Saints have confirmed another departure from St Mary's, midfielder Alex Jankewitz infamous for his red card at Manchester United, has completed a move to Switzerland to join BSC Young Boys in a move that is clearly driven by the player and his agent.

The four paragraph statement from the club to confirm that Jankewitz had left to join BSC Young Boys for an undisclosed fee perhaps spoke a lot more than it actually let on, Jankewitz was rated as a player at St Mary's but had become impatient at a lack of first team opportunities that had come his way in a central midfield that was packed with senior professionals leaving him way down the pecking order.

Jankewitx played just three times for the first team at St Mary's, his debut came as an 85th minute substitute against Shrewsbury in the FA Cup and then as a last minute substitute in the Premier League against Aston Villa.

But he will be remembered by Saints fans purely for his 3rd and final appearance for the club at Old Trafford, there he was sent off in the opening minute for a horrendous mistimed tackle that reduced Saints down to 10 men.

This perhaps tells you a lot about the players temperament and certainly he has been angling for a move out of St Mary's since.

He seems impatient to be playing first team football and he is certainly not ready for the Premier League just yet, at 19 he has to learn his trade and earn his right to be in the first team, although i don't fall into the category of those who demanded that he never play for us again after that rout against United, I hoped that this might have been his breakthrough season coming up.

But that is not to be, he has forced Saints hand with just a year left on his contract and the club have moved him on.

Whether this tunes out to be a good or bad move for Jankewitz is yet to be decided, only time will tell, he certainly has the ability, it is only his attitude that is suspect, he reminds me very much of Mario Lemina in this respect and although i'm sure he will have a good career in the game, he will perhaps never quite live up to his potential due to his impatience.

Photo: Action Images

saintstu1969 added 11:41 - Jul 12 Well good luck to him and if he is a success at his new club I do hope that we have got a good sell on clause in the contract. This was on the cards even before his sending off. His salary may not be that high but another one off the books!
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highfield49 added 11:47 - Jul 12 A bit of a pattern forming over the last few days? Lemina, Obafemi and Jankewitz the subject of transfer activity, surely no coincidence that their attitude off pitch has been of more note than their ability as footballers. No doubt in my mind that two or three other players will be packing their bags fairly soon as well.
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A1079 added 13:03 - Jul 12 I find this and the potential departure of Obafemi disappointing. Not because it is them specifically as I do not know them well enough really to say whether they are better moved on, though I have my doubts and I would like to have seen them given a bit more opportunity with us. But, the point is more the fact that our much lauded academy does not seem to be living upto it's so called reputation or we have managers/coaches who are not interested enough to bring them on. The latter is all the more bewildering when you have a season like the last where we lost so many games on the trot, playing largely the same set of players. Those that think they may have potential must wonder what they have to do when they see those failing to deliver still getting picked. This thing about "attitude" feels like a get out clause. He has a poor attitude so he needs to go. How do we know that is the truth? What if Jankewitz really believed in his ability and just wanted a chance to shine.......he was never really given it and ok the one chance he had he arguably blew it, but how many chances do some of our senior players get and yet game after game, week after week, they fail to deliver? Ralph made quite a bit of noise about bringing on youth and they were our future, but thus far I am struggling to see it. Which player out of our academy has he actually managed to bring on? They seem to get a game if they are lucky and then hang around the bench and then disappear into anonymity. He does not seem to give certain players the level of tolerance and chances that he himself has had despite the results. Ok, I have no idea what goes on or he sees at training and there may be deeper reasons why the academy players do not make it, but whatever it is, our return for some seasons has been poor and I whilst I am not in the know like many I am not hearing much noise about the next prospect.

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underweststand added 15:35 - Jul 17 There's something remarkable about a 19 year old demanding a transfer because he isn't playing Premier League football...well AJ got his chance .. all 2 minutes of it. A closer look at his stats. shows that the MU game wasn't his only red card of last season. In 14 games for the "B team " he picked up a red card in the away game at Derby, PLUS 5 yellow cards on other games. For all the undoubted talent that everyone claims he possesses it seems that he also rates fairly high on temperament as well as showing " an attitude ". Well he has finally departed and we must wish him well in the hope that he has a career without too man hiccups along the way - and as his new club are one of the very few Swiss teams with any merit he may well get some CL game time as well as success in their "little league" . YES- it may well be another who "got away" , but it seemed strangely ironic to me that his new club was aptly named " Young Boys" - and that the "grown-up world " of the Premier League may have proven -" a red card too far".

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