Saints have to trim the wage bill for next season and one of the biggest earners is Aaron Ramsdale, both the club and the player know that a parting of the ways is in their own best interests after relegation.

When Saints fans discuss just why the club went down with barely a whimper last season, there is often a lot of differences in option as to the exact reason, the truth is there are more than one single factor, but one thing that all agree on is that none of the blame can be pinpointed to Aaron Ramsdale, who found himself the busiest keeper in the Premier League.

Now as Talksport have claimed it seems that the Goalkeeper or at least his agents are having talks with West Ham United.

This would not be happening without the blessing of Southampton FC , they know that they have to get his wages, said to be around £100,000 a week off the wage bill and it seems that as long as they break even on the transfer fee, they will be happy.

Ramsdale joined the club for a fee of around £18 million, with add ons set to push that up to £25 million, part of that would be reliant on the club avoiding relegation and the rest more performance based.

Assuming that some of that has not yet been met due to timescale, then it would seem that Saints will entertain offers over £20 million.

One thing that is becoming clear since the season ended is that Saints are not going to sell players cheaply, that has been the case over the last two years as several Turkish club found out when they tried to but the likes of Tall Paul Onuachu at less than half market value.

So although Ramsdale may talk to clubs with their blessing Saints will not sell him below their asking price, if that is not met, Saints will look towards a loan deal, some will think that a good option, if that is the case then they will look for his £100,000 wages to be met as well as a loan fee.

That could work in that it gets the wages off the bill and it means that if Saints gained promotion then Ramsdale could return to the club and if they don''t then hopefully the keepers value might have increased after a successful season back in the Premier League.

However I would think that all things being equal the club would prefer to get the £20 million in for Ramsdale now to aid cashflow and fund the rebuilding of the squad.

So the fact that Ramsdale's people are speaking to West Ham will be welcomed in the boardroom at St Mary's, they will hope that this will not be the last club that will be interested in him and that will push up the price.

All Photos Via Reuters

beynali73 added 09:30 - Jun 4 Unfortunately saints are negotiating from a position weakness. Being realistic the talent will leave and the deadwood will stay. If West Ham really want Ramsdale and offer even half the asking price Saints will let him go as they can't afford to pay his wages and bring in the handful of improvements they need to. The best outcome for Saints is to loan out the mediocrity (maybe to Rangers) and hope that Sports Republic don't make a pigs ear of recruitment again. It'll be an interesting season and I hope they support the new manager by providing him with the tools he needs rather than the ones they can profit from down the line - a system which hasn't exactly worked out well so far. COYRs

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underweststand added 16:46 - Jun 4 Ramsdale is not the worst keeper to have played for England and does have quality and many of the goals we conceded were down to poor service from those in front of him. No-one should want to blame him from playing in the Prem. and he deserves the chance. From Saints' viewpoint they are not going to make any profit as they probably haven't paid Arsenal the whole amount yet, and likely have sell-on clause which will cost us and we'll end up with +/- nothing. The only good factor will be getting his 100K /week salary off the books, as we have a very large number of younger / lower-paid players, but they still add-up to a lot of ..."smaller salaries" that need to be paid out.

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Jesus_02 added 17:10 - Jun 4 Various estimates make his wages as high as 120k . But Saints would have been made not to have a relegation clause surely. Either way I dont think we are in too bad a possition, we paid what he was worth I dont agree with beynali73 that we would need to sell him for 10m if West Ham came in. It would be a massive loss and a number of other teams could do with a decent keeper. Understandably he isnt going to have won any clean sheet awards , but he is second for saves and his distribution and presence in the box is good. 20m seems a snip to be honest.

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