Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl says the club will let Cedric Soares leave this month, amid strong links with a move to Arsenal.

According to reports, Arsenal are looking to complete the signing of Cedric Soares from Southampton today, leading to questions about the potential transfer in Thursday’s Ralph Hasenhuttl press conference.

Southampton signed Kyle Walker-Peters on loan from Tottenham Hotspur this week, and Hasenhuttl admitted this makes Soares likely to leave.

“From our side, yes,” Hasenhuttel said. “The fact is that he’s out of contract in the summer. Sometimes things change quickly in football.

“Then for the club and for him, it is the best that we say ‘okay, if you want to leave, you have only two or three more months (of) contract, then it’s better to go’ and we are concentrating on developing other players.”

As Hasenhuttl says, that’s only the Southampton position. Arsenal and Soares need to make the final decision over whether they want the move. Until we have an official announcement from the club, we won’t know for sure.

Previous reports suggest Arsenal will pay a loan fee of £1m for Soares, which could rise to around £3m with add-ons. The full-back is on wages of around £65,000-a-week, which Arsenal will also cover.

It’s a loan deal, but Soares a free agent in the summer. As a result, the Gunners won’t have to pay a transfer fee to sign him permanently at that stage. They reportedly have a four-year option to extend his stay at the end of the season.