According to claims from Turkish outlet Fotomac, as cited by Examiner Live, Huddersfield Town defender Terence Kongolo has emerged as a transfer target for Turkish giants Galatasaray in the January transfer window.
As per the report, Galatasaray recently held talks with the 25-year-old’s agent in Paris, with a view to discussing a potential switch to Turkey during the mid-season trading period.
Kongolo, who initially arrived at the John Smith’s Stadium on loan from French club Monaco back in January 2018, joined the Terriers permanently for a club-record fee of £17million on the back of a successful loan spell during the latter half of the 2017-18 campaign.
The Dutchman was instrumental as former manager David Wagner pulled off a remarkable feat of ensuring survival for Huddersfield in their first season back in the top-flight. However, he struggled to reach similar heights over the course of the 2018-19 campaign and couldn’t do much to prevent the Terriers from going back down to the Championship.
Despite being one of the high-profile names in the squad, the 25-year-old was retained by the Terriers this past summer following their relegation from the Premier League. Kongolo featured regularly under Jan Siewert but he seems to have fallen out of favour since the appointment of Danny Cowley, who has afforded the Dutchman only 5 appearances so far.
Kongolo, who was hooked towards the latter stages of the 5-2 defeat at the hands of Bristol City last month, has failed to make the matchday squads for the subsequent Championship fixtures against Leeds United and Charlton Athletic.
Cowley has been more than happy to rely on Jan-Gorenc Stankovic to partner Christopher Schindler at the heart of the defence in the absence of Tommy Elphick, who went under the knife last month to sort out a knee injury.
Kongolo has accumulated 10 starts for the Terriers in the Championship so far this term, primarily featuring as a left-back. His overall lack of playtime under Cowley, coupled with his snub from the recent matchday squads, suggest that his days at the John Smith’s Stadium could be numbered.
As per the report, Huddersfield Town are looking to move a few players on in the January window to allow Cowley to reshape his squad with some fresh arrivals. Terence Kongolo could be sacrificed along with teammates Isaac Mbenza, Adama Diakhaby, Herbert Bockhorn and Reece Brown to free up some space.
To put things into perspective, Kongolo continues to one of the big names at the John Smith’s Stadium, considering his status as an international footballer for the Netherlands but it won’t be a bad idea for the Terriers to cash in on him to boost their transfer kitty.
Huddersfield are currently short of options at the back following injuries to Elphick and Jaden Brown but Cowley has put his trust in little-known youngsters like Demeaco Duhaney and Rarmani Edmonds-Green to do a job for the team.
Plus, with Stankovic usurping Kongolo in the pecking order in recent weeks, the writing seems to be on the wall for the Dutchman.
With the Terriers failing to mount any sort of a promotion push to secure a return to the Premier League at the first time of asking and currently battling relegation in the Championship, they need to start cutting down their wage bills in a bid to balance the books.
Kongolo is one of the big earners in the ranks at the moment and getting him off the books will definitely go a long way towards facilitating a rebuilding job under Cowley.
All in all, Huddersfield Town cashing in on Terence Kongolo amidst interest from Galatasaray seems to make perfect sense for all parties involved.