Bizarrely the Saints squad's generosity in taking wage deferments in order that all non playing staff could be paid in full could have a knock on effect when football resumes and they could be banned from making any signings in the transfer window.
The problem for Saints and indeed West Ham who followed suit with their players also agreeing to defer wages is that this is different from say Chelsea whose players have agreed a 10% pay cut.
Saints will still owe their players the money that they defererred, whereas Chelsea players have agreed to wipe the debt off as such, and this could cause problems.
Also an interesting aside to this story is whether our players currently out on loan also agreed to a wage deferral, most of them, if not all, will not be being paid their full salaries by the clubs they have been with this season and will be getting this topped up by Saints.
I would be very interested to know if they like their former tea mates have agreed to this deferral.
In the Times, reporter Paul Joyce has revealed that West Ham and Southampton could be severely restricted in the transfer market following their decisions on wage deferrals:
"Clubs who are deferring wages in the coronavirus crisis could face spending restrictions until players are paid the money they are owed.
Talks have already taken place at EFL board level after the Professional Footballers’ Association raised the matter.
There is a groundswell of feeling that clubs who have chosen to delay paying players’ salaries during the health crisis should not be allowed to add to their wage bill until squad members have been reimbursed."
This is due to a current rule that is in place to ensure that clubs don't sign other players whilst still owing players past or present money, in essence in normal times this is a good rule and not many would argue with it's validity or good sense, but these are not normal times.
As Paul Joyce in the times has said there is a groundswell of feeling seemingly fuelled by the PFA who seem to have put the issue of players being paid before all other, a course of action that has not won they or their CEO Gordon Taylor any friends over the past month or two.
But there are two sides to every story and this will be taken into consideration as it is said that there is a rule change being proposed to circumnavigate the situation.
In truth the worry from the PFA side of things is that some of the lower League clubs will defer players wages and then be very slow or even be unable to pay them going forward, they want to avoid situations where clubs are still buying players in the transfer window and putting pressure of those already at the club to wait for their money and have to sit back and watch it spent on new players.
You would hope that for Premier League clubs that would be a different story and they would be able to pay the money owed once the season is resumed and sources of income re start.
You would also hope that common sense applies and that the rules are changed in respect to this crisis and that instead of an instant transfer ban for clubs who have players who took a deferment , that there is leeway, perhaps a time limit to pay the money back over next season and a ban would only be applied after this period.