Keeping Track of the Contracts 2025-26

[Over land and sea]

39 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Last year Saints announced their retained list on June 4th, just for reference

I think it will be earlier this year as I understand that lists need to be with PL by this Thursday.  Of course, we don’t need to announce anything straightaway but the PL will publish the lists within days 

[WokingSaint]

On 01/05/2022 at 17:58, DT said:

Gareth Southgate called one of those keepers up to play for England. 

Both actually!

[saintscottofthenortham]

On 26/04/2022 at 13:55, Wurzel said:

Obvously we can only start with 11 on the pitch, and for keepers it's even worse as they have no psitional flexibility, but anyone "happy" to play second fiddle in any postion should be shipped out asap. Nothing but determination to prove their worth as first choice should be acceptable.

A good number two, who is happy to play the role of a number two, is actually massive. There are numerous examples of average keepers who have played massive parts in successful sides. Keeping it competitive but having the genuine means to encourage and support the number one, whilst being able to step in when needed. Two genuine number ones, which we've effectively been playing with as they are arguably both as bad as each other in some ways, can put undue pressure on and lead the acting number two to want the number one to fail. Keeper is a unique position, not like anywhere else on the pitch, and the three or four keepers in the ranks should all know their position and be very good at each part of it. Like a team, within a team.

For me, we are lacking in every department here. Rattled me when Ralph came out and explicitly said we don't and won't have a number one, and I've zero faith in our coaching either, allowing that to even be a thing. I think you'd struggle to find another example of this, especially at the level we're at. No defence would choose to operate with varying keepers. They should know each other inside out.

[S-Clarke]

1 hour ago, saintscottofthenortham said:

Rattled me when Ralph came out and explicitly said we don't and won't have a number one, and I've zero faith in our coaching either, allowing that to even be a thing. I think you'd struggle to find another example of this, especially at the level we're at. No defence would choose to operate with varying keepers. They should know each other inside out.

I think when Ralph said that it was an admission that he knows both keepers are incredibly limited, so keeping both on their toes may actually gain an edge in their performances and move them above absolutely shit to average. It did to a point with Fraser, but McCarthy just seems flawed.

[Pwoite]

My suspicion is that we will bring in two new keepers, and that once that happens McCarthy will be off. however, should that plan go awry, we have an insurance policy and some experience we can fall back on. Alternatively, bring in two, keep Alex, see how the new boys shape up, and look to get rid of one of them in January.

[Chez]

Is today the day that we announce the retained list and confirm that the five out of contract senior players are departing (or at least out of contract) and that Stephens/McCarthy did indeed  get new contracts some time ago?

Question: If we are still negotiating a potential contract, say for Long/Cabellero, would that player be on that retained list or be announced as going with Forster and Lewis? 

 

[Over land and sea]

59 minutes ago, Chez said:

Is today the day that we announce the retained list and confirm that the five out of contract senior players are departing (or at least out of contract) and that Stephens/McCarthy did indeed  get new contracts some time ago?

Question: If we are still negotiating a potential contract, say for Long/Cabellero, would that player be on that retained list or be announced as going with Forster and Lewis? 

 

My understanding is that there is a deadline of today to submit retained and released lists to the PL.  We may announce something today but we don't have to announce anything - we could leave it to the PL to announce when they publish the lists in a few days' time. I suspect Liverpool will have a few days after the CL final before they have to submit their list so I doubt there will be any publication by the PL this week. 

All professional players under contract with the club will be on one list or the other.  If we are still negotiating, the player will be on the retained list with the word "Offer" alongside him.

[Matthew Le God]

 

[Saint_clark]

Other clubs have released their retained lists... I was under the impression they had to be in by June to be honest. Any sign of ours?

[Over land and sea]

On 08/06/2022 at 12:56, Saint_clark said:

Other clubs have released their retained lists... I was under the impression they had to be in by June to be honest. Any sign of ours?

Keep an eye on the PL website from 3pm today.  I believe the retained and released lists will be published then

[SuperSAINT]

 

[SuperSAINT]

 

[John Boy Saint]

“while talks remain ongoing with long-term servant Shane Long.”
We’ll be announcing ground naming rights with McCarthy Stone soon.

If he is staying we need to optimise his experience to getting the youngsters to do his Donkey work and he just pops up to……..score a goal.

Different times but Peter Reid did that with us, he knew he didn’t have the legs anymore and he got either young Maddison or Widrington to receive the ball arc their run up the pitch, and he told them by the time they did that he would be in the right position in the box to receive the ball back. (That was a tale from many moons ago, from a late friend who knew Reid).

[Matthew Le God]

 

[SuperSAINT]

2 hours ago, Over land and sea said:

Keep an eye on the PL website from 3pm today.  I believe the retained and released lists will be published then

Don’t we normally announce youth players who got released on our retained list as well?  (Or are we going to have to go through the list & work out who’s been released?!)

[whiteleySaint30]

17 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

 

New contract for long is pathetic. Bednerak scored more last season than long has in the last 3. Joke of a Club - no holds barred my #ucking arse

[disconnect]

1 hour ago, SuperSAINT said:

Don’t we normally announce youth players who got released on our retained list as well?  (Or are we going to have to go through the list & work out who’s been released?!)

Seems bizarre that we have potentially lots of players out of contract but only bothered to mention the two keepers leaving? There's probably about 10 others on pro deals leaving.

Oliver Wright*
Matthew Hall*
Zuriel Otseh-Taiwan*
Oludare Olufunwa
Will Tizzard*
Olly Lancashire*
Jack Turner*
Shane Long
Jayden Smith*
Sam Bellis

[Matthew Le God]

1 hour ago, whiteleySaint30 said:

New contract for long is pathetic. Bednerak scored more last season than long has in the last 3. Joke of a Club - no holds barred my #ucking arse

Did you read the post you just quoted? It is saying the opposite and that Long's wife has said the club haven't offered him a deal!

Edited 10 June, 2022 by Matthew Le God

[trousers]

3 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Did you read the post you just quoted? It is saying the opposite and that Ling's wife has said the club haven't offered him a deal!

What's a random Chinese fella's wife got to do with anything? 

[Matthew Le God]

Retained list is now on PL website. It is going to be a pain to work through who has left. Normally the club list all departing players, not just the 1st team ones!

https://www.premierleague.com/news/2637594

[VectisSaint]

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

 

Oh Oh Shane, now you're in trouble, not telling the trouble and strife about your new contract negotiations. 

What's the deal with Stephens then, McCarthy's new contract showed up on some official site somewhere, but not Jack's, why don't they now at least announce what the new deals were. This is not a post about whether he deserved a new contract or not, but why don't the club announce it.

[Matthew Le God]

Edited 10 June, 2022 by Matthew Le God

[SuperSAINT]

8 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Released list...

Guess that doesn’t include U18’s as we know Tshaka left.

[Matthew Le God]

7 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

Guess that doesn’t include U18’s as we know Tshaka left.

Yes, some under 18s leaving make the list even longer. I wish the club just announced them all as they normally do. It is a pain to work out the full list for FM23! 

[Over land and sea]

Here is the full retained list.  I’ll edit the opening post when I get a moment.  
 

Contracts
Abdul Karim, Mohamed Salisu          
Adams, Che Sac Everton Fred
Armitage, Will
Armstrong, Adam James       
Armstrong, Stuart      
Babic, Goran Gogo     
Ballard, Dominic        
Bednarek, Jan
Bellis, Samuel Lawrence Alexander (Offer)
Bycroft, Jack Thomas 
Caballero Lazcano, Wilfredo Daniel (Offer)
Chauke, Kgaogelo (Offer)
Diallo, Ibrahima         
Djenepo, Moussa       
Edwards, Milan Diamond Lazane      
El Younossi, Mohamed          
Evangelista Silveira Neves Vojnovic, Lyanco 
Ferry, William
Finnigan, Ryan James
Hall, Matthew
Lancashire, Oliver      
Lawrence, Nico          
Livramento, Valentino           
Long, Shane Patrick (Offer)
McCarthy, Alex Simon
Nlundulu, Dan
Olaigbe, Kazeem Aderemi J.  
Otseh-Taiwo, Zuriel   
Pambou Makaya, Leon          
Payne, Lewis James   
Pearce, Luke Edward Andrew
Perraud, Romain Paul Jean Michel    
Ramsay, Kayne           
Redmond, Nathan Daniel Jerome     
Rodriguez Borja, Jeremi Alexander   
Ross-Lang, Fedel        
Simeu, Dynel Brown Kemgo  
Small, Thierry 
Smallbone, William Anthony Patrick 
Stephens, Jack
Tella, Nathan 
Tizzard, Wiliam          
Turner, Jack   
Valery, Yan     
Vidal, Oriol Romeu     
Vokins, Jake   
Walcott, Theo James 
Walker-Peters, Kyle Leonardus         
Ward-Prowse, James Michael Edward          
Watts, Caleb Cassius  
Wright, Oliver

Scholars
Bailey, Samuel James (Offer Contract)
Beach, Edward James (Extended)
Bragg, Cameron Roger           
Carson, Matthew (Extended)
Chavez-Munoz, Ryan Jorge   
Davis, Sonnie 
Doyle, Kamari Olivier 
Hewlett, Jeremiah James       
Higgs, Tommy Lee      
Jeffries, Josh David    
Lett, Joshua Matthew
Mohamed, Adli Hatim Othman Husain         
Squires, Joshua David
Woods, Harvey James (Extended)
Wright, Rylee

[davefizzy14]

Kegs Chauke has signed a new two year deal according to the echo:

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/20202059.southampton-academy-star-chauke-signs-new-two-year-contract/

[Charlie Wayman]

Glad they have announced a massive clear-out so early. Well, Fraser is massive is he not.

[SuperSAINT]

3 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Yes, some under 18s leaving make the list even longer. I wish the club just announced them all as they normally do. It is a pain to work out the full list for FM23! 

Along with the aforementioned Tshaka, it looks like Teddy Davey has been let-go. 

[Matthew Le God]

Jack Stephens just liked this Tweet... 🤔

 

Edited 10 June, 2022 by Matthew Le God

[Chez]

The club state Stephens signed his contract during the 21/22 season, yet the Athletic reported he agreed a four year deal back in the summer of 2020. Seeing as the Athletic were spot on with McCarthy, and the Long statement has been questioned by his wife, maybe they are the more reliable source:

https://theathletic.com/news/exclusive-jack-stephens-agrees-new-long-term-southampton-contract/bo8LfBeiblPj/

[Fitzhugh Fella]

Regarding the Jack Stephens contract non announcement the club told him the announcement would be made when the club were on an upward trajectory. At the time he signed the club was not doing too well. When the club then went on their downward spiral that opportunity never arose. Quite understandably Jack Stephens thought the delay not very respectful which I am inclined to agree with. So much for transparency. 

[S-Clarke]

35 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Regarding the Jack Stephens contract non announcement the club told him the announcement would be made when the club were on an upward trajectory. At the time he signed the club was not doing too well. When the club then went on their downward spiral that opportunity never arose. Quite understandably Jack Stephens thought the delay not very respectful which I am inclined to agree with. So much for transparency. 

Kind of suggestive that the club were inherently aware that it wouldn't go down 'too well', as he's clearly not amazing (ditto McCarthy), so they were hoping for a good run of form to slip that in when the fans would be less likely to react negatively. Not a good show really, like you said disrespectful to Stephens and the question remains as to why we signed him on, as a club we're clearly not enthused about it.

The only sense I can try and attribute to it would be the fact we were still owned by Gao, we didn't know what our scope would be for replacing etc - so saftey first, keep the players around who 'wanted' to be here - even though they weren't great. That's all I've got as a reason!

Edited 11 June, 2022 by S-Clarke

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, S-Clarke said:

Kind of suggestive that the club were inherently aware that it wouldn't go down 'too well', as he's clearly not amazing (ditto McCarthy), so they were hoping for a good run of form to slip that in when the fans would be less likely to react negatively. Not a good show really, like you said disrespectful to Stephens and the question remains as to why we signed him on, as a club we're clearly not enthused about it.

We are run pretty poorly.  Makes it more strange when fans salivate every time when Siemens talks.

[Matthew Le God]

7 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

We are run pretty poorly.  Makes it more strange when fans salivate every time when Siemens talks.

Why do you think we are currently run poorly?

His name is Semmens, not the tech company Siemens.

[Chez]

4 hours ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Regarding the Jack Stephens contract non announcement the club told him the announcement would be made when the club were on an upward trajectory. At the time he signed the club was not doing too well. When the club then went on their downward spiral that opportunity never arose. Quite understandably Jack Stephens thought the delay not very respectful which I am inclined to agree with. So much for transparency. 

The PR team seem to have a feel for how signing relatively unpopular players to new extended deals will go down with the fans.

So Ralph gives a player a new deal, the PR team is not impressed, or know any announcement will draw a negative response, so they don't bother announcing it.

[Saint_clark]

On 10/06/2022 at 18:08, Matthew Le God said:

Ramello Mitchell and Benni Smaithwaite were meant to be pretty highly rated too weren't they? 

[The Cat]

9 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Ramello Mitchell and Benni Smaithwaite were meant to be pretty highly rated too weren't they? 

I think Mitchell dropped off this season. Not sure why but a lot of players do around that age. I saw him for the U23's and he wasn't great, gave the ball away more than he should have done and the things he tried never really came off.

[david in sweden]

12 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Ramello Mitchell and Benni Smaithwaite were meant to be pretty highly rated too weren't they? 

 

they probably were good at 16, but when the issue of extended contracts arises, some fall by the wayside....

and someone has to make a decision on the day .....you win some and lose some.

Saints have a long historical record of releasing young talents who didn't peaked by 18...

and even younger;  Kevin Phillips, and Dennis Wise were released as schoolboys long back in the 1980's. 

Into this century. Danny Ings, Tyrone MIngs, Ben White ......I'm sure there are more to come.

Rumour had it that we almost released a scrawny, under-weight teenager named Bale when he was around 14 ...

(whatever happened to him ?)

[Chez]

8 minutes ago, david in sweden said:

Saints have a long historical record of releasing young talents who didn't peaked by 18...

and even younger;  Kevin Phillips, and Dennis Wise were released as schoolboys long back in the 1980's. 

Saints had a pretty short list of errors while Dave Merrington was the youth team manager. Wise wasn't really one of them, as Merrington recommended he get a pro contract, but McMenemy wouldn't give Wise the money he wanted in 1985.

Kevin Phillips wasn't released as a schoolboy. He did his apprenticeship (well, it was a YTS back then) but wasn't offered a professional contract in 1991. He was a good player, but he was moved to right back during those two years, which didn't suit him. He'd been a centre midfielder as an associate schoolboy, a bloody talented player and he was one of those you thought would just become a pro.  Under the current system, I think Philips would have got a pro deal. 

 

[Matthew Le God]

Gareth Southgate was also in Saints youth set-up in the 1980s and was released.

Edited 12 June, 2022 by Matthew Le God

[AlexLaw76]

The 'tators mentioned the other night that Jamal Musiala was at saints briefly.

If I hear that right?

[S-Clarke]

4 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

The 'tators mentioned the other night that Jamal Musiala was at saints briefly.

If I hear that right?

Yep, Chelsea poached him from us (he was a London lad)

FC Bayern München: Die außergewöhnliche Geschichte von Jamal Musiala in Bildern | Goal.com

[The Cat]

4 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Yep, Chelsea poached him from us (he was a London lad)

FC Bayern München: Die außergewöhnliche Geschichte von Jamal Musiala in Bildern | Goal.com

He was born in Germany, moved to Southampton at about 7 or 8 because his mum was studying here. Played for City Central in mini soccer where he was obviously incredible. Saints picked him up and he was there for a little bit before Chelsea came in, offered the parents one of those crazy deals, took him away, put him in a posh school etc etc.

[Master Bates]

20 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Ramello Mitchell and Benni Smaithwaite were meant to be pretty highly rated too weren't they? 

They got rid of Smales-Braithwaite because they knew he'd be out of this world and they wanted to save the fans money by not getting them to have his name printed on the back of their shirts.....

[qwertyell]

21 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Ramello Mitchell and Benni Smaithwaite were meant to be pretty highly rated too weren't they? 

Benni went on loan to a non league side this season and, I think, didn't score even once.

For a striker, that doesn't bode well for his future prospects.

Edited 12 June, 2022 by qwertyell

[Matthew Le God]

Teddy Davey is another who has been released.

[SuperSAINT]

On 10/06/2022 at 21:36, SuperSAINT said:

Along with the aforementioned Tshaka, it looks like Teddy Davey has been let-go. 

 

47 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Teddy Davey is another who has been released.

Poor, MLG. Where’s the respect? 😜

[Matthew Le God]

19 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

Poor, MLG. Where’s the respect? 😜

I was working through the changes in the FM online database and didn't bother checking the thread first when I found another released player. The club didn't make it easy and announce the full list which is annoying. 

So looks like 9 players released then!? 🤔 

Edited 12 June, 2022 by Matthew Le God

[SuperSAINT]

22 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

I was working through the changes in the FM online database and didn't bother checking the thread first when I found another released player. The club didn't make it easy and announce the full list which is annoying. 

So looks like 9 players released then!? 🤔 

It’s odd we haven’t mentioned the academy lads.

[The Cat]

I'm guessing the new scholars will be announced later in June when they have finished their GCSE's. 

Pretty sure they've already filmed some stuff for it but are just waiting for the boys to have some free time before going live with the media etc.