James Ward-Prowse has been out of favour at The Hammers since the arrival of Nuno Espirito Santo just after the close of the transfer window and it is clear that he will not be at the club for the second half of the season, but will it see a return to St Mary's, the rumour mill says yes.

According to footballleagueworld.co.uk Southampton are eyeing up a "Sensational return for their ex Captain"

Of course this is an easy rumour to start, JWP has not been in any of Santo's squads since September, not even featuring on the bench during that time after starting every one of the opening 5 Premier league games.

He was not even included in West Ham's squad for the FA cup game against QPR yesterday, so he has not played a game of football in almost 4 months.

So you would expect him to be leaving East London, the only question is his destination.

Saints sold him for £35 million back in August 2023, however his time at West Ham has been a little up and down to say the least, after his first year at the club he was loaned to Nottingham Forest where he was soon joined by Nuno Espirito Santo , who soon decided he was not the type of player he wanted and his loan spell was cut short in January 2025 and he returned to West Ham where he re established himself in the side, by then just 18 months after his move from St Mary's his value had dropped to £16 million.

This season he started in the squad but the moment he heard that Nuno Espirito Santo was the new West Ham boss, he must have known that his career at the Hammers was over, barring a quick sacking for the new manager.

Now the transfer window has opened, he will be looking for a new club, but his options will be fraught with complications.

Firstly having not kicked a ball in anger for 4 months, he will be far from match fit and more importance match sharp, it will take a few weeks to get him up to speed.

Secondly is the transfer itself, his value has dropped steadily, having turned 30 it had dropped to around £10 million by the end of last season and now having been in exile from the Hammers squad for 4 months it is now only £6 million.

That's a fee that is affordable to every Premier League club and most Championship ones as well, including Saints, but what he is not going to get is a salary anywhere near his current deal. Assuming that he could get a club to pay half of what he is on now, he would still be giving up about £8.5 million is salary he could get at The London Stadium, if he sits tight till his contract ends in July 2027

That means that it will most likely be a loan deal, but even that will be expensive, even if West Ham forego a loan fee just to get his wages covered for the rest of the season, that will cost the club he goes to somewhere North of £2 million, so that will count out a few clubs.

The player himself therefore is not going to move permanently in this transfer window, he may well sit tight as we have said above, or wait till the summer and then negotiate to leave on a permanent basis, maybe taking the view that his potential salary is dropping fast and better to take a pay cut in the summer to get a half decent 3 year deal elsewhere.

But potential suitors might be thin on the ground, he would obviously not be looking at a top 10 Premier League club coming in for him, but if we look at the bottom half of the table, most are either going nowhere in terms of the FA Cup where the likes of Everton, Palace & Bournemouth are already out, not going to get relegated and unlikely to be challenging for Europe either.

That being the case they are probably not going to spent £2 million just to tread water.

At the bottom of the table Wolves are almost down, they are rebuilding for next season again why pay out when there is no chance of changing anything.

You would say that Burnley are going to join them, so that leaves just 3 clubs fighting to avoid the final relegation place currently held by West Ham themselves.

Even then Leeds are probably only 2 wins off safety, so although they might want to take out some insurance so to speak by adding JWP to the squad, the fact that he will not be fit for a few weeks might put them off.

So although I have a sneaking suspicion that Brighton might take a gamble, that just leaves his former loan club Nottingham Forest, but would West Ham be willing to sell to a club whom as it stands is their best chance of making up a current 7 point gap and catching.

Would they want to see Ward-Prowse playing out of his skin to get one over on Santo and powering Forest to safety, to be blunt 2 Forest wins would see them on the brink of safety and would leave the Hammers needing to win 5 games to just draw level with them, a hard task when you have won only 3 all season out of 21.

So I would surmise that James Ward Prowse's destination might well be the Championship, but even out of the top half of the division there are a few clubs who would not be able to afford even his wages for 4 months.

So JWP would hope that the bigger clubs in the top half might take a punt in order to have a chance of promotion, but again it is a question of fitness and how long it would take him to get up to speed.

Will Saints be in for him, the heart says yes, he is the prodigal son, we could do with him to anchor our midfield, but again if we lose our next two games we can kiss goodbye to promotion and that being the case why spent £2 million on his wages just to get us a couple of places up the table.

All Photos Via Reuters