Transfer Deadline Day: Southampton defender set for Sampdoria move
Southampton's Maya Yoshida is set for a deadline day move to Sampdoria, as per reputed Italian journalists Fabrizio Romano and Gianluca Di Marzio. The Japanese defender's contract is set to expire this summer and although the club have an option to extend his deal by a further year, he is now close to completing a switch to Italy.
This would be the fourth league that Yoshida has played in, after coming through in the J-League, then moving to the Netherlands with VVV-Venlo. Southampton signed the centre-half for just under €3m in August 2012, a club whom he has represented on 194 occasions in all competitions. He's notched up 154 appearances in the Premier League alone, scoring 6 and assisting 4 in the process.
The 31-year-old has just 8 games to his name in the ongoing Premier League season, playing a total of 558 minutes in that period. Furthermore, he has only played 5 minutes of football in the league since the Saints' historic 9-0 loss at the hands of Leicester City. The Japanese international is firmly behind the likes of Jannik Vestergaard and Jan Bednarek in the pecking order for Southampton's central defence and could potentially be open to a move to Claudio Ranieri's Sampdoria.
The Italian club attempted to lure Tottenham Hotspur's Juan Foyth to the Stadio Luigi Ferraris but failed to do so. Now, Sampdoria face a race against time to sign the experienced defender.