x

Does Dusan Tadic Have A Future At St Mary's

Whilst most media speculation has been about other more high profile players leaving St Mary's , speculation about Dusan Tadic has gone very quiet over the past six weeks.

At the end of last season it was assumed that Dusan Tadic had played his last game for the club, Tadic was on the verge of going a year ago after fall outs with Ronald Koeman, however with the Dutchman's departure Tadic decided to stay and hope things would be better under Claude Puel.

The answer though was a stark and resounding no ! leading Tadic to publicly complain about how the French manager was using him and it seemed like there was no future at the club for the Serbian especially since the arrival of Sofiane Boufal with many Saints fans of the opinion that there was not enough room for both of them in the same team, both being flair players.

Initially after the season ended the media carried several stories about Tadic's imminent departure with various reports suggesting that Liverpool, West Ham and even Inter Milan were interested in signing him.

Tadic has three years left on his contract, a deal signed only a year ago and it is reported that he has a buy out clause of around £13-14 million although this is unstantiated.

The last rumour linking him with a move away from St Mary's was 5-6 weeks ago at the start of June and since then little has been heard about whether Tadic is prepared to stay and see whether he features in Mauricio Pellegrino's plans or if he has decided that enough is enough and needs a fresh challenge.

On his day Tadic was a decent player, but too often last season he did not appear motivated especially in the second half of the season when he was clearly at odds with Puel.

Certainly there are two issues for him to consider, firstly the type of formation that the new manager will play, it is likely that although he will use two wide players, he will use them in a different way from Puel and that might not suit Tadic.

Secondly there is the Boufal question, Pellegrino will have a few options to use out wide, obvious ones include Nathan Redmond, & Sofiane Boufal and then of course there is Shane Long who played a wider role under Ronald Koeman and of course Josh Sims. Thats five players for two positions.

But the main rival would seemingly be Sofiane Boufal, there are some who would claim both are two similar in style to play in the same team, both are ball players rather than grafters, in today's Premier League could a team of Saints standing get away with both in the same team ? against the likes of Burnley at home perhaps, but not against the bigger clubs and in most away games.

So it would suggest that one of them would have to go and Saints would need to decide which, Boufal only having signed a year ago for a big fee would be highly unlikely to recoup anywhere near what we paid after his season last year, although the fleeting glimpses he showed his quality suggest that we could yet see the best of him.

In this situation Saints might consider that cashing in on Tadic now is better business.

The next few weeks will be interesting in terms of Tadic's future and whether the rumours of some big club's circling had any substance or where more a case of his agent trying to stir up interest.

What to read next:

Bristol Rovers 2 - 1 Portsmouth - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Bristol Rovers 0 - 2 Portsmouth - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Bristol Rovers 1 - 0 Rochdale - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Portsmouth 3 - 1 Bristol Rovers - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Rochdale 3 - 4 Bristol Rovers - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Bristol Rovers 1 - 0 Colchester United - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Bristol Rovers 4 - 2 Rochdale - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Colchester United 1 - 1 Bristol Rovers - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Blackpool 1 - 0 Bristol Rovers - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Portsmouth 1 - 0 Bristol Rovers - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.