Town and Saints 'Eyeing Marseille Defender'
Tuesday, 12th May 2026 10:47

Town and Southampton are eyeing Marseille central defender CJ Egan-Riley, according to a report in France.

Manchester-born Egan-Riley joined OM last summer after his Burnley contract came to an end but his spell in France has been a disappointment having made only eight starts and three sub appearances in Ligue 1.

As a result, the 23-year-old is expected to move back to England in the summer and, according to Foot-Sur7, the Blues and Southampton are closely monitoring his situation.

Egan-Riley came through the youth system at Manchester City before joining Burnley for £400,000 in the summer of 2022.

Having spent time on loan at Hibernian and with PSV’s reserves side in the Netherlands, the six-foot-tall centre-half was a regular in the Clarets’ defence as they won promotion to the Premier League in 2024/25 while conceding only 16 goals and picking up 100 points. Egan-Riley was named in the EFL’s Championship Team of the Season.

That summer, he played alongside former Blues winger Omari Hutchinson as the England U21s won Euro 2025 in Bratislava, having previously played for the Young Lions at U15, U16, U17, U18 and U19 levels, and with the Republic of Ireland U16s.

Meanwhile, the Blues may well have been keen observers of Millwall's play-off semi-final exit to Hull City last night, the Tigers winning 2-0 at the Den, having made offers for Lions’ winger Femi Azeez in January.

It would be little surprise if Town tested the South Londoners’ resolve again over the close season. Azeez is contracted until the summer of 2028.

Elsewhere, the Blues are claimed to be among a number of clubs showing interest in Huddersfield youngster Cameron Ashia, 21.

The forward, who was previously with Derby County's academy, scored six goals in 10 starts and 21 sub appearances for the Terriers in 2025/26.

Photo: Reuters

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TownSupporter added 11:20 - May 12 Only 8 starts and 3 subs in the French league? Surely we have to be getting better players than this in. Hope this is not true as it looks like we are making signings like last time. Ben Johnson and Ben Godfrey spring to mind. Need to improve on what we have, not sign top Championship rated players again.
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trncbluearmy added 11:28 - May 12 Pretty underwhelming link and not overly impressed with Azeez looks pretty good for a short while then disappears We need battle hardened players who have European and International experience at a high level
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Cervantes added 12:13 - May 12

The sort of quality that everyone wants in the team comes at a massive price, generally speaking. We are still Premier League "newbies" and will have to be more creative with our recruitment. I agree that we've had a couple of flops, in the past, but our recruitment has been largely successful. Unfortunately we are in the position of buying five or six top quality, championship level players; who have the potential to step up. Or blow it all on a couple of proven Premier League stars and hope it's enough to keep us in the division. It's going to be tough, either way, but on the whole I think our recruitment has been good until now.

Jugsy added 12:21 - May 12 Underwhelming? Delap and Omari were hardly shooting the lights out before they arrived at us and look what happened with them. Very happy for the club to unearth hidden gems.
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trncbluearmy added 12:31 - May 12 I'd have Delap back in a heartbeat, but we still got relegated with those two. ITFC need to find similar to Sunderland. Players like Tomáš Souček can be our Xhaka Spend £200m on provan players or £140m on potential?
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TownSupporter added 12:31 - May 12 Delap had half a decent season with us and this season - probably best to just leave that there. Hutchinson 38 appearances over 3 competitions scoring 1 and 4 assists - nothing to shout about here either. I guess I would be happy if my expectations were as low as yours.
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PortmanTerrorist added 12:37 - May 12 Cervantes bit harsh, the lad is 23 and playing for a big side....and overseas. Am sure the Club know what they are doing, though will concede it is a little worrying that his current manager has voiced concerns over his fitness during the season, but again, in ITFC we trust.
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Blaggers12 added 12:44 - May 12 Ah non. Ce joueur était une vraie déception cette année.
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IBelieve added 12:59 - May 12 Que?
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tetchris added 13:24 - May 12 Ok as a squad player to allow baggott to go out on loan
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Zx1988 added 13:30 - May 12 I presume that Soton are watching him from the bushes, with binoculars.
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Ipswichbusiness added 13:39 - May 12 He has flopped in Ligue 1 so I see no reason for us to sign him. I would like us to sign one or two experienced Pl defenders, such as Kyle Walker or Andy Robertson (both should be available on “frees”).
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Perublue added 13:44 - May 12 I was hoping it was Basile Boli .. in my just woken up delirium
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cressi added 13:58 - May 12 No utterly underwhelming need better not better than what we have.
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TimmyH added 14:37 - May 12 Looking at Championship/ex-Championship players again - if these reports are true, the Azeez one I can believe - not sure he's the standard we need.
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darkhorse28 added 14:37 - May 12

Cervantes. How have Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth and just this season, Sunderland and Leeds managed to make the step??

None of them were yo-yo clubs, and none of them signed EFL level players, as we did, young ones with the right profile, as you describe, can’t be retained if they do well and were relegated, see Hutchinson, and Delap.

The retention only comes if you stay up. So young EFL players clearly doesn’t work.., simply not enough quality.

Not knocking this link. I haven’t seen much of him. But if we want to stay up we need 4 premier league quality players as a minimum, that’s essential, time will tell but where you get our recruitment has been good blows my mind.

We spent more than all the teams I mentioned - we got 22 points - they stayed in the premier league.

Measured against the EFL we did well. But with more resources than anyone. Measured against clubs at our level in the premier league; we yielded the fifth worst performance in history, and probably the worst adjusted for resources.

I’m not sure why people prefer measuring us to Plymouth than to clubs we’re actually competing with if we want to achieve our objectives.

By that yardstick, this summer is a huge test off the pitch on recruitment.

We need to be two levels above anything we’ve done. Like Sunderland were, and Leeds who didn’t spend much but both signed proven premier league talent on frees and didn’t have issues attracting them either.

TimmyH added 14:40 - May 12 Get Jarrod Bowen in...if he wanted to leave, always impressed by his work rat, could be big £££ though.
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Bert added 14:45 - May 12 Azeez has to be a target. He would suit our playing style. With Egeli still learning what it takes to be a top player and Burns not able to play a whole season or moving on, Azeez would be a good acquisition with KMcK’s coaching. No view on the lad this story is about.
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Linkboy13 added 14:46 - May 12 If these rumours are true hardly sending out a message that we are serious about staying in the Premier league.
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Bert added 14:49 - May 12 For once I agree with most of what Darkhorse has said. I am sure that the club will this time around, try to get better quality in but it will be a challenge.
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1960H added 15:00 - May 12 Just spoken to a mate of mine who is a Burnley fan, says he is decent and would have him back tomorrow
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dyersdream added 15:55 - May 12 We need better than this !
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Linkboy13 added 17:12 - May 12

Dont think it's sunk in that we are back in the Premier league with some fans still linking us with championship players. It's a massive step up technically and physically in the Premier league. There's only a few who maybe might make the jump up in standard Hackney and the Southampton midfielder think his name is Chiasa who was quality against Arsenal. We have new scouts abroad now so i expect most if not all will come from there where you get better value for money.

Linkboy13 added 17:12 - May 12

WeWereZombies added 17:16 - May 12 TownSupporter - have you watched Forest's highlights on 'Match Of The Day' this season ? Hutchinson has come in out of the cold under their last two managers and is one of their stand out performers under Pereira, he will be even better next season.
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