Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl believes 'everything' is on hold in the transfer market because 'nobody has money' as Newcastle United target Mario Lemina closes in on a move to Nice.
There may be little more than three weeks to go until the new season goes under way, but this has been a particularly quiet summer window for the majority of clubs.
Steve Bruce said last week that he knew it was going to be 'very slow' because of the European Championship and COVID 'affecting everybody'.
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Bruce originally hoped to bring in three or four 'quality' additions before the transfer window shut at the end of next month, but Newcastle have yet to made any new signings just yet.
Although Lemina had been a player on Newcastle's radar, it appears Ligue 1 side Nice are now close to completing the signing of the Gabon international.
Hasenhuttl had been impressed with Lemina's 'unbelievable effort' in training since his loan spell ended at Fulham, but the Southampton manager was believed to be open to letting the midfielder go as he entered the final year of his contract.
"At the moment, in the transfer market, it's always the same," Hasenhuttl told BBC Radio Solent. "Everybody wants players; nobody has money.
"Everybody wants to have the most money for his players when he wants to sell it and that keeps everything on hold.
"Therefore, a lot of players are running down their contracts and finally leaving for free. This money is what smaller clubs are missing then.
"This is going out of football somewhere else in the pockets of some agents or whatever.
"I always say this situation is not doable for no league in the world because you pay a lot of money for players and extending contracts gets more difficult every year.
"It's not only in our situation; I see all around the world now players knowing this, running down their contracts and then leaving clubs for free.
"The clubs don't know where more money comes from because we had COVID and other issues in the modern world.
"These are the problems not only we are fighting but a lot of teams are fighting."
Florian Lejeune, Andy Carroll, Henri Saivet and Christian Atsu have all left Newcastle this summer. However, only Lejeune commanded a transfer fee following his move to Alaves.
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