Supposedly Southampton and Ajax have reached an agreement. No wnder a Dutch team wants him, he used to be the best player in the Eredivisie a while back, best assister in the league. 16 goals and 14 assists in 3000 minutes for a team like Twente before coming to the Premier League.

And he was amazing his first seasons here:
3 goals and 12 assists in 2100 minutes in his first season (also 1 assist in 450 minutes for the national team)
9 goals 13 assists in 2300 minutes in his second (also 2 goals and 1 assist in 300 minutes for the national team)

Then he started to spiral down:
2 goals and 6 assists in 2400 minutes last year (2 goals and 7 assists in 550 minutes for the NT)
7 goals and 3 assists in 2800 minutes this year (also 1 goal and 3 assists in 1000 minutes for the national team)

Can he get back up?? The fact that he's be 30 in November seems to show that his price will be going down. Still, he seemed a really good player for the Premier League these last years. Sputhampton must be crazy to let him go after they narrowly avoided relegation.

Considering that in the previous seasons until this one he had scored 5 and assisted 17 in 2600 minutes from left wing position in the Premier League it seemed logical that Southampton would use him in the same position. But this season they used him mostly as a right winger or as an attacking midfielder, which is a big reason why his performance has gone down. So, in my opinion, it was only a management problem (he had only scored 12 and assisted 12 in 4000 minutes up until this season from those positions, so it was logical he wouldn't do so good as in the left wing position). Why Southampton's managers used him so wrong is a question that only they could answer. He likes to cross with his left foot a lot.

Would you have him for 17 million? Tough choice. Disqus please.

Edited by mattteo (26 Jun 2018 5.51pm)

At his age and declining performance, No

He's a tidy player but hasn't got the pace to go by players. Next year he would probably be on a par with Townsend and a lesser player than Shaqiri

In 2 years you can buy a player like Townsend back with 30 million. Until then, selling him for 28 and getting a better player for 17 seems like a good business.

Tend to agree on this one Matteo, £17m sounded a lot but good business at £10m.

Yeah I suspect the player fancied a move back; certainly capable of playing at a higher level.

Too simplistic to think we could agree the same deal on every player that moves - he would have never come here.

Palace pays much better than Ajax. He would have totally come here. Same way players go to China. Nobody's gonna go to a lower salary just out of spite for not coming to Palace.