FORGOTTEN man Florin Gardos will have cost Saints an estimated £680,000 per appearance by the time he leaves this summer.

With just six months to go on his St Mary’s contract, Gardos is now able to negotiate a move to potential new clubs before departing on a free this summer.

The Romania international joined Saints in the summer of 2014, moving for £6m from Steaua Bucharest.

The centre-back has been hampered by persistent injuries throughout his Saints career, and the last of his 11 Premier League appearances came nearly three years ago – in a 1-0 win at West Bromwich Albion on 28 February 2015.

In total, the 29-year-old has played just 18 games in all competitions, which is nearly £333,000 per appearance during his four year stay, when his £6m fee is divided up.

When added on to his reported £30,000-a-week wages, which amount to £347,000 per each of his 18 outings in the first team, it totals at around £681,000 per match.

Gardos’ last game for the club is likely to be, unless there’s a sudden and miraculous turnaround in his fortunes, the 5-0 drubbing by Arsenal in the FA Cup fourth round last season at St Mary’s in January.

It’s fair to say Gardos hasn’t had an easy time at Saints, considering his injuries. He suffered a horror cruciate ligament injury in July 2015 in a pre-season friendly against Feyenoord and missed 42 games as a result.

Gardos returned for the club’s under-21s side, but the luckless Romanian then suffered a set-back in July 2016 and wasn’t able to make a first-team appearance until the Gunners defeat in January 2017.

He made ten appearances for Saints’ under-23s last season in a bid to regain full fitness but was never really considered an option by Claude Puel.

This season offered no new chances for Gardos and, aside from three under-23s games, hasn’t played much and is certainly nowhere near Mauricio Pellegrino’s team, with Jack Stephens, Wesley Hoedt, Maya Yoshida and Jan Bednarek all ahead of him in the pecking order.

Gardos can now sign a pre-contract agreement with a new club as he looks to move on from Saints.

Right-back Jeremy Pied is also out of contract this summer and is too able to sign an agreement to move.

The Frenchman was signed on a two-year contract in the summer of 2016, but suffered a serious knee injury which kept him out of the majority of last season.

He has endeared himself to the Saints fans during his stay, which has included eight appearances so far. The 28-year-old, who was signed from Nice on a free transfer, is currently back-up right-back behind Cedric Soares.