LEE Holmes and David Connolly headline the remaining list of Saints players due out of contract at the end of the season.

The club has embarked on a major drive in recent months to sign their key stars to long-term deals, resolving many of the problems they were due to encounter next summer.

Saints ended the last campaign with 15 players who were in line to become free agents in 2012. However, that number has been significantly reduced.

Skipper Dean Hammond was the latest player to commit his future to St Mary’s until 2014, joining Rickie Lambert, Kelvin Davis, Morgan Schneiderlin, Lee Barnard, Dan Harding and Aaron Martin who had done the same.

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Those deals all followed in the wake of Adam Lallana last January penning a contract that runs through to the summer of 2015.

With Hammond now taken care of, Saints have addressed the bulk of their most pressing contractual concerns, and have a much more manageable situation on the horizon.

Just seven first-team players are currently in the last year of their contracts – with Holmes and Connolly among them.