For the past five years Southampton were a club firmly established in the Premiership with a group of young players that were predicted to be the backbone of the England squad one day, yet in a few short months it has all come apart after the club started to sell off its star players.
There were suggestions that things were not as happy as they might have seen when back in April the clubs new executive director Les Reed tried to clarify what was going on behind the scenes telling the BBC:
“No club has been given permission to talk to any of our players and that will remain so,” he said.
“We want to retain the players we’ve got. Any enquiries will probably be met with a ‘no, not for sale.’ Our intention is to keep this very good team together,” he added.
Following this a few weeks later manager Mauricio Pochettino jumped ship to join Spurs and striker Rickie Lambert signed for his boyhood club Liverpool.
Southampton’s summer sales
To Fee
Luke Shaw Manchester United £27m
Adam Lallana Liverpool £25m
Dejan Lovren Liverpool £20m
Calum Chambers Arsenal £16m
Rickie Lambert Liverpool £4m
Total £92m
It had all began to unravel on the final day of the season just a few hours after the draw with Manchester United when Luke Shaw let it be known that he wanted to join Manchester United after the Red Devils made a £27 million offer for the young defender.
Aware of Liverpool’s interest in him Adam Lallana also let it be known that he wanted to leave yet the club did not respond to either player as they left for the World Cup not knowing what awaited them on their return.
So disgusted by the treatment he was being shown by the club he had joined as a 12-year-old Lallana pushed for the Liverpool move, which then led to other players questioning their future at the club.
Lallana and Shaw both left within 24-hours of being back in the country with Croatian defender Lovren threatening to go on strike if he was not allowed to join Liverpool which proved not to be necessary and was soon followed by Calum Chambers joining Arsenal for £16 million.
France international midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin is the latest player to say he wants out with an agreement said to be in place with Spurs who striker Jay Rodriguez also wants to sign for.
Club chairman Ralph Krueger is saying that neither player will be allowed to leave, yet many fans will see this as yet another hollow statement from a club who appear to be cashing in on their talent.
“I met Spurs officials in Toronto but not a word was exchanged about (Rodriguez or Schneiderlin). They hosted me for a MLS match as we look to grow the brand. I did not have one single word of a conversation with them about players of Southampton.”
The club is in fine financial shape posting a loss of £7.1 million a quite acceptable figure for a Premiership team, and yet despite all the goings on club owner Katharina Liebherr, has been silent all summer despite reports of her wishing to sell the club in the past.
The big question now is how new manager Ronald Koeman will cope after the sell off with early indications that the former Feyenord man will rely on bringing in some young Dutch talent as he tries to rebuild.
During pre-season friendlies he has used a few academy players while also having brought in Graziano Pelle, Dusan Tadic and Ryan Bertrand, for a combined sum of £30 million.
Southampton fans will of course be angry over the loss of their top players but Koeman has built good teams in the past and will be up to the challenge at Southampton.
