Southampton fans will hope that, after a rocky start to the season, the newly promoted side’s form does pick up after the international break is over.
Only netting one goal so far, with three defeats from three also making for grim reading, Russell Martin now has the lengthy break to try and get more out of his group on the training pitch to try to positively impact their worrying early Premier League form.
He could well even end up experimenting with what he at his disposal to try and get points on the board, but it looks very unlikely that Kamaldeen Sulemana will get a chance to impress in the first-team picture.
Sulemana’s time at Southampton
Once costing the Saints a club record £22m, it’s fair to say Sulemana has never quite lived up to this bumper price tag when playing on the South Coast.
From 44 appearances to date donning a Saints strip, the ex-Rennes winger has only managed to grab two goals and four assists, with zero strikes coming his way during Southampton’s promotion-winning campaign.
Only averaging 39 minutes per clash that same season, it hasn’t been a great shock to see Sulemana’s standing in the St. Mary’s pecking order take a battering moving up a league, with no games being handed to him so far in the Premier League.
A move to Ajax was meant to be the confidence-boosting switch Sulemana needed on deadline day, but that loan adventure was initially put on hold, owing to the fact it was unclear whether or not all of the paperwork involving the move took place before or after the Dutch window slammed shut.
There had even been the potential for him to move permanently to the Eredivisie giants for £17m as part of the temporary deal, although journalist Fabrizio Romano has since confirmed that the deal is now off.
Martin and Co likely wouldn’t have been too gutted to see the back of their £22m flop if he had departed, owing to his hefty salary in the Saints camp which sees him earn double the salary that key first-teamer Kyle Walker-Peters finds himself on.
Sulemana’s wage at Southampton
As per Capology, Sulemana’s wage for the season ahead comes in at an extortionate £40k-per-week, a wild amount for a player who is yet to taste any action for Martin’s men in either the league or even the EFL Cup.
On the contrary, Walker-Peters remains a key cog in the Saints machine, with the South Coast outfit relieved that the former Tottenham Hotspur man didn’t move to new pastures this window just gone.
Regardless of goals like the one above from the attack-minded defender helping Southampton achieve promotion last season, and Walker-Peters averaging 87 minutes per clash in the Premier League so far, the popular 27-year-old only earns a lesser £20k-per-week pay packet.
Walker-Peters won’t be the only aggrieved member of the Saints camp when it comes to Sulemana earning more, with the likes of Will Smallbone and other fixed first-teamers also earning less.
|
Southampton first team players earning less than Sulemana |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Player |
Wage |
First-team appearances last season |
|
Kamaldeen Sulemana |
£40k-per-week |
25 |
|
Will Smallbone |
£25k-per-week |
46 |
|
Gavin Bazunu |
£20k-per-week |
41 |
|
Kyle Walker-Peters |
£20k-per-week |
46 |
|
Taylor Harwood-Bellis |
£7.5k-per-week |
43 |
|
Sourced by Capology/Transfermarkt |
||
Looking at the table above, it’s not a shock to see that Southampton do want to balance the books and get rid of their £40k-per-week man, with first-team stalwart at the back from last season in Taylor Harwood-Bellis even earning significantly less at £7.5k-per-week.
Wage Burners
Football FanCast’s Wage Burners series explores the salaries of the modern-day game.
Southampton have been prone to many blunders in the transfer market over the years, with Sulemana another one now added to the list.
While Martin and Co will likely now be forced to wait until January to offload the costly forgotten man, the hope will be that a last-gasp deal can be struck with a handful of markets still open across the globe.
