Ralph Hasenhuttl has confirmed that defender Cedric Soares is set to leave the club before the end of the January transfer window, according to Eurosport.
The Portuguese defender looks set to end his five year stay at St Mary’s, with Arsenal looking likely to secure a deal to sign the defender before the end of the window.
Soares is out of contract at the end of the season, so would be free to leave on a free transfer if he was not sold by Southampton before the end of the January window.
Speaking ahead of Southampton’s weekend clash with Liverpool on Saturday, Hasenhuttl revealed that Cedric looks likely to leave the club before the end of the window.
From our side yes.
The fact is that he’s out of contract in the summer. He is injured at the moment so it will take three or four weeks until he can play again.
We had a good meeting two days ago. We didn’t speak about that. I was very positive with his development of his game in our shape, I could also imagine going longer with him but sometimes things change quickly in football.
For the club and for him it’s best and we say ‘Okay, if you want to leave, you only have two or three months on your contract and it’s better to go and we are concentrating on developing other players.
Read Southampton’s verdict
It may be disappointing to see that it will end up being a loan deal, meaning that Southampton will not cash in a fee for the Portuguese defender, but this could still turn out to be a positive for the Saints.
Cedric had previously stated he wanted to leave the club in an interview with the Telegraph earlier this season, which could suggest that he is not fully committed to the cause, meaning that him departing could be a plus for Hasenhuttl’s side.
With Kyle Walker-Peters joining the club, Saints already have a replacement for Cedric, which means that depth-wise Southampton shouldn’t struggle in that area.
However, Kyle Walker-Peters doesn’t have a lot of Premier League experience, as per Whoscored, which could hamper the club, and potentially maybe make them regret loaning out Cedric before he left permanently in the summer.
