Sofiane Boufal’s talent is obvious to anyone when you watch the predominantly left sided attacker play, but there is unfortunately an undercurrent to the Moroccan 25-year-old.
Having come in from Lille for reported £16million late in on August 2016, he only made 29 starting appearances for us, with a further 30 showings from the bench – returning four goals – before he spectacularly fell out with former manager Mark Hughes.
Following the fallout and his omission from the first team squad, we moved him quickly onto Celta Vigo last summer for a season long loan and although he got decent game time, 25 starts and ten substitute showings, he only scored three goals and again seemed to have issues.
It was long believed that Boufal was on the list of departures for Ralph Hasenhuttl, but plenty of fans hoped he’d get the chance to impress again.
That won’t be happening according to a report in French outlet L’Equipe (via Sport Witness) as they claim that Southampton are in ‘advanced negotiations’ with OGC Nice that will see him return to the French top flight.
We obviously take a hit here, as they name the fee as being 10million Euros, but if we want him gone that’s the price you sometimes pay for deals that don’t work out, and Southampton have had a few of them.
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