SAINTS' new signing Mohamed Elyounoussi does not come into St Mary's as a 'direct replacement' for Dusan Tadic, according to boss Mark Hughes.

Tadic ended his four-year stay at Saints earlier this week, leaving in a £15m deal for Ajax.

Hughes admits he wanted to keep the Serbia international and revealed that Elyounoussi is not a direct replacement for Tadic.

The 23-year-old Norway international joined Saints yesterday in a £16m switch from Swiss side FC Basel.

“We’re not viewing him as a direct replacement, he’s a different type of player but he has similar traits as well,” he said in an interview with the Daily Echo and BBC Radio Solent.

“He’s not a like-for-like replacement, you can never get that, but I was sorry to see Dusan go, I really enjoyed working with him. He was really influential in what we did at the end of the season.

“But I sat down with him almost immediately after the end of the season and had a quick chat with him and tried to make him understand that if I was the manager next season, I’d loved to continue to work with him.

“He needed to understand that but he had this idea and this hope that he’d get this opportunity to play at a club like Ajax and maybe win titles and play in the Champions League.

“That’s a big draw for these players and at the stage he’s at in his career I wish him well, because now he’s got the opportunity to tick some boxes he hasn’t before.”

Meanwhile, the Daily Echo understands Saints are interested in potentially signing Borussia Monchengladbach centre-back Jannik Vestergaard.

The 25-year-old defender is currently at the World Cup with Denmark and has also attracted interest from Premier League rivals Everton and West Ham.

He started 32 games for Monchengladbach last term and is highly-rated in the German leagues.

Saints are monitoring his situation and have also been linked with a move for young Manchester City goalkeeper Angus Gunn.

The 22-year-old impressed on loan at Norwich last season and, with Fraser Forster's future unclear and Stuart Taylor leaving the club, there could well be a need for competition for Alex McCarthy, the first-choice shot stopper who signed a new four-year contract this week.

Hughes was coy on the club's interest in Gunn, who received his first England call-up last November.

“There’s a lot of speculation about our goalkeeping situation, obviously we’ve lost Stuart Taylor who has left the club," Hughes said when asked about Gunn.

“There’s a lot of speculation, it’s that time of year and there will be circulation about players.”

Saints confirmed Taylor will leave the club at the end of his contract this month, having spent two years at the club without making an appearance.

The 37-year-old was brought in to support Forster and McCarthy as a third choice.