Southampton are expected to pay around £14 million to secure the signing of Birmingham City striker Che Adams for whom the Premier League club had a bid rejected in January.

The 22-year-old is a long term target of the club where the squad is being extensively restructured by manager Ralph Hassenhuttl and director of football operations Ross Wilson over the summer. Adams was the subject of a £10 million bid from Southampton in January which was rejected at a time when Birmingham were anxious about their impending points deduction and operating under a transfer embargo of their own.

There has been a further Southampton bid since the transfer window opened on May 16 and the player himself is understood to favour a move to the south coast. There has also been interest from Burnley, who rate the player highly. Everton have also scouted him but are yet to commit.

Adams has a three-year contract remaining at Birmingham where he was the player of the year last season and the top goalscorer.

Hassenhuttl spoke to the German newspaper Bild this week about the likely changes to the squad that are coming at Southampton with, he said, five new additions in the pipeline.

The club have already completed the signing of Moussa Djenepo, a 20-year-old winger from Standard Liege who cost around £14 million and is the first signing since Hassenhuttl took over in December. Hassenhuttl told Bild: “We want players who fit our philosophy: lots of speed, high pressing, gaming intelligence.” He said that the club were looking at an upper age limit of 24 for new signings.

The Austrian, a former manager at RB Leipzig, has enjoyed being consulted on all decisions around the club – a departure from his experience in Germany where his responsibilities were simply to coach and pick the team.

He mentioned the club’s “new bus” in the Bild interview. Southampton are indeed collaborating with their transport company to design a new first team coach and all options are being run past their manager first.

Hassenhuttl is not taking a break this summer. He and Wilson travelled to Paris last week to oversee the medical for Djenepo and the signing of the contracts having worked together to convince the player that Southampton was the right destination for him.

The pair are running all transfer business this summer in the aftermath of the departure of Les Reed. There are expected to be up to six high profile departures as the club make space in their squad and their wage bill.