Everton and Manchester United are among the clubs that are scouting Southampton FA Cup hero Shea Charles.
The 22-year-old came off the bench to score Southampton’s FA Cup quarter-final winner over Arsenal at the weekend and is valued around £20million by his club.
The midfielder was signed from Manchester City for an initial £11m in 2023 when United’s Jason Wilcox was Saints’ director of football.
Charles, who had been captain of City’s U21s, was bought by Saints to replace Romeo Lavia who went to Chelsea and there were high hopes for him.
The Northern Ireland international started off well but then manager Russell Martin wanted to try a different set-up and couldn’t promise regular game time in the Premier League. Keen to play, Charles went on loan to Sheffield Wednesday with Danny Rohl where he went on to become their player of the year and was nominated for the Championship Young Player of the Year.
Rohl, now manager of Rangers, is keen to take Charles again this summer but the Scottish side will not be able to compete financially.
Manchester United and Everton have Southampton’s Shea Charles on their radar this summer
He scored the winning goal on Saturday as Southampton dumped Arsenal out of the FA Cup
Everton are scouring for midfielders to bolster their squad with Idrissa Gana Gueye now 35 and in the last throes of his contract.
United are working on replacements for Casemiro by targeting the likes of Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali and Elliot Anderson of Nottingham Forest but are looking at the other end of the budget scale too, in case they don’t make the Champions League, as they prepare to replace Manuel Ugarte who is a target for Galatasaray, Napoli, Juventus and Ajax.
Two other Premier League clubs are understood to be monitoring Charles as well as an Italian side.
Charles, who also scored against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup earlier this season, was watched by scouts again as he started for Northern Ireland in their World Cup play-off defeat to Italy earlier this month.
He has played 34 games this season and scored four goals.
