Yousef Safri could be leaving St Mary's sooner than later.

The Saints midfielder could be on his way less than a year after his arrival from Norwich City and the rumour is he is off to the middle east.

In truth Safri's career with Saints has been a bit of a puzzler, he has been consistent and even taking into account his unavailability due to the African Nations cup, and two suspension's for being sent off, he still played  37 of the 46 league fixtures, but many would query whether he really made the impact he should have in the fact that he failed to score even once.

Personally I think it was more to do with the fact that he rarely got to play in the centre with a player that complimented his abilities, at the startof his Saints career he looked to be forming a solid partnership with Jonh Viafara before George Burley spiked that little twosome, as he often seemed to do.

The arrival of two players who seem to be similar, in Paul Wotton and Morgan Schneiderlin seem to indicate that its time to move on for Safri.

But perhaps the real reason that Saints are keen to let what was one of our better players from last season go, is money, what is becoming clear is that at the start of last term George Burley was allowed to spend money and bring in players, they didnt cost that much but their wages were astronomical, Safri is rumoured to be on between £15k- £20k per week as is Jason Euell, in truth we have not got value for money out of either, if Safri does leave then the wages of both Wotton & Schneiderlin will probably be less than half of Safri's combined.

The fans wont like it if Safri is allowed to leave, but the fact of the matter is that Saints are now playing the price for mismanagement both by a previous manager and by whoever allowed negotiated these overpriced contracts.        

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