Southampton: Saints defender returns to his parent club after loan

It has been announced that Southampton defender Kevin Danso has returned to his parent club Augsburg after spending the 2019/20 season at St Mary’s.

Via the Augsburg English Twitter account, five of the Bundesliga side’s loanees including Danso have returned to Germany after temporary spells away from the club.

In all, Danso played just 10 games for Saints after signing back at the end of last summer.

Six of these appearances came in the Premier League, whilst the other four were in the League and FA Cups. Seven of his 10 matches were starts.

With a knowledge of the English game and a good amount of potential to grow into a strong defender in the future, it was easy to see why Saints brought him in.

Danso was understood not to be the club’s first-choice but seemed a decent alternative – especially with Ralph Hasenhuttl at the helm and looking keen to build a core of talented youngsters on the South Coast.

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A bonus was also the fact that he could play in the middle of defence but also fill in at full-back if needed. Six of his appearances came at either right-back or left-back.

However, like a few other Saints players, his spell in and around the team came to an end with that 9-0 loss to Leicester back in October.

Danso was used as one of three centre-backs on that day and only came on at half-time but was one of the youngsters who looked stunned and potentially damaged by what was going on. Angus Gunn in goal and Yan Valery were in a similar position at the full-time whistle.

From that moment onwards, it appears that Danso became surplus to requirements. Ralph Hasenhuttl returned to his usual 4-2-2-2 with nothing to lose and things have gradually built towards the crescendo of the late season form that we are witnessing now.

Unfortunately for Danso, he is not going to be a part of the next few years that could see something promising built at St Mary’s. However, he has every chance to get back to regular first-team football in Germany and keep his own progress going.