In 2016, Southampton paid Lille £16m to acquire the services of Sofiane Boufal but the Moroccan has been well below par in his time at St.Mary’s and the Saints are looking to part ways with him in the summer as various French outfits are showing interest in the midfielder. He was brought in to provide that spark and cutting edge in the final third of the pitch but he has failed to deliver and that brought the Saints perilously close to relegation last season.
The attacking midfielder has been linked with a move to OGC Nice and apart from them, there are other French teams who are in contention to sign him. Boufal had a below-par season as he managed just 2 goals and 2 assists in 30 appearances. He was involved in a bust-up with manager Mark Hughes where he disobeyed his orders to warm up as a substitute in a Premier League game. Since then he has been frozen out of the team and had to train with the reserves in the latter half of the season.
It is expected that Hughes will continue his stint at St. Mary’s and that doesn’t bode well for the Moroccan and now it just seems like a matter of time that he will leave the Saints.
The highlight of last season for the 24-year-old was his strike against West Bromwich Albion which won the Premier League goal of the season award. Boufal has that moment of magic in him but he fails to provide it more often than not. His time at the club has been marred with inconsistencies and the club cannot afford to have a luxury player like Boufal if he doesn’t come up with the goods.
In his two year stay at the club, he played 59 games and has managed just 4 goals and 3 assists. He burst onto the scene with second-tier French side Angers and moved to Lille where he made his name with impressive performances. That prompted a move to Premier League but since then his career has gone downhill.
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He has even been dropped from Morocco’s national team for World Cup and there was a time when he was touted as one of the brightest talents of his country. We have often seen players from other leagues failing to establish themselves in England and Mark Hughes isn’t going to have any hesitation in letting him go in the summer transfer window.
