Gao Jisheng Southampton Owner
SAINTS’ CEO Martin Semmens tells supporters that “you might see one or two (contract renewals) across the next couple of months,” after last season’s errors. The club lost a lot of their key assets for cheap or less, or were forced into sales due to player contracts running down to their final 12 months. Ryan Bertrand departed for Leicester City on a free deal before Jannik Vestergaard went to the same destination for a cut-price, with only a year left on his contract. An expiring deal also forced Saints’ hand when it came to the bid of striker Danny Ings from Aston Villa, although he actually fetched a fairly reasonable price regardless at £30million.
Martin Semmens said: “That is always one of those classic situations where you think, ok we’ve done that and dealt with it, and then in six months’ time, it comes up again, because they run down. So around this time of year, we do look at it.”
As it stands, Jan Bednarek, Kyle Walker-Peters, Romain Perraud, and Adam Armstrong are tied down to deals until 2025 with Ward-Prowse and summer signing Tino Livramento is contracted until 2026. James Ward-Prowse signed a new five-year contract in the summer Saints also have five first-team players on deals until 2024, including Stuart Armstrong, Ibrahima Diallo, Che Adams, Mohammed Salisu and Will Smallbone. However, seven first-teamers are on deals that will expire during the summer of 2023. Fraser Forster is likely to leave the club when his contract expires in 2022 (the end of this season). Jack Stephens and Alex McCarthy’s deals also expire then, but new deals for those two are likely to be announced by the club during this campaign.
Martin Semmens added: “There are one or two we are looking at, at the moment, and it is always important to extend. But yes, we are certainly in a much better position than we were this time last year and there are fewer pressing issues. You might see one or two across the next couple of months.”
Nathan Tella, Moi Elyounoussi, Moussa Djenepo, Nathan Redmond, Oriol Romeu and Theo Walcott will all enter the final year of their deals at the start of next season. It’s a boost for the club if Semmens’ suggestions are correct, and some of the key names listed receive renewed terms to end any speculation before it starts, and also protect the value of their assets.
