Back in the old days, football clubs used to publish a retained list each season, but as we headed into the 90's and freedom of contract these lists became obsolete, but this summer they seemed to have again reared their head with much angst from the supporters.
Football was very much a game where the clubs held all the power and players were controlled by their clubs.
Of course players had contracts, but they were very much one way, at the end of it a player could be released and let go on a free transfer or he could be retained and that mean that he could not leave unless he was transferred, his club still held his registration and even if he would not sign a new deal, he was still stuck at that club unless they deigned to sell him.
The player would then have to sign a weekly deal, but that was not secure as if he sustained a bad injury, he could then be released with no income until he was fit to play again.
That changed at some point in the late 1980's when players could leave at the end of their contract, but not for free, their current club had to agree a deal with a buying club or in England at least go to a transfer tribunal and be forced to pay/accept a fee set by the tribunal.
Southampton FC suffered in this when in 1991, Rodney Wallace ran his contract out as did his brother Raymond and went to Leeds United at a fee set by a tribunal which was way below his true worth, tribunals usually set low transfer values in order to stop fee's spiralling.
A year later in 1992, Saints again suffered when Neil Ruddock refused a new deal and was tapped up by Spurs who made a platy offer less than the amount we had paid for Ruddock as a youngster with little experience.
They also claimed to be paying him a very low wage, something that also affected his value, the tribunal conscious of the fact that a players salary should reflect his real value took into account.
What had happened was exposed a year later when Ruddock's mentor Spurs manager Terry Venables was sacked by the club and Ruddock complained that they would not give him a new revised contract.
Spurs rightly stated that they had no written obligation to do so, Ruddock said that it had been verbally agreed, Ruddock lost and was sold to Liverpool.
This seemed to back up Saints feelings that Ruddock's salary given to the tribunal was too low and drove down the price.
But it all changed completely in 1995 when a minor player in Belgium called Jean- Marc Bosman took the system to task, when out of contract he wanted to join another club, but Standard Liege set a fee far higher than any potential suitor was willing to pay, so he challenged it legally and brought his case to court; he sued his current club Standard Liège, the Belgian FA, and UEFA, arguing that the rules set out by UEFA, which prevented him from leaving his club even though his contract had expired, amounted to a breach of his rights established in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which allowed freedom of movement within the European Community, now the European Union.
This changed football completely as players now had what was called Freedom of Contract and could now move on for nothing when that contract ended, save for those under 24 where a development fee would be payable.
This essentially brought an end for the need for a retained list at the end of each season, a player was either in contract or out of it.
But officially clubs still had to put in a list of those retained to the Premier or English Football League's however they were little more than a small list of those whose contract had expired and a larger one of all those still in contract.
So it is a little bit of a surprise that in the last week or so there has been much in the press about club's retained lists.
Southampton FC didn't release their list to the media, it was left to the Daily Echo to do that when it announced that out of contract players Kyle Walker-Peters, Joe Lumley & Adam Lallana would be released with everyone else retained.
This led to meltdown on Saints social media and indeed that of every other club in the land as, fans raged about why their club was retaining certain players.
The answer is because they have to, but because they are retaining them, does not mean they actually want to keep them, they just have no choice as they are in contract.
There were a few strange ones on the list though, Jack Stephens is seemingly out of contract in July, yet it has not been announced that he has signed a new one.
This would suggest that the club may want to keep him, it could be that both player and club are in negotiations for a new deal, it will almost certainly not be as lucrative as the one he signed two years ago and so Jack may well be considering other offers before deciding either way.
Or it could be that there was a clause in the contract that if he played a certain number of games then he and the club would both have the option to exercise the right to extend the deal by a further year.
I would suggest that this is the most likely option and that Stephens is weighing up whether he would prefer to be a squad player on very good wages, or at his age seek regular football elsewhere, but at a lower salary.
Whatever happens the Club PR will put spin on it.
So there is very little to gain by publishing the retained list and even less to gain by reading it.
There are 3 goalkeepers on the list, 13 defenders, 7 midfielders & 10 attackers, a grand total 33 players.
Southampton will be looking to offload at least a dozen of those, but they still have to declare them as retained as Jack Stephens & Alex McCarthy aside where it is unclear, all are under contract.
Some we would be pleased to see stay, it would be lovely to have Aaron Ramsdale, Taylor Harwood Bellis, Mateus Fernandes & Tyler Dibling in the squad, but the odds on all 4 going are far lower than even one staying.
Others are more contentious such as whether the likes of Yuki Sugawara or Ryan Manning are the men to play at full back next season or whether we should move them on.
Then those who were out on loan for all or part of the season, they are retained, but do they want to be retained, do they feel it is time for change, I hope not as I feel that Adam Armstrong, Shea Charles, Sam Edozie, Ronnie Edwards & Gavin Bazunu could be key players next season, all proven at Championship level, indeed so could Ben Brereton Diaz be put in that bracket.
Finally there are those that really have no future here and are entering the last year of their deals such as Armel Bella-Kotchap, Tall Paul Onuachu
So the retained list means absolutely nothing, there is little to be gained from it at this current time, or even at all, it is essentially a list of those who are either out of contract or in contract, nothing more.
The Premier League is now 33 years old and Jean Marc Bosman's landmark ruling will celebrate it's 30th anniversary later this year, for those of us of a certain age, it something that we all remember, as both were massive changes in Football at the time, but for those under the age of 35, it is just words in a history book.