The Saints – who at that point had been in the Premier League for a decade – were embroiled in a relegation battle under Nathan Jones and were looking to strengthen their squad.

One player the club turned to late in the window, for what transpired to be a club-record transfer fee, was Kamaldeen Sulemana.

The Ghanaian international joined the Saints from Ligue 1 side Stade Rennais in a deal worth €25 million, but things have not been plain sailing for Sulemana since then.

Kamaldeen Sulemana’s Southampton career so far

Following his arrival at the club, Sulemana went on to make 18 Premier League appearances and scored only two goals in these matches.

Both of those came on the final day of the season in a thrilling contest with Liverpool – by which point Southampton’s relegation to the Championship had already been confirmed.

Despite that drop to the Championship, Sulemana has also failed to make a real impact at St Mary’s this season, too.

Whilst he has been affected by injuries, the 22-year-old has so far made just 18 league appearances this campaign, scoring zero goals and registering just three assists.

Sulemana tipped to depart Southampton this summer

With Sulemana’s Saints career having underwhelmed to date, naturally, question marks remain over his future at the club.

Indeed, the question needs to be asked as to whether will Southampton persist and try to get the best out of him, or instead cut their losses and move on?

To gain an insight on what the club’s supporters think, we asked FLW’s Southampton fan pundit Martin Sanders for his thoughts on whether the club should keep or get rid of Sulemana this summer.

“Should Southampton get rid of Kamaldeen Sulemana in the summer? I think he’ll go no matter what,” Martin told FLW.

“He’s a club record signing for about €25 million – it’s not worked out for him at all.

“He showed glimpses against Liverpool in the final game of the Premier League season last year of what he can do, but it’s just finding a way to get him to work in this side.

“I think he would have ripped the Championship to shreds and he had the potential to, but it’s all about application as well and really wanting it.

“Sometimes, a lot of the fans have questioned whether he really wants to be here.

“He’s a good player, it’s just not worked out.”

Kamaldeen Sulemana’s contract situation at Southampton

If the 22-year-old is to depart the club this summer, it will be for a fee, given he is still contracted to the club for quite some time.

When joining the club last January, Sulemana signed a four-and-a-half-year deal at St Mary’s, tying him down until the summer of 2027.

This means that come the end of the season, Sulemana will still have three years remaining on his contract, so it can be expected that a decent fee will be claimed for the attacker, who still has time to fulfil his potential.

On paper though, Sulemana was a poor acquisition as he’s failed to hit the heights expected in what was in general a wretched transfer window.