It has become part and parcel of being a Southampton fan that watching your best players be cherry-picked has become an annual event.
For a team that has established itself as a mainstay in the top half of the Premier League this seems very unusual practice. Can the South Coast club repeat the feat next season?
In short, it looks unlikely.
With Ronald Koeman’s controversial switch to Everton coming to a bitter end last week, Victor Wanyama’s all but confirmed £11 million move to Tottenham and rumours of strong interest for Sadio Mané, amongst other rumoured transfers out, the Saints look set to be raided yet again.
With no definitive signs yet of who will be departing there can be no certainty in saying which loss is hardest to swallow.
It could be argued, however, that the greatest blow will be Koeman’s departure to the blue half of Merseyside. Many forget the difficulty of the task faced by the Dutchman after taking over from Mauricio Pochettino. The 53-year-old came into a team that lost its top goalscorer in Jay Rodriguez to injury, as well as Adam Lallana, striker Rickie Lambert, and defensive rock Dejan Lovren – all to Liverpool. Two highly promising academy graduates, Luke Shaw and Callum Chambers, also departed to seek greener pastures.
Almost a complete re-build was required, and many tipped the Saints to fall victim to relegation.
Despite the challenges, the new manager was able to build a squad that finished a record-high seventh, followed by going one better to sixth in the 2015-16 campaign.
The Saints’ academy is its ongoing strength, but need a manager to make shrewd decisions in the transfer market to bolster the squad in the mould of what Koeman was able to achieve.
Under Koeman’s watch, the Saints endured less transfer window pain, but still lost three key players. Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool), Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham), and arguably the key man from 2014-15, Morgan Schneiderlin (Manchester United).
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The ritual of having one’s stars regularly pilfered by larger teams seems very much a part of football but it is hard to think of, at least in English football, any team that is so regularly hit with such consistency and such thoroughness as is Southampton. This culture is rather worrying to say the least, especially seeing as the club is selling to rivals for European spots.
Liverpool, who the Saints have sold no less than four players in the past two years, finished three points below the team who they appear to treat as a feeder club.
Southampton’s resolve seems to have become somewhat stronger with the club initialling refusing to sell Schneiderlin despite strong interest, delaying the transfer by a year, and now appearing to have done the same with Wanyama after declining Tottenham’s strong advances in 2015.
Whether it is an internal culture or perhaps the negative by-product of establishing a reputation for producing such high-quality players, it is something that must be changed. By refusing to sell to Premier League rivals despite big money offers the Saints are working in the right direction – despite inevitably breaking down – but it is a path they must stick to if they ever want to build a consistent squad and a presence in the upper echelon of the England’s top-tier competition.
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