SAINTS exile Mario Lemina sends farewell thanks message to supporters on social media, following permanent transfer to French side OGC Nice - but bizarrely we have seen nothing on the move from the club. 

The 27-year-old Gabonese midfielder joined Saints from Juventus in 2017 but spent the last two seasons out on loan at Galatasaray and Fulham, and hasn’t featured since.

The transfer sees Saints receive a fee believed to be just under a third of what they paid, taking in a reported 5.5 million euros after outlaying £15m+ to bring him to St Mary's from the-then Serie A champions.

Lemina posted a ready-made graphic of him in action for Saints with the caption “2017-2021 THANK YOU I wish you all the best #WeMarchOn #Saints”

Despite this, as of time of writing well over 16 hours have passed and the club themselves are yet to acknowledge the transfer on their own social media accounts – despite Nice and Lemina both announcing.

Although the arrival of the highly rated midfielder didn’t work out in the way the player, club or supporters would have wanted, fans and Lemina shared a moment to bid each other farewell via Twitter.

Some examples of responses to his post included: