This German defender is having a Southampton medical right now

Augsburg wanted a shade under £4m and Southampton did not even bother to haggle. Sky Sports News had the fee out by lunchtime and the defender was in the building just an hour after that.

What makes this one worth a second look is not the money, which for a centre-back with a year left on his deal sits somewhere near a fifth of what Aston Villa are offering for Taylor Harwood-Bellis, but the line that came attached to it from @SaintsExtra, that this is not the replacement.

So who is he replacing? Tonda Eckert has already promised another centre-back if Harwood-Bellis ends up at Villa Park, and Schlotterbeck is arriving on top of that promise rather than instead of it.

The answer, according to that same report, is Joshua Quarshie. He goes out on loan, and a defender supporters spent last season getting excited about spends this one somewhere else.

What this does to Joshua Quarshie

That is a hard one to swallow.

Quarshie sat on the bench against Stoke City and again against West Ham, unused both times, watching a back line concede four to a side made up of squad players. Saints Marching argued in the summer that Quarshie is a keeper and that the club knew it. A loan says otherwise, at least until January.

He is 6ft 5in and quicker than most defenders his size. Eckert has still not found him a minute this season. Schlotterbeck is 29, left-footed, and has leapfrogged him inside a week.

Ask yourself how that conversation goes at Staplewood on Thursday morning. Quarshie is not going to enjoy a word of it.

Where it leaves Jack Stephens

Jack Stephens got dragged through it again on Tuesday night, because the second goal came off his error. Southampton chased the game after that and West Ham's reserves picked them off twice more.

Stephens is 32 and has carried the armband through worse weeks than this one. He also sliced the clearance that gave Watford their opener a fortnight ago. That is precisely the issue that supporters keep raising.

Eckert's verdict afterwards was that his side needs to become more robust, which is a polite way of saying somebody's head is about to roll.

Schlotterbeck turned Wolfsburg down to come here. He has not crossed the Channel to warm the bench, and Saints Marching pointed out at the weekend that another centre-back made sense, whatever happened to Harwood-Bellis.

Millwall are at St Mary's on Saturday, top of the division. Southampton have not spent this money to keep a former Bundesliga captain waiting in the wings. Stephens has four days to make Eckert think twice.