We are in that part of the off-season now where EFL clubs far and wide released their retained lists.
Southampton is yet to release theirs, with more pressing matters to resolve first, such as Dragan Solak and Tonda Eckert addressing the Saints fans about their involvement in Spygate, after weeks of radio silence on the matter.
A retained list is surely set to be released soon, though, with reports suggesting that both James Bree and Ross Stewart will be offered new contracts, after they played key roles in Eckert's men reaching the eventually disrupted playoffs.
Will Smallbone won't be so fortunate, based on other reports, as the 26-year-old is set to walk away from Eckert and Co. this summer, having been at the club since 2008, when he first signed on the dotted line for the youth team.
Smallbone is set to leave
TalkSPORT has reported on this development, with journalist Alex Crook declaring on social media that Smallbone will soon be a free agent who is no longer associated with his boyhood club.
Only making ten Championship appearances out on loan at Millwall this season just gone, this news hasn't come as a major bolt from the blue, with Southampton also well-stocked in the midfield department.
But, it will still be a sad parting of the ways, all the same, with Smallbone going on to make 90 appearances for the club he has called home since a child.
He will even be considered a legend on the South Coast in his own way, with the 15-time Republic of Ireland international playing a key role in Southampton winning promotion up to the Premier League at the close of the 2023/24 season, with then manager Russell Martin a big fan of the 26-year-old battler.
He will go down as a Saints legend in his own way
54 of Smallbone's 90 Saints appearances would fall under the 40-year-old's up-and-down stint.
More specifically, 46 of his 90 Southampton outings would come about during the aforementioned promotion-winning campaign, with Smallbone chipping in with a vital seven goals and four assists along the way.
He would even net the opening strike as Martin and Co. won the second leg of the playoff semi-finals against West Bromwich Albion in emphatic fashion, as Smallbone smashed home a delightful strike, after being found in space by loanee David Brooks, to steer the Saints to a 3-1 success.
Assisting Adam Armstrong's decisive winner at Wembley, too, as Daniel Farke's Leeds United were humbled 1-0, Southampton might not have achieved promotion that season, without the timely contributions of their homegrown number 16.
Therefore, while he has slumped down the pecking order in recent times, with Eckert never utilising him, he will be immortalised as a Saints legend forevermore, just for this season alone.
Once noted as being "the future" of the club by Ralph Hasenhuttl back in 2020, it is a shame that the 26-year-old won't be sticking it out longer term, if Crook's reports are correct.
But, it would also be detrimental to keep him at the club and not play him, with Smallbone hoping he's ready to prove that he can hit those promotion-chasing heights again, away from St. Mary's, after a couple of seasons of injury difficulties and limited gametime.
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