Jan-Carlo Simic was lent with a mandatory purchase option (which amounts to being sold) to Al-STIHAD. Anderlecht takes the Jackpot, a small miracle.
This summer Olivier Renard had his hands full. A difficult situation as a result of years of poor management: it was not the fault of the sporting director of RSC Anderlecht that on his arrival boys such as Théo Leoni, Yari Verschaeren and Mario Stroeykens were at the end of their contract or that players like Mats Rits and Thomas Foket are superfluous and very well paid.
It was also not Renard who got an insufficient Luis Vazquez to replace Kasper Dolberg, and the departure of the Dane was unfortunately inevitable as soon as he really wanted to play at Ajax. The choices of Besnik Hasi to send Cvetkovic and Hatenboer to the B-team while Renard really believes in them were also independent of the will of the sporting director.
Would Jan-Carlo Simic have ever yielded so much?
Nevertheless, the summer transfer period of Olivier Renard has generally failed, at least in terms of departure. The only striking sale (that was provided with Leoni and less important) was that of Dolberg, who did not want to see anyone leave. That while other files remained unchanged.
In this context, the last-minute bid from Saudi Arabia is for Jan-Carlo Simic A gift from heaven. A godsend that Anderlecht will yield 20 million euros. The Brussels residents of course did not hesitate, because Simic was no longer even in the base under Hasi. His replacement, Ilic, with a similar profile (even his nationality), is already ready.
20 million is an amount that Anderlecht would have been happy with after three seasons at a high level of Jan-Carlo Simic. Yes, Club Brugge can ask 30 million for a central defender like Joel Ordoñez, but Blauw-Zwart plays in the Champions League.
Jan-Carlo Simic has not made any real progress since his arrival in Brussels. This is partly the fault of Besnik Hasi, who has let his players grow little, but the fact is that the flashy start of the “warrior” from Milan, with clear technical limitations, quickly weakened. A player of his caliber might never have raised 20 million euros.
The only problem for Renard is that if this sale “saves” its outgoing transfer period, it is still too late to compensate for Dolberg’s departure and to get an attacker (unless they offer an excessive salary to a free striker). That will be before January. Hasi has to hope that Anderlecht can score in the meantime.
