£20k-a-week Southampton star surely set for 2026 St Mary's exit - It's inevitable | OneFootball

The Saints’ forward is soon to be out of contract, and likely to be looking for a new club

Southampton striker Ross Stewart’s time with the Championship club could soon be drawing to a close.

He joined the Saints in 2023 for a significant fee, following strong performances for former club Sunderland.

But his time with the south-coast club has been beset by injury, and for that reason has never really got going in the more than two years he’s been with the club.

His current terms are coming to an end next year, and it appears heavily unlikely his contract will be extended.

Ross Stewart has struggled to be available for Southampton

According to Transfermarkt, Stewart has missed over 58 games for Southampton with a combination of an ACL injury, muscle injuries, hamstring problems and fitness issues.

Essentially, in the two and a half seasons he’s been with the Saints, he’s missed well over a full season of football, not to mention the time it takes to come back and work a player back to match readiness with appearances off the bench.

He’s made just 27 appearances for the senior side, scoring three goals and providing one assist – not through lack of ability but through sheer lack of availability.

It is unfortunate for Stewart, and not a situation of his own making, but it’s tricky to argue that the Saints have got anything close to good value out of the deal.

Southampton have invested heavily in Ross Stewart

The club cannot even console themselves with Stewart being a bargain buy; he was a big-money transfer.

Based on a report from The Athletic, Southampton paid £8m up front to Sunderland for Stewart’s services, with an additional £4m available in potential add-ons.

Capology estimates suggest that the Saints put Stewart on a £20k per week wage when he signed his initial contract, some way off the club’s top earners, but still a significant outlay over recent years for little return.

That deal was a three-year contract, signed in September 2023, so is due to expire in 2026.

Given the move simply hasn’t worked out, with fitness and injury issues getting in the way of any progress by Stewart, it seems unlikely Southampton will extend those terms, and instead will surely look to cut their losses.

Southampton can take lessons from the deal

Although Stewart cannot shoulder any of the blame for his struggles with injuries, Southampton perhaps could have had greater foresight.

It’s easy to see why the Championship club were attracted to the striker; he’d recently netted 26 goals in League One, making him a primary figure in Sunderland’s promotion to the Championship.

He appeared to have adjusted to the step up well, too, netting 10 goals in 13 second-tier outings for the Black Cats, in a 2022/23 season heavily disrupted by injury.

The last part of that sentence should have raised the alarm at St Mary’s.

Leading up to the September 2023 signing, Stewart had been out with an ACL injury since January 2023.

The BBC report announcing the deal stated: “He has not played since January due to an Achilles injury, although he is close to a return to fitness.”

Following such a big injury, the Saints took a massive gamble.

Not only to players not always come back with the same threat from that particular setback, it can also lead to further complications, as appears to have been the case with Stewart.

Buying him blind, with almost no steer on how he might return to senior action, was always a huge gamble for Southampton, and it didn’t pay off.

Had they got Stewart on the cheap, and signed him up to a relatively short contract, then it may have been a risk worth taking, but Southampton assumed all the risk for seemingly no financial benefit.

Saints will surely let Stewart go at the end of his deal in 2026, following a move that hasn’t worked for either party, but the club should keep with them a lesson in their future transfer dealings.