Southampton Football Club sprung no surprises upon the release of their retained list before their elevation back to the Premier League but is there a twist
Although there might have been one surprise in the retained list that had to be issued by Friday and this sparked only very minor speculation in the weeks leading up to its announcement, in the end it was pretty much as expected with all five first team squad players out of contract being released, plus Harlee Dean and Aarran Racine. The last four players to make up the eleven, a four of our scholars who have not been offered professional terms.
On a brighter note there have been four of our academy offered professional contracts, plus four promotions to the first team squad, although as home grown youngsters they will not be included in the 25 man squad that hs to be named by each Premier club now.
But there could be a twist, Rhadi Jaidi has announced that at 36 and spending virtualy the whole of last season injured, that he is retiring, however on Monday the club is holding a press conference to announce this retirement and his future plans, this is not usual for a football club to do unless that player is very long serving and established at that club, which in fairness Jaidi is not at Saints, so my guess is that Jaidi is being offered some sort of coaching role at St Mary's and given they are having a press conference it must be connected with the first team, I cant think of any other reason why we would go to the trouble of a press conference otherwise, in truth given that the local paper is banned from such events and that the nationals are hardly going to be interested in Jaidi, its going to be sparsely attended anyway so even the few who might attend could be tempted to give it a miss unless its first team connected.
Of the five released, four of them have played a big part in varying ways at St Mary's and all Saints fans should wish them well, Jaidi is the most obvious along with David Connolly as their contributions have been most prominent in the last three seasons, however both Bart Bialkowski and Lee Holmes have made their own contributions to this club as well over a slightly longer term and all four should leave our first team squad with the thanks and best wishes of our supporters ringing in their ears.