Dinamo Zagreb coach Igor Biscan admits he is likely to miss out on the signing of Mislav Orsic with Southampton’s Premier League forgotten man linked with a return to his former club this summer.
The January transfer window was supposed to be Southampton’s escape rope. Instead, it became a noose tightening around Saints necks; the majority of their mid-season additions making next-to-no impact on the banks of the Solent as relegation moved from a possibility to an inevitablity.
Paul Onuachu, the £18 million striker signed from Genk, did not score a single goal. James Bree’s Southampton career quickly went the same way as his former Luton Town boss Nathan Jones.
Mislav Orsic, meanwhile, found himself downgraded from £8 million ‘bargain’ to forgotten man within the blinking of an eye; the Croatia international playing just six minutes of Premier League football while being left out of the matchday squad for 16 of the last 18 matchdays.
Is Mislav Orsic leaving Southampton already?
Orsic’s agent, Branko Hucika, has admitted that his client could be on his way out of England after just six highly-forgettable months.
But Biscan, another of Hucika’s clients, is not exactly holding his breath; playing down suggestions that the World Cup bronze medalist could return to a club where he scored 91 goals while picking up seven pieces of silverware.
“(There is) no news. Considering my relationship with Hucika, I would know (if Orsic was returning),” the former Liverpool midfielder tells Sportske Novosti.
“Apparently, the English are quite demanding. And it doesn’t look promising at the moment.”
Orsic has also been linked with the likes of Trabzonspor and even Champions League finalists Inter Milan. He may still have a future at St Mary’s, of course. Especially with Southampton set to hire a new manager following the departure of Ruben Selles.
Russell Martin of Swansea City is the clear frontrunner.
One of the EFL’s brightest young tacticians; Martin could potentially see Orsic as a key contributor in his stylish, possession-heavy style. This is, after all, a man who broke the 20-goal barrier in each of the last three seasons before this one.
A natural-born finisher in a Southampton squad short of those.
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