SAINTS yesterday terminated the contract of record signing Dani Osvaldo - with the striker understood to have cost the club the staggering amount of more than £8m per goal.

The forward was let go from St Mary's after the board decided to cut their losses on the player, who still had two years to run on his deal.

Osvaldo was signed from Roma in 2013, for an initial fee of £12.9m, with the deal potentially rising to £14.6m.

A burdensome legacy leftover from Nicola Cortese's era as chairman, the 29-year-old is believed to have cost Saints about £25m in total, once his transfer fee, wages and the early termination of his contract were taken into account, making him by far and away the most expensive flop in their history.

He netted just three times in 13 Premier League appearances before being suspended in January 2014 for head-butting teammate Jose Fonte in training, meaning each of his goals set Saints back about £8.3m.

After the incident at Staplewood, Osvaldo never played for the club again.

Since then, he has been loaned out on a number of occasions, with Juventus first taking him.

Osvaldo had little impact on his return to Italy, though, and the Serie A giants unsurprisingly did not take up the £15.6m option they had to sign him permanently.

A loan move to Inter Milan came next, but that proved to be another troubled spell for Osvaldo, who was involved in an altercation with teammate Mauro Icardi before being suspended for going AWOL for two days.

The Italian international then had a move back to the country of his birth, Argentina, when he joined Boca Juniors for the second half of last season.

However, his spell with them ended yesterday, and, with no club appearing likely to pay a fee to sign him on a permanent deal, Saints took the decision to settle up the remainder of his contract and move on.

After all the fanfare of his arrival two years ago, Osvaldo's exit ended with a two-paragraph statement on the club's website.

"Southampton Football Club can confirm that it has terminated the contract of striker Dani Osvaldo," it said.

"The Italian international, who has not played for the club since January 2014, yesterday completed a loan spell with Argentinian club Boca Juniors."