Southampton have hit a brick wall in their attempts to sign Armando Broja again for the 2022/23 season, claims talkSPORT reporter Alex Crook.

The Albanian striker is currently on loan at St Mary's from Chelsea, but Crook says the Saints doing further business with the Blues is proving difficult following the sanctioning of owner Roman Abramovich.

What is the latest news involving Broja?

When Southampton are able to start discussions with Chelsea over Broja, it looks like they could face competition for his services.

While the goals have dried up for the 20-year-old, who has scored just twice in the league since the start of the year, he has still seemingly done enough in the current campaign to convince West Ham of his ability.

As per the Mail on Sunday, the Hammers have added Broja to their list of targets as David Moyes looks to bring in a new forward this summer.

Michail Antonio is the only No.9 in West Ham's squad, so it is almost certain that the east London club will strengthen in that area when the transfer window reopens, which could be bad news for Ralph Hasenhuttl.

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What has Crook said about Broja to Southampton?

As things stand, though, Broja will not be going anywhere, with Crook telling GIVEMESPORT that Southampton do not even know who they should be contacting to sign the player amid the ongoing crisis at Stamford Bridge.

Speaking to GMS, he said: "Obviously, it's clouded at Chelsea because there's no one there to deal with at the moment. I know Southampton have had that problem with Armando Broja.

"They would like to keep him for another year, but they don't actually know who they should be speaking to about doing that, so that clouds the issue."

Why do Southampton want to keep hold of Broja?

Again, Broja has had his struggles in this second part of the campaign and was recently criticised by Hasenhuttl.

"Maybe we are not good enough," the Southampton boss said (via Daily Mirror) after a 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace at the end of last month. "I expected more from my guys – Broja’s not what he was – and we lacked quality. Everything has to change."

However, the £34m-rated Albania international did show a lot of promise earlier in the season after scoring against the likes of Brentford, Brighton and Palace in the reverse fixture to April's clash.

Ultimately, he is a forward with potential. And with Hasenhuttl using two No.9s in his starting XI instead of one, the Austrian needs bodies up front.

With the above in mind, then, it is easy to see why Southampton would want to retain Broja for at least another season.