£70k-a-week Southampton FC player told "he won't play under Will Still" | OneFootball

Joe Aribo is yet to feature for the Saints competitively this season

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Southampton's start to the season under Will Still has been rather chaotic, with the 32-year-old now able to take stock of such developments over the October international break.

Saints were relegated from the Premier League in extremely dismal fashion last campaign, finishing the season on 12 points, which is, statistically speaking, the second-worst points haul in the division's history since its inception back in 1992/93.

It was viewed as a major reset when the highly-rated Still took up his first managerial role in English football, having previously seen his reputation skyrocket amid successful spells in both Belgium and France.

However, it would have come as no surprise to him, his players and all associated with the South Coast club when the weight of expectation was immediately placed on their shoulders at the beginning of the season, having won promotion through the Championship play-offs two seasons ago in their only previous campaign at this level since 2012 under Russell Martin.

Despite overseeing a drastic squad overhaul across his first pre-season and transfer window in charge, Still has the second-highest valued squad in the second tier to work with, with several of his new chargers part of the side which defeated Leeds United at Wembley Stadium in May 2024.

The vast majority of those are still occupying regular starting berths. However, in Joe Aribo's case, the experienced Nigerian midfielder is yet to play a competitive minute for the club this term.

With that being said, Football League World's Saints fan pundit, Martin Sanders, is one of many who sees no way back for the 29-year-old.

Joe Aribo expected to leave Southampton FC amid contract situation and previous transfer talk

During Southampton's last campaign in the EFL, Aribo made 38 league appearances and scored four times, in what was his second season at the club altogether following an initial £6m, which had the potential of rising to £10m, from SPFL giants, Rangers.

However, in the vast majority of his 104 appearances for the club, Aribo has been a shadow of the man who was a vital cog in the Light Blues' run to the 2022 UEFA Europa League final - which he scored in - against Eintracht Frankfurt.

A four-year contract was penned at the time of his move to St Mary's. However, the man said to be on £70,000 per week clearly isn't part of Still's long-term plans after being omitted from Saints' opening day squad amid transfer negotiations before seeing a potential move to Besiktas fail to materialise.

As such, Sanders expects the club to try and move him on in January before the risk of losing his services on a free transfer.

"Joe Aribo. I forgot all about Joe Aribo," he said. "He's still at the club. It's mad, isn't it?

"I saw that he was reportedly the club's highest earner on £70,000 per week. How true that is, I don't know.

"He's a player that won't play again under Will Still, that's for sure," Sanders claimed. "I think if he was to be involved, he'd have been involved by now.

"Something must've gone on where he didn't want to be there or he wasn't committed enough.

"If you think, Saints signed him for about £7.5m, and a lot of people talk about him being brilliant value for us," he explained. "I think he's been pretty average, to be honest.

"He's failed to really deliver. He's had some good games and some bad games. He was good during the play-off run, but I don't think he's a massive miss.

"To have him frozen out for as long as he has been and bring him back would be pretty desperate for us," Sanders stated. "He won't get back now, I'm surprised he's still here.

"They'll do everything to cash in on him or get rid of him. They'll probably pay his contract up, I'd expect."

Joe Aribo saga remains a mystery to many Southampton supporters

As Sanders alluded to, it is easy to forget that Aribo remains contracted to Saints at this moment in time, although that almost certainly won't be the case come January or next summer.

The playmaker has drastically fallen down the pecking order to the point where he hasn't been named in a matchday squad at all, and that would only change at this point if an injury crisis in midfield occurred, and he could feature, at the very least, as a substitute.

At this point, it remains to be seen what course of action the club will take, as other parties still have to be interested in paying a fee for Aribo come January, regardless of how desperate the club are to shift £70,000 per week's worth of wages off the books.