Maya Yoshida looks likely to leave Saints after 8 years at St Mary's with his contract up at the end of the season and the likelihood of a new one being offered a new one decreasing by the week.
It looks like the end of the road at St Mary's for Maya Yoshida who with his contract up at the end of the season and turning 32 in August will probably be allowed to leave in the summer,
Yoshida has played only 5 minutes of Premier League football since 25th October when he paid the price for the defeat to Leicester City on that fateful night, since then a cameo appearance against Norwich where Ralph Hasenhuttl looked to batten down the hatches in the final minutes of our 2-1 win has been the only sighting of him in the League and he is now very firmly behind Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek in the pecking order.
His appearance against Huddersfield did not see him or for that matter Jannik Vestergaard cover themselves in glory and indeed given that Vestergaard had played slightly more game time than Yoshida since Leicester, it indicates that the Japanese central defender is 4th in the pecking order and that could drop further should we sign a central defender or two in the next couple of weeks.
Saints need to reduce their wage bill in the summer with several high earners out on loan having to return to the club albeit temporarily and the feeling is they will now look to the future and Yoshida is sadly now verymuch part of the past.
Although I have been a critic of Yoshida over the years, I have done so not in a personal fashion but based on fact, I have never denied that he has been a good servant to the club and played a part in our successes, but from his very first season it has been clear that he is not a 38 game a season Premier League quality player.
In his second season Mauricio Pochettino signed Dejan Lovren to play alongside Jose Fonte and for the next four season Yoshida was very much a back up only starting to play more regularly when both Van Dijk and Fonte had left the club.
Over the 8 seasons he has started 135 Premier League games with another 19 off the bench, but it should be noted that almost a quarter of them 31 were in his first season and most years he struggled for game time unless there were issues.
But this should not belittle his contribution to Saints, he is what he is and that is a good back up player and he has done a job at times.
But it looks like the end for Yoshida at St Mary's in the summer, he will move on for hopefully a final pay day as a player, I don't know whether he has any aspirations to be a coach but he could do a job for a club outside of the Premier League and play a couple of more seasons yet.
I applaud Maya Yoshida for his contribution, what I have always done is put that contribution into perspective.