According to the Belgium media Wesley Hoedt had several top Belgium sides after his signature, but ultimately the central defender was not going to budge on the wages he earned at Saints.

Het Laatste Nieuws have run a story on Saints defender Wesley Hoedt, they say that he could have joined any of Belgium's top clubs, Anderlecht, Antwerp and Club Brugge all had to abandon potential moves.

The newspapers say that Hoedt was close to a deal with these clubs, but ultimately it was his wages that scuppered any deal.

The article is unclear though as to whether these where permanent moves in the offing or loans.

The inference is that it could have been permanent as they are saying the players wage demands scuppered the moves, if it had been another loan move then this would not have been an issue as Hoedt would receive his full salary, said to be £4,2 million per year from his parent club Saints, with his loan club paying Saints not the player, with the only real issue being how much of this the club taking him on loan would be prepared to pay.

How much Lazio whom he has joined on loan for the season will be paying is unclear, but it is unlikely that it will be anywhere near how much Saints have to pay him, possibly we are paying more of his salary than Lazio.

So although Het Laatste Nieuws are pointing the finger at the player for the moves to either of these Belgium clubs not happening, the truth is that those clubs were not prepared to pay as much as Lazio for his services..

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 08:22 - Oct 29 A typical situation with players like Hoedt who have such high salaries that few clubs out side the Prem. are able to match them, and paying half their salary is the only saving Saints can expect in the end... they are still contracted to us, and the player is a mug to give up that sort of money to play elsewhere for " half pay." You might assume that a similar situation existed with Carrillo and Boufal..and is still the case with the likes of Forster, Lemina and Elyounoussi. The worst outcome is when their contracts finally run out ..they walk away for nothing and (on these figures) the deals have cost the club between £20 -30 million EACH.

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WestSussexSaint added 09:15 - Oct 29 Hoedt (and he is certainly not alone) need a reality check. They signed a contract with a premier league club at the height of the tv deal revenue. Given his own stock in terms of playing level has dropped he cannot expect a similar level of wages to what he signed 2/3 years ago. Especially outside the PL and especially given every club globally will be struggling for some time to come.

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TimSaint added 10:46 - Oct 29 He is a bang average player on a massive contract, just like the many others already mentioned in this piece and the comments. The problem he has is he thinks he is much better than he is. If he was any good, he would have been recalled at international level by now. He can talk a good game, laugh on social media when we lost to Leicester and then big himself up by saying there was a host of clubs queuing up to sign him this summer - only to then price himself out of a move !! Clever stuff. I know 1 or 2 Belgian clubs were relying on Champs or Europa League income to sign him, but failed to qualify so had to pull out, but seriously if he was any good, he would have got a good move, or Saints would have had him back. Waste of money, bad influence, bad attitude and not good enough for the Prem. Ship out on the cheap in January if there are any takers, or risk losing him for nothing next summer !!

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InsideOut added 11:21 - Oct 29 I won't forget him in a hurry, not after all those articles you published basically saying he was the only decent central defender at Saints...
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SanMarco added 15:04 - Oct 29 If there is one thing worse than "footballer is vastly overpaid" it is "not very good footballer is vastly overpaid" and worst of all is "not very good footballer is vastly overpaid by the club I support". Saints did award him that contract and are obliged to pay the vasts sums of money involved. The reforms needed to tackle nonsense like this need to be at a systemic level - football as a whole should have rules for contracts, the loan system and wage levels in different countries. Unilateral action by Saints to pay lower wages wouldn't work for obvious reasons, and vested interests are such that I won't be holding my breath, but surely there would be a way of stopping this happening? The poor dears might be left to get by on only a few thousand a day but they would manage I am sure. Any EPL players finding it hard to cope on, say, 50 grand a week could be given money from a £15 per match pay-per-view fund. Why give to a food bank when you can give to Gareth Bale? The short-term lesson for Saints though is make sure a player is good enough before awarding him vast sums on a long contract.

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SaintPaulVW added 07:47 - Oct 30 Football contracts just seem unfair. If the player is poor, the player can refuse any move and the club pays the contract in full. But if the player plays well, the contract isn't any real restriction on them moving because they could start to play poorly or refuse to play and force a move. Not too sure on the real world solution.
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