Southampton captain Jose Fonte hands in transfer request

Available for over a year

Southampton’s executive director of football, Les Reed, has told BBC Radio Solent that club captain Jose Fonte has handed in a transfer request. The 33 yr-old has rejected new terms on his current contract offered to him in the summer after winning Euro 2016 with Portugal. Fonte has maintained that he wants Saints to offer him a longer contract than the one he signed in October 2015, which has 18 months to run. But Reed says he’s had the chance to sign an improved and extended deal, and Fonte has asked to leave the club: “We haven’t had any bids for Jose and I don’t know whether we will or not. He’s contracted to us, he’s had several opportunities to improve the contract situation. He’s reserved his right not to do that, and made it very clear he would like to explore the opportunities for a transfer. That’s where we are at the moment, Jose wants to leave the club. He’s formally asked for a transfer. He muted this earlier in the summer when he rejected the original offer to improve his contract, and has repeated it since, and in doing so has declined the opportunity to both improve and extend his contract. Those are the facts on the table. The other fact is we haven’t had any enquiries for him.”