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Jan Bednarek Set To leave Southampton

According to reports from his native Poland, Jan Bednarek wants to leave Saints for a fresh challenge elsewhere, in truth many Southampton fans would agree that in the second half of last season his performances were uninspired.

When Jan Bednarek didn't play against Manchester City in the FA Cup, the comments from Ralph Hasenhuttl suggested that the Austrian was not happy about the reasons behind this and that the Polish central defender was more interested in his countries upcoming games than his clubs.

Watching Bednarek's body language you could tell that something was amiss from the start of the season, back then he found himself on the bench in the opening 4 games in the Premier League and his only appearance came in the home draw with Manchester United when he came on at half time.

However he came back in the side for the 5th game of the season a 0-0 draw at Manchester City and was pretty much a mainstay in the starting line up for the rest of the season, aside from the last two games when again he found himself an unused sub.

Rumours surfaced of Bednarek's unrest although no concrete reasons for that has so far emerged other than Hasenhuttl's vague comment after the City cup tie.

Media outlets in Poland are suggesting that he wants away from St Mary's and they also link him with a move to AS Roma, suggesting that the player or his agent has been tapped up.

Certainly Bednarek was happy enough at St Mary's 18 months ago when he signed a new 4 1/2 year deal with the club.

The report also claims that Southampton are quite happy for him to go and have already set a price tag of 15 million Euros for his transfer fee.

This seems a little low for a player who has pretty much been a mainstay of the Saints team for the past four seasons after joining in the summer of 2017, has played 130 Premier League games for the club as well as another 19 in cup competitions.

Not to mention his 40 caps for Poland.

I would suggest that Saints will be looking for a bit more than 15 million Euros and nearer £20 million for a player who still has 3 years left on his contract.

However perhaps Saints will look for a quick and easy sale if there are internal issues with Bednarek.

Certainly there are several option in the centre of defence, Mohammed Salisu, Jack Stephens Lyanco & even Yan Valery can play in the position and they have been joined by new signing Armel Bella-Kotchap with Dynel Simeu last summers signing from Chelsea said to be ready for a breakthrough after a loan spell at Carlisle to toughen him up.

It would be sad to see Bednarek leave, however he does not seem to have his heart at the club anymore and in truth has stagnated over the past year or so and not kicked on to be the player he could have been.

I think we will soon be saying goodbye to Jan Bednarek and from a playing perspective he might not be as big a miss than in other positions, I wish him well, for all but perhaps the last couple of months of his time here he has been a good player to have in the team.

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