Southampton have seldom made large switch blunders in the previous few years, so it makes their £15m outlay for Wesley Hoedt all of the extra baffling a choice.
The Dutch defender was coming off the again of a stable season at Lazio, having featured 23 occasions for the Italian outfit in Serie A. His spectacular 6.99 common SofaScore ranking urged a powerful marketing campaign, worthy of Premier League curiosity.
Ought to Southampton have signed Hoedt?
Sure
No
Nevertheless, even the White and Sky Blues should have been shocked to see such a big sum touted.
He featured closely all through his first season for the Saints, by which his aspect narrowly averted relegation. A Seventeenth-place end and three factors from the drop, Hoedt featured 28 occasions and to be truthful, did file a SofaScore ranking of 6.96.
The season following noticed his play time drop alongside together with his high quality, as simply 13 league video games and a 6.81 ranking marked the downturn in his profession.
Two unsuccessful mortgage spells noticed the £60k-per-week earner lastly freed up from the wage invoice, when Lazio agreed to re-sign him with an choice to purchase. Even they didn’t need him completely, and solely final summer time may they lastly shift this deadweight onto Anderlecht with the participant leaving on a free switch.
A grand complete of 45 appearances throughout 4 years upon St Mary’s marks a horrible funding, particularly contemplating the preliminary outlay plus the wages.
For his 208 weeks on the membership, in complete, he has drained them of £27.5m discounting any mortgage charges.
He has actually been a “ineffective” – as dubbed by one supply – acquisition for Southampton, however they will afford these errors because of the large revenue they usually make on different offers. It was a threat price taking, that in the end didn’t repay.
Virgil van Dijk would signal for Liverpool simply months after this deal was introduced, bringing in an enormous £75m to downplay the importance of Hoedt’s price ticket.
Nevertheless, he can’t be checked out as something aside from one other large flop on the south coast. He struggled defensively to deal with the league, with a number of managers opting to ship him off at each alternative.
