in with a chance of signing Jeremie Frimpong this summer, but top-flight rivals are also keen on the defender.

What’s the latest on Jeremie Frimpong and the Chelsea rumours?

Even though the Blues agreed to pay £26.3m plus add-ons for Lyon right-back Malo Gusto in January, it seems as though the club may be in the market for another fullback in the near future.

To be fair, Reece James has struggled for fitness of late and Cesar Azpilicueta isn’t getting any younger at 33 years of age, so 22-year-old Frimpong may be viewed as a good long-term prospect.

However, it sounds as if the Bayer Leverkusen ace is a wanted man with Premier League rivals Manchester United also “keeping an eye on” the right-back.

That’s what has been reported by Romano recently anyway. Indeed, while speaking on his YouTube channel, he explained: “Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen. He’s doing very well.

“We know also Chelsea appreciate the player. In the summer, he could have the possibility to move, but Manchester United are keeping an eye on him.”

Will Jeremie Frimpong join Chelsea?

Despite his young age, Frimpong has already established himself as a regular both in Germany with Leverkusen and in Scotland with Celtic, having initially come through the Manchester City academy.

That experience will no doubt make the player an attractive prospect for both Chelsea and United, while he would also count as a homegrown player due to his ties with the English game as a youngster.

Seeing as Chelsea already have three players who can play right-back, it remains to be seen if Frimpong would feel as though he would have a pathway to regular first-team minutes under Graham Potter.

Still, the Blues evidently “appreciate” the player, so perhaps Todd Boehly has a plan to fit him into the Blues’ already bloated squad. It’ll certainly be interesting to see if a bidding war happens for the player this summer with Man Utd also in the mix.

Former Tottenham Hotspur player and current talkSPORT pundit Jamie O’Hara is thrilled by the news that Daniel Levy is eyeing a move for former manager Mauricio Pochettino.

The Lowdown: Conte on the way out

Sky Sports’ Melissa Reddy dropped a massive update on Tottenham’s future this week, revealing there is “growing belief” Antonio Conte will depart before the end of this season.

The Italian is of course out of contract in the summer, but work has already begun on finding his replacement, with Reddy revealing a whole host of names on the shortlist.

Indeed, Pochettino is seen as the front-runner, with some members of the playing squad “hankering for the brave, progressive style” the Argentine would bring, but Roberto De Zerbi, Luis Enrique, Thomas Tuchel, Marco Silva and Thomas Frank are all in the mix as well.

The Latest: O’Hara reacts

Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, O’Hara only has one man in mind for the job, practically begging Levy to bring Pochettino back:

“You don’t need three candidates. Get Pochettino in. Bring that sexy man back that everyone can see. That’s all we need, so get him in.

“There’s candidates and there are good managers out there – you can say Thomas Tuchel and Thomas Frank – but no.

“Pochettino needs to come back to the football club. He’s got unfinished business. He left when Daniel Levy was being tight and now Daniel Levy has realised he can’t do that anymore.”

The Verdict: Slow your roll…

Reddy reports in her update for Sky that Tottenham chiefs will not be ruled by emotion, and we believe that is certainly the right mindset for the hierarchy to hold.

Yes, Pochettino has been called a “genius” by his old Spurs players and drawn praise from greats such as Pep Guardiola, but the other candidates are certainly no pushovers.

Frank’s Brentford lost their first Premier League game since October this weekend, Enrique has won multiple league titles with Barcelona and De Zerbi’s Brighton have the fourth-highest expected goals in the top flight this season, behind only Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool.

The Lilywhites chiefs absolutely have to get this appointment right with rumours swirling of possible investments and takeovers, and there’s no guarantee things would go differently the second time around under Pochettino.

Chelsea are still battling Manchester United for the signing of Napoli superstar Victor Osimhen this summer, according to a report from Italy.

The Lowdown: Chelsea linked with Osimhen signing

The Nigerian is having a magnificent season for Napoli currently, spearheading their relentless Serie A title charge and scoring 19 goals in as many league starts.

Osimhen has been linked with a move to Chelsea recently, with a new centre forward surely at the top of their shopping list during the summer transfer window.

The move still potentially looks on the cards, following an intriguing new update.

The Latest: Offer ready

According to Calciomercato, Chelsea are still in the hunt for the signing of Osimhen, with the Blues now ready to table an offer to the player.

Todd Boehly is apparently personally ready to double the Nigerian striker’s current salary of €4.5m per year, which would mean an offer of about £153,000 per week, while Napoli are set to demand up to €130m (£115m).

United are also strong contenders to snap him up, however, with manager Erik ten Hag seeing him as a primary transfer target.

The Verdict: Could be a sensational signing

If Chelsea managed to pip United to Osimhen’s signature this summer, it could end up being a masterstroke of a signing, considering he is one of Europe’s top strikers currently.

Not only is he flying for Napoli but 15 goals in 23 caps for Nigeria further outlines his attacking pedigree, with his pace, power and cool finishing making him a defender’s nightmare.

Jose Mourinho has even compared Osimhen to Chelsea legend Didier Drigba, which is high praise indeed, while Walter Mazzarri has hailed him as ‘phenomenal’ in the past.

At 24, the Napoli ace should only improve further, too, and he could transform the Blues’ attack next season, improving those around him and supplying regular end product.

West Ham United have been well known to splash the cash on players who failed to live up to the lofty expectations upon their arrival at the club.

Think back to when the club signed Felipe Anderson for a then club record fee of £36m, but he couldn’t display his best form and left three years later, or signing Niko Vlasic for £25.7m, yet he struggled so much last season that David Moyes loaned him out ahead of this term.

These are massive sums of money that have been spent without much return on the pitch and the trend doesn’t seem to be bucking, with Gianluca Scamacca and Lucas Paqueta arriving last summer for big fees yet have so far failed to suitably impress in the Premier League, scoring only five times between them.

However, one of the club’s biggest transfer mistakes was the signing of Javier Hernandez, although there was much hype when he arrived in the summer of 2017 for a fee of £16m.

How much did Javier Hernandez cost West Ham United?

The Mexican frontman was signed by Slaven Bilic, who looked to bolster his goalscoring options, and on first look, luring someone of Hernandez’s stature back to the Premier League appeared to be an excellent move.

The 29-year-old had won two league titles with Manchester United, scoring 59 goals for the Old Trafford side over five years while also representing Real Madrid and shining in the Bundesliga for Bayer Leverkusen.

This was a player who could have the ability to score 20-plus goals a season for the club and give them a much-needed boost up front, yet it didn’t work out like that.

Chicharito scored eight league goals in his first season while netting seven in the 2018/2019 campaign, overall scoring just 17 goals across two terms, and this wasn’t anywhere near good enough.

West Ham eventually sold him to Sevilla for £7.2m in 2019, losing almost £10m in the process and his struggles continued in Spain, scoring just three times before he joined LA Galaxy in 2020.

ESON journalist Diego Cora reported that the striker thinks of himself as something of a megastar and is ostracized in the dressing room, saying: “The players look at him from the side and he thinks he’s a megastar.

“When I was in Leverkusen, I had to cover him once, and many around the club said he was an ‘ego man’. In West Ham, they told me something similar and now the same thing. One of his teammates says that he thinks he is Cristiano Ronaldo.”

When accounting for Hernandez’s £15.4m pay packet too, he ultimately rinsed West Ham of £31.4m over his 110-week spell at the club.

That undoubtedly represents one of their biggest mishaps in the transfer window in recent years, especially considering the hype surrounding his move in 2017.

Leeds United midfielder Adam Forshaw is expected to leave Elland Road this summer, according to Football Insider.

The Lowdown: Leeds career

Forshaw was actually the club’s most expensive signing since the 2001/02 season when he arrived in Yorkshire from Middlesbrough at a cost of €5.1m (£4.5m) in 2018.

Since then, the 31-year-old has made 84 appearances for the club but has missed far more of the action with a number of injury issues.

He has featured in just 157 minutes of Premier League action this season, with his last appearance coming on New Year’s Eve against Newcastle.

The Latest: Forshaw’s future

FI reporter Wayne Veysey shared an update on Forshaw, who is out of contract at the end of the current campaign.

He said that the Whites have the option to extend that by a further 12 months, however, that looks unlikely and the club are expected to let the player go.

The Verdict: Right call?

Forshaw has had a frustrating few years with injuries, whereas Leeds have bolstered their midfield ranks over the last 12 months by signing Marc Roca, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie.

They also have Darko Gyabi coming through the ranks at Thorp Arch, so parting ways with Forshaw appears to be the right decision.

Whether or not Leeds will be a Premier League side in the summer remains to be seen, but hopefully, Forshaw, who shares the same agency as McKennie and Brenden Aaronson, will have no trouble in finding a new club with a number of Championship sides keen on his services towards the end of 2022.

Chelsea are currently in pole position to sign Birmingham City forward Trevan Sanusi, according to reports.

The Lowdown: Sanusi profiled

The Blues winger has worked his way up through the academy ranks at St. Andrew’s but his future is uncertain, having turned down multiple new scholarship contract proposals.

The Midlands starlet is 15 years old but will turn 16 next month, when he is reportedly hoping to move onto pastures new, and it sounds like there are two suitors waiting to snap him up in the Premier League.

The Latest: CFC leading the race

According to Football Insider, Chelsea and Arsenal are ‘battling’ it out to secure the services of Sanusi when he’s allowed to depart.

The London giants are both ‘hot on the trail’ of the teenager, but it’s believed that Graham Potter and his side are in ‘pole position’ at this stage having pushed ‘hard’.

The SW6 outfit’s scouts have ‘closely watched’ their target in multiple matches, where he has received ‘rave reviews’.

The Verdict: One for the future

Sanusi has been hailed an ‘exciting’ player by Birmingham’s U21s manager Steve Spooner and he would be a great signing for the future of Chelsea.

The talented prospect naturally operates on the left wing but offers wonderful versatility having also operated down the right and as a centre-forward throughout his career so far.

Sanusi is also an England youth international having been capped for both the U16s and U15s sides, so has a bright future ahead of him, quite possibly at Stamford Bridge.

Southampton’s season has been mired in a detrimental decline that has left a formerly exciting and energetic outfit spluttering to a stop and facing the peril that runs in tandem with the all-engulfing Premier League relegation zone.

Entangled in the bottom three for the past 12 match-weeks, Saints’ owners Sport Republic have dismissed long-time endeared boss Ralph Hasenhuttl before sacking Nathan Jones in what was an unequivocally shambolic appointment, losing seven of his eight league matches at the helm.

Ruben Selles, who has been involved at St. Mary’s Stadium in a coaching capacity all season, now heads the table, looking to instil confidence and cohesion into a team devoid of all the tangible qualities that left them comfortably placed for the majority of Hasenhuttl’s reign.

And it has paid off somewhat over the early weeks of the Spaniard’s term in the dugout; a monumental victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in his first match as permanent boss preceded a battling loss to relegation rivals Leeds United and a shambolic home defeat in the FA Cup to League Two Grimsby Town.

However, optimism has been borne anew following a dogged 1-0 league victory on the south coast against Leicester City, narrowing the gap to safety to just one point after 25 fixtures in the campaign, and despite captain James Ward-Prowse uncharacteristically blundering from the penalty spot, £12m winter signing Carlos Alcaraz took the weight on his shoulders and set the Saints support rocking with his emphatic match-winning strike.

Is Alcaraz the next Steven Davis?

Clinched from Argentinian outfit Racing Club in January, the 20-year-old has made an instant impact in England, and one which Selles and co will hope can play a big part in the scrap to secure top-flight survival.

Having made 83 appearances for Racing, scoring 12 goals, the Argentine has now forged eight outings for Southampton and netted from both his starting displays in the league.

As per Sofascore, the thrilling talent has averaged 1.6 shots per match across his Premier League performances thus far, with his two goals complemented by a 60% dribble success rate and a 79% passing accuracy.

He is already growing into his skin, and his composure when placed through on goal belied both his young age and inexperience, with The Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell even going as far as dubbing the prodigy “tremendous” for his early feats in red and white.

Tanswell even went as far as to say he reminded him of Saints stalwart Steven Davis, remarking that the dynamic midfielder “offers a new slant.”

David made 226 appearances for the south coast club, plundering 14 goals and registering 26 assists, and as per WhoScored, his 1.6 key passes and 0.6 shots and dribbles per game in the 15/16 season for the outfit epitomised the robust and progressive role he played, recording a 7.04 average rating and landing five goals and three assists.

If Alcaraz – hailed a “young baller” by the Daily Echo’s Alfie House – can build upon his resounding entrance, he can adopt Davis’ mantle and serve as the new force to be reckoned with from the heart of the St. Mary’s system.

There’s a long way to go in this mammoth season; Alcaraz is still just 20 and but a matter of weeks into his Premier League career, but if the early work is anything to go by, he will surpass the feats of Davis and emerge as a devastating force to steer Southampton to success.