Why Southampton should bite the bullet and sell Jordy Clasie
Southampton flop Jordy Clasie will get a chance to revitalize his career at his former club Feyenoord. The Dutch club are looking to replace midfielder Karim El Ahmadi, and are keen to add Clasie in their squad. The 27-year-old has already spent four seasons at De Kuip between 2010 and 2015.
Southampton signed the player back in 2015 under Ronald Koeman and a lot was expected from Clasie at St.Mary’s. However, after his first season, Clasie couldn’t establish himself as a regular starter in the team. He was loaned out to Brugge last season and now, his future is seemingly going nowhere under the new manager Mark Hughes.
Selling Clasie would make sense
Southampton’s recruitment and academy have always been impressive since their meteoric rise to the Premier League. Back then, the signing Clasie was touted to be a shrewd move in order to enhance the quality in the middle of the park. After all, the Dutchman can play either as a holding midfielder or as a double-pivot in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
However, the 27-year-old failed to take up that role as he struggled with consistency and was eventually out-favoured by Koeman. Under Hughes, the Saints escaped massively to just about keep their top-flight status alive last season. Ahead of the new term, the Welshman must make changes in the squad and offload the fringe players to generate money.
Retaining Clasie won’t make sense in all honesty. His physicality has prevented him from trying to adapt to the nature of the Premier League. The 27-year-old is a good ball-player but faced several problems when it came to surviving the intensity of the English top-flight.
Read More: Sell them Hughes – Why should Southampton offload their fringe duo, including enigmatic winger
Conclusion
Southampton must move on after their apprehensive season and start afresh. To that end, it seems logical for Hughes to make some snips in a few places. He should sell the likes of Clasie and others to create a solid bank balance to supplement the costs of quality arrivals.
It will be good for the player as well to move on from a career-stuttering three years and begin with a clean slate. But to do that, Clasie must go back to his native league and clock some regular minutes of first-team football.
