The door marked OUT at St Mary's was in full swing as the transfer window finally shut fully yesterday, but the one marked IN stayed firmly shut, read on to find out who has left the club.
The big transfer rumour was that Angus Gunn would be going to Stoke City and Jack Butland coming in the opposite direction, the departure of Gunn who moved to the Potteries on a season long loan was confirmed, but although Jack Butland moved South it was not to St Mary's but Selhurst Park where he joined Crystal Palace on a permanent 3 year deal.
This seems to have been the stumbling block for Saints, the timing was not quite right, with Alex McCarthy and Fraser Forster still on the books , the truth is that in the current situation in football and as reported yesterday the club with a financial deficit of £3 million a month with the absence of fans being the main reason, they just could not afford to take on another keeper and the wages.
If this had been next summer then possibly the deal would have been done, but now it is a case of having to be prudent and no one can blame the club for that given the well documented issues throughout football at present.
Whether Gunn has a future at the club is another question, certainly he needs to get his confidence back and he can only do that by playing games, the hope is that next year he has a solid season at Stoke behind him and he can return to challenge for a first team place at St Mary's.
Another departure was Josh Sims, he has joined League One Doncaster Rovers on a three month loan deal till January.
Four years ago Sims was starting to look a great prospect, when he went out on loan to Reading two years ago it was hoped that he would get the experience needed and come back to Saints ready to become a first team regular, but he struggled at Reading and came back early from the loan after rarely making the starting line up and eventually being an unused sub.
Initially after a couple of decent outings under new manager Ralph Hasenhuttl things looked up, but a strange loan deal to New York Red Bulls that meant that after barely half a dozen games he had to sit out four months of last season, suggested that the club did not see a future at St Mary's going forward.
That seems to be the case now, the fact that he is heading for League One and not even the Championship is strange, surely someone in that division would have fancied him, he goes to Doncaster for just three months, but on his return he will find that there are plenty of wide options for Ralph Hasenhuttl blocking his progress, with his contract up at Saints next summer, we will probably be hoping that in January we might be able to move him on for a small fee,
Either way it is likely that Sims has played his last game for the club.
The third departure is Jake Hesketh, he like Sims is a player who made his debut at an early age, in his case back in December 2014, when still aged only 18 he came on against Manchester United at St Mary's as a sub in the Premier League under Ronald Koeman, a few days later he was in the starting line up at Burnley, but came off injured after half an hour and has never played another League game for the club since.
He did manage a few cup appearances afterwards, notably in September 2016 when he scored against Crystal Palace in the League Cup, a season in which we progressed to the final, he also started the Europa League game at Happoel Beer Sheeva a week later.
This was however his last appearance for the club and it looks like being his final one.
He has spent time out on loan at Burton, MK Dons and Lincoln without really excelling and now he joins League Two side Crawley Town for the remainder of the season.
Turning 25 in March and out of contract next summer, his future is uncertain but it will not be at St Mary's, a shame because back in December 2014 we thought we had a player on our hands.
Good luck to all three players for the remainder of the season, but especially Angus Gunn who has had a rough time during his two years at St Mary's, it is easy to remember him as the keeper who let in 9 against Leicester, but he is still young and learning his trade and was behind a side that in that game and indeed others had been falling apart in front of him, he has it in him to become a decent keeper, if he could find his form at Stoke he might just save us a lot of money next summer.