Spurs set to sign Schneiderlin along with Rodriguez

With reports circling that Jay Rodriguez has already agreed personal terms with Tottenham Hotspur it appears the Southampton exodus may be intensifying. Despite the prohibitively high price tag that Southampton attempted to place on Morgan Schneiderlin, Dominic Fifield at the Guardian reports that the France international is expected to accompany Rodriguez to Tottenham.

The key issue here appears to be a policy at Southampton to allow any want-away player to go away. This means that even though new manager Ronald Koeman had hoped to keep Schneiderlin as a regular in central midfield, the club will instead accede to Schneiderlin's request to rejoin Mauricio Pochettino at Spurs.

The Southampton hierarchy, apparently with the blessing of the new manager, Ronald Koeman, has determined that any player who expresses a desire to leave will be allowed to exit St Mary’s for the right price though, at present, the first-team squad is increasingly appearing asset-stripped.

They had hoped to dissuade suitors from bidding for Schneiderlin, a player Koeman had considered vital to his approach, by demanding in excess of the £27m fee that took Luke Shaw to Manchester United earlier this summer. But the France midfielder has expressed a desire to rejoin Pochettino and, with talks ongoing over a compromise fee, he will be accompanied by Rodriguez despite the England striker still recovering from an anterior cruciate knee ligament injury that denied him a place at the World Cup.

Now, clearly no fee has been agreed. And it's hard for me to see Daniel Levy going even as high as £20M, and there are no specifics as to how much room for "compromise" Southampton is offering. So there are still all kinds of ways this could fall apart, and it's likewise easy to imagine Arsenal getting involved at a certain point if the deal is not closed quickly. Still, the writing of the report suggests that a fee will be arrived at soon.

At the right price, I like Schneiderlin a lot. He can play both as a true defensive midfielder or in front of a DM as a box-to-box type. He has extensive experience in Pochettino's press and at 24 years old, he's heading right into his peak seasons as midfielder. It depends on the price of course, but these reports seem to suggest that the price will not be insane.

A move for Schneiderlin probably does not bode well for Sandro. That part is sad.