January signing Mislav Orsic is ‘frustrated’ at Southampton with Ruben Selles leaving the Croatia international out of his Premier League plans thus far.
Who can blame him, really?
Orsic would not have taken the decision to leave Dinamo Zagreb lightly, having played the best football of his career during almost half-a-decade in the Croatian capital. The late-blooming attacker had, after all, rejected the likes of Burnley and West Brom when both the Clarets and the Baggies were top-flight sides.
And, when putting pen to paper on an £8 million deal at Southampton, he will have done so with the assurance of regular first-team football under Nathan Jones.
“When he arrived, he was told that they were counting on him seriously. That they needed him. If anything was controversial, he wouldn’t have gone there,” explains Orsic’s agent.
“Jones told him he needed him.”
Does Mislav Orsic have a future at Southampton?
Orsic, then, can claim to be the victim of misfortune and bad timing. Jones was sacked less than a month after the 30-year-old’s arrival. What’s more, successor Ruben Selles has preferred the likes of Theo Walcott, Kamaldeen Sulemana, Stuart Armstrong and Moi Elyounoussi in the attacking midfield roles.
Orsic has only played six minutes of Premier League football. He has been left out of the matchday squad for each of the last eight games.
No wonder Orsic is growing ‘frustrated with the lack of opportunities’, per The Athletic. If the World Cup bronze medalist new what the future held for him at St Mary’s, it’s likely that Southampton would have gone the same way as Burnley and West Brom when making their interest known.
“Mislav Orsic, who was the DNA of Dinamo, was lost. What’s happening to Orsic is a tragedy,” Matjaz Kek, who nearly took over at the Croatian giants, tells Sportske Novosti.
“Football can be very, very cruel. Orsic also had some weaker periods, when he didn’t score goals, when he didn’t play well. However, he was the image of Dinamo.
“He is a member of the Croatian national team, he was at the World Cup. He didn’t sunbathe in Qatar, but was an important player in the finals.”
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