Former Southampton star Mario Lemina has been slammed by his manager at Wolves for refusing to play for the club. Some things never change.
Southampton might be going through their fair share of humiliation right now. They are rock bottom of the Premier League, so the feeling isn't good at St Marys Stadium.
However, and this might seem weird to say, things could actually be worse. Despite the position the Saints find themselves in, most of the players are still on board. The atmosphere in the dressing room doesn't appear to be toxic, so that's at least one positive.
Of course, things could have been different. Looking at Mario Lemina's position from a Southampton perspective, it's safe to say we dodged a bullet.
Southampton dodged bullet as Wolves boss slams former Saints ego-maniac
In case you missed it, Mario Lemina is currently throwing a tantrum at Wolves. He is refusing to play, despite only having a few months left on his contract. Because of this, new Wolves boss Vitor Pereira is not a happy bunny, and understandably so.
Pereira recently slammed Mario Lemina to the media, claiming that because of his mentality, he doesn't want Lemina at Wolves. Instead, Pereira would prefer to work with a different player who wants to wear the shirt.
In his own words, Pereira said: "I cannot bring a player who tells me he is not in the mental condition to help the team. With this commitment, I cannot bring him. If a player comes to me and says ‘I’m not in conditions mentally to help the team’ this is something that the club must solve."
Speaking about Lemina's future at Wolves, Pereira said: "He wants to leave. I don't know what happened before me, but with this energy and this mentality, I don't need him. I prefer to play with another player."
This is of no concern to Southampton. I am not reporting these comments in a bid to make Southampton sign him - I couldn't think of anything worse. However, it is interesting to look at this from a Saints perspective.
Despite being a talented player, Lemina never hit the heights he could have at Southampton. This was due to a lot of factors but all of those factors were linked to his ego outweighing his potential.
While nobody except Lemina and Pereira knows the ins and outs of his situation, I am going to put a wild prediction out there that Lemina has let his ego get in the way again. Otherwise, Pereira would not publicly out one of his players so soon into his Wolves tenure.