Southampton have agreed to let Mario Lemina stay at Galatasaray for another year with the midfielder’s loan spell due to be extended, according to Fotospor.
In an ideal world, the Saints would be looking to sell their £16 million outcast after an impressive season over in Turkey.
But with almost every club in the world hit hard in the pocket by an ongoing financial crisis, finding a buyer for Lemina has just got a lot harder.
So letting the Gabon international stay in Istanbul for a further 12 months makes sense.
If he continues to go from strength to strength at Gala, Lemina’s transfer value could soar again by the time the market gets back to something approaching normality.
At least, that is probably the thinking at St Mary’s.
Fotospor reported at the end of April that Southampton had shaved £5 million of the former Juventus and Marseille enforcer’s price-tag.
It probably makes more sense, then, to wait a year rather than panicking and selling him at a massive loss in an era where transfer values everywhere have plummeted.
Lemina is still under contract until 2022, after all, meaning there should be no immediate concerns about Southampton losing one of their most expensive-ever players for nothing.
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