Saints are believed to be looking at what options they have for Gaston Ramirez in the final year of his contract.
Gaston Ramirez has been an expensive folly for Saints, but the writing was on the wall for the Uruguayan almost from the day he joined.
In essence Ramirez was an ego signing for former Saints Chairman Nicola Cortese to show that he could spend big money, the big question though was where Ramirez would fit in to the way that Saints were going to play, Ramirez was a passer of the ball and he needed someone who could run the channels and latch on to his through balls, but in Rickie Lambert Saints didn't have that type of player.
The end result was that Gaston never really fitted into the side and given that all he could do was pass it ten yards sideways with no outlet forwards, the truth was that Steven Davis could do that just as well but could run and tackle more.
Of course there have been moments of glory for Ramirez, he is not a poor player, his attitude is good, but the situation he is a good player in the wrong sideand because of his wages it is hard to move him on.
Saints tried to do that in the transfer window, indeed Ronald Koeman has looked hard at the player to see if he can fit him in, but the reality is Saints have a lot of options in midfield and Gaston is far down in the pecking order.
So there are only two options left for Gaston, the first is a loan move to a Championship side, that would save some money for Saints, but with his wages rumoured to be well over the £50k a week mark Saints would struggle to find a club willing to pay 1/5 of that as a contribution, let alone a loan fee especially given his recent injury record.
So Saints have to consider terminating his contract as they did with Osvaldo, this is a far from cheap option though, in simple terms club and player have to come to an agreement financially that sits between. the player sitting out a very lucrative contract or receiving a lower amount to walk away.
When Ramirez does leave it will end a period that was very costly to Saints in their first year in the Premier League, Ramirez and Osvaldo plus Vegard Forren & Mayuka cost the club somewhere in the region of £35 million plus substancial wages and between them they did little for Southampton Football club, it was an expensive folly that ultimately lead to Katharina Liebherr questioning how the club was being run and taking control of it on a more personal level.
Gaston Ramirez though like Mayuka & Forren have done nothing wrong, only Osvaldo was the architect of his own downfall in that respect, perhaps questions should be asked about these four signings and why so muc money was wasted, but I think Katharina Liebherr already knows the answers hence the restructuring that took place 18 months ago.
It's now time to finally be able to move on and that perhaps means Ramirez moving on.
I think finanically for Saints the best thing would be a move to a Championship club till January then they could attempt to move him permanently in the January winter with his contract only having six months to run, then the player would be more ameniable to taking what would be a massive drop in wages to go to a club permanently.