Tonda Eckert could win Southampton’s next Toby Alderweireld with this late signing

Taylor Harwood-Bellis will be pulling on the famous claret and blue of Aston Villa very shortly.

Indeed, after being left out of the last couple of Southampton lineups, amid rampant transfer speculation, it has now been confirmed that the one-time Manchester City youngster will be returning to the Premier League with Unai Emery's men.

This is a big blow to the Saints' confidence this late into the window, but they have been preparing for this loss for quite some time, and Keven Schlotterbeck slotted into the lineup at the back against Millwall last time out, and didn't look out of his depth whatsoever on his composed St. Mary's debut.

Tonda Eckert will still want another defensive addition in through the door before the September cut-off, though, even with the arrival of the German adding depth, with the 33-year-old potentially winning his very own Toby Alderweireld in the process.

Toby Alderweireld's stunning season at Southampton

Alderweireld was only situated on the South Coast for one season, but it was a memorable one at that.

Joining on loan from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2014, to make up for the departures of Luke Shaw and Dejan Lovren at the back, he was an instant hit at St. Mary's.

He would immediately settle into his brand-new Premier League environment, making the loss of Lovren not feel so heavy subsequently, with a mightily impressive five clean sheets collected across his first seven top-flight outings.

Helping himself to one goal, too, during a convincing 3-1 win over Crystal Palace, it would have been a kick in the teeth to the same agonising level as Harwood-Bellis' departure, when it was announced the 6-foot-1 beast would be joining Tottenham Hotspur after his one-off loan season, instead of permanently calling St. Mary's home.

Indeed, he would even wildly be noted as one of the best centre-backs Matt Le Tissier had even seen on the South Coast, which is very high praise from one of Southampton's greatest ever entertainers.

Thankfully, if Eckert were to win a more modern up-to-date version of the Belgian right now, he would be winning his services for good.

Eckert could soon win his own Alderweireld

Southampton have a sketchy track record when it comes to snapping up players from La Liga, with hits such as Alderweireld's loan spell, mixed in with some notable misses.

While the Belgian defender instantly settled, Juanmi, when arriving from Malaga in 2015, was a complete failure, scoring zero times from 19 Southampton outings, before being discarded.

Hopefully, David Affengruber falls more into the success column, if a late move is agreed, with reports from Spain suggesting that Eckert and Co. are pushing hard in the final days of the window to land the Elche centre-back.

He would cost around the £8.5m-£10m region to win, which doesn't feel like an expensive amount to splash out on a La Liga-proven defender who should be able to cope with the challenges of the Championship, just as Alderweireld managed when relocating to the Premier League.

Last season in the Spanish top-flight, Affengruber stood out at the back as a confident passer of the ball, which means he should be able to play a Harwood-Bellis-style role well, with an 87% pass accuracy average registered.

Affengruber's La Liga numbers (25/26):

On top of that, he also won a valiant 5.1 duels on average in La Liga last campaign, meaning he should also be able to deal with the physically imposing attackers the Championship has in abundance.

He would win a standout 11 tackles and duels against Real Madrid, in one notable La Liga game, as Elche drew 2-2 in a back-and-forth contest, with the Austrian dealing with the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham relatively competently.

Before he was dismissed at Elche, his ex-manager Éder Sarabia would go out of his way, too, to note that he had a "spectacular season" and would wax lyrical about Affengruber's "character, hunger and leadership."

Affenguber will be hoping, if he finalises a move, he can line up for the Saints in the Premier League, just like Alderweireld managed, with a promotion immediately falling on his CV surely making a firm fan favourite.