Wesley Hoedt Joins Anderlecht
Southampton have announced that defender Wesley Hoedt has joined Belgian side Anderlecht on a permanent deal, although full details of the transfer have yet to be revealed, Saints will just be glad to get his salary off the wage bill.
There were high hopes for Wesley Hoedt when he joined Saints back in the summer of 2017, but he joined a club in turmoil and despite some good displays in his first season he found himself the brunt of some of the fans ire.
Was that justified, perhaps some of the flak thrown his way was deserved, but truthfully he was no worse than any of the players that he partnered that season and he did play a key part in the final games of season 2017/18 as we battled hard to stay up.
When Ralph Hasenhuttl arrived for some reason he didn't take to Hoedt and the player was soon off on loan for the rest of the season without playing a game.
The summer of 2018 saw both manager and player make encouraging noises and Hoedt himself seemed to want to come back and play for his place, but it was soon clear that Hasenhuttll didn't see him as part of his plans and off he went on loan again.
The problem for Saints was that his wages made it difficult to move him on, Hoedt wasn't alone in that situation with the likes of Boufal & Elyounoussi also having to sit tight or take massive pay cuts.
Now with a year to go on his current deal he will be joining Anderlecht formally on 21st June, however there are no details of the deal, suggesting that Saints will like Boufal let him go for free to clear him off the wage bill.
In these desperate financial times for all football clubs, saving £60k a week doesn't sound a lot , but it will take over £3 million off the wage bill and that will enable us to sign players in the summer, so for that alone this is a good result although we have taken a bath on his original £14 million fee.
Good luckk to Wesley Hoedt, some froth at the mouth when his name is mentioned but in 45 appearances for Saints he did no worse than Maya Yoshida, Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek, he didn't appear to cause any issues nor badmouth the club , his downfall was just having the wrong manager at the wrong time who didn't fancy him as a player.
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