Jordy Clasie to AZ looks like it’s a transfer in the making.
After a season long loan deal at Feyenoord, there was no effort to sign the Southampton player on a permanent transfer.
AZ then became interested, and this week things have seen an acceleration. Both the club’s sport director and manager have spoken publicly about possibly signing the midfielder.
Manager Arne Slot told the Dutch media that Clasie is enthusiastic about the potential transfer, so now it’s down to AZ and Southampton to get things sorted out.
Friday’s edition of De Telegraaf reports things have crept a little more forward. The player himself has managed to reach a four year agreement with the Eredivisie club.
This is significant, because part of the problem for them would have been convincing Clasie on wages, which will undoubtedly be lower than his Saints contract.
However, there’s a catch. AZ ‘hope’ Southampton will continue to pay part of Clasie’s salary for the final year of his contract, so that, added to what he’s agreed with AZ, comes close to what he’d be earning if he stayed at the Premier League club.
With it being reiterated the player is determined to stay in Dutch football, and won’t consider anything else, perhaps he should be accepting the wage drop now.
No transfer fee is mentioned, with the insinuation it’s either expected to be a free deal or one with a nominal fee.
This is surely the point when someone needs to sit Jordy Clasie down and tell him that given he’s disappointed for years, given he’s so insistent on remaining in the Netherlands, and given Southampton aren’t going to get a reasonable fee, or any at all, that he should probably take the hit.
