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A recent report from Sky Sports has claimed that Southampton striker Guido Carrillo could move back to his homeland this summer by joining Argentinian giants Boca Juniors.
What’s the word, then?
Boca are said to be among a cluster of teams from around the world interested in the 28-year-old despite him having two more years left on his current contract at St. Mary’s Stadium.
The 6 ft 2 hitman joined from Monaco in January 2018 when Mauricio Pellegrino was still the manager but since has made just 10 appearances in all competitions, seven in the Premier League and three in the Emirates FA Cup.
In order to give Carrillo game time and see how he fares in another of Europe’s top five leagues, he was sent out on loan to Leganes of La Liga for the entirety of the 2018/2019 season, impressing enough to become a first-team regular. He’s due to return to the south coast in late June.
Don’t be greedy and give into temptation, Saints
It would be easy for the Saints to be greedy and come to some kind of conclusion that the Carrillo move is never going to work out, giving into temptation and cashing in on the centre-forward while he’s still a reasonable age.
But the truth is that the Argentine has played nothing like the number of games in any of the English competition to judge whether he’s going to be a success or not.
Carrillo may have not registered a single goal yet as a Southampton player, however, some of the best stars that have ever graced the English game have needed some time to settle.
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What isn’t helpful is freezing him out of the picture completely by sending him out on loan to the lower echelons of the Spanish top flight – when he comes back they should be blooding him in the first team for a sustained period to see if he thrives.
There’s now a different manager and different philosophy at St. Mary’s and just because Carrillo wasn’t a favourite of the previous manager doesn’t mean he can’t be a favourite of Ralph Hasenhuttl and show Saints fans that he is worth the near-£20m their club paid for him.