With Danny Ings yet to agree a new deal with Saints, there has been a lot of media speculation about whether the club will cash in on him in the summer, but there is a long way to go yet and nothing is certain.
If the more reliable pundits are to be believed in the Danny Ings contract saga, club and player are not a long way off agreeing terms, the sticking issue is a release clause.
Obviously like any player Ings wants to play at the highest level and that means challenging for honours both in England and in Europe and the reality is that he is far more likely to do that at Spurs, Manchester City or even as has been suggested today a move back to Liverpool.
Danny Ings has two things against him for one of the truly big clubs to want him, one is his age and two is his injury record, which has come back a little this season.
They would be willing to take a punt at a low transfer fee, but not risk too much money, especially in this current financial crisis in football.
This is where the release clause comes in, Danny is happy at St Mary's, committed to the club and happy to sign a new deal if he can have this release clause in the contract, so that should a big club come in for him, Saints can't force him to stay with the security of the contract meaning they can hold out for stupid money.
It has been suggested that his agent wants a £10 million release clause set in the contract, this is not good for Saints it is far less than they could get now, although probably his value should he get to January next year's transfer window.
This means that if they get Danny to sign a new deal with that amount, they are exposed to the likes of Spurs who have a history for this sot of thing, breezing in and activating a release clause, something they would have almost certainly tried to do this summer.
So it is in Saints interest to stick with the existing deal, to be blunt if a big club comes calling it will make no difference to our ability to keep him at the club, but it will mean we can hold out for the going rate.
So this is why we are at an impasse, it is in no ones interest to sign a new contract at present, Ings will not want to tie himself into a new deal that doesn't include the release clause and Saints are not daft enough to put it in.
So we will have to wait until the summer and see what happens, from a Saints perspective this is totally a bad thing, Ings will be 29 in the summer and will be looking at what will be his last big contract, given that age will he be seen by the big clubs as a top target, perhaps with a £10 million release clause, but not at the going rate of £25 million, which is what we will demand, if he was 3 years younger we would be looking at perhaps double that.
The summer will sort out the wheat from the chafe, see if their is any real interest from a big club or whether it is all just his agent stirring up the media.
Under his current deal the club hold the best hand, they can hold out for top dollar, yes perhaps he might walk for nothing in 2022, but he will be 30 in July of that year, age will mean his value is dropping and from a financial perspective Danny Ings is perhaps worth £10 million a year, we would be better letting him run his contract down and losing that amount should no one offer us at least twice that this summer.
Indeed if Danny was to run down his contract that might be best for both player and the club, for Saints his goals will fire us up the league and cover the £10 million lost and will not then shackle us to a high earning player who at 30 might start to lose that pace and sharpness and for Ings himself it would enable him to leave Saints with hopefully a job well done for the £20 million original outlay and as a free agent find a top club who will see him as a good option.
Danny Ings should not be derided by Saints supporters for not having signed a new deal, he is a professional footballer and he has to look after both his family and his career, with regard to the latter, he spent the peak years of his career injured at Liverpool and had to miss out on the chance of glory, who can blame him for wanting one last shot at it.
So of course we would all prefer that he sign a new deal now, but that isn't going to happen, at least not until the summer unless his agent caves in to the release clause or it is upped to a level acceptable to the club, otherwise it is now a waiting game, in the summer if the right deal does not materialise then the player himself may be ready to accept that his best option is to see out the remaining years of his career at St Mary's.