How Southampton FC could save £110k-p/w on wages in January 2026 | OneFootball

The Saints should part ways with Joe Aribo and Cameron Archer in January to save £6.7m a year.

Southampton will have their sights set on immediate promotion back to the Premier League.

After a dismal start to the campaign under Will Still, the Saints have resurrected themselves under former under-21’s boss Tonda Eckert, with the German now the permanent first-team manager.

Eckert won four of his five matches as interim manager to earn the full-time role, and the South Coast outfit will be hopeful that this kind of form can continue to help them rise up the table and get involved in the promotion conversation.

The opening stages of this term were far below Southampton’s expectations, who were envisaged to be one of the leading teams in the division due to their superior financial resources compared to the majority of their competitors.

With Southampton possessing a strong squad full of depth, some first-team figures are bound to not have had the level of game-time that they would have liked heading into the season.

It could result in the Saints parting ways with some of those in January, boosting the coffers and adding much-needed funds to the transfer kitty ahead of the turn of the year.

With this in mind, FLW lists two Southampton players that should leave the club during the January transfer window, and how much money the club would save on their wages.

FLW does stress that all wages included in this article are ESTIMATES, provided by Capology.

Southampton should part ways with Joe Aribo and Cameron Archer in January

When taking a look at the Southampton players who aren’t getting regular first-team minutes, two immediately spring to mind.

The first is Nigerian international Joe Aribo, who arrived in the summer of 2022 from Rangers for a reported fee of £10m.

The 29-year-old linked up on the South Coast in the Premier League, playing 21 times and scoring a couple of goals, but he couldn't prevent the Saints from suffering relegation.

Aribo went on to help the club secure promotion back to the top-flight the following term, playing 35 out of their 46 second-tier games, while the season after saw him resigned to a second relegation out of the big time, featuring 32 times that term.

On yet another campaign in the second-tier, Aribo featured just once under Will Still’s tenure, while he has so far played a bit-part role under Tonda Eckert, raising doubts about his future heading into the turn of the year.

Meanwhile, forward Cameron Archer has so far failed to deliver at the top end of the pitch since moving to St Mary’s for a reported fee of £15m.

Joining in the summer of 2024 following Southampton’s promotion back to the Premier League, the former Aston Villa man earned an opportunity to excel in the top-flight, but he netted just twice in 35 appearances, as the club failed to score enough goals to keep them among England's elite sides.

Due to a wealth of attacking options back in the Championship, Archer hasn’t been able to stamp his authority in a starting capacity yet, with Adam Armstrong, Damian Downs and Ross Stewart a difficult trio of strikers to dislodge for a starting spot.

Given his previous exploits in the Championship, there would surely be a queue of second-tier clubs desperate to land the services of the 24-year-old in January, with his best return coming in the 2022-23 term when he netted 11 goals in 20 games for Middlesbrough.

The Saints would also be able to negotiate and agree a respectful selling fee too, with Archer still having three years remaining on his current contract.

Southampton would save close to £6.8m through Joe Aribo and Cameron Archer sales

When looking at the estimated wages of Southampton players, it would be sensible to try and cut Joe Aribo and Cameron Archer off the books.

According to Capology, Aribo is Southampton’s highest-paid player in the squad, reportedly earning £70,000 a week, and the midfielder is nowhere near justifying those kinds of payments given he isn’t a regular starter.

Meanwhile, Archer takes a significant chunk out of the wage budget for a Championship club too, earning an estimated £40,000 a week, and that’s a hefty figure for a striker who has failed to net goals on a consistent basis throughout his time at the club.

Aribo’s sale could be particularly important given the former Rangers man has his contract running down next summer, with the January transfer window offering a final opportunity to recoup some of the cash spent on his original transfer.

As per Capology, Aribo earns a base figure of just over £3.6m a year, while a bonus of £546,000 takes his annual earnings to £4,186,000.

Meanwhile, Archer’s weekly wage of £40,000 sees him take home a base figure of £2m a year, while bonuses of £520,000 rounds up to a whole annual figure of £2.6m.

Therefore, the Saints would save an extra £6,786,000 per year if they were to part ways with Aribo and Archer in the new year, which is a significant sum of money that could be used to attack the January transfer window with and recruit replacements who could have a much bigger impact on the playing squad.

This is definitely something the Saints hierarchy should consider doing, with the extra funds having the potential to be the difference maker in whether Southampton can bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.