Southampton: Loan watch – Mario Lemina at Galatasaray SK

When Southampton sent their current cohort of loanees out of the club last summer, Mario Lemina was one of the more high-profile players to leave.

The Gabon international midfielder joined Turkish Super Lig side Galatasaray SK on a temporary deal until June after being linked to a host of other clubs.

After clearly being told that he was no longer part of Ralph Hasenhuttl’s plans, he took to social media to post a video montage of his best bits for Saints in a bid to try and stir up interest in his own signature.

Saints paid a reported £18m for him when they signed him from Juventus back in 2017 but he hasn’t lived up to his price tag considering the size of the fee.

The question is, has he proved his worth to his current loan club in Istanbul?

To date, Lemina has made eight appearances for Galatasaray as they look to fight on multiple fronts this campaign.

Six of those games were in the Turkish Super Lig as he featured in three wins, two draws and one loss – the most recent a 2-0 victory over Gaziantep FK.

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Lemina has also been involved as Galatasaray compete in a tough looking Champions League group.

Their Group A also includes Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain, whilst Club Brugge make up the set of four.

Lemina played in the away meeting with Club Brugge and also the full 90 in a daunting trip to the Bernabeu, with the former resulting in a 0-0 draw and the latter a thumping 6-0 loss.

With just two Champions League games remaining in the group stage and one point to their name, Galatasaray look set to drop out of the competition at the first stage.

Lemina has had his own game time cut short by injury this season though.

A hamstring injury saw him miss five games in October, whilst he has suffered a twisted knee in the last couple of days.

With his future now unlikely to be on the South Coast of England in the long-term, Saints will be hoping that his performances will help stir up some interest in signing him permanently in June.

(All stats and information according to transfermarkt.com)