Southampton have announced that defender Wesley Hoedt has joined Belgian side Anderlecht on a permanent deal, although full details of the transfer have yet to be revealed, Saints will just be glad to get his salary off the wage bill.

There were high hopes for Wesley Hoedt when he joined Saints back in the summer of 2017, but he joined a club in turmoil and despite some good displays in his first season he found himself the brunt of some of the fans ire.

Was that justified, perhaps some of the flak thrown his way was deserved, but truthfully he was no worse than any of the players that he partnered that season and he did play a key part in the final games of season 2017/18 as we battled hard to stay up.

When Ralph Hasenhuttl arrived for some reason he didn't take to Hoedt and the player was soon off on loan for the rest of the season without playing a game.

The summer of 2018 saw both manager and player make encouraging noises and Hoedt himself seemed to want to come back and play for his place, but it was soon clear that Hasenhuttll didn't see him as part of his plans and off he went on loan again.

The problem for Saints was that his wages made it difficult to move him on, Hoedt wasn't alone in that situation with the likes of Boufal & Elyounoussi also having to sit tight or take massive pay cuts.

Now with a year to go on his current deal he will be joining Anderlecht formally on 21st June, however there are no details of the deal, suggesting that Saints will like Boufal let him go for free to clear him off the wage bill.

In these desperate financial times for all football clubs, saving £60k a week doesn't sound a lot , but it will take over £3 million off the wage bill and that will enable us to sign players in the summer, so for that alone this is a good result although we have taken a bath on his original £14 million fee.

Good luckk to Wesley Hoedt, some froth at the mouth when his name is mentioned but in 45 appearances for Saints he did no worse than Maya Yoshida, Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek, he didn't appear to cause any issues nor badmouth the club , his downfall was just having the wrong manager at the wrong time who didn't fancy him as a player.

Photo: Action Images

codge added 19:10 - Jun 17 So glad you think £60,000 a week is not a much of a saving.
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WestSussexSaint added 19:23 - Jun 17 “When Ralph Hassenhuttl arrived for some reason he didn’t take to Hoedt” - maybe it was because he saw the player’s poor attitude. He reportedly wasn’t prepared to put the effort in that Ralph expects from all his players so he was never going to feature in Ralph’s plans. Let’s face it he hasn’t exactly ripped up trees elsewhere on loan so it was the right call.

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A1079 added 20:02 - Jun 17 I don't know if you are going out of your way to be contentious today Nick and looking for a bite, but with this piece and your piece on season ticket take up has both been a dig at your fellow fans. I am sorry, but not everyone can be wrong about Hoedt and it is not as if it is just Saints he has had an issue. His attitude was poor, he thought he was better than he was and though he may not have slagged the club off he made some snidey sideswipes. True, in some respects he may not have been worse than a number of other players but fans don't turn for the hell of it, they see what they see and that is a player here who did not knuckle down.

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Colburn added 20:22 - Jun 17 Of all players mentioned, he was the only one to make Sly comments, so I don't agree with the conclusion that he kept his counsel. I don't believe his best performance in a saints shirt is anywhere near Stephens best game, nor Yoshida so that part doesn't work for me either. Glad to get him off the books and hope he finds his level and some joy at his new club.
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felly1 added 20:49 - Jun 17 You do write some some strange stuff sometimes! You slate Jack Stephens and Vestergaard at every given opportunity yet fail to see the hypocrisy in slating fans who dare criticise your beloved Wesley and Nathan! .
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perazi added 03:43 - Jun 18 Awful player and awful attitude. To say he was equal to Yoshida, Bednarek and Stephens is laughably wrong. Don't think I've seen a more one-footed player with such difficulty in keeping his feet! Along with Carillo, Hoedt ranks as the worst signings in recent memory - a total sum almost equivalent with the fee received for Sadio Mane. Think about that for a moment!
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wessexman added 07:33 - Jun 18 I fully agree with you Nick when you say he was certainly no worse than his fellow defenders. To see Hoedt vilified and then see Stephens rewarded with a lucrative long contract is baffling. What is very clear is that slowly but surely we are now starting to realize how the big monies received for the likes of VvD, Mane et all has been criminally wasted. What is also clear is......we cannot afford to waste more money on duds.

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sandywelsh added 09:58 - Jun 18 Wesley Hoedt is a far better defender than Jack Stephens so it would be good to see him go aswell! The main problem Saints fans have is that the transfer window has been open for a while and still no new players have come in!!!!!
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Block8 added 10:42 - Jun 18 Personally I thought there were games where he looked ok but in others terrible and appeared over confident, however he never excelled in a Saints shirt another in the quite long list of recent poor (and for us expensive) signings. We cannot afford, especially in the current financial situation, to waste money this season and your comment about his £60,000 a week wages is pertinent. We can, if we get a move on, pick up a couple of seasoned professionals from the out of contract lists, worth looking at folks, for a couple of seasons on around that wage. This works out at around £3Million a season, obviously + a signing on fee. We don't have the depth of squad to sign young players, marginally better than our own kids, that need a couple of seasons to bed in. What we need for the next season is stability both on the playing front and financially and hope to take the next forward step the following season, when our current crop of promising youngsters bear fruit. I won't comment on the season ticket article, suffice to say I have renewed in the hope we improve a bit and Ralph can hopefully devise a plan B. The lack of which has cost us more points than anything else this season!

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SaintNick added 12:48 - Jun 18 Im interested in some of the comments thrown at me, i havent suggested that Hoedt was a success here, just gave an opinion that I thought he was better than those around him at the time, it surprises me that certain players get villified for something that to be honest no one on here knows including me. Did Hoedt have a bad attitiude, he certainly didnt seem to have one when he had a man of the match performance at Swansea to ensure we stayed up, nor did the scorer that day Manolo Gabbiadini who himslef got only 15 minutes in Ralph's first match in charge. No one accuses Gabbiadini in having a bad attitude I like Gabbiadini as a player, but in truth 0f the 12 goals he scored for the club 5 were scored in his first 4 games and he only got 7 in the next 53 appearances, so why do people froth at the mouth at Hoedt and not Gabbiadini ? Both struggled in a side that was on the slide and poorly managed. I'm not having a dig at anyone I just cant understand why some of our players are so hated . Hoedt didn t force Saints to pay him £60k a week, in fairness to him when he came back in the summer of 2019 Ralph said he had a second chance, the player said he would take it and it was only when it was clear he wasnt get the chance did he speak out, thats football sometimes your face doesnt fit, but it doesn't mean we have to hate Hoedt or Redmond or indeed 99 % of the player s that have played for the club.

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geezershoong1 added 12:57 - Jun 18 60k a week..? Unbelievable
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KilkennySaint added 13:23 - Jun 18 Hoedt had the potential to be a decent player for us but it never worked out. I put it down to poor attitude, as you might be correct to say he was no worst than Mya & Jack, he didn’t have the same heart and dedication that they had which counts for a lot in today’s game. I don’t agree that fans singled him out more than any other player but as you mention on 60,000K a week we would expect a bit more in terms of commitment. its not just at Saints where there was problems, a pattern of the same issue occurred at the other clubs he has been loaned out too and if I recall I he had a bit of a reputation for poor attitude before he joined. This is the best outcome for club & player, so I wish him well and hope he can get his career back on track. Just another repercussion from the disastrous era of Wilson & Reed us Saints fans still have to endure.

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Block8 added 19:06 - Jun 18 Just a quick reminder before tonight's game, Billy Gilmour is available for a loan this coming season!
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Block8 added 22:14 - Jun 18 Did I mention Billy Gilmour is available on loan 😇😇😇😇
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underweststand added 06:33 - Jun 21 Many "international footballers " who move country every other season, need to have a balanced lifestyle. Clearly Hoedt's brief time with Saints was never a success (og's and all) ...and his subsequent unhappy sojourns in other countries didn't help either. There is a footballer inside him "somewhere" and one can only hope that he might finally find a solution to his setbacks and do a job for Anderlecht, because at this stage of his career there won't be too many interested clubs in the future at a higher level.

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