Saints are going to be very busy this weekend, a trip to Watford in the Championship may well be preceded by a hectic bout of transfer dealings. But of the five deals in the pipeline it is the departure that will hurt Saints fans.
Matteus Fernandes has been a fan favourite at St Mary's for the past year since arriving from Porto, he has been one of the best players in the Championship so far and although most accepted that he needed to be playing in a top flight League and would leave the club, the stories leaking out of St Mary's have not put the player in a bad light.
11 Years ago Adam Lallana left St Mary's in controversial fashion and went from hero to zero due what was perceived by the fan base as disloyal behaviour and up to his return a year ago, always received a hot welcome on his returns to his former home.
No one argued back then about why he wanted to depart, but he was seen as pushing the club into letting him go and even after joining the England squad for that summers World Cup left the camp to push through his move to Liverpool by having a medical.
Now it seems history is repeating itself as Matteus Fernandes is alleged to have gone to London for his medical without a deal between the two clubs agreed and without the knowledge or permission of Southampton FC itself.
This may result in a complaint from Saints going forward, they had accepted that Fernandes wanted to leave and why and appreciated those reasons, but all of that was blown out of the window in the space of one day as it seems the player and perhaps more accurately his agent, tried to push Saints into accepting a deal that they did not thing was matching their valuation of the player.
The more generous of Southampton supporters will perhaps give the player leeway and pin the blame on West Ham & his agent, they could have a point, Fernandes might well have travelled for the medical having been told by his agent that a fee had been agreed, he may have felt that he was free now to take that medical, but one thing is for sure if no deal had been done that West Ham would have certainly have known that they were not authorised to allow it to proceed.
Whether Fernandes's move will work out though is open for debate, West Ham are in absolute chaos and when Fernandes walks through the door on Monday, he might well be passing David Moyes going in the other direction, if that is the case a new manager might consider
That argument though is for the coming weeks, in the meantime it is just sad that after giving us so much pleasure and indeed being a ray of hope last season that Matteus Fernandes should be departing leaving a sour taste in the mouth.
But that is football and he is not the first nor the last player who will leave the club in controversial circumstances, once he is gone he is gone and we have to move forward and it seems that Johannes Spors has been pro active in that direction.
As Fernandes walks out the door metaphorically speaking as it seems that he has already done that, it seems that deal have been agreed to bring in four people to replace him.
The first is likely to be Finn Azaz from Middlesbrough, no one can complain about his pedigree, his record in the Championship over the last 3 seasons at Plymouth & then Boro are superb in Championship terms, if he comes in he has the ability to dominate games in this division as much if not more than Matteus Fernandes could do.
Also with the right pedigree is Tom Fellows who looks like he is joining from West Brom, the right winger (in footballing terms not political) has an impressive stat of 8 goals and 18 assists in 85 Championship games for the Baggies.
These two are truly positive signings.
Third through the now spinning St Mary's revolving door could be Caspar Jandar, the 22 year old central midfielder from 1FC Nurenberg, is a central midfielder and highly rated, he has not played in the top flight in Germany but been impressive in 2 Bundesliga, a defensive midfielder there to put pressure on Shea Charles & Flynn Downes with both Joe Aribl & Will Smallbone likely to leave.
The fourth arrival is said to be Leo Scienza from Heidenheim who may not be a familiar name to many, but are a German top flight club.
The 26 year old left winger( yes this is in footballing terms as well) had been a slow started in his career and only reached the Bundesliga last season, there he scored 3 times plus another 3 assists last season and in this one he has got off to a great start with a goal in Heidenheim's opening Bundesliga fixture.
So as Fernandes closes the door on his Saints career we will replace him with these four and perhaps more to follow, of the quartet set to arrive today, Aziz & Fellows have the proven track record and are superb signings that will not only strengthen our squad but wweaken those of Middlesbrough & West Brom, two clubs with promotion aspirations.
Jandar is up and coming in Germany and has the potential to step up to the plate and it is only Scienza who will perhaps not completely convince the fans from his stats.
IT should be noted that Saints are buying to get out of this division, perhaps not for the hoped for promotion back to the Premier League.
With only one winger in the first team squad, Ryan Fraser, this has severely hampered Will Still's ability to change formation, he has been forced to stick to the 3 at the back rather than go to a flat back 4 with wingers.
If all of these four do arrive then we are now strong in all areas, on paper the biggest and best squad in the Championship, with both experience and also youthful potential.
The balance has not been there for the first month of Will Still's reign, by next week it could be just right.
However I would still like to see a leader in the back four come in, Ben Mee is training at Sheffield United and is a free agent, someone get his phone number.