Saints have entered the last month of the transfer window with a firm offer on the table from Fulham for £25 million for Shea Charles, but they are hoping to trim the squad by a further 6 players and another £60 million in the coffers.

Southampton supporters are resigned to losing Shea Charles in August, but they know that as much as the Irish International will be missed, there are plenty of other options in the centre of midfield.

However even with Charles gone, the squad is still top heavy and there are at least another 6 players who we could look to ship out, most of whom played little part last season.

First would be Arron Ramsdale, the keeper spent all of last season at Newcastle United where things didn't quite go as well as he had hoped and ultimately it cost him his place in the England squad for the World Cup.

But Saints supporters know that although he is the best keeper at the club, he needs to go for two reasons, first we cannot afford his wages in the Championship and secondly he is Premier League quality and obviously that is where he want to play.

Good luck to him and Saints will look to bring in as near to £25 million as they can get.

Not so popular amongst some Saints fans is Gavin Bazunu and although some will never admit that he played a decent part in our promotion season two years ago, we will still get a fair chunk of the £10 million we paid Manchester City in 2022.

Personally I wish Gavin Bazunu all the best and I hope he finds a club where he can truly blossom, hopefully we can get around £7 million for him.

Yuri Sugawara joined us two years ago and there where high hopes for him after his early form that season, it didn't work out, but after a reasonable season at Werder Bremen on loan and then Japan in the World Cup, we should get most of the £6 million that we paid AZ Alkmaar.

Cameron Archer is the only player who made a reasonable contribution last season and although he could still do a job here, I think he like Gavin Bazunu knows that he needs a fresh start somewhere.

Last season he played 36 games in all competitions and scored 6 goals, several of them earning us extra points, such as the last minute winner at Swansea in April, we should hopefully get back somewhere around £10 million of the £15 million we paid when we signed him from Aston Villa.

Ben Brereton Diaz was another who went out on loan last season and of his two years at the club after signing for £7 million from Villareal in August 2024, he only 4 starts and 6 sub appearances before he went out on loan to Sheffield United in January 2025 and then Derby County last season.

Decent spells at both club and the fact that he is still only 27 should mean that most of that £7 million should be recouped.

Last up is Damion Downs, I will find it hard to find anyone with a good word to say about him, but he may just have go down as one of those that was a cheap gamble that didn't quite pay off, we paid £7 million, and we might well get that back if we sell him, although it is more likely to be nearer £5 million.

All in all when you add all these transfers together the potential fees are somewhere between £75 - £90 million and Saints would hope for somewhere above the middle of that, if they get £25 million they will be quite happy.

However all of these players were signed on good wages and some of them might not be keen to give them up and so negotiations might well mean that we either have to send some out on loan again or drop the price to get them off the wage bill.

It has been suggested that Ben Brereton Diaz might well be one that Tonda Eckert would be prepared to keep or maybe Cameron Archer although he seems too like Lewis Dobbin to find a use for both.

All in all though it highlights just how bloated our squad is and the root cause seems to date back to the summer of 2024, when 4 of those last 6 were signed where we seemed to lack any direction under Russell Martin, the problem being we had no Director of Football at the helm back in that Transfer Window.

We have to move on though and whatever our thoughts on any of these players, the truth is they have simply got on with their job, often in difficult conditions ie season 2024/25 and have not shown anything other than professionalism in the way they have conducted themselves.

All Photos Via Reuters