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da 888casino： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
According to Calciomercato, Southampton are eyeing up Genk striker Mbwana Samatta as an option for the January transfer window.
What’s the word?
Well, the 26-year-old quite obviously knows where the back of the net is.
Samatta has scored 92 goals across his career, and netted an eye-catching 32 of those in the 2018/19 campaign, as he helped Genk progress through the Europa League qualifying rounds – he scored six goals in just five qualifiers, including a hat-trick against Brondby.
Southampton currently have £20m Danny Ings, £15m summer signing Che Adams, Michael Obafemi and Shane Long as their striking options, as well as the versatile Nathan Redmond being an option up top.
There is, however, one concern over Samatta.
Untested in a top European league
While Samatta appears to be a prolific forward, and you can only beat what’s in front of you, there is the lingering concern that he is relatively untested in a top European division.
Samatta has only ever played for three clubs: Simba Sports Club, TP Mazembe and Genk.
Simba are located in Samatta’s native country of Tanzania, a place that isn’t exactly known for its competitive football ranks, whereas Mazembe are based in Congo, another nation not famed for having a testing footballing ladder.
Genk is a bit more of a challenge, and Samatta’s goals in Europe are of course an impressive feat, but he is unquestionably an untested player in a top league – this may prove a problem in arguably the toughest division of them all, the Premier League.
However, because of the sheer amount of goals he does score – 32 in all competitions last year is not to be sniffed at, especially with nine coming in European competition – Southampton should definitely take the gamble on Samatta despite his lack of experience in a top division.