According to reports Sofiane Boufal could be on his way out of St Mary's in the next week after falling out with Mark Hughes at the end of last season and a return to France could be in the offing.
Sofiane Boufal played his last game for Saints last term in the debacle against West Ham on the final day of March and his season for Saints was over only two games into Mark Hughes reign after a subsequent fall out with the new manager.
Hughes appointment on a permanent basis could perhaps spell the end of Boufal's time at the club, although it looks like his departure initially at least will be temporary with Saints struggling to find a club that will be able to match the wages that he is on at St Mary's.
Media supports though are suggesting that he will be heading back to France with Nice his destination although Marseille are said to be also interested.
Departing on loan might not be the end of his Saints career, that will depend on how well Mark Hughes does in the coming season, but it looks like as long as Hughes is manager Boufal won't be in his squad.
A sad state of affairs because although his career has never taken off at St Mary's it has not always been as bad as the statistics suggest and his problems could be said to stem as much from the fact that Claude Puel, Mauricio Pellegrino and finally Mark Hughes seemed unable to find a role in the team in which he could flourish, with Dusan Tadic a virtual ever present there wasn't the scope for two flair players in the team and in his time at the club with their rarely being a target man for him to aim at and the tactics not suiting him he just could not find consistency.
However he showed at times what he could do and his 4 goals for the club were all corkers and certainly his spectacular run resulting in the late winner against West Brom could be said to be the one goal of the season that kept Saints up.
Ultimately he will probably go down in the History books as being symptomatic of the two seasons we have just endured, however that was more down to the managers in charge and their tactics than any skill or indeed lack of effort at least for most of the time on Boufal's part.