Southampton have expressed a "firm interest" in signing Andros Townsend from Tottenham, sources have told ESPN.
Townsend has slipped out of favour at Tottenham during 2014, as injuries and a dip in form saw the player who shone for England at their end of their World Cup qualifying campaign fail to make the final 23-man squad selected by national team boss Roy Hodgson for this summer's World Cup in Brazil.
With Townsend seemingly uncertain of regular football under new Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino, the 23-year-old has been linked with a move to join up with his former boss Harry Redknapp at Queens Park Rangers.
Yet Southampton have made a "tentative" move to sign the winger who signed a lucrative new contract after his breakthrough on the international stage with England last October.
Meanwhile, Southampton are increasingly hopeful of hanging on to their French midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin, who has impressed manager Ronald Koeman and his teammates with a positive attitude in training after his pleas to leave the club and join Tottenham were rejected.
Southampton have made it clear that they do not want to sell any more of their star players in a summer that has seen Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert, Dejan Lovren, Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers complete big money moves away from the club.
However, it is now inevitable that Polish goalkeeper Artur Boruc will leave Southampton this transfer window, after he was demoted to third-choice stopper behind new signing Fraser Forster and club captain Kelvin Davis.