Saints have already shown that they mean business in this summer in the transfer market, but with 8 players released they have given themselves a big chunk of income to pay the wages of those coming in.

Ross Stewart aside the announcement that 8 players would be leaving the club at the end of their contract didn't create much consternation in the Saints fanbase, most were not playing regularly or were out on loan.

So the loss of 8 players was not an issue in terms of weakening the squad, but the saving on wages was significant.

footballleagueworrld.co.uk has estimated that the weekly saving to the club on wages would be approaching £200k.

This is of course not an insignificant amount and a big help towards paying the salary's of those coming in to replace them.

They estimate the savings will be made as follows, Alex McCarthy was the biggest earning on £40k per week, only Finn Azaz in the squad was said to earn more.

Joe Aribo was bringing in £35k per week for himself and loanee Elias Jelert £30k.

Charlie Taylor was also on £30k and Saints will be glad to get that off the books, although most of that would have been covered by West Brom with whom he spent the season on loan.

Oriol Romeu is claimed to have been paid £25k a week, that sounds a lot, but would probably take into account that we did not need to pay a transfer fee for him and that he would have received only a minimal signing of fee if any.

Ross Stewart joined the club in the summer of 2023 and is said to be paid £20k per week, that sounds a little small for a player, but reflects his injury situation and would have been boosted by bonus's paid for games played.

Will Smallbone is said to be earning as little as £5k a week, due to his contract being signed just before his real breakthrough season of 2023/24, although I suspect this would be a little higher, given that he would probably have seen this increase after that season due to games played etc.

Lastly is Jamie Jones who was on loan as cover after Alex McCarthy needed surgery, his wages would be minimal, but his salary is likely to push the weekly wage bill to around £200k or to put an annual figure on it just shy of £2.5 million.

This is a decent saving on current salary payments, that are now freed up to help pay the salary's of those who are coming in.

Whether we like it or not football these days is about money and juggling finances, so this saving should not be sniffed at.

Players come and go, the problem is never about who leaves, it is all about who you replace them with, in the past we have had varying results in this department, back in 2014 when we lost the likes of Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw & Rickie Lambert, we prospered because we spent the money wisely.

For a while that pattern continued, but eventually teh quality of replacements was not as good as those leaving and it cost us.

Recently though we have shown that, we can once again source good players who are under the radar, Mateus Fernandes perhaps being the most recent and prime example.

But in the past few years the likes of Flynn Downes, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Shea Charles, Caspar Jander, Leo Scienza and others have all come in and increased in value, some of them are likely to leave this summer, but at a good profit.

The trick now is to replace them and the hope is that if we found these players, then our player recruitment department can repeat that process again.

In summary, this summer will be one of wheeling and dealing, a good transfer window will usually see the odd dud or two, but overall it is about improving the squad and keeping moving forward by reinvesting the money in from those who depart.

We have a good starting point after the 8 who depart come off the wage bill, most just look at transfer fee's, but underlying that is the cost of players salary's and from the list of those leaving we are getting a fair chunk off the books.

All Photos Via Reuters