Not many Southampton fans knew what to expect when we sent £16million Basel’s way last summer for Norwegian international winger Mohammed Elyounoussi.
The 24-year-old didn’t have a great first year at the club, making only eleven starting appearances with eight substitute showings across the campaign and clearly he struggled to adjust to the more physical nature of the Premier League.
The door certainly hasn’t been closed on him though and he sounds up for the fight.
“Up To Me To Show That I Can Deliver” – Southampton Man Remains Confident About His Future
With him out on international duty at the moment and given the speculation about the potential signing of Moussa Djenepo, TV2 again asked him about his future and he certainly didn’t feel that any signings would automatically mean he was now not an option for manager Ralph Hasenhuttl given the brief chats they have now had.
“I’m going to focus on myself when I return. There will always be changes in the Premier League. So, we’ll see how it is when I return. We had a little talk before I went on a holiday. He knows my qualities and sees that I fit into his plans. But we have not set any future plans yet. Now it’s time to get back in shape and take it from there. We had a good chat together. Both with him and the club. I didn’t get a good run when I got there, so now it is about getting in shape in the preseason. It will be these two games here, and then there will be a holiday in Morocco. But I probably won’t get to be lazy there.”
He still sounds confident enough so we have to hope that next season with a full pre-season under Hasenhuttl under his belt, we start to see the very best of the lad as opposed to the small, brief glimpses of talent we know he’s capable of.
He certainly wouldn’t be the first player to arrive from abroad that needed a 12 month bedding in period before they began impressing.
