One of the drawbacks of Saints success this season will be that in January the press will be having a field day and trying to link their players with every club with big money to spend.

Already Sunday's Mirror has got in on the act by claiming that Tottenham will be making a bid for Luke Shaw and you can bet your bottom dollar that Chelsea will be in the frame shortly after that followed by Liverpool, Man Utd & Man City, however the difference between now and a few years ago when the likes of Oxlade Chamberlain, Bale & Walcott were sold is that now we are back in the Premier league, not only are we able to offer top flight football, but with that comes the large income and therefore the ability to pay big money to those having financial carrots dangled under their noses.

Before the days of the Premier League clubs outside of the top division could hold on to their players at least for a year or two by the fact that a youngster could develop and then collect the financial rewards, the gap between wages then was not as large as it is now, but in today's game that is not the case, if a youngster stays at a lower league club there is no guarantee that he will either make the big time or he could suffer a career ending injury, put bluntly he has to take the big offer as soon as it comes to make sure he has financial security, supporters don't like to hear that, but its the truth and sadly a player is always going to put his own finances before loyalty to a club.

Shaw will be on the radar of all of the perceived top clubs, but Saints should be able to repel all boarders at least for the time being, but as Spurs found out with Gareth Bale, if a player wants to go then there is little that his club can do apart from hold him against his will which isn't good for what you will get out of the player in terms of performance nor what it will do for team morale, at the moment the players hold all the cards.

But Luke Shaw wont be the only Saints player that could be the subject of a bid, almost certainly Adam Lallana is now attracting interest as will be Jay Rodriguez after their inclusion in the England squad, not to mention the likes of Nathaniel Clyne who had just about his best game for the club attacking wise on Saturday, so much so that I believe if the England squad had been announced on Sunday the right back would be in it.

Indeed it wont be just Clyne who is being watched by bigger clubs, Dejan Lovren has been outstanding as has Morgan Schneiderlin and the form of Jamie Ward Prowse wont have gone completely unnoticed.

Hopefully though Saints will be able to hang on to the players at least for this season, but making sure that all of them are here for next will be harder, that is why I was so disappointed at Saints capitulation in the Capital One Cup, we need to be offering our players the European Stage, even if it is the Europa cup and that was the easiest way to get it.

But some players will perhaps be on their way in January, Ramirez is struggling to get on the bench at the moment let alone get much game time, I don't think its all his fault, he clearly isn't suited to the way we are playing at the moment, or more importantly who we have playing and with the emergence of Jamie Ward Prowse as a passer of the ball, its hard to see where he will fit in.

Selling him however wont be easy, at least not at anything near the price we paid, firstly we paid well over the top to entice him to St Mary's, yes he was a promising player, but £12 million was far too much, his true value was probably nearer the £7 million we paid for Jay Rodriguez, but the real stumbling block will be his wages, potential suitors wont be willing to pay his alleged £50-65k a week and the player himself wont be too keen on what they will be willing to actually offer and with 2 1/2 years left on his contract he will be in no hurry.

Perhaps the best that he as a player and indeed Saints as a club can hope for is a situation where a club will take him on loan, not only paying a proportion of his wages but also a loan fee, this will help Saints recoup some of the massive costs of signing Ramirez and not getting too much back for our money.

Perhaps one who will definitely leave though is Jack Cork, he was a vital cog in our midfield last season, second only to Morgan Schneiderlin in terms of voting for player of the year, but although Morgan got the plaudits, Cork did the hard work and in many respects was more vital to the team than the Frenchman.

The arrival of Wanyama has seen him strangely frozen out of the team, prior to his 6 minutes against Hull on Saturday, he had only got on the pitch in the Premier League on 3 occasions and each of them was in the 89th minute of the game, with Wanyama off form on Saturday and withdrawn, Cork was the obvious replacement, yet it was Steven Davis who came on, that must have told Cork that he is frozen out, that it will take a big change to see him get any real game time on the pitch, given that he could walk into around a dozen Premier League sides I fully expecrt him to want away in January and that will be a big shame, sometimes in football players fall out of favour with the manager for reasons no one can quite see, this seems to be one of those occasions, perhaps he is approaching a clause in his transfer that invokes a further payment to Chelsea or perhaps with Wanyama's dodgy start they just wanted to make a statement to both the player and supporters that Wanyama would be played no matter what, whatever the reason the Saints squad will not be improved by Cork going.

So January will spawn a lot of column inches for Saints that is for certain, hopefully at least when it comes to outgoing transfers the only ink being used will be wasted on newspapers rather than on a contract at another club.

Photo: Action Images

st_bangkok added 10:58 - Nov 11 I cannot honestly think of one player that would want to leave.....can you? OK, maybe Gaston and maybe even Dani Osvaldo......if they are indeed homsesick, but all the others i think are right at home and together here right now.
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kuningan added 11:32 - Nov 11 Will be interested to see if Wanyama is still an automatic start. The sloppy mistake that almost let Hull back into the game was not unexpected. Remember the comments from Espanyol fans about Pochettino? Poch was a player who simply didn't make mistakes and as a manager wasn't (and isn't) afraid to cut players out (Forren, Ramirez, Cork anyone?). Taking Wanyama off so quickly after surely means that Poch was seriously teed off. Let's see.

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ItchenNorth added 11:51 - Nov 11 Wanyama commented on Twitter Saturday night that he had a back injury going into the game but played dispute the discomfort. He was clearly taken off because the game was won and he was struggling with it.
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SaintNick added 11:56 - Nov 11 I don't think Wanyama will be dropped next game, I don't think he deserves to be even after this error, however it does expose a weakness, if Wanyama was in discomfort then he shouldn't have played, I dont think that this should have affected his judgement with regard to the error, when you have a niggle you will usually stick with the basics rather than trying anything flashy, he kept getting caught out on Saturday trying to do the clever stuff

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slynch added 12:05 - Nov 11 If Saints buy a new player in January will they be vultures as well?
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SaintNick added 12:21 - Nov 11 Depends who they buy him from
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bstokesaint added 12:35 - Nov 11 I can't see any of our players wanting to leave. They're all part of something very special right now. How many players get an opportuity to rise through the leagues and then compete (and play better in most cases) with the giants of their domestic league. Any player can jump ship and join a big club, but if they want it these players can become legends at Southampton. Not only that but we are streets ahead in terms of academy development, started years ago. Our players have grown and adapted to our way of playing football. This fits perfectly with the current manager who takes us that step further with his continental style. Bale is an obvious ex Saints success story, but if you look at Ox and Walcott right now you'd have to say their careers would have been in better shape had they not jumped at the first opportunity. I think my biggest cocnern is that another club will come in for our manager. If Poch goes then I suspect this would have a far bigger impact. I know Cortese just describes him as "another department head", but he deserves serious recognition. Apart from Liverpool (at the moment) and Chelski with Mourinho, I could see all of the top clubs being interested in bringing our brand of football to their club. Poch needs to feel loved enough to stay.

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1teeminants added 12:59 - Nov 11 Again like the players Pochettino will want to achieve something here, what is the point in just starting something very exciting then to jump ship. Poch will want to win a trophy here ( fa cup ?, i cant believe we didnt go for the league cup ffs) and try to achieve champs league position by finishing top four. It may be beyond us but Cortese doesnt think so and i doubt Pochettino does either. i think if we dont finish in top four he may be off , will cortese allow him to stay for another season ?

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dirk_doone added 13:50 - Nov 11 It would be more fun to speculate which players Saints will buy in January.
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thegeneral added 14:29 - Nov 11 I think a lot will depend on our league position in January. If there is a strong chance of us being involved in European football next year then Ramirez and Osvaldo could become key men in games much more suited to their style. The squad will need depth to compete domestically and cope with European games, as it stands we have midfield options but a mid to long term injury to Clyne, Lovren or Boruc (to name just three) could see us drop like a stone down the league. It may well be premature to sell anyone in January, i think i'd prefer to wait until the end of season or arrange short term loan deals. Of course some players have proven they are not premier league standard i really can't see players like Hooiveld, Lee or Guly ever being anything but third or fourth choice Pressmen will always speculate but the squad seems to be very strongly bonded and seem to play as hard for each other, as they do for management and fans.

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ExiledSupporter added 18:28 - Nov 11 I tend to think that Cork is the most likely to be at risk, not least because he must feel pissed off with his treatment...we didn't really need Wanyama in the first place, the latter hasn't played consistently well and Cork isn't even selected to replace him when he's injured and perhaps Wanyama should not have played at all on Sunday. Yet I think Cork is a vital member of the squad because of his quality and versatility, at the very least providing essential cover for several positions in the event of injury. We need some good players like Cork to give us the depth of reserves that teams that have the same ambitions as ourselves customarily enjoy. Otherwise we will always have to make do with players who through no fault of their own have become a little out of their depth recently...and Cork is not one of those. JC is the natural replacement for Wanyama or Schneiderlein and we should do our best to hang on to him and treat him a little more fairly than seems to currently be the case.

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abingdonsaint added 18:28 - Nov 11 Don't really know what we need to be concerned about! Although it's a bit of an irritation to see our players speculated about in this way, that's exactly what it is, speculation. 99.9% of what you read in papers or online is simply made up then regurgitated on a dozen other sites. The latest example is Spurs 'hijacking' Man Utd's move for Luke Shaw. There is nothing to hijack as he was never going there in the first place, and he won't be going to Spurs either! Saw him interviewed at the weekend where he made it clear he has no intention of leaving, but that story appears anyway! Some of us need to lose this 'small club' mentality, which I know has become ingrained, but times change. We are on a steep upward curve, and even if we miss out on European football this year, we are only likely to get better over the coming years. I am sure we are not paying peanuts either, so why on earth would any ambitious young player want to leave the most exciting club in the country!? In the case of Lallana, every indication is that he loves the club, and if he didn't go when we were in League One, why would he go now? The only players that will go in January, if any, will be ones we want to let go (and I don't think that includes Corky as it happens). In fact, if Shaw, Lallana or Rodriguez left in January, or even next summer, I would eat my season ticket! Just ignore all the preconceived crap and enjoy the beginning of the new order!

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mbtsfc added 18:31 - Nov 11 Can you tell me what is happening to the area at the top of Kingsland? I was there from day 1 until hacked off by firstly losing my concession (took that on the chin & stumped up the extra) then being informed of the same-price-for-all policy. My grandson's seat suddenly commanded £400 more,so moved sideways. Is it for the press to join us & the seats where they are now (far too near to Mr Cortese!) converted to fat-cat seats ready for the upcoming European games we will be playing? Agree that Jack Cork,Lee,Guly & Ramirez need to be out there playing & January will see that...but not for us. Osvaldo & Yosh will continue to represent their countries & collect frequent flyer Avios pts., waiting their turn to replace 'the chosen ones',Wanyama will shed a few kilo over the International break,coming back like Fuller did; a shadow of his former self, (well,you can only hope?) and controlling midfield.

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