Southampton keen to ditch passenger Aribo

Six months into his EPL career Joe Aribo looks like being moved out of Southampton with Nathan Jones looking to dump the passengers from his squad.

Rolling up your sleeves for an EPL relegation battle is a complete contrast to the ‘honest mistakes’ environment that Aribo thrived on at Ibrox.

Despite progressing in both cup competitions Jones knows that his brief is to retain top flight football with the former Charlton starlet a luxury that isn’t required.

The Southampton based Daily Echo reports:

Even with Tino Livramento, Juan Larios, Armel Bella-Kotchap, and Stuart Armstrong sidelined through injury, Jones has been forced into difficult decisions with a large squad at his disposal, summer signing Joe Aribo not even making the matchday squad for Saints’ 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United.

And Jones made it clear that the club is open to possible player departures even as they search for more reinforcements.

“Look, what we have to do is keep moving everyone forward,” the 49-year-old (Jones) told the Daily Echo ahead of Tuesday night’s League Cup semi-final first leg clash with Newcastle.

“What we can’t do is literally just hold a load of players and keep them. Because then you have passengers and passengers become problematic in the end. So you can’t do that.

“We want a small tight squad but we need certain things in the squad. We need certain things improved in the squad in terms of maybe a little bit of size, maybe a little bit more aggression, maybe a tiny bit more quality to add a bit of potency. 

With Ajax and Everton regretting signing Calvin Bassey and Nathan Patterson it is unlikely that there will be a rush to sign any more Ibrox stars.

Glen Kamara has been touted for a move this month but there seems a lack of interest in the former Dundee ace.

Those add-ons look unlikely to be bolstering Micky Beale’s war-chest.