Southampton paid Lille £21m to bring Sofiane Boufal to England ahead of Tottenham Hotspur – they may wish they hadn’t bothered.
Southampton’s Sofiane Boufal in action
If Jeff Stelling can work alongside Paul Merson and Phil Thompson on live TV without losing his cool, Sofiane Boufal must have done something really special to send the affable Soccer Saturday presenter into a spin.
“The most disgraceful performance by a professional footballer I think I’ve ever seen in my life,” Stelling quipped after Southampton’s 4-1 battering by Tottenham Hotspur, in quotes reported by FourFourTwo.
Though it’s a measure of just how poor Boufal has been since Southampton made him their £21 million, club record signing last summer, as reported by The Sun, that this dismal performance is far from a one off.
In 20 Premier League appearances, the former Lille prodigy has scored one goal and produced a grand total of zero assists. That stunning individual strike against Middlesbrough in December is nothing more than a lone anomalie in an otherwise forgettable debut season in English football.
He was hooked after just 60 minutes of his most recent league outing, Sunday’s torturous stalemate with Liverpool, after managing to find a team mate with just four of his 12 attempted passes.
In the eyes of Tottenham fans, therefore, this is very much a case of ‘rather you that us’. Spurs were linked with a wallet-crushing move for the Moroccan wideman for a number of seasons and Boufal’s agent told The Sun last summer that the Londoners were among the frontrunners for his sought-after signature.
Based on his performances in England so far, however, Spurs will think they got off lightly. Manager Mauricio Pochettino has already wasted funds on sprightly Ligue 1 attackers Clinton N’Jie and Georges-Kevin N’Koudou.
Though Boufal could have been the worst, and most expensive, of the lot.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
