Mario Lemina has given an interview to the Turkish press in which he makes his intentions clear, but we have heard it all before.
Mario Lemina, who’s currently on loan at Galatasaray has given an exclusive interview to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet and expressed his desire to stay with the Super Lig club beyond this season.
When asked what his preference for next season would be, Lemina said:
"Playing for Galatasaray makes me very happy. Every day, I receive good messages from the fans. I love them. I’m enjoying playing for them.
"Do I want to stay? There’s no need to ask that question, everything is clear from my end. I want to be remembered as one of Galatasaray’s greatest players. Of course, I joined the club on a loan deal, but I hope it won’t continue like this.”
But was have heard all these good intentions from the player before, when he joined in the summer of 2017 I seem to remember he made similar proclamations as to his ambitions at the club and fans drooled after a couple of initial performances that made us think why had Juventus got rid of him.
But we soon found out, on the field he was inconsistent, on his day he oozed quality, but on other days he could look uninterested and a shadow of the player he was, we started to notice that he was a player whose day was usually when we played a club at the bottom where he could bully his opponents, in the tougher games where he had to roll his sleeves up and graft he was missing in action.
Off the field stories began to leak about his attitude and that he was leading some of the younger squad members astray with fast cars and nights out.
His career began to follow the path that it did at his previous clubs, at Juventus his two seasons saw him start only 15 Serie A games with a further 14 as sub, he was far from a first team regular,
His 3 seasons at Marseille were a similar story only 25 starts plus 16 as sub, they got £8 million for him from Juve who in turn were relieved to get around £16 million from us.
Sadly we will be lucky to get half of that back for a player who clubs have bought for his untapped potential , but fins he hasn't the attitude to fulfil it.
At Galatasaray he has played just 17 times in the Super Lig and has suffered various injuries which have mean't that he has never really shone as he should have, but like at Marseille, Juventus & at times Saints he has done just enough to suggest that he could be a major talent and keep clubs interested for yet another move and payday.
Lemina will turn 27 in September, the last three years of his career should have seen him at his peak, he has wasted them, we too our eye of the ball when we recruited him, his footballing ability his unquestioned, but surely just scratching the veneer would have revealed the type of person he is.
With two years left on his contract we would hope that a deal could be done to get him off the books, bring in £8 million or so to go towards a replacement and get his substantial wages off the books.
The problem is though that Lemina chases money not success, yet again we have read some of his fine words but when it comes to taking a pay drop he will not be so pleasant, he says that he wants a permanent move, but will he sacrifice salary to achieve it, my gut feeling is that he won't. at least not without a pay off.