Portsmouth, Ipswich Town and Sunderland transfer target Guy Melamed is said to be stalling over signing a new contract at St Johnstone, with the News reporting that there is a strong chance that the striker could leave his current club this summer. 

Melamed has long been linked with a move to the three League One sides after scoring a respectable seven goals in 16 games for the Scottish club this term and could well leap at the chance to give himself a new challenge in a different league.

The towering frontman only joined the Saints in October and put pen to paper on a one year contract, meaning that he could very soon leave for free if he wishes to do so.

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson had this to say on the player's situation recently:

"We’ve offered him a very good contract and his agent just wants to wait and see.

‘That’s all we can do. We can’t offer money that’s not there for somebody. We have a budget, it’s been a difficult time with Covid and we’ve offered him a really good deal. The agent has said he’ll wait and see and that’s where we are.

"Obviously we can’t be paying out ridiculous money – that’s not what St Johnstone does and we can’t afford it. But there are other players out there that we’ll find and have a look at in case he doesn’t stay.

"Would we like him to stay? The answer is yes but we might be out priced. The fact he’s done so well has probably not helped our cause.

"I still think there’s more to come from Guy if he has a pre-season with us. It’s probably out of our hands at the moment."

The Israeli striker had not previously played outside his home country prior to joining the Scottish Premiership outfit and currently has 57 career goals to his name in just over 190 games.

The Verdict 

This would certainly be a good option for Pompey to pursue this summer as the striker would offer some much needed competition to the out of form John Marquis up top.

Marquis has shown in recent weeks that he isn't hitting the back of the net regularly enough to be the club's first choice frontman and for that reason it is unsurprising to see the South Coast club look elsewhere.

Their back up options of Ellis Harrison and Jordy Hiwula simply aren't good enough and they need to add some much needed quality in the final third this summer.

It will be interesting to see which route Danny Cowley goes down as there is sure to be fierce competition for Melamed's signature.