There aren’t many with a good word to say about Ivan Juric’s tenure as Saints boss, but he has covered his losses for the club after buying Kamaldeen Sulemana for much more than we could have hoped in our wildest dreams
Southampton FC have confirmed that they have completed the deal for Kamaldeen Sulemana’s transfer to Italian side Atalanta, if that is not enough reason to be cheerful, the further news that the club have received €17 million plus a reported €4 million in add ons is a lot more than we could have wished for.
After signing for £22 million in sterling 2 1/2 years ago, his value dropped like a stone as he failed to shine in the Championship and initially back in the Premier League, his 4 goals in over 70 games a not very impressive return, he didn’t have much different in terms os assists and even the most optimistic of Saints supporters would have imagined that the club would be lucky to get £10 million for him.
His stature did go up though under Ivan Juric and it seems that Juric has pushed this deal through with his new employers and in his enthusiasm has also pushed up the fee that we will get for him.
Juric’s spell at the club was costly, not as much as some would think given that there was a break clause in July and that his period of employment with Southampton ended before even that due to his securing the job with Atalanta.
But he has repaid a big chunk of his wages etc with the €17 million initial fee being a tad under £15 million and the potential for that to rise by £3,500.
If this works out well for Sulemana in Italy and I truly hope that it does, then we could recoup £18.5 million, only a £3.5 million loss.
So a big thank you to Ivan Juric who finally did something for Saints, even though he had already left the club.
Now if we can complete the transfer of Tall Paul Onuachu to Trabzonspor, that would see over £20 million in the coffers and two big chunks of wages of the books in the space of a few days.