Mark Hughes might not have fancied him at Southampton but you can now make a case for Dusan Tadic being the most in-form player in Europe this season.
Brought back to the Eredivisie for just £11.4 million by Ajax, he's been in sensational form both domestically and in European competition.
In 24 appearances in the league, he has notched 18 goals and seven assists - managing a goal involvement every 82 minutes.
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And he's produced in the biggest club competition in the world, the Champions League. A sublime tally of six goals and three assists so far means he's the second-highest scorer and averages a goal or assist every 65 minutes in his 14 appearances.
From finishing 17th with Saints and being criminally underutilised, he's now flourishing on the biggest stage - with four goals/assists against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
Against Real at the Bernabeu last week, the Serbian was utterly unplayable. His world-class performance for Ajax in their stunning Champions League round of 16 second leg saw him become the ninth player to receive the coveted 10/10 rating by L'Équipe since 1988.
The French newspaper are renowned for being extremely harsh markers but had no choice but to give Tadic the optimum score courtesy of his insane display, which comprised of two glorious assists inside 20 minutes.
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He completely mugged off Casemiro with a filthy roulette in the build-up to his second assist and then followed it up with a wonderful curling strike past Thibaut Courtois in the second half.
Tadic did have the chance to remain in the Premier League with some better sides but turned down clubs in favour of going back to the Netherlands.
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"I had a lot of offers," he said on Andy van der Meijde's YouTube channel,
"There were a lot of teams who offered money, a lot of teams from the Premier League and offers from other countries like Italy.
"My heart is close to Holland. I like Holland and Ajax was always my dream club."
Featured Image Credit:Topics: amsterdam, Serbia, Southampton, Santiago Bernabeu, Eredivisie, Premier League, Ajax, Dusan Tadic, Netherlands, Champions League, Real Madrid
