Southampton: Could the Saints sell Wesley Hoedt this summer?

Despite joining for around £15 million last summer, it’s been a tough first 12 months in Southampton colours for Wesley Hoedt.

Yesterday lunchtime the Saints officially signed towering centre-back Jannik Vestergaard in an £18 million deal, adding some much-needed physicality and aerial presence to their defence.

However despite this the club have also been consistently linked with Barcelona’s Marlon Santos, having reportedly had a bid accepted for the Brazilian’s services. With the 22-year-old standing at only six-foot tall though, it’s unlikely that the Vestergaard deal would have any implications on the Saints’ pursuit of the Barca defender.

With that in mind the Saints would have a total of six natural centre-halves and if and when Marlon joins the side – the perfect amount if Mark Hughes is to rotate around a three-man defence.

However another narrative which makes things interesting is that if Southampton are to keep rejecting bids for Matt Targett, they may just have the Englishman in their first-team plans, else there’s no real reason for the 22-year-old to stay with the team. With that in mind, the Saints may instead play Ryan Bertrand as the left-sided centre-back next to Vestergaard, leaving FIVE defenders to scrap for the final position.

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KUNSHAN, CHINA – JULY 05: Benjamin Goller of Schalke FC competes the ball with Byan Bertrand of Southampton FC during the 2018 Clubs Super Cup match between Schalke and Southampton at Kunshan Sports Center Stadium on July 5, 2018 in Kunshan, Jiangsu Provinceon, China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images) /

Assuming all the above becomes a reality – and granted there’s a lot of pieces that need to fall into place – then one centre-back will logically have to budge.

An obvious choice is Jan Bednarek – the defender showed promise towards the end of last season and would benefit greatly from spending a season away on loan, where he could get a good 25-30 league games under his belt. If the Polish international is part of Mark Hughes’ plans however, the most obvious permanent departure, for me, is Wesley Hoedt.

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The Dutchman has shown some real promise at times but has also struggled for consistent form – there’s no questioning his distribution, but for someone who stands at six-foot-two he is dangerously vulnerable in the air.

Furthermore, whilst he’s perhaps a better defender than both Yoshida and Stephens, we’ve seen how the 24-year-old reacted previously when being dropped under Mauricio Pellegrino – he blacked out his Instagram picture and removed the bio. This is minute, granted, but still speaks volumes regarding his character.

On the flip side, the aforementioned duo are model professionals, who have waited patiently for their runs in the first team and never once complained whilst out of it. They’ve both played in unnatural positions when the club have needed them too, and are the perfect role-players to rotate and act as back-up when need be.

With Hoedt being left-footed, there’s a much greater chance in this scenario that Santos or any of the other trio would get the nod on the right-hand side, meaning the Dutchman would be one of the three rotating off the bench. In that situation, you don’t necessarily need the best players, but those who are consistent and patient for their turn.

Unless the 24-year-old is willing to take the backseat role if this falls into place, it looks like he’ll be in the firing line when it comes to trimming the squad down.

It would be sad, as personally I’m keen to see how the Dutchman can perform both in his second season with the club and next to a more physical defensive partner. However, after a tough first campaign, he could face the chop.