da 888casino： After a nightmare spell at St Mary’s, Southampton appear to have been presented with an opportunity to finally get rid of Wesley Hoedt for good this summer, although he seemingly won’t be joining Lazio on a permanent deal following a less than impressive loan spell with the Serie A club.
da mrbet： The Dutch defender joined Southampton from Lazio in a £15m deal back in 2017 but has managed just 45 appearances for the Saints since then, with the last of those coming in the 2018/19 season.
He subsequently spent time on loan with Celta Vigo and Royal Antwerp before being loaned to Lazio this season, perhaps in the hope that he could rediscover some of the form which encouraged the Saints to shell out £15m for him four years ago.
Unfortunately, his performances in Simone Inzaghi’s side this season have been shocking at times, with his 17 appearances in Serie A earning him a lowly 6.38 average WhoScored rating, so it was no surprise to hear that Lazio won’t be exercising their option to make his deal permanent this summer. He is unlikely to be missed in Rome, with some supporters targeting him after a particularly horrendous display against Atalanta in January.
Therefore, it had seemed as if Hoedt was destined to return to Southampton, where he is unlikely to dislodge the likes of Jannik Vestergaard and Jan Bednarek at centre-back in Hasenhuttl’s line-up. Nor has he helped his cause with disparaging remarks towards the club and manager amid one of his loan spells.
According to The Athletic, however, there is some interest being shown in the 27-year-old defender from Belgian and Dutch clubs ahead of the summer transfer window, which suggests that Southampton may well have been handed a huge lifeline in their hopes of getting rid of him for good.
Although they will undoubtedly be forced to take a significant loss on the £15m they paid, as he is now valued at just £4.5m by Transfermarkt, it will surely be a relief to get him off the books rather than paying his wages for another year and seeing him depart on a free transfer when his Saints contract expires at the end of next season.
Southampton chairman Jisheng Gao will undoubtedly be delighted if Southampton can finally sell Hoedt, as his time with the south coast club has been an expensive disaster.
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