Southampton are in quite a nice position when it comes to contract expiries and potential renewals as only one man is in a precarious position this summer when it comes to potentially leaving the club on a free transfer.

Indeed, the only player at Southampton whose deal will be up is Shane Long, and as sad as it is to say, it’s becoming increasingly obvious as to what the Saints should do with the Irishman.

A look at his stats make the stats quite obvious - the striker has scored just 12 league goals over the past four seasons, and his best return over that period is just five strikes in 2018/19.

Long has been a decent servant for the Saints during his six years at the club, but it’s time for the club to make a statement of intent by casting him aside.

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The south coast club have a talented young striker in their ranks who is desperate for a chance in the shape of Michael Obafemi.

However, Long’s presence in the squad has seen him limited to just five starts all season, but there are sections of the fanbase who rate him very highly with the 19-year-old often praised by supporters.

Letting Long go and giving Obafemi a shot would be a great message from the club, one that demonstrates they’re ready to move on from the past few seasons of disappointment and underperformance to usher in a new era of giving these young players a proper opportunity.

Of course, it could backfire and the teenager may not live up to his billing, but it’s going to be hard for him to be any worse than the 5 foot 11 man who has scored the same number of goals as his fellow countryman this season, despite playing over twice as many minutes.

In other news, Southampton need to ditch one transfer policy.