After being loaned out to Celta for the second half of last season, Wesley Hoedt didn’t manage to find himself a club willing to take him away from Southampton permanently.
In the end, Royal Antwerp in Belgium decided to bring the Dutch centre-back in on loan to help them out for the Jupiler Pro League campaign, where he has made two appearances so far.
The 25-year-old sat down with Sport/Foot Magazine to discuss his career so far, which, of course, led to his current spell with Southampton, where his contract is meant to keep him at the club until 2022.
Looking back, the player expressed some regrets in accepting what the Saints put in front of him when he was still at Lazio.
He said: “I made a mistake. I had a five-year contract [in Italy]. After two years, they wanted to extend it for another five, with better conditions. The Italian football culture is very professional, but everyone wants to play in the best league in the world, and Southampton were offering me a contract I couldn’t refuse. Unfortunately, the club had two bad seasons and things didn’t go like I thought they would”.
The main reason for his lack of game time at St Mary’s, at least according to Hoedt, was the arrival of Ralph Hasenhüttl, who wanted nothing to do with him.
He explained: “I’m still under contract [at Southampton], so I don’t want to say anything bad but, since the start, he told me I wouldn’t play. I asked him many times why, but I never got an answer. This season, I was the best in nearly every test.
“He told me he wanted to give me a second chance, but I was never given one to begin with. I trained hard for six weeks, but nothing… After a talk, I decided to prove my worth elsewhere”.
Asked if he tried to leave permanently, he continued: “Yes, but who can pay Premier League wages? I’m at Antwerp, and it’s up to me to show what I can do. It’s a very ambitious club and you can see that in the squad. That’s why I chose to come here.
“I’m not that young anymore, but I’m still only 25 and already have a lot of experience. Here, I need to make a difference. Play at least 35 games and help the team finish as high up the table as possible”.
Arriving from Lazio for £14.5m, Hoedt has made 45 appearances for Southampton since his 2017 transfer, and unless something changes in the near future, like a new manager coming in wanting to work with him, that number doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime sioon with Hasenhüttl at the helm.
