There looks set to be a major reshuffle of the Saints squad over the next two months although the World Cup will be a big disruption.
Saints will feel that the core of their squad is strong although they also know that it does need a major reshuffle with some outgoings freeing up space and money for their replacements.
So how much money will Saints have to spend and who will be leaving ?
The general feeling is that Saints still have around £30-40 million of the Virgil Van Dijk money, of the £70 million approximately £20 million went on Carrillo with another £10 million or so to Celtic in a sell on clause and of course agents fees also to be paid.
Even if it is the lower figure then that is a good foundation for Saints to build on.
But just who will go ?
It is likely that Saints will lose a keeper, but will that be Alex McCarthy of Fraser Forster, neither is going to want to play second fiddle, so I would imagine one will go and one will stay.
If it's Forster who goes I would expect to get in about £15 million maybe a little more for him, if it is McCarthy then although big figures are being bandied about in the press, I would imagine that with only a year left on his contract and to be blunt only 18 Premier League games to his name in the past few years that he would probably go for slightly less at best the same, if there is someone who is willing to pay the £25 million bandied about in the press, then I would snatch their hands off.
The defence is also likely to lose a player, it looked like it would be Yoshida and he seems to have turned down the idea of moving to the middle east, he is unlikely to get an offer from another Premier League club or a Championship one that will match his wages here so he will probably stay.
Jack Stephens is most likely to go in the centre of defence although I think that is more likely to be January for around £5 million, with the emergence of Bednarek and Hoedt showing his quality in the latter part of the season, you would hope that Saints will also replace Van Dijk, this is the key to next season, but if they do that then we will be top heavy in central defenders and Stephens will be 5th in the line.
Ryan Bertrand is also being touted around and he would fetch £20 million at least, likewise Cedric.
In midfield there are several candidates to go, most likely is Tadic who is being linked with a move to Ajax and that could rake in £15 million, Sofiane Boufal could also go and he would still be worth £10 million at least .
Steven Davis sadly looks like he will be reaching the end of his career turning 34 on the first day of 2019, he is getting injury prone, but it was no coincidence that as he was unable to play through injury we fell apart as a team in February/March.
There could be another shock departure of Oriol Romeu who would again fetch around £15 million with Saints top heavy in central midfield options.
Up front virtually any of our strikers could go, Charlie Austin has been injured for most of his 2 1/2 years at the club and he is rumoured to be moving on, Bournemouth being linked, his fee would be minimal due to his injuries perhaps around the £4 million we paid for hi ourselves.
Shane Long has given good service and may move on for a small fee given his age, so that leaves Carrillo & Gabbiadini.
Carrillo could be deemed surplus to requirements, however the drawbacks are that he is on better wages than he would get elsewhere and we would not get the fee that we paid for him, Manolo Gabbiadini has been linked with moves back to Italy, but seems to be making noises about staying suggesting that he has had some talks with perhaps Mark Hughes about his future.
I would think that Saints will look to move on Long & Austin and bring in two more strikers.
So I would imagine that Saints could bring in anywhere between £45- £70 million in transfer fees, but who does come in will depend on who goes.
If we take this scenario of possible outgoings.
McCarthy or Forster £15 million.
Boufal £10 million
Tadic £15 million
Austin £4 million
Stephens £5 million
Long £4 million
That would bring in £53 million plus the £40 million from Van Dijk and a lot of money off the wage bill, if this was the scenario, then I feel that we would bring in.
Back up keeper £5 million
Quality Central defender £25 million
Wide man £30 million
Striker £25 million
One for the future striker £10 million.
That would be £95 million and would see all the money re invested although this is not an exact science.
If we went for the complete revamp and perhaps added Ryan Bertrand and Romeu, that would give us an extra £35 million which we could either spend on replacements, or if we felt that Matt Targett was ready and we already had enough central midfielders then we could upgrade the key areas to strengthen.
All in all though I think Saints squad in the past season had the quality, but it got bogged down in having too much quantity meaning that Pellegrino had too much choice, we need to trim the squad and bring in quality in the three key areas of central defence, out wide and up front, depending on who leaves we could get away with three key significant signings.
The key though is managing the squad properly, that didn't happen under Pellegrino and Mark Hughes kept us up by purely organising the team well and playing to it's strengths in the final games of the season.