Southampton could make £12m loss on midfielder set for summer exit

Southampton could be set to make a £12m loss on midfielder Mario Lemina after French Ligue 1 side OGC Nice submitted an offer for him.

According to a report from le10sport.com, Nice have offered around £3.5m to take the Gabon international from Saints. This would mark a significant loss on the original £15.5m that was paid to bring him to England from Juventus in 2017.

Recent news from France Football (via Sports Witness) confirmed that Nice were close to an agreement for the 27-year-old, whilst Watford have also been credited with showing an interest.

Lemina has reported back for pre-season training with Saints and was pictured taking part in drills with his teammates last week.

Southampton recovering from another costly transfer

Recent comments from former Saints man Wesley Hoedt on his “ridiculous wages” showed how some players have benefitted from a brief change in transfer strategy from the club, and you can now throw Mario Lemina into that mix too.

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• Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 1: Departures
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After appearing in the Europa League for two straight seasons, Saints looked for more established talent. They tried to move on from signing young or underrated players with potential and went for those who had been playing at a high level for a good amount of time.

Offers were made that could not be turned down but the players themselves did not fit in and were not worth their transfer fees or their accumulated wages.

Fees for Lemina, Hoedt, Sofiane Boufal and others were hefty and most have not paid off at all in the long-term. The £19m shelled out for Guido Carrillo just did not make any sense at all.

Perhaps the examples of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Jannik Vestergaard are ones that prove that sometimes things do click, but Saints are now somewhere near the end of an overall costly run of signings.

There is a sense now that they are getting back to the ways that served them so well a little while back. Low cost, young players who can come into a group with a mix of experience and take their careers one step further before potentially moving on for a fee two or three times what was originally paid for them.