Mark Hughes has suggested that if he is to sign any new players then departures may have to happen first, here we take a look at his comments.
There are already Saints supporters who are reacting with indignation at Mark Hughes comments to the Daily Echo that he might have to sell first before he can bring in any more players, but there are several ways that these comments can be looked at.
Hughes was candid in saying that players may need to go if further new signings are to be brought in.
He said: "We will see. We will probably have to sell or allow players to go out of the club if we are likely to bring anybody in now I would think.
"You never know. We have still got a couple of weeks before the start of the season and things present themselves as we know.
"We have to be ready if we are able to to get in the right type of player who can help us.
"We have done ok. We have done early business which we are pleased about but you are always on the lookout.”
Some have seen this as Saints not spending money, but it is more than that, so far Saints have spent £51 million on 4 players and received a transfer fee for only 1 so far, that being the £15 million or so for Dusan Tadic, however the cynics say that the net spend of £36 million still leaves a surplus from the transfer fee received for Virgil Van Dijk in January.
Back then Saints received £75 million but after £12 million to Celtic and £20 million for Carrillo that would have left around £43 million n the coffers, so in this calendar year Saints have probably spent only about £7 million less than brought in and that is not taking into account agents and signing on fees.
But Hughes is right when he says we need to sell and although money is a factor it is not the only one, indeed it is not just transfer fees that need to be covered it is wages as well and Saints have a squad that is top heavy at the moment and needs to be culled
A quick look at each department reveals that even after the departures including Boufal and Carrillo on loan the numbers of those in contention for a first team place to be.
Goalkeepers - 3 McCarthy, Forster, Gunn
Right backs - 1 Soares
Central Defenders - 5 Yoshida, Stephens, Hoedt, Bednarek, Vestergaard
Left backs- 3 Bertrand, Targett, McQueen
Central midfielders - 8 Davis, Lemina, Ward Prowse, Hojbjerg, Clasie, Romeu, Reed, Armstrong.
Wide players - 3 Redmond, Sims, Elyounoussi,
Forwards - 4 Austin, Gabbiadini, Long, Gallagher.
This list does not include those like Jake Hesketh, Callum Slattery, Yan Valery or Michael Obafemi all of whom the club are hopeful will make an impact this season, but even without them thats 27 players .
Clubs have to name a 25 man squad of which up to 17 can be those that do not qualify as "Home Grown" on top of that they can play unlimited numbers of under 21 players, for the 2018/19 campaign Under-21 players will have been born on or after 1 January 1997.
As it stands we have 11 that are not home grown so we have scope there, but only Sims, Slattery, Valery & Obafemi who qualify under the U21 rule.
That means that we already have 26 players outside of the U21 rules, if we make no more signings one of those would have to be omitted from the squad and not play.
If we look at where Saints can make those cuts I would say that some of these players could well go, although in some cases it may be difficult to offload them due to wages.
Forster - £15 million
Stephens - £3 million
McQueen - £1.5 million
Davis - £1 million
Reed - £3 million
Gallagher £7 million
That would trim the squad by 7 players and bring in upwards of £30 million for transfer fees and a hefty chunk off the wage bill, that is just as important as bringing in a fee, someone like Jack Stephens or Sam Gallagher are reported to have signed long term deals at £40 k a week that's over £2 million a year each in wages.
So losing fringe players is just as much about the combined wages as transfer fees,
Ideally Saints would sell those 6 players and bring in £30 million, but it would also free up £14 million per year in wages although in fairness around a third of that would be Forster's alone.
This would enable Saints to bring in two quality players at around the going rate of £20 million a piece taking into account £30 million in incoming transfer fees and a net save on wages of around £8 million.
This illustrates Mark Hughes comments about needing to sell before we can buy, it's not just about money, it's about the size of our squad as it is, it is far too big.
These are the players that Saints would like to be able to get shot of, but there are also others who they might like to keep but are still surplus to requirements, even if we let Davis and Reed go that's still six players who can play in central midfield left for essentially three positions, it's still top heavy.
Of course there are many permutations and number crunchings to be done by the Saints transfer committee including Hughes himself, but ultimately Hughes knows that the squad is far too big for his needs, Saints do not have a bottomless pit of money, they have made mistakes in the past two seasons and although those mistakes are outweighed by the success that have come in in numbers, Boufal and Carrillo have been big chunks out of the budget and a heavy load on the wage bill.
So all Mark Hughes has done is state the reality of the situation, it is perhaps also a little bit of gamesmanship, we are telling clubs we are talking to about signings that we haven't got the money to be fleeced, the exact opposite of January when club's knew we were panicking about signing a forward and knew we had the Van Dijk money in the bank and held us to ransom.
The last four summers have show us that it is better to wait and see what happens rather than scream and shout about what might happen, the club need to do their business quietly and efficiently, that is what they are doing now, football is a game both on and off the field, the transfer window is a big poker game where you have to keep a straight face and bluff and counter bluff to see who blinks first.