The return of Orio Romeu to the club boosted the morale of Saints supporters, now it looks like another legend could be on his way back to the South Coast to try and recapture former former glories and help Southampton back to the Premier League.

Of course with the January transfer window now only 2 weeks away, the silly season is about to get under way and rumours are starting to fly around thick and fast.

The latest Saints one comes from footballleagueworld.co.uk who are reporting that Saints are interested in bringing James Ward-Prowse back to St Mary's.

As we know, when Nuno Espirito Santo took over as manager at the Hammers, he had history with Ward-Prowse from their time together when the player was on loan at Nottingham Forest.

That all went sour and then Nuno Espirito Santo arrived at West Ham JWP must have known that he had no future at the club under him.

If he was under any illusions that the slate would be wiped clean, they didn't last long, It’s understood that the Hammers’ new boss had informed Ward-Prowse that he is no longer of use to the club virtually as his first task at the club and the Ex Saints players has not featured in any of West Ham's first team squads since the managers arrival at the end of September.

The problem for Ward-Prowse was that with the transfer window closed, he was effectively handed a 3 month break from football, it is unclear with which squad JWP is training with, I would doubt it is the first team squad, but he has not made an appearance in the Hammers U21 side, nor made the bench for the first team side so it seems that he has been completely isolated.

The news out of the London Stadium is the Hammers want to get rid of the player and free up his wages, the transfer fee will be negotiable, just over two years ago when JWP joined them, West Ham paid around £35 million, however his value has steadily dropped since, but over time it has been steadily dropping, when he joined Nottingham Forest on loan a year after his departure from St Mary's it had gone down by a third to £20 million.

With that being a failure and the loan being cancelled in January 2024, it was down to about £14 million and now after passing his 31st birthday and his lack of football in the last few months it has plummeted further with transfermarkt.co.uk suggesting it is around the £5 million mark.

Both West Ham & Ward-Prowse himself are keen to part ways in January, but as is usual in cases such as this, the stumbling block will be the players wages and how much each side are willing to compromise.

From Ward-Prowse's perspective he will enter the last year of his contract in the summer, he is on a six figure weekly salary at the London Stadium and he will not get that anywhere.

This suggests that this January it will be a loan deal rather than a permanent move, although it could be that the Hammers would prefer a clean break and with his transfer value so low, might be willing to do a deal to get him off the books completely.

It will be interesting to see whether this move happens, James Ward-Prowse himself puts playing time over money and also how much loyalty he has to the club that he played for, for so many years.

However there is sure to be interest from elsewhere and you would think that some of those interested would be from the Premier League and you could understand why the player himself might prefer that option.

All Photos Via Reuters