IT SEEMS LIKE Southampton have managed to steady the ship after losing five key players (and a manager) to other clubs this summer.
Centre-back Jose Fonte has put pen-to-paper on a three-year contract that will keep him at the club until 2017. The 30 year-old was the subject of some interest from Cardiff and Hull but has given new manager Ronald Koeman a massive lift by agreeing to stay.
He will also take over from the departed Adam Lallana as team captain.
Recently, club chairman Ralph Krueger said that neither Morgan Schneiderlin or Jay Rodriguez would be sold, despite Tottenham, now managed by former boss Mauricio Pochettino, showing an interest in both players. The French midfielder took to Twitter to voice his displeasure but Krueger re-iterated the club’s stance earlier this week.
During the summer window, the club has sold Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Rickie Lambert to Liverpool, Luke Shaw to Manchester United and Calum Chambers to Arsenal. But, by retaining some players and finally making some new acquisitions, it seems like the worst is over.
However, speaking at today’s press conference ahead of a weekend friendly against Bayer Leverkusen, Koeman did reveal that even though Schneiderlin has been told that he won’t be sold, it’s still a tense situation, with the Dutchman unable to confirm if he will be staying:
I spoke to Morgan this morning. It’s difficult because the player makes it difficult. I spoke to him with our chairman and the situation has not changed: we don’t sell Schneiderlin and he has to accept that. He’s not in the squad for tomorrow because he said he’s not in the right physical or mental way. One side I can understand but we said, ‘Okay, we’ll give you the weekend off to think about this situation. On Monday, we have a training session and we have one week to prepare for the match against Liverpool so now it’s up to him.”
