Southampton’s disagreement with Feyenoord goalkeeper Justin Bijlow over his injury record may actually be an attempt to change the transfer terms they’d agreed to.
That’s according to journalist Sjoerd Mossou, via FR 12, who believes there may have been some sort of transfer poker going on.
Bijlow had been set to complete a move to Southampton this week after a deal was agreed with Feyenoord for him over the weekend.
The Dutch goalkeeper had already agreed terms on the move and said goodbye to Feyenoord fans on Sunday in emotional scenes.
He then travelled to Southampton this week for medical and that is where issues arose. The goalkeeper revealed yesterday that his transfer had been cancelled after he had disagreed with Southampton’s medical staff over his previous injuries.
He did not make it clear which of his previous injuries that he and the Saints had disagreed on, but the deal is believed to be dead and he’s gone back to Feyenoord.
The question is what happens next for him. Bijlow has wanted a move to the Premier League for some time and Southampton was seen as his shot after interest from Liverpool and Arsenal never became concrete.
Whether Southampton revive matters remains to be seen, and Mossou believes they may have been playing transfer games with their medical based drama.
“He didn’t have a serious cruciate ligament injury,” he said.
“They were often minor injuries. You often see that with a cruciate ligament injury it becomes tense during a medical examination, you can see that in a knee and that involves risk. Only with Bijlow it was about other types of injuries.
“I strongly suspect that clubs are using this as a negotiating tool. Every player has an injury history, so with every injury you can have doubts as a buying club.
“You can say: wait a minute, we see this on your scan or this in your file, can’t we still do something about the price or conditions?”
