Southampton & Bournemouth will have to do a lot of negotiation if the proposed swap deal that will see Shane Long join the Cherries with Josh King moving to Saints is to happen, the sticking point will be the players themselves.

It seems that both Saints & Bournemouth are keen to get the deal done, it would see Shane Long move across the New Forest on a loan deal with an option to make the deal permanent at the end of the season when he becomes a free agent.

Josh King is also out of contract at the end of the season and the Cherries are keen to get his £45k a week wages off the books sooner than later especially since the player himself could also get a lucrative bonus if he sees out the end of his contract till July 1st.

That means both clubs will have to get the calculators working overtime, Saints would have to subsidise Long's wages for the term of the loan and would also have to add at least £45k per week to their own, not to mention the transfer fee which will be discounted down due to the time left on King's contract and the amount Saints will have to pay of Long's wages.

All very confusing and not very straight forward.

But the real issue is the players themselves, Long is believed to have recently sold his house in the Southampton area and has moved to the Surrey/Berkshire border region, that means that when he leaves St Mary's permanently he will be looking for a club in that area, a commute to Saints and indeed the extra 15 minutes to Bournemouth would be fine for him in the short term but would he want to do it any longer.

Josh King is said to be perfectly willing to see out his contract, not just for financial reasons as explained above, but to get the right move, with Danny Ings and Che Adams first choice strikers, would he be happy at being the option off the bench, he may feel the deal is being rushed and that he would be better placed to wait till the end of the season when he can assess the options better and make the right choice.

Perhaps the compromise is that both players change clubs, but both do so on loan deals, this would increase Saints wage bill, probably by about £15-20,000 a week until the end of the season, in that they would need to cover King's £45 k a week and probably subsidise more than half of Long's £60k a week while he is at Bournemouth.

But that could still be good business, that would mean effectively they would get King on loan for around £260k for the rest of the season.

There is still a way to go on this one and much tapping of calculators between the two clubs.

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I_would added 12:50 - Feb 1 Yet another fiasco with the contracts manager. Long is on too much wages and I'd be surprised if a Championship team would want him as he's not good enough.
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TimSaint added 13:00 - Feb 1 Shane Long is contracted with us until the summer of 2022. He signed a new 2 year deal in June 2020. Guess that throws a spanner in the works and ruins the calculations in this article !!
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WestSussexSaint added 13:02 - Feb 1 I expect Saints are looking at a permanent deal for King as a loan would then mean they reach the cap of two PL loans in a season with Walcott being already here. That would then rule out loan moves for Maitland Nikes; Gilmour or any of the others touted. A permanent move would also have one eye on Ings in that if he doesn’t sign a new contract he could leave in the summer.

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sandywelsh added 13:29 - Feb 1 Would he be any better than Long after all he has not scored any goals in the Championship this season?
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stmichael added 14:59 - Feb 1 As mentioned Long has recently signed a 2 year deal..
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SanMarco added 17:14 - Feb 1 Don't see the point in this. Doesn't really benefit any of those involved, inclusing us fans. I would just as soon watch Shane not score as a new fellow doing the same. I am concerned about our left back situation. Less than 6 hours to go and Vokins not replaced.
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underweststand added 08:45 - Feb 2 King may look a good deal on paper, but for a player who hasn't scored regularly ..(?) perhaps "best left alone" . At the end of the day ..perhaps Bournemouth come out best on the day, as Shane Long may surely flourish with regular game-time at the lower level.
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