As it stands at the moment Saints have six players whose contract end in the summer of 2022, perhaps four of them harbour hopes of staying at St Mary's, but will any of them actually do so, or will they all depart.
Of the six players whose deal ends, bizarrely 4 of them are goalkeepers, with only Jack Stephens & Shane Long outfield players.
Ralph Hasenhuttl will be looking to trim his squad this season to make way for potential new signings so it is far from certain that any will stay.
Let's look first at two who will definitely not be at the club, Shane Long will almost certainly move on after 8 seasons of service, he has just turned 35 and is at the tail end of his career, the Irishman has come in for some stick from sections of our support, but he deserves to leave with the best wishes of Saints supporters ringing in his ears.
Up until 2020 he was a valuable member of the squad, he played a lot of games and still popped up with the odd goal or two, those who judge him purely on goalscoring miss the point, it is about what he does in the build up to goals rather than scoring them himself.
I will save the praises for when he leaves, but this season he has been what we have lacked for quite a while, good experienced back up who can do a job, as was shown with the winner at Swansea City in the cup.
The other departure will be Goalkeeper Harry Lewis, at 24 he has not established himself at the club, he has played only 3 games all in the FA Cup back in January 2017, he spent a season on loan at Dundee United where he appeared to do well, but in the last 4 years he has been in the background at St Mary's.
Best wishes to Harry and I suspect he is a victim playing wise at least, of the high contracts handed out a few years back and has had to stay put or see his income drop substantially.
So that leaves 4 players who could all equally either be at the club or depart, lets look at the goalkeepers first.
Back in November. the goalkeeping situation looked clear cut, Alex McCarthy would sign a new deal and be back up to a newly arrived stopper next season and Fraser Forster would depart.
This would free up a large chunk of the wage bill with Forster's alleged £90k a week off the books completely and McCarthy's £50k reduced, this saving somewhere between £5-6 million a year in wages.
But McCarthy's nightmare form back in November adding to which the public outburst from Hasenhuttl about his professionalism seems to have changed the situation drastically, Fraser Forster stepped back in between the sticks and has shown why he was Saints first choice a few years ago and Willy Caballero has been a very competent deputy when called upon.
So suddenly McCarthy looks most likely to leave having fallen to 3rd in the pecking order judging by what the manager is saying about the other two keepers.
I would be surprised if Saints kept both Forster & Caballero, but I would be equally surprised if they stuck with just Caballero as the back up.
I would suspect that if we don't keep Forster then we would look to a promising youngster to come in as back up to a new number 1 and perhaps keep Caballero who at 41 is not going to break the bank in wage demands.
So to the final decision and Jack Stephens, I am surprised that the loyal club servant has not been handed a new deal as of yet, or at least the fact that he has not signed one.
I suspect that the reason is two sided, firstly as earlier mentioned 4-5 years ago the club handed out contracts that were way above what some players should have been paid and we have been strangled by the wage bill since, I think Jack has been offered a new deal but it is at a reduced rate than his current one.
At 28 he is no spring chicken, during his time at Saints he has never truly been a first team regular, he joined the club in 2011 but he didn't make his debut till January 2017 as he turned 23.
During that time he has started 109 Premier League games, plus 6 as sub, out of 190 possible, his appearance levels have been dropping, this season so far he has made just 6 in the League although he has been out with injury and last season he made just 18, just below his career average of around 20 a season.
He is at a crossroads, to be blunt he could stay here and be what his role is in the main and that is be a very capable back up player, but he has not made the breakthrough to being a solid 38 game a season man.
So does he stay here and take the money or does he try to get a decent contract elsewhere that will see him end his career as a first choice, perhaps in the Championship.
It is a hard decision, undoubtably he has been a good servant to the club, loyal as well, although like Forster, McCarthy & Lewis, that probably hasn't been hard given the high wages they are all on.
Some will say I'm harsh on the man here, I'm not I'm just looking a the situation as the club will do, they will feel their first choices will be Salisu & Bednarek with Lyanco as back up, they will feel Yan Valery can play in the position and they think that Dynel Simeu will be breaking through next season after his loan spell at Carlisle, not to mention the soon to be 17 year old signing from Cheltenham Will Armitage.
That has possibly formed part of the discussions between club and player, with Sport Republic now in charge, the Southampton Way is being fine tuned, even more so it is about sourcing young talent under the radar and bringing them on, Jack Stephens more than anyone will know this, he is currently 4th choice and he could drop to 5th if he stays, yes there will be chances, but they are becoming more limited each season, he will perhaps feel that it is time to move on.
So this will probably end amicably, I think if Jack had been offered a deal that is better than he would get elsewhere, then he might well have signed it, the fact a contract hasn't been agreed and signed perhaps means that an amicable parting of the ways is going to be the end result here.
I truly wish Jack Stephens a good career, he has been a good and loyal servant, he has had some great games at times, as has Alex McCarthy, but and it is a big sad but, neither has truly been consistent enough to be an unchallenged first team regular for an entire season. I would not be unhappy should both stay, but I can see the writing on the wall here.
In fact it could well be the case for all six, there is a new regime in town and the goalposts have changed, before Sport Republic, Saints would probably looked at Alex McCarthy & Jack Stephens as being good squad players, now it is about getting good youngsters who can breakthrough as the back up.