There are likely to be a few lockers cleared out at Staplewood this summer as Saints look likely to let a few players leave the club.
With a first team squad that is around about the 40 mark in number and only 18 of those players making more than a dozen appearances in the Premier League, it emphasises that the Saints squad had plenty of quantity but not so much quality, of course some of these players like Ben Reeves are still young and aspiring whilst others such as Dean Hammond have been of great service in either League 1 or the Championship, but the Premier is a step too far, whatever the reason though the appearance stats reveal that last seasons Premiership return relied too heavily on a core of players.
Six of the squad are out of contract this summer and of that number I would expect five of them to be released, Danny Butterfield, Dan Seaborne, Tommy Forecast, Ryan Dickson & Frazer Richardson, the first four having barely played in the past two seasons, whilst Richardson made a few appearances, but found that when Clyne was injured either Cork or Yoshida were preferred as makeshift right backs. The sixth is Ben Reeves and there will be a dilemma here, in the first half of the season he did well when called upon, including a goal in the Carling Cup, he spent the latter half of the season at Southend where he immpressed, the big question is whether Saints will give him another year or decide that the squad has enough youngsters alreday.
Out of contract players are easy to move on, however Saints have plenty more who are under contract but unlikely to get even a game next season, the problem here is that most are on good deals due to promotion bonus's and increased salaries, this means that they are on a higher wage than they are likely to get anywhere else, given that many are not super rich from football having played most of their careers in the lower league, that leaves them with a big dilemma, do they take a hit in pay and move elsewhere or do they sit on the best money they have ever earned, see their contracts out and hope that Saints will send them out on loan subsidising their wages from another club.
Although some would condemn players for doing this and not putting football first, Im not one of them, as I said, many have not earned fortunes and whilst I might condemn the likes of a Premier player on high salaries, Im not going to do that to a man who has probably spent most of his career on £3k a week maximum and suddenly finds himself on five times that.
The reality is though that some will be on wages approaching £20k a week, the recent driving ban for Tadanari Lee revealed that the player was now on £18k a week with the club and I would imagine that the likes of Billy Sharp, Richard Chaplow, Dean Hammond & Steve De Ridder would be on somwhere around £15 k and in the case of Sharp alledgedly more than Lee, but in those five players you have a weekly wage bill approaching £100k when adding NI & pension payments and for that we got a grand total of around six substitute appearances last term, this isnt the club's fault its the way the game is these days and in many respects we have bucked the normal trend in that we still have a core of a squad that not only got us promotion but was with us in League One.
So far we have only covered 11 players, but there is at almost that again in those that are still in contract and unlikely to play for us next season, some are the likes of Aaron Martin, Jonathan Forte, Lee Barnard, players who will enjoy a career in the lower leagues but probably not the Premier and a raft of youth team players like Jack Stephens who Saints have to decide whether they can make the step up from promising youngster to Premiership quality.
To finish we come to perhaps the most controversial group who Saints need to consider offloading who are not only still under contract, but in the cases of some have played more than those dozen games, here Im talking about Jos Hooiveld, Guly, Danny Fox, Jose Fonte, even Jason Pucheon, if Saints want to improve then there has to be a natural progression and as you bring in more quality players you have to let some go, some like Puncheon will be fan favourites, whilst others like Fox & Guly will be fan scapegoats, but you have evaluate their worth and see what the position is and whether cashing in whilst they are under contract is viable.
Add to that perhaps the most controversial of this list,Vegard Forren and Mayuka, neither got much of a look in, indeed Forren didnt play one single minute of the 16 games he was at the club, we can only speculate as to why not, but to be blunt here is an experienced International player, if he wasnt ready to play a few weeks after his arrival I would speculate that the reason for that would be that he is no better than what we already had and where selected before him, given our central defence's problems thats a worrying thought.
Likewise Mayuka, Sharp and Tadanari Lee were both shipped out to accomodate Mayuka who like Forren came for a not insignificant fee, Mayuka managed 1 start plus 10 games off the bench, his total time on the pitch was not even equal to 2 1/2 games in terms of minutes and that tells you something as well, the difficulty here is that to move them on so quickly would be a big admission that someone somewhere has got it badly wrong, with Sharp and Lee its easier you can argue that they did a job in the Championship and couldnt make the step up, but with Mayuka and Foren thats definately not the case, I would expect Forren to stay and be given a season, but I wouldnt be surprised to see Mayuka moved on quietly, I would pose this question, off those appearances who would you rather have seen come on to try and save or win the game in the final minutes, Mayuka ? or Billy Sharp/Tadanari Lee ?
So a big summer for Saints and one where they really do need to clear the decks and compile a squad where there is a clear path to the first team unhindered by players who through no fault of their own have done the job they were bought to do a little too quickly and in the process effectively ended their career here, for that we should thank them and wish them well at a new club.