Sunday 28 January 2018 09:08, UK
Mauricio Pellegrino has confirmed Southampton are still "pushing" on a deal to bring Spartak Moscow winger Quincy Promes to St Mary’s.
Sky Sports reported last week that the Saints were interested in signing the 26-year-old, but Pellegrino says any potential move is still a number of days away meaning that negotiations could roll on right up to Deadline Day on January 31.
According to Sky sources, the player is keen on a move to England, but Spartak are holding out for a fee in the region of £30m.
Pellegrino said: "Quincy Promes is one of the players that we have been following for a few months. The market is too difficult, we wait until the end and keep pushing."
Pellegrino was speaking after Southampton's victory over Watford in the FA Cup which was secured by Jack Stephens, who marked his 24th birthday by scoring his first goal for the club.
As well as taking them into the FA Cup's fifth round it eased some of the pressure that had been building on manager Pellegrino, and came as they demonstrated further signs of improvement, despite the win representing only their second since November.
"In the dressing room our feeling is we are growing as a team and little by little playing much better with and without the ball," said the Argentinian.
"We could not kill the game earlier and suffered at the end because they were really dangerous with direct play and crosses but we deserved to win.
"We had in our mind the last game 15 days ago when we were winning 2-0 and Watford created lots of problems with direct play (and eventually drew 2-2)."
