Southampton boss Russell Martin has played his cards close to his chest regarding a potential move for Ross Stewart.
Sunderland striker Stewart, 27, has today been heavily linked with a move to Championship rivals Southampton.
Sunderland Nation exclusively revealed the news first thing this morning and it's since been claimed that Southampton have seen an opening bid rejected, and that the Saints are planning to make a second, improved offer.
And as quoted by The Northern Echo, Martin had this to say on the situation:
"I really like Ross, I tried to sign him at MK Dons. I really liked him then and he's go on to do brilliantly at Sunderland.
"He's been out for a while. We're going to be linked with so many players. Some of those are so far away that we haven't even discussed, and some of them are really close to the mark and some of them we'll probably end up bringing in.
"Ross is one of a number that we've been linked with, and again, we'll just have to wait and see."
Southampton's interest in Stewart then is very genuine and with time ticking away in the transfer window, a move for the striker is starting to look increasingly likely.
Sunderland though may be very wary of offloading Stewart without having a replacement lined up.
Selling Stewart would make definite financial sense if there's no sign of him extending his stay, and if a replacement is line up, then great.
But Sunderland have so far struggled to land strikers this summer and the chances of them having a surefire striker lined up seem slim.
Sunderland and Tony Mowbray could be in store for a testing end to a fairly mixed summer transfer window.
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