Jordy Clasie aiming to prove himself to new Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino

Jordy Clasie is entering a make or break summer in his Saints career.

The Dutch midfielder has so far been an underwhelming signing after his £8m move from Feyenoord to St Mary’s in 2015, but will be given the chance to prove himself under Mauricio Pellegrino.

The new Saints manager has assured all his squad they will start work under him with a clean slate, and for Clasie this period is particularly crucial.

He was signed by Ronald Koeman, who had managed him before in Holland, but his first season saw a raft of appearances where he struggled to play an entire match.

Koeman blamed the need for Clasie to adapt to the physical demands of the Premier League for the issue, but predicted Saints would see the best of Clasie in his second year with the club.

However, it didn’t really go much better, with Clasie making just 16 Premier League appearances under Claude Puel and very much becoming a fringe player in the squad.

The 26-year-old has been the subject of a certain amount of interest from abroad, with Lazio rumoured to be weighing up a move, and if Pellegrino believes he cannot make the impact Saints have always hoped for then the club could cut their losses.

Clasie still has three years left to run on the five-year deal he signed when arriving at Saints, and therefore the club would be optimistic that they could recoup the money they spent on him originally.

But a better option all-round would be for Clasie to really step up and prove himself.

There have been a number of strong performances and good games from Clasie, but they have not come nearly consistently enough thus far.

With Pellegrino aiming to play a 4-2-3-1 formation, Clasie has plenty of competition for one of the two roles in front of the back four.

Oriol Romeu is certain to be first choice for one of them, with Saints hoping Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg will flourish this season, and both Steven Davis and James Ward-Prowse frontline contenders for that role.

Saints had originally hoped that Clasie would be the ball playing partner to a tough tackling midfield engine room man.

Though he has never been a particularly regular goalscorer during his career, Clasie built a strong reputation in Holland as a player with first class distribution.

Pellegrino could look to harness that ability with Romeu an obvious foil for his talents if Clasie can really deliver on his promise.