Latest Saints club to be linked with a Southampton player in the summer are RB Leipzig who are said to have made enquiries about Saints misfit winger Kamaldeen Sulemana.
According to sportwitness.co.uk Bundesliga club RB Leipzig have been in contact with Southampton about signing Ghanian international Kamaldeen Sulemana.
This is not a surprising rumour, to be honest Saints have been open to offers for the 22 year old who in his 2 years at the club has started just 27 League games plus another 32 off the bench, just 59 games out of a possible 90 or so he could have started, scoring just 3 times.
Incredibly almost a quarter of them have come under current Southampton manager Ivan Juric, perhaps underlining how out of the picture he was under Russell Martin.
Add to that the fact that 2 of his 3 League goals came in the final Premier League game of the season against Liverpool almost 2 years ago and emphasises just how little Sulemana has contributed during his time at the club.
Signed for £22 million, he has undoubted electric pace, but too often there is no end product, he fails to either hit the target or play a killer ball or cross.
Saints would probably be happy getting half of their outlay in January 2023 to get him off the books, but wages in Germany are nowhere near what they are in the Premier League and with 2 years left on his contract, Sulemana might be unwilling to take a big pay cut to move there.
That could mean that RB Leipzig will push for a loan move, paying a proportion if not all plus maybe a loan fee.
But that may cut Southampton's costs in the short term, but it will only bring Sulemana back to St Mary's in the summer of 2026 and with a year left on his contract, he could well be another one who leaves for free.
Recently Sulemana has shown that he can be a good player, but the truth is all about the end product and he has shown little of that, his strike against Bournemouth at St Mary's recently being the only goal scores since then and in total his entire League career at Saints has produced only 3 goals & 4 assists, not a great end product stat.
But I think this is more about Sulemana's agent getting to work to try and get him out of the club in the summer after the almost inevitable relegation, from that perspective the player himself won't mind whether he goes on loan or is sold, if he goes on loan then he is still paid his Premier League salary by Southampton FC, but the issue if he is sold is whether RB Leipzig or indeed any club who try to buy him are firstly willing to match his wages which is unlikely and secondly also stump up his market value transfer fee.