There were high hopes for Wesley Hoedt when he arrived from Lazio, however perhaps his progress wasn't helped by the instability in the Saints defence.
I have said this many times, but in my opinion Saints problems all stem back to January 2017 when we sold Jose Fonte and failed to replace him, these issues were compounded in the summer of the same year with the Van Dijk issue and our failure to replace him in January 2018.
All of this did not help Wesley Hoedt who stepped into a situation where the manager appeared to be trying to placate not only Van Dijk but Yoshida & Jack Stevens as well.
Unlike Van Dijk and Toby Alderweireld who stepped into a defence alongside an experienced campaigner in Jose Fonte to help them adjust, Hoedt found himself initially in and out of the side and when he was in either next to his fellow countryman who wasn't interested or Yoshida who although is 100% wholehearted is not an organiser and leader of men.
Hoedt looked confident early on though, but he clearly needed experience alongside him, people forgot he was younger than Jack Stevens and assumed that he had the experience to lead the back line.
Suddenly the whole squad was under fire and Hoedt came into the firing line when he got caught trying to turn at Bournemouth and cost us a goal, that got some people on his back and as the team slid down the league questions were asked and he was touted as a poor signing.
But as the season went on Hoedt got quietly on with the job and he played a vital part n the run in being the only central defender who featured in all of those last vital five games.
With 28 starts in the Premier League, Hoedt played more games than any other central defender in the squad and there was good reason for that, certainly most of the 10 games he missed were in the early part of the season and he was ever present from January onwards, finding some consistency.
I have high hopes for next season for Hoedt, he looks a quality act at times, he used the ball well and I would like to have seen hi partnered by an experienced player who can bring him on and make him the player at times he has looked but at others not so much due to the transient nature of the Saints central defence.
If Saints bring in such a player then I think he along with Hoedt can form a solid partnership and a lot of our defensive issues will be solved add to that Bednarek as back up and things will be tighter.
With a years experience in the Premier League under his belt and a confident solid Saints side around him, Hoedt has what it takes to kick on next season.
This season has been one of turmoil, but we have to look at the root causes rather than the popularist ones, it should be noted that in the Autumn, McCarthy, Hojbjerg & Bednarek were all being held up as poor signings, a waste of money and a reason to beat Les Reed round the head with a stick with, by the end of the season all had played vital parts in our recovery.
Net season hopefully Mark Hughes will shore up the defensive side of our game, Wesley Hoedt is part of the solution.